Patent ID: 7472197

Claim:
A method for TV transmission comprising the steps of: encoding live TV broadcasts as RTP packets and multicasting said packets through an IP network; joining a multicast group on the network to receive a live TV channel with a settop box; reading the multicast traffic from the network by receiving streamed RTP packets; when the stream ends issuing a leave multicast group command; when RTP packets are being received, reading the packets and sending the packets to render hardware for display; monitoring by the settop box for a trick mode command; continuing to read and send packets if no command is received; when a command is received, determining if the command causes the stream to leave the live position; if so, issuing a command through the settop box to leave the multicast group; switching to the unicast mode by establishing a stream session with the streaming server; receiving unicast RTP packets and sending them to the rendering hardware; communicating a reaching live position signal from the streaming server to the settop box; when a reaching live position signal is received bringing the unicast steam into coincidence with the multicast stream; when a traffic timeout occurs in which the stream is aborted, stopping the unicast stream; when a user command is received, sending the command to the streaming server; and carrying out the appropriate processing defined by the command at predefined fixed play speeds to avoid streaming of excessive data.