Patent ID: 7836193

Claim:
A server for use in a multimedia system, the server comprises: tuning module operably coupled to select a set of channels from a plurality of channels based on a set of channel select signals that indicate channel selection requests from a plurality of clients; stream parsing module operably coupled to convert the set of channels into streams of channel data; and transcoding module operably coupled to packetize the streams of channel data and overlay data into packets of channel data, wherein the transcoding module includes: decoding module operably coupled to decode the streams of channel data into decoded video frames for each channel of the set of channels; graphical overlay module operably coupled to generate overlay data for at least one channel of the set of channels based on an overlay selection input corresponding to at least one of the plurality of clients, the overlay selection input indicating one of a plurality of overlay types; and encoder operably coupled to re-encode the overlay data with at least a portion of each of the decoded video frames of the at least one channel of set of channels and to re-encode, contemporaneously, the decoded video frames of the set of channels less the at least one channel of the set of channels to produce the packets of channel data.