Method and apparatus for correcting corrupted digital video transport streams

A video-on-demand (VOD) system, comprising:

• a transmission channel;
• a plurality of receivers coupled to the transmission channel, a VOD client at each receiver capable of subscribing to one or more VOD sessions over a transport stream;
• and
• a headend coupled to the transmission channel, said headend including a video server than can transmit one or more VOD sessions to one or more receivers, and a control server coupled to the video server, the control server to dynamically allocate and terminate VOD sessions over the transport stream as VOD clients are added and terminated, said headend to transmit one or more stuffing packets to maintain a substantially constant bit rate over the transport stream, said one or more stuffing packets including a randomized payload.

A video on demand (VOD) method, comprising:

• receiving requests from one or more VOD clients for one or more VOD sessions;
• transmitting one or more VOD sessions to the one or more VOD clients over a transport stream having a substantially constant bit rate;
• and
• transmitting one or more null packets to maintain the substantially constant bit rate over the transport stream, said null packets including a randomized payload.

A computer program product, comprising:

• a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein to minimize a possibility of an erroneous MPEG frame synchronization in a digital video receiver, the computer readable program code in said computer program product comprising:
• first computer readable program code to transmit one or more video sessions to the one or more clients over a transport stream having a substantially constant bit rate;
• and
• second computer readable program code to transmit one or more null packets to maintain the substantially constant bit rate over the transport stream, said null packets including a randomized payload.

A digital video receiver, comprising:

• a demodulator to demodulate analog signals received over a transmission channel;
• decoder to decode signals from the demodulator;
• an MPEG framer to synchronize to a video session in a transport stream;
• a memory including one or more instructions;
• a processor, coupled to the memory, demodulator, decoder, and framer, the processor, in response to the one or more instructions, to,
• detect a checksum error from the MPEG framer indicative of a false synchronization to the video session, and
• responsive to detecting a checksum error, resynchronize the MPEG framer to the transport stream.