SYNCHRONIZING A PACKETIZED DIGITAL DATASTREAM TO AN OUTPUT PROCESSOR IN A TELEVISION SIGNAL PROCESSING SYSTEM

摘要

In a system for processing a packetized digital datastream representing MPEG coded image information, an encoder includes a transport encoder (20) for forming data packets, and an output processor (40, 48) for performing various signal processing functions such as error correction processing and modulation, for example. During acquisition intervals, the output processor requests/acquires data packets from the transport encoder for processing. The system also includes apparatus (25, 30) to assure that a reference (sync) byte at the beginning of a data packet is automatically aligned with the beginning of the acquisition interval, even when arbitrary system resets occur. In an illustrated embodiment, alignment of the first data packet following a system reset is facilitated by the coaction of a Start Of Packet (SOP) flag concurrent with the reference byte, and a logic network (32, 36, 38) which controls data passage in response to the flag.