A media receiver (120A, 120B, 520, 820, 820A, 820B) for performing lossless switching of media streams having redundancy, the media receiver comprising: two receiver channels each having a network port for receiving respective media streams; a media stream input controller configured to control the two receiver channels to respectively receive primary and redundant data streams of first media data over different forward paths of a network; a media stream redundancy controller configured to store the primary data stream of the first media data in a media stream buffer and replace lost data packets of the primary media stream with corresponding data packets from the redundant data stream; a media player configured to playout the first media data on an A/V device; a media stream switcher configured to switch the respective receiver channel from receiving the redundant data stream of the first media data to receiving a primary data stream of second media data that is different media content that the first media data; a media stream alignment controller configured to store the received primary data stream of the second media data in the media stream buffer to be aligned with the primary data stream of the first media data in the media stream buffer; and a media data playout switcher configured to control the media player to perform a lossless switch from the first media data to the second media data without discontinuity of playout by the A/V device by controlling the media player to switch between the aligned first and second media data in the media stream buffer by fetching from the media stream buffer and outputting to the A/V device the primary data stream of the second media data at a top of a frame of the first media data. two receiver channels each having a network port for receiving respective media streams; a media stream input controller configured to control the two receiver channels to respectively receive primary and redundant data streams of first media data over different forward paths of a network; a media stream redundancy controller configured to store the primary data stream of the first media data in a media stream buffer and replace lost data packets of the primary media stream with corresponding data packets from the redundant data stream; a media player configured to playout the first media data on an A/V device; a media stream switcher configured to switch the respective receiver channel from receiving the redundant data stream of the first media data to receiving a primary data stream of second media data that is different media content that the first media data; a media stream alignment controller configured to store the received primary data stream of the second media data in the media stream buffer to be aligned with the primary data stream of the first media data in the media stream buffer; and a media data playout switcher configured to control the media player to perform a lossless switch from the first media data to the second media data without discontinuity of playout by the A/V device by controlling the media player to switch between the aligned first and second media data in the media stream buffer by fetching from the media stream buffer and outputting to the A/V device the primary data stream of the second media data at a top of a frame of the first media data.