SPEEDING UP CHANNEL CHANGE

Title:

SPEEDING UP CHANNEL CHANGE

Document Type and Number:

WIPO Patent Application WO2006044547

Kind Code:

A3

Abstract:

A method and apparatus is described to reduce delay when changing channels in a television environment. The method may comprise receiving a plurality of television channels from a remote content provider wherein each channel includes channel information required to display the channel. At least one channel of the plurality of channels may be identified as a stored channel and channel information of the at least one stored channel may be stored in storage (e.g. in a circular buffer). Thereafter, upon selection of the stored channel, the stored channel information is accessed for display. In an example embodiment, the storage may be updated to maintain a most recently received I-frame and subsequent MPEG signals of the stored channel. Accordingly, when changing channels it may not be necessary to wait for the next I-frame to display a newly selected channel.

Inventors:

DUREAU VINCENT (US)
ZDEPSKI JOEL (US)
KIM PATTY (US)

Application Number:

PCT/US2005/036834

Publication Date:

November 30, 2006

Filing Date:

October 14, 2005

Export Citation:

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Assignee:

OPENTV INC (US)
DUREAU VINCENT (US)
ZDEPSKI JOEL (US)
KIM PATTY (US)

International Classes:

H04N5/44; H04N5/50; H04N7/167

Foreign References:

US6118498A	2000-09-12
US20020044658A1	2002-04-18
US20040177369A1	2004-09-09
US20040181813A1	2004-09-16
US6591058B1	2003-07-08

Other References: