IMPROVED DATA STRUCTURE AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING AN INTERACTIVE PROGRAM GUIDE

摘要

A data structure (fig. 1) suited to efficiently representing a plurality (fig. 8) of image streams (A, B) including common and non-common portions (fig. 5, items 532, 536). Specifically, a plurality of similar group of picture (GOP) data structures representing the corresponding plurality of image streams including common and non-common portions (fig. 5, items 532, 536) is adapted to provide first and seccond stream comprising only P-picture, and B-picture access units of one of the similar GOP data structures (fig. 5, items 526, 520). In this manner, the redundant P-picture and B-picture access units within the encoded streams are eliminated, thereby greatly reducing the bandwidth or memory resources (fig. 4, item 470) needed to transmit or store the plurality of image streams (A, B).