Abstract: A digital content pricing apparatus may include a sales computer and a memory used to retain digital content items associated with a base price and one or more option prices, along with a final price related to the base and option prices by a final pricing formula. A method may include selecting a digital content item and at least one configuration option associated with the item, calculating the item price using appropriate adjustment factors, and calculating the final price using a final pricing formula. Pricing information, in the form of prices, adjustment factors, and formulae may be defined in meta-data descriptors included in the digital content.

Abstract: A manifest is created that represents a created work in electronic form. The manifest may reference multiple digital resources that together make up the good, as well as related resources not originally a part of the good. For example, an electronic version of a music album may include image files for the cover art, audio files for the songs, and text files for the lyrics. The manifest may include structured meta-data to facilitate finding, obtaining, exchanging the digital content. The manifest and referenced content may have associated meta-data describing, for example, manifest contents or distribution rules. A receiver of the manifest may apply global and/or user rules or policies to meta-data to determine what portions of the manifest, if any, comply thereto, and to edit or delete the manifest accordingly.

Abstract: A manifest is created that represents a created work in electronic form. The manifest may reference multiple digital resources that together make up the good, as well as related resources not originally a part of the good. For example, an electronic version of a music album may include image files for the cover art, audio files for the songs, and text files for the lyrics. The manifest may include structured meta-data to facilitate finding, obtaining, exchanging the digital content. The manifest and referenced content may have associated meta-data describing, for example, manifest contents or distribution rules. A receiver of the manifest may apply global and/or user rules or policies to meta-data to determine what portions of the manifest, if any, comply thereto, and to edit or delete the manifest accordingly.

Abstract: Different data sets are parsed from a video clip for sequential transmission from one computer system to another computer system over a communications link. The receiving node is able to play back a version of the video clip after receiving each successive data set, with the received data sets being interleaved together for playback. In one embodiment, the video clip is divided into key frames and delta frames and each frame is encoded as a plurality of bands, where each band is part of an independent band sequence. For example, for subsampled YUV data, the Y component plane of each frame may be globally composed into four bands Y0-Y3. Each of the six bands (Y0, Y1, Y2, Y3, U, and V) is then encoded independent of the other bands as part of a separate band sequence. That is, the Y0 band sequence is based on the Y0 band from each frame in the video clip. The encoded video data for the different bands and different frames can then be grouped into different data sets for sequential transmission.

Abstract: The resolution of one or more components of image data is changed to generate scaled image data and transparency processing is applied to the scaled image data, wherein the transparency processing is taken into account during the changing of the resolution of the image data. In a preferred embodiment in which a video codec applies transparency processing during the compression of subsampled video data, the capture processor applies the same transparency mask during data subsampling to decrease color-bleeding effects that may otherwise appear in the decoded video stream.

Abstract: Multimedia signals are encoded with certain values to control a user's access to the decoding of the multimedia signals. In a preferred embodiment in which the multimedia signals contain video signals, a lock word and a checksum value are encoded into each frame header of the video stream. The lock word is the result of applying a specified hash function to the checksum value for the current frame and a specified access word. A decoder will decode the encoded video signals for the current frame only if the result of applying the hash function to the access word (received from a decoding application) and the checksum value (retrieved from the frame header) is equal to the lock word (retrieved from the frame header). If the hash function result does not equal the lock word, then the decoder assumes that decode access is not permitted. In that case, the decoder will not decode the current frame and instead will send an error message to the decoding application (preferably after a specified delay).

Abstract: Block-level statistical measures are generated and then used to generate macroblock-level statistical measures, which are in turn used to determine how to encode the macroblocks of the image. In a preferred embodiment, a macroblock-level intra-SAD measure is generated by summing four block-level intra-SAD measures generated from the four blocks of the macroblock. The macroblock-level intra-SAD measure is then used to determine whether to encode the macroblock using intraframe encoding or interframe encoding. Basing macroblock-level statistics on block-level measures can provide a more accurate prediction as to how the macroblock would be encoded using intraframe encoding techniques.

Abstract: Blocks of video frames are classified for encoding, for example, as empty blocks, inter blocks, or Intra blocks. This block classification is based on (at least) one statistical measure for each block. The classification is based on a comparison of the statistical measure for each block to a threshold value, but the threshold value can change, for example, from block to block or from frame to frame. In a preferred embodiment, the threshold values change as quantization (Q) level changes. In embodiments in which more than one statistical measure is used for block classification of each block, the more than one corresponding threshold values change as Q level changes.

Abstract: Histograms are generated for one or more of the image components. Each histogram is clipped at each end to exclude outlying values and to identify initial minimum and maximum values. Conservatism terms are included in each of the initial minimum and maximum values to generated final minimum and maximum values that are used as thresholds to define the color range used in chroma-key processing. In one embodiment, the first frame of a video sequence is designated as a chroma-key frame that is analyzed to determine the chroma-key color range.

Abstract: Magnitudes of runs of constant signal value in signals representative of physical activities or objects are determined. The signals are converted to fixed-length run-length (RL) codes, wherein each long run in the signals that is longer than the largest run length represented by a single RL code is represented by at least one no-change RL code and an RL code representing a remainder value, wherein the no-change RL code represents a portion of the long run and also indicates that the immediately following RL code corresponds to a continuation of the long run. In a preferred embodiment, binary images are run-length encoded and the resulting run-length codes are subjected to variable-length encoding using structured Huffman tables.

Abstract: Blocks of video frames are classified for encoding, for example, as empty blocks, inter blocks, or intra blocks. This block classification is based on (at least) two statistical measures for each block: a global measure and a local measure. In a preferred embodiment, blocks are classified as empty blocks using an inter sum-of-absolute-differences (SAD) measure (a global measure) and a maximum-absolute-difference (MAD) measure (a local measure). The inter-SAD and MAD measures are generated for each block of the current frame relative to a corresponding reference block of a reference frame. If the inter-SAD and MAD measures are less than specified thresholds, then the block is classified as an empty block for encoding.