Stream conditioning for seamless switching of addressable content across transport multiplex, using local stored content as pre-roll and post-roll buffers; in digital television receivers

An apparatus to provide seamless switching across streams on digital television receivers and set-top boxes, with a primary content stream and one or more addressable content streams being sent over different transport multiplexes such as primary transport multiplex and addressable content transport multiplex while optimizing bandwidth allocated in a digital television network and using the storage available on digital television receivers and set-top boxes comprising a head end architecture and a receiver architecture characterized by an enhanced ad-server, an enhanced splicer, a vendor-specific content preparation system, a vendor-specific server, a decision engine, a pre-roll and post-roll content server, a trigger signal decoder and a data-store for pre-roll and post-roll content to perform the steps of:

• a. Switching from the primary content stream to an addressable content stream further comprising the steps of:
• i. Switching to a locally stored pre-roll content to be rendered, upon receiving a signal switch point, in the primary content stream;
• ii. Tuning to the addressable content transport multiplex, in parallel to the pre-roll content rendering;
• iii. Switching to the addressable content stream on the currently chosen multiplex at a pre-determined decision point after the completion of tuning;
• and
• b. Switching back from the addressable content stream to the primary content stream, further comprising the steps of:
• i. Switching to a locally stored post-roll content that is rendered;
• ii. Tuning to the primary transport multiplex, in parallel with post-roll content rendering;
• and
• c. Switching to the currently tuned multiplex at a pre-determined decision point after the completion of tuning.

An apparatus to provide seamless switching across streams on digital television receivers and set-top boxes, with a primary content stream and one or more addressable content streams being sent over different transport multiplexes such as primary transport multiplex and addressable content transport multiplex while optimizing bandwidth allocated in a digital television network and using the storage available on digital television receivers and set-top boxes comprising a head end architecture and a receiver architecture where:

• a. The head end architecture further comprises:
• i. A vendor-specific content preparation system;
• ii. An enhanced ad server;
• iii. A vendor-specific server;
• iv. An enhanced splicer;
• v. An in-band channel modulator;
• vi. An ad-channel modulator;
• vii. An out of band channel modulator;
• and
• viii. A signal combiner;
• b. The receiver architecture further comprises:
• i. A tuner;
• ii. One or more transport demultiplexers, that demultiplex the transport stream coming from the tuner and transmits streams to one or more decoders;
• iii. A decision engine which instructs a switch engine and one or more pre-roll and post-roll content server based on selection criteria meta-data;
• iv. A switching engine which controls the tuner and program ID filters (or PID filters) on the transport demultiplexers to enable seamless switching between multiplexes and stored content streams to be passed onto the decoders;
• v. A pre-roll and post-roll content server that accesses one or more data-stores containing this content and streams them to the Transport Demultiplexer as stored content streams;
• vi. A trigger signal decoder used to decode signals that may be on a separate data-stream filtered to it;
• vii. A video decoder;
• viii. An audio decoder;
• and
• ix. A data-store for pre-roll and post-roll content.