Implementation of an MPEG-4 enhanced digital TV set-top terminal

This paper presents the implementation of a prototype MPEG-4 enhanced digital TV set-top terminal. We make use of the embedded processor of a digital set-top terminal to implement a real-time MPEG-4 video decoder in software. The decoded MPEG-4 objects may be either displayed as a window overlaid on the main picture, or upsampled to display as a full-screen NTSC video. This prototype demonstrates the feasibility of incorporating an MPEG-4 decoder to an existing MPEG-2 digital TV set-top terminal to enable enhanced services.