COMBINER PROCESSING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SUPPORT LAYER PROCESSING IN A BIT-RATE REDUCTION SYSTEM

A combiner processing system and a method of operating the combiner processing system are disclosed. In one embodiment, the combiner processing system is utilized for a support layer processing in a bit-rate reduction system that separates video data into a main layer and a support layer with separated encodings for the two layers for bit-rate reduction and data transmission efficiency. Preferably, the combiner processing system for the support layer processing is capable of processing repeat patterns, small high frequency details, and textual information contained in one or more images. Furthermore, in one embodiment, the combiner processing system for the support layer processing provides a motion vector detection on a full image reconstruction, a non-linear quantization which retains both textual information and small high frequency details, utilization of full combination motion vectors, and a separate processing path for textual information with an internal bit-rate reduction unit.