Methods and systems for rapid channel change within a digital system

摘要

Methods for providing fast channel change in a digital display system. Spare tuners can be provided for predicting a next channel that may be viewed. These spare tuners may be used to capture information that is used to provide a fast channel change to an accurately predicted next channel. A spare tuner may be a PIP tuner. A three tuner system can be used where multiple tuners are applied to multiple predicted channels. Also, a spare tuner can be used to scan available channels and cache information on a set of channels to provide a fast channel change to a cached channel. The information cached can include program information, e.g., table information. Spare decoders (e.g., virtual decoder) can also be used to predict a next channel and provide fast channel change thereto.