CONTENT DISTRIBUTION AND SWITCHING AMONGST DATA STREAMS

摘要

In lieu of merely forwarding different selected content including originally received decoder information (e.g., timing information) to a respective user for a newly selected data stream, a server modifies decoder information of a newly transmitted data stream in accordance with a previously transmitted stream (or a master clock associated with the user) such that respective decoder state information used to decode a first stream of content can also be used to decode a second stream of content. That is, the server encodes and transmits newly selected content to a requestor in accordance with current decoder state information already used by the requestor to decode previously received content. This enables splicing of content together from two or more asynchronous data streams into a single, contiguous data stream even though the data streams originate with different sets of timing information.