Realtime audio-visual decoding on standard multimedia processors

Multimedia processing has increased impact on microprocessor and computer architecture. Implementation of real-time audiovisual algorithms is a nontrivial task because of the tight synchronization and timing requirements and integration within the standard operating system. MPEG-2 system used in digital television became the facto implementation benchmark for multimedia implementations. We describe issues involved in the implementation of a real-time software decoder for an MPEG-2 transport stream. It is shown that such implementation is possible by combining multimedia signal processing with system level timing and synchronization