Patent ID: 8514853

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving at a first re-multiplexer and a second re-multiplexer a first indexed transport stream, the first re-multiplexer physically located in a first device remote from the second re-multiplexer physically located in a second device; receiving a helper transport stream, the helper transport stream comprising information about a set of operations associated with a previous re-multiplexing operation; re-multiplexing the first indexed transport stream at the first and second remote re-multiplexers based on the information; and generating by the first and second re-multiplexers a second indexed transport stream and a third indexed transport stream, respectively, the second indexed transport stream identical to the third indexed transport stream and different than the first indexed transport stream; wherein the re-multiplexing comprises program clock reference (PCR) re-stamping or inserting packets for inclusion in the second indexed transport stream and the third indexed transport stream, wherein the inserting packets comprises inserting null packets, program specific information (PSI) packets, system information (SI) packets, program and system information protocol (PSIP) packets, or a combination of two or more of the null packets, the PSI packets, the SI packets, or the PSIP packets.