Patent ID: 9154844
Filing Date: 2015-10-06
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A method of receiving video programs at a client device, wherein the video programs are received from a video server via a video distribution network, the method comprising: receiving, from the video server via a first channel of the video distribution network, a first video program stream conveying a first video program at a first quality level; receiving, from the video server via a second channel of the video distribution network, a plurality of second video program streams conveying a respective plurality of second video programs at a second quality level below the first quality level, wherein at least one of the second video program streams received over the second channel is included within the second plurality of video program streams based on preference information; in response to a channel change operation by which a user selects one of the second video program streams, locally switching from presenting the first video program at the first quality level to presenting, at the second quality level, the second video program conveyed by the selected one of the second video program streams; and when the selected one of the second video programs is further selected at the client device during presentation of the selected one of the second video programs at the client device using the second quality level, propagating a channel change request from the client device toward the video server, wherein the channel change request is a request for the video server to provide the selected one of the second video programs at the first quality level, wherein the further selection of the selected one of the second video programs at the client device is an automatic selection made in response to a determination that the selected one of the second video programs is presented at the client device for a threshold length of time.