Patent ID: 7275254

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a digital television receiver to receive a digital television broadcast signal, the digital television broadcast signal including an Internet Protocol (IP) based data test stream located on a Packet Identifier (PID) of the digital television broadcast signal having a plurality of sequentially numbered IP data packets used to determine a service level of the digital television broadcast signal being received on a channel; and a service level determiner to determine the service level of the digital television broadcast signal based upon a loss of IP data packets from the IP based data test stream and to cause the service level to be displayed, wherein the service level determiner measures a number of IP data packets of the IP based data test stream received by the digital television receiver over a predetermined interval and determines a data packet loss percentage value for the IP based data test stream by calculating a ratio of the measured number of IP data packets received by the digital receiver and a number of IP data packets that should have been received by the digital receiver; and a display device to display a service level diagnostic indicator based upon the loss of IP data packets from the IP based data test stream to indicate the service level of the digital television broadcast signal, the service level diagnostic indicator being updated at predetermined intervals.