KR20070111216A - Apparatus and method converting h.264 dmb signal to mpeg signal - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus and a method for converting an H.264 DMB(Digital Multimedia broadcasting) signal to an MPEG(Multimedia Picture Experts Group) signal and reproducing the converted signal are provided to change an existing MPEG compression method without exchanging devices which support the latest H.264 method, so that existing portable devices can be continuously used. An apparatus and a method for converting an H.264 DMB(Digital Multimedia broadcasting) signal to an MPEG(Multimedia Picture Experts Group) signal and reproducing the converted signal includes an antenna, a transport parsing unit(11), a compression converting unit(12), and an interface module(13). The antenna receives digital broadcasting signals. The transport parsing unit performs a transport stream parsing process and outputs a video signal of H.264 format. The compression converting unit decodes the video signal of H.264 format and encodes the decoded signal to an MPEG signal. The interface module outputs the MPEG signal to an external video reproducing device and reproduces the outputted signal.

Description

Digital broadcast reception system and method for converting H.264 format DMB broadcasting signal to MPEG signal and reproducing method thereof [Apparatus and Method Converting H.264 DMB Signal to MPEG Signal}

1 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a method of providing a general terrestrial DMB service and a satellite DMB service.

2 is a block diagram illustrating an internal structure of a digital broadcast receiving system for providing an H.264 service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an internal structure of a compression converter of the digital broadcast reception system shown in FIG. 2.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a digital broadcast reception method according to an H.264 service according to another embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10: digital broadcast receiving system 20: external multimedia playback device

11 transport parser 12 compression converter

13 interface unit

The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiving system and method for converting and playing a digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) broadcast signal in an H.264 format into a moving picture expert group (MPEG) signal.

Recently, a video compression standard called H.264 has been enacted, and researches on technologies for implementing H.264 are active. H.264 is known to have 2.3 times higher compression efficiency than MPEG2 and 1.4 to 2 times higher compression efficiency than MPEG4. Due to its superior compression performance compared to MPEG2 or MPEG4, there is a movement to apply it to many applications in the broadcasting system including DTV (Digital Television) and the storage system such as PVR (Personal Video Recorder).

On the other hand, the DMB service is a service that can receive a high-quality broadcast service on the go through various types of portable terminals available to consumers. Various types of data services are possible, and added value is expected in various fields such as multimedia technology and communication transmission technology according to DMB service development. The Korea Broadcasting Commission defines DMB as a 'Digital Multimedia Broadcasting that provides CD-level sound quality and data or video services, and provides excellent fixed and mobile reception quality.' Separated by DMB.

1 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a method of providing a general terrestrial DMB service and a satellite DMB service.

Terrestrial DMB uses only the network of the terrestrial network and uses frequencies corresponding to 174-216 MHz (42 MHz). This frequency range corresponds to over-the-air TV channels 7-13. Using this frequency domain, 18 CD-level audio channels can be obtained at a frequency of 6 MHz corresponding to one TV channel.

Satellite DMB will provide services using satellite networks and Gap Fillers. Satellite DMB uses frequencies from 2,605 to 2,655 MHz (50 MHz). It is possible to provide 10 or more video channels using this frequency domain.

Satellite DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting), on the other hand, defines a digitally produced audio program as a radio communication service that transmits directly to fixed, mobile and portable ground stations via one or more space stations. Satellite DAB is a next-generation radio service that provides CD-level sound quality, various data services, two-way interactivity, and excellent mobile reception quality against the background of digitization of voice broadcasting and shortage of existing AM and FM frequency resources. In conclusion, satellite digital audio broadcasting (DAB) is a technology that provides radio services to users in the same way as DMB. In the present invention, the DMB receiving terminal using the DMB technology will be described as an embodiment, but the same may be applied to the DAB.

However, there is a problem that such various multimedia devices support mainly MPEG-4 format. As mentioned above, the application of H.264, which has much better compression efficiency than the MPEG4 format, is becoming more and more common.

Accordingly, the present invention is to solve the above problems according to the prior art, by using a conventional multimedia terminal to convert the H.264 format DMB broadcast signal to MPEG signal to provide the service according to H.264 An object of the present invention is to provide a digital broadcast receiving system and a method thereof.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital broadcast reception system including an antenna for receiving a digital broadcast signal, a transport parser for receiving a digital broadcast signal and performing a transport stream parsing operation to extract a H.264 format video signal; And a compression converter for H.264 decoding the H.264 format video signal, encoding the decoded signal back to an MPEG signal, and an interface module for outputting and playing the MPEG signal to an external video playback apparatus. .

In this case, the compression converter may include an H.264 decoder for decoding a video signal of the H.264 format into a bit stream of the pixel domain and an MPEG encoder for encoding the bit stream of the pixel domain into an MPEG format signal. .

The external interface may include a universal serial bus (USB), a super video home system (S-VHS) interface, a secure digital (SD) memory interface, a memory stick interface, an eXtreme digital (XD) memory interface, and a multimedia card (MMC) interface. , A concept including an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 1394 interface. The external video player corresponds to at least one of a portable multimedia player (PMP), a play station portable (PSP), a notebook, a personal computer (PC), a personal digital assistant (PDA), and a cellular phone. The MPEG signal is one of MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 and MJPEG signals.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital broadcast receiving method in which a digital broadcast receiving system receives a digital broadcast signal by using an antenna and obtains an H.264 format video signal by transport parsing the digital broadcast receiving system. H.264 decoding the video signal, and a compression conversion step of encoding the decoded signal back to an MPEG signal, and the digital broadcast receiving system outputs the MPEG signal to an external video playback device, the external video playback device is MPEG Reproducing the signal.

In this case, the compression conversion step may include an H.264 decoding step of decoding the H.264 format video signal into a bit stream of a pixel domain and an MPEG encoding step of encoding the bit stream of the pixel domain into an MPEG format. Can be. The digital broadcasting reception system may output the MPEG signal to an external video player by at least one of a USB, an S-VHS interface, a Memory Stick interface, an SD memory interface, an XD memory interface, an MMC interface, and an IEEE 1394 interface. It can be made using.

Hereinafter, a digital broadcast reception system and method for converting a DMB broadcast signal in H.264 format into an MPEG4 signal according to the present invention and a method thereof will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a block diagram illustrating an internal structure of a digital broadcast reception system for providing an H.264 service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the digital broadcast reception system 10 may include a transport stream parser 11, a compression converter 12, and an interface 13. In addition, the digital broadcast receiving system 10 is connected to the external multimedia playback apparatus 20 through the interface unit 13.

The transport stream parsing unit 11 performs a transport stream parsing operation on digital broadcast signals such as DMB and digital video broadcasting (DVB) received through an antenna. By performing such a transport stream parsing operation, the transport stream parsing unit 11 extracts an audio / video signal. At this time, the audio / video signal extracted by the transport stream parsing unit 11 according to the present invention is characterized by having an H.264 format. This means that a broadcast signal encoded in H.264 format is transmitted by a digital broadcasting station.

The compression converter 12 performs an H.264 decoding of the audio / video signal and encodes the decoded signal into an MPEG4 signal. As described above, the decoding and encoding operations of the compression converter 12 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 3. As a result, the compression converter 12 outputs the audio / video signal of the MPEG4 format to the interface unit 13.

The interface unit 13 is responsible for receiving the audio / video signal of the MPEG4 format from the compression converter 12 and transmitting it to the external multimedia player 20. In this case, the interface unit 13 may include a USB (Universal Serial Bus) Interface, a S-VHS (Spuer-Video Home System) Interface, an SD Memory (Secure Digital Memory) Interface, a Memory Stick Interface, an XD (eXtreme Digital) Memory Interface, and an MMC. (Multimedia Card), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1394, etc. can be used to transmit the signal in the MPEG4 format.

Now, the external multimedia player 20 plays a function of reproducing the audio / video signal of MPEG4 format received through the interface unit 13 of the digital broadcast receiving system 10 according to the present invention. The external multimedia player 20 is generally a portable multimedia player (PMP), a PlayStation Portable (PSP), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a notebook, a personal computer (PC) capable of playing only multimedia data in MPEG4 format. It may include a cellular phone (Cellular Phone) and the like. In this case, the external multimedia reproducing apparatus 20 must be provided with a predetermined interface or the like so that the MPEG4 signal can be received through the interface unit 13.

The digital broadcast receiving system 10 converts the H.264 signal into an MPEG4 signal and outputs the H.264 format video even in a conventional multimedia playback apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an internal structure of a compression converter of the digital broadcast reception system shown in FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 3, the compression converter 12 may be largely composed of an H.264 decoder and an MPEG4 encoder. The H.264 decoder is responsible for decoding the H.264 broadcast signal into a bit stream, and the MPEG4 encoder is responsible for encoding the bit stream data into a signal of MPEG4 format again.

In this case, the H.264 decoder may be composed of a variable length decoder 14, an inverse quantization and inverse DCT performing module 15, and a loop filter 16. The variable length decoder 14 receives a bit stream compressed according to the H.264 standard and performs variable length decoding. When the variable length decoding is performed as described above, data such as a bitstream and a frame format of a frame are output. Inverse quantization and inverse DCT performing module 15 inverse quantizes the variable length decoded bit stream and performs inverse DCT operation. On the other hand, the loop filter 16 is a kind of low pass filter that is responsible for smoothing the boundaries between the functional blocks. According to the function of the above-described H.264 decoder, the broadcast signal of the H.264 format is converted into a bit stream of the pixel domain.

Meanwhile, the MPEG4 encoder converts the data converted into the pixel domain into MPEG-4 format data according to a general MPEG4 encoding method. For such an encoding process, the MPEG4 encoder may include a DCT performing module 17, a quantization module 18, and a variable length encoder 19.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a digital broadcast reception method according to an H.264 service according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The digital broadcast reception system receives digital broadcast radio waves such as DMB or DVB using an antenna and performs baseband and transport stream parsing operations (S401). By performing such a transport stream parsing operation, the digital broadcast reception system extracts an audio / video signal from the digital broadcast signal (S402). Of course, the audio / video signal extracted in step S402 is characterized by having an H.264 format.

The digital broadcast reception system decodes the audio / video signal of the H.264 format and performs the operation of encoding the decoded signal back into the MPEG4 signal (S403). Thereafter, the digital broadcast reception system outputs an audio / video signal in MPEG4 format to an external multimedia playback device through an interface such as a USB interface, an SD, a Memory Stick, an XD, an MMC interface, and an IEEE 1394 (S404).

In general, an external multimedia playback apparatus that supports only MPEG4 format video playback receives an audio / video signal in MPEG4 format through an interface paired with the interface output in step S403 (S404). The multimedia reproducing apparatus now reproduces the converted MPEG4 format audio / video signal as if it reproduces the signal of the conventional MPEG4 format (S405). In this case, the multimedia player is a device including a PMP, a PSP, a PDA, and the like.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above. The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made by any person having ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains.

For example, although the present invention has described an apparatus for converting a video in H.264 format to a video in MPEG4 format, the apparatus for converting a video in MPEG4 format to a video in H.264 format can be clearly understood. In the present invention, the H.264 format video is converted to MPEG4 format, but a method of converting the video format to MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, MJPEG, etc. may also be considered.

As described above, according to the multimedia signal converting apparatus and method for converting an H.264 format DMB broadcast signal to an MPEG signal according to the present invention, in order to use the H.264 compression method used in the DMB, the latest H. There is an advantage in that various portable devices can be used by transmitting and playing by changing the existing MPEG compression method without having to replace all of the equipment supporting the .264 method.

In addition, it uses H.264 decoding and MPEG encoding procedures, so it is possible to combine various camera functions using MPEG encoding and additional functions such as video calls. It also has the advantage that it is advantageous to store and store.

Claims (8)

In a digital broadcast receiving system, An antenna for receiving a digital broadcast signal; A transport parser configured to receive the digital broadcast signal and perform a transport stream parsing operation to extract a H.264 format video signal; A compression converter configured to H.264 decode the H.264 format video signal and encode the decoded signal into a multimedia picture expert group (MPEG) signal; And And an interface module for outputting and playing the MPEG signal to an external video reproducing apparatus. The method of claim 1, The compression converter, An H.264 decoder for decoding a H.264 format video signal and converting the video signal into a bit stream of a pixel domain; Wow And an MPEG encoder for encoding the bit stream of the pixel domain into a signal of MPEG format. The method of claim 1, The external interface, Universal Serial Bus (USB), Super Video Home System (S-VHS) interface, Secure Digital (SD) memory interface, Memory Stick interface, eXtreme Digital (XD) memory interface, Multimedia Card (MMC) interface, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) digital broadcast reception system, one of 1394 interfaces. The method of claim 1, The external video player, A digital broadcast receiving system, which is at least one of a portable multimedia player (PMP), a PlayStation Portable (PSP), a notebook, a personal computer (PC), a personal digital assistant (PDA), and a cellular phone. The method of claim 1, The MPEG signal is one of MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, JPEG signal digital broadcast reception system. In the digital broadcast receiving method, Receiving, by the digital broadcast receiving system, the digital broadcast signal using an antenna and transport parsing to obtain a video signal in H.264 format; The digital broadcast receiving system comprises: a compression conversion step of H.264 decoding the video signal and encoding the decoded signal back into an MPEG signal; And And the digital broadcast receiving system outputs the MPEG signal to an external video reproducing apparatus, and the external video reproducing apparatus reproduces the MPEG signal. The method of claim 6, The compression conversion step, An H.264 decoding step of decoding the H.264 format video signal into a bit stream of a pixel domain; Wow MPEG encoding step of encoding the bit stream of the pixel domain in MPEG format. The method of claim 6, The digital broadcast receiving system outputs the MPEG signal to the external video playback device,  A digital broadcast reception method for outputting an MPEG signal using at least one of USB, S-VHS interface, Memory Stick interface, SD memory interface, XD memory interface, MMC interface, and IEEE 1394 interface.

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