Macroblock parsing without processing overhead

1. Field of the Invention The method and apparatus related to macroblock parsing in a GOB to comply with a maximum-transmission-unit size is described. The real-time transmission protocol (RTP) suggests that the RTP packet sent be smaller than the underlying transport mechanism. In the case where video streams are encoded under ITU-T H.261 recommendation, certain group of blocks (GOBs) exceed the allowable packet size. For end-points such as a terminal, implementing a macroblock parser is a natural outcome of the encoding process. However, for other devices, such as a multipoint control unit (MCU), a marcoblock parser is not that easily implemented. Thus, instead of using a macroblock parser, the incoming packets are monitored for partial GOBs. A partial GOB is where the GOB was previously parsed into portions by a device for compliance. Once a partial GOB is detected, pertinent information pertaining to the macroblock fragmentation is then retrieved and stored for future use. The pertinent partial GOBs are then combined to form a complete GOB. Subsequently, when this complete GOB needs to be parsed again for transmission, the stored information are retrieved to parse the complete GOB back to its previous state (i.e., partial GOBs).