Abstract: A novel method and apparatus for determining timing information from a stream carrying Advanced Video Coding (AVC) content is disclosed. For example, a method and apparatus for determining timing information from an MPEG-2 stream carrying Advanced Video Coding (AVC) content is disclosed.

Abstract: A method, protocol and apparatus for transporting Advanced Video Coding (AVC) content, e.g., using MPEG-2 systems is disclosed. Specifically, the present method is related to the carriage of various flavors of AVC streams in a uniform fashion over MPEG-2 systems (e.g., both transport and program streams). AVC coding mandates only the VCL (video coding layer) elements and all other elements such as parameter sets, timing data and display parameters are optional in the in-band AVC stream. As all of these elements are required by MPEG-2 systems and for conformance verification of AVC streams, the present invention discloses MPEG-2 system specific tools and/or constraints to generate the optional elements that are not present in the in-band AVC stream.