Abstract: In a system for communicating an image, an image compression scheme is employed to encode the image to reduce the required bandwidth for transmitting same. For example, this compression scheme includes performing, on the image, a discrete cosine transform (DCT), followed by quantization. To reduce the effects of coding artifacts occasioned by the compression scheme, in accordance with the invention, a filter arrangement which is matched to the coding of the image may be utilized to process a received image. The filter arrangement is designed to truncate each non-zero frequency component in the received image whose amplitude is lower than a certain threshold, which is a function of the quantization step size used.

Abstract: Digital streams are converted into analog signals for recording by analog recorders, such as conventional video cassette recorders, onto analog storage media, such as conventional video cassette tapes. The recorded analog signals are then retrieved from the analog storage media using an analog player, such as a conventional video cassette player, and converted back into the original digital streams. The present invention allows conventional analog-based recording and playing equipment, like video cassette recorders/players, to be used for storing and retrieving digital data. In one embodiment, the digital streams correspond to digital audio/video data and the retrieved digital streams can be further processed to playback the audio/video streams using conventional television sets. In other embodiments, the digital streams correspond to other digital data streams that can be converted into analog signals for storage and retrieval using conventional video cassette recorders and conventional video cassette tapes.

Abstract: A video encoder control system and method are disclosed for controlling a video encoder using a processor having a multiple field delay circuit for delaying input video data by a predetermined number of frames, and a statistics generator for generating statistics from the video data to control the encoder. The statistics generator calculates a sum of absolute values of field differences between pixels, with the sum used for detecting a redundant field, for generating a film flag, and for controlling the encoder using the film flag. The statistics generator calculates averages of blocks of pixels, and a fade detector uses the averages for detecting fades between successive frames to generate a fade flag to control the encoding. The rate controller responds to the statistics to change the resolution of the encoding of successive frames. The processor outputs the film flags, scene change flags, and fade flags to the rate controller to control the encoding of the delayed video data.