Patent ID: 8925030

Claim:
A fast channel change system comprising: a tuner arrangement to receive at least one transport stream including an aggregated video service and a plurality of TV channels, each of the TV channels including video data, the aggregated video service including a plurality of video frames, each of the video frames of the aggregated video service including some of the video data of each of the TV channels, the TV channels including a first TV channel and a second TV channel; a demultiplexer arrangement to demultiplex the first TV channel and the aggregated video service from the at least one transport stream; a fast channel change buffer to buffer the video frames of the aggregated video service, the aggregated video service including a plurality of random access points, the fast channel change buffer being operative to: buffer a latest one of the random access points and any of the video frames dependent upon the latest random access point for decoding purposes; and purge from the fast channel change buffer the video frames which are older than the latest random access point; a decoder arrangement including at least one decoder and at least one decoder buffer, the decoder arrangement being operative to decode the video data of the first TV channel; a controller to receive a channel change command from a subscriber to change channels from the first TV channel to the second TV channel, the controller being operative to instruct the decoder arrangement, on receipt of the channel change command, to switch from decoding the video data of the first TV channel to decoding the video frames of the aggregated video service from the fast channel change buffer yielding a plurality of decoded video frames; and a graphic engine to: extract the video data of the second TV channel from the decoded video frames of the aggregated video service yielding a full-screen video of the extracted video data of the second TV channel; and output the full-screen video to a display device for display, wherein the controller is operative to: instruct the demultiplexer arrangement to demultiplex the second TV channel from the at least one transport stream; and instruct the decoder arrangement to switch from decoding the video frames of the aggregated video service to decoding the video data of the second TV channel.