Patent ID: 8397269

Claim:
A system for tuning channels in a digital video broadcast network, the system comprising: a receiver configured to receive at a server a request to tune to a new digital channel from a client device; a broadcast video extractor configured to seek for and retrieve a previous complete frame of broadcast video for the new digital channel from a storage device responsive to the received request; a broadcast video booster configured to access the storage device and retrieve a plurality of incomplete frames of broadcast video that follow the retrieved previous complete frame of broadcast video; and a transmitter configured to: reallocate transient excess bandwidth from one or more other client devices to the client device responsive to receiving the request to tune to the new digital channel, the transient excess bandwidth comprising at least a portion of a difference between an amount of bandwidth allocated to the one or more other client devices and an amount of bandwidth currently being utilized by the one or more other client devices; and transmit the retrieved plurality of incomplete frames of broadcast video to the client device at a transmission rate that exceeds a real-time transmission rate of the broadcast video using the transient excess bandwidth to fill the video decoder buffer with the retrieved plurality of incomplete frames of broadcast video, the transmitted retrieved plurality of incomplete frames of broadcast video being offset in time behind a current broadcast time of the new digital channel, the offset in time comprising a difference between a time that the request is received and a broadcast time of the previous complete frame of broadcast video, the plurality of incomplete frames of broadcast video being retrievable and transmittable over a duration of time that is less than a period of time used to seek for, retrieve, and transmit the previous complete frame of broadcast video.