Importance

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Abstract

An improved method and a system of utilizing the decoding/encoding video resources of a Video Processing Device (VPD) by offering a distributed architecture. A conventional VPD comprises a plurality of video ports, each video port is dedicated to a user and comprises at least one decoder and one encoder. The distributed VPD comprises a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports. Each input port includes an input module. The input module is operative to receive a compressed video input stream, manipulate the compressed video stream into a primary stream and optionally generate a secondary data stream associated with the primary data stream. A variety of levels of service for a session can be offered. A client may select the number of ports that will be used by the session. For example, a single port may multicast its compressed output video stream to all the destinations within a session, or to all destinations within a plurality of ports. The multicasting may be such that there is anywhere from one port for each group of destinations using the same compressed video stream to one port for each user.

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First Claim