US Patent 7778372 Data delivery system and method, and receiver and transmitter

Provided is a data delivery system including a transmitter which transmits data stream via a network, and a receiver which receives the data stream and stores it into a reception buffer thereof, and decodes the stored data stream. The network has predetermined therein a necessary amount of data stored in the reception buffer for decoding the received data stream continuously irrespectively of a variation of a time taken for data transfer from the transmitter to the receiver. The receiver starts, after reception of the latter and before the data has been stored up to the predetermined necessary stored amount, decoding of the data stream at a rate lower than assumed at the time of data encoding at the transmitter. When the data has been stored into the reception buffer up to the predetermined necessary stored amount, the receiver changes the decoding data to the assumed rate for decoding further data.