System and a method for receiving and storing a transport stream for deferred presentation of a program to a user

A method of receiving and storing program data, comprising:

• receiving at an input port of an audio/video apparatus a transport stream from a source of program data, wherein the transport stream includes program data that is encoded and that represents at least one program to be presented to a user;
• recording the transport stream on a storage device;
• obtaining the transport stream from the storage device;
• decoding the encoded program data of the transport stream using a decoder;
• and
• controlling a variable rate with which the transport stream is obtained from the storage device.

A method of operating an audio/video apparatus, comprising:

• recording a transport stream that includes encoded program data representing at least one program to be presented to a user;
• playing back the transport stream to input encoded program data into a decoder with which a buffer memory is associated;
• and
• controlling a variable rate with which the transport stream is played back to maintain program data in the buffer memory between an upper fill level and a lower fill level.

An audio/video system, comprising:

• a storage device coupled to record a transport stream that includes encoded program data representing at least one program to be presented to a user;
• a decoder coupled to the storage device to receive the encoded program data of the transport stream from the storage device during a playback mode and to decode the encoded program data, wherein the decoder is associated with a buffer memory;
• and
• a controller coupled to the storage device and the decoder, the controller configured to adjust a variable rate with which the decoder receives the encoded program data from the storage device so that program data in the buffer memory is maintained between an upper fill level and a lower fill level.