Patent ID: 7890983

Claim:
A channel buffeting method for dynamically altering a channel buffeting number of an Internet protocol television (IPTV), applicable for a home gateway (HG) capable of handling concurrent requests from a plurality of set-top boxes (STB), comprising: a. setting a first channel buffering number d, a second channel buffering number u, a display channel p, and a constant threshold time t 1 , and then setting a channel section as p−d to p+u ([p−d, p+u]); b. receiving two consecutive channel-switching requests from at least one of the plurality of STB; and if a time interval for receiving the two consecutive channel-switching requests is smaller than or equal to the constant threshold time t c , and if it is determined that the two channel-switching requests are both directed to switching a channel towards a same direction, setting a cumulative switching frequency; c. setting a first trimming numerical value w 1 or a second trimming numerical value w 2 according to the cumulative switching frequency; and d. altering the channel section as p−d+w 1 to p+u+w 2 ([p−d+w 1 , p+u+w 2 ]), and buffering a plurality of channels contained in the channel section.