Patent ID: 7849486

Claim:
A system for transmitting from a headend facility a plurality of audio/video signals, the system comprising: a master set top for receiving the plurality of audio/video signals, the master set top comprising a plurality of tuners, each tuner for filtering and providing a portion of the plurality of audio/video signals to one of a viewing device and a remote device the remote device being controllable via a remote control device associated with, but separate from, the remote device; and the remote device in communication with the master set top for receiving the portion of the plurality of audio/video signals from one of the plurality of tuners of the master set top, wherein when the portion of the plurality of audio/video signals received from the master set top includes more than one program, a demultiplexer operates to demultiplex a selected audio/video signal, wherein one of the plurality of tuners is responsive to one of the at least one remote device by receiving control information directly from the remote control device, without the control information being relayed by the remote device, wherein when the control information comprises a request for a channel change that encompasses a different portion of the plurality of audio/video signals, the master set top is configured to, initially, transmit the different portion encoded at a first low bit rate, and then subsequently encoded at second higher bit rate to the remote device upon a predetermined period of time passing without a channel change, wherein the encoding parameters are gradually changed to meet the encoding parameters of the second higher bit rate; and wherein the control information further comprises a flag, wherein the flag comprises the decoding parameters of the second higher bit rate, and the predetermined bit pattern appended to the front and back of the decoding parameters.