US Patent 7333929 Modular scalable compressed audio data stream

Methods and apparatus are provided for the creation and utilization of unique compressed data stream compositions, structures and formats which allow for the alteration of the data stream's data rate without first decoding the data stream back to its uncompressed form and then re-encoding the resulting uncompressed data at a different data rate. Such methods and apparatus perform this data rate alteration, known as scaling, such that optimal quality is maintained at each scaled data rate, while performing said scaling with low computational complexity. In addition, the present invention provides for data rate alteration in small increments. A unique application for the disclosed bit rate scaling method and apparatus is also described.