Patent ID: 8724809

Claim:
A method of tuning to a scrambled television channel, comprising: receiving a channel selection from a user; tuning to the selected scrambled channel; initiating a thread 1 and a thread 2 in parallel upon tuning to the selected scrambled channel; executing thread 1 which includes checking a cache for Conditional Access (CA) information including CA descrambling information associated with the selected channel; executing thread 2 which includes retrieving descrambling information associated with the selected channel from a distribution network; if there is a cache hit, determining if the CA descrambling information is valid; if the CA descrambling information is valid, terminating thread 2 , wherein the CA descrambling information is valid if the information is able to descramble the selected channel; allowing thread 2 to continue execution through completion if the CA descrambling information in the cache is not valid, such that CA descrambling information is then obtained from the distribution network, and wherein thread 2 is complete once the CA descrambling information is obtained from the network and provided to a CA control module for descrambling the selected channel.