Method and apparatus for reducing the amount of data required to represent a video frame

摘要

Methods and apparatus for processing digital video data to reduce the amount of video data required to represent a video frame by representing a frame or pair of field pictures into a single field of a pair of field picture are described. To prevent the second field of the field picture from being displayed a DSM byte associated with the field picture is set so that only the field representing the video frame is displayed. In accordance with the present invention, a field, e.g., a transparent predictively coded field is used as the field picture which is not displayed. In this manner, very little data is required to represent the field picture that is not displayed. When the received frames are represented as pairs of field pictures a single field of the pair of field pictures is selected to represent the video frame with the other field picture being replaced with a field which requires very little data. When frame pictures are received one of a plurality of numerous described methods of mapping frame pictures into a single field of a pair of field pictures are used to convert the frame picture into a single field of a pair of field pictures. A plurality of methods for reducing the amount of data required to represent the single field of the pair of field pictures are also described.