Robust mode staggercasting user controlled switching modes

A staggercasting receiver, for receiving a composite signal comprising a set of encoded signals, staggered in time, representing content, the set capable of being decoded to produce a corresponding set of decoded signals, each decoded signal having a quality different from the qualities of the decoded signals corresponding to the other encoded signals, the receiver comprising:

• a demultiplexer, responsive to the composite signal, for extracting the set of encoded signals, detecting errors in respective encoded signals for providing an error representative signal, and producing a subset of available extracted signals which are not erroneous;
• a decoder, coupled to the demultiplexer and responsive to the error representative signal, for reproducing a content representative signal at a selectable desired quality;
• wherein the composite signal further includes a signal carrying information about respective qualities of the encoded set of signals;
• and
• wherein the decoder further comprises circuitry for storing preset selection parameters, and for automatically selecting the content representative signal at the desired quality in response to the selection parameters.