Patent ID: 8959560
Filing Date: 2015-02-17
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A method of supplying digital television signals, comprising: broadcasting a virtual channel table to a plurality of digital television receiver devices, the virtual channel table having entries for each available channel and having a channel type indicator that identifies switched digital channels; receiving a request from one of the plurality of television receiver devices for a selected one of the switched digital channels, where the one of the plurality of television receiver devices is incapable of any transmission except a transmission requesting a switched digital channel and a transmission providing a status of tuning a switched digital channel; determining if the selected channel has been allocated; if the selected channel has been allocated, then granting the request and sending an updated virtual channel table having updated table entries to the television receiver device; and if the selected channel has not been allocated, and if bandwidth is available for the selected channel, then allocating bandwidth for the selected channel and transmitting an updated virtual channel table having updated table entries to the television receiver device, where the channel type indicator comprises a channel designator containing data that represents a navigation bit, data that designates that tuning parameters are either defined or undefined, data that designates that a channel is either a switched or unswitched digital channel, and data that designates whether the channel is either hidden or viewable on an electronic programming guide.