Patent ID: 7861272

Claim:
A master set top terminal (STT), comprising: a first tuner tuning a television signal from a received multiplexed signal, to a first tuned television signal, wherein the multiplexed signal is received from a headend service provider; a second tuner tuning the television signal from the received multiplexed signal, into second tuned television signal; a video encoder supporting a plurality of encoding formats and coupled to the first tuner and receiving the first tuned television signal and digitally encoding the first tuned television signal having one of the encoding formats into an encoded signal having another one of the encoding formats, and further operating in accordance with a parameter describing quality of the encoded signal, and further automatically changing the parameter upon the master STT becoming ready to compress the television signal from the multiplexed signal received from the headend service provider, such that the quality of the encoded signal is improved while achieving a low latency, wherein the parameter change is responsive to a change in capability of the video encoder to encode at the improved quality; a transmitter coupled to the video encoder and transmitting the encoded signal to a remote STT to be displayed on a first viewing device; a receiver receiving a control signal from the remote STT corresponding to a user input; a controller coupled to the receiver for accepting the control signal from the receiver and for instructing the first tuner to tune to another tuned television signal and for instructing the video encoder to encode the another tuned television signal into a changed encoded television signal in response thereto, such that the transmitter transmits the changed encoded television signal to the remote STT for display on the first viewing device; and a Radio Frequency (RF) driver coupled to the second tuner, the RF driver for facilitating transmission of the second tuned television signal independently to a second viewing device, the second viewing device being different than the first viewing device.