Patent ID: 8826339

Claim:
A digital video receiver comprising: a radio frequency (RF) tuner adapted to receive RF streams; a network interface device adapted to communicate with an Internet Protocol (IP) network; a virtual channel manager in communication with a user interface for selecting content received via either of the RF tuner and the network interface, wherein the virtual channel manager is configured to: receive an RF virtual channel map referencing virtual channel numbers (VCN) for selection via the user interface, wherein virtual channel numbers (VCN) in the RF virtual channel map are mapped to access RF streams via the RF tuner, receive an IP transport stream data set associated with one or more IP transport streams receivable via the network interface device, the data set including a delivery parameter for each of the one or more IP transport streams for relating each of the one or more IP transport streams to a respective virtual channel number, parse the IP transport stream data set to determine the delivery parameter for each of the one or more IP transport streams, associate the delivery parameter associated with each of the one or more IP transport streams to a respective virtual channel number (VCN) in an IP virtual channel map, wherein each virtual channel number (VCN) in the IP virtual channel map is selectable for access to the one or more IP transport streams via the IP network, and overlay the RF virtual channel map and the IP virtual channel map for integrating access to RF and IP virtual channels via the user interface, wherein the IP transport stream data set comprises an XML file and a version number associated with the XML file and also associated with a parameter identifying a record in the XML file modified from a corresponding record in a previously received data set, whereby, for maintaining the overlaid virtual channel maps, the digital video receiver determines which records in the XML file for the received IP transport stream data set to modify from the previously received XML file for a previously received IP transport stream data set using the parameter associated with the version number.