Patent ID: 8571111
Filing Date: 2013-10-29
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An apparatus, comprising: a display; a digital tuner module to decode multiple transport streams, the digital tuner module comprising a primary tuner to tune to an active channel, and one or more alternate tuners to tune to one or more alternate channels; a fixed speed program stream buffer module coupled to a decoder module to display media content on the display running at a normal cadence, the fixed speed program stream buffer module to buffer historical frames comprising at least one anchor frame and to provide a most recent historical anchor frame prior to a detected channel switch point to the decoder module, the fixed speed program stream buffer module comprising an active channel program stream buffer to buffer historical frames of an active channel program stream corresponding to the active channel, one or more alternate channel program stream buffers to buffer historical frames of one or more alternate channel program streams corresponding to the one or more alternate channels, and a start pointer that points to the most recent historical anchor frame, the decoder module to stretch a next frame after the most recent historical anchor frame to synchronize to the normal cadence for display on the display, the active channel program stream buffer and the one or more alternate channel program stream buffers comprising elastic buffers to store a number of historical frames that varies over time; and a processor implementing at least one of the digital tuner module, the fixed speed program stream buffer module, or the decoder module.