Patent ID: 7685617

Claim:
A method for selectively and multiply routing a media stream input to a media appliance, the method comprising the steps of: receiving the media stream; distributing the same media stream onto a plurality of individual media stream paths within the media appliance; routing the media stream on at least a first one of the individual media paths to a first media processor that enables a display of a portion of the media stream within the media appliance, while simultaneously routing the same media stream on at least one other of the individual media paths to at least one additional media processor that is enabled to tune upon an other portion of the media stream to perform a channel scan to map available content channels within the other portion of the media stream within the media appliance; and interrupting the display of the portion of the media stream by the additional media processor to notify a user that, during scanning of the other portion of the media stream, a new channel has been found since a last channel scan.