A method for streamed playback of media in a media client from a remote media service includes: a) determining address information for locating the service and for a starting time; b) by the address information, requesting and receiving a first media package from the service; the package having decoder configuration information, one or more frames, associated timing information for playback frames, and a pointer to a subsequent part of the media stream; c) configuring a decoder of the client by the decoder information; d) starting playback of the stream in the client at the starting time by providing the frames to the configured decoder; e) by the pointer, requesting a remaining portion of the media having subsequent frames of the media stream and associated timing information; f) receiving the subsequent frames as a stream and continuing playback by providing the subsequent frames and associated timing information to the configured decoder.

Embodiments of the invention relate to a server for streaming media content to a client and a corresponding method and computer program product. The media content is encoded as at least one stream, wherein the stream is divided into consecutive segments. The server comprises: a receiver configured to receive a request from the client for a manifest file comprising metadata of the at least one stream; and a transmitter configured to, in response to the request for the manifest file: send the requested manifest file to the client; and push a selected segment of the consecutive segments of at the least one stream to the client.

Arrangements for preparing a television channel for presentation are presented. A tuner of a television receiver may tune to a first television channel and the first television channel may be output for presentation. One or more idle tuners of the television receiver may be identified. One or more television channels other than the first television channel may be selected for preparation. The one or more television channels may be selected prior to receiving user input selecting a television channel of the one or more television channels for presentation. Each of the one or more television channels may be prepared for presentation by tuning, by each tuner of the one or more idle tuners, to the one or more television channels prior to receiving the user input selecting the television channel of the one or more television channels for presentation.

A system and method for effectuating fast channel change in an adaptive streaming environment. A plurality of adjacent channels may be predicted relative to a current streaming channel engaged by a client device. Upon prioritizing the adjacent channels, the client device may be configured to pre-fetch metadata and initialization information for a subset of the prioritized adjacent channels based on bandwidth conditions, video player buffer status, etc. When a channel is changed, the client device is operative to use the pre-fetched data to quickly obtain encoded media content at a select bitrate for rendering.

An image processing apparatus includes: a signal receiver configured to receive a content signal comprising video data and first extraction information used in extracting the video data; a signal processor configured to process the video data extracted from the content signal; a communicator comprising communication circuitry configured to communicate with a server; and a controller configured to receive second extraction information from the server through the communication circuitry of the communicator, to extract the video data from the content signal based on the received second extraction information, and to control the signal processor to process an image based on the extracted video data.

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for adaptively buffering content of a media asset from a media source when a different media asset from a different media source is being played at user equipment. The media guidance application may predict when and which channel or other media source the user is likely to switch to and then buffer content from the predicted channel or other media source accordingly. The pre-tuning buffering may enhance the user experience by reduce tuning latency when the user switches channels.

A television and a control method of the television are provided. The control method of the television includes receiving a broadcasting signal, detecting whether a pilot signal is included in the received broadcasting signal, setting a channel of the broadcasting signal as a channel of a first broadcasting format in response to detecting the pilot signal is included in the received broadcasting signal, and setting the channel of the broadcasting signal as a channel of a second broadcasting format in response to detecting that the pilot signal is not included in the received broadcasting signal.

An approach is provided for quick content channel discovery, and with minimal latency, streaming of a content stream, and switching from one content stream to another content stream available from various content providers. A method includes a buffering of one or more original content streams from one or more provider sources to generate one or more buffered content streams by at least one buffering service. The method also includes determining one or more requests from at least one device to access at least one of the one or more original content streams. The method further includes, in response to the one or more requests, an initiation of a streaming of at least one of the one or more buffered content streams from the at least one buffering service to the at least one device in place of the at least one of the one or more original content streams.

Devices and methods for automatically switching the content displayed on a display system from a single-stream mode displaying a single video stream to a multi-stream mode displaying more than one video stream.

Bandwidth optimized channel surfing allow users to experience channel surfing without delay between switching channels when buffering delays are a concern. Audio associated with the surfed channel can be presented to the user in full. Video can be presented at lower frame rates per second than for continuous video. Video sampling or channel surfing mode can mean, for example, that 5 frames per second are displayed to the user. Main video viewing mode can display the full 24 or more frames per second that continuous video is presented at. An interface for channel surfing can determine an automatic switch back to full video. This switch back to full frames per second can occur when a user has hovered over a channel being surfed for a pre-determined amount of time. A user interactive selection of the channel can also result in the switch from channel surfing to main video viewing mode.