Systems and methods for processing program content and information in a video broadcast

A receiver useable to process a packetized stream containing program content and information corresponding to a broadcast channel associated with one or more virtual channels, comprising:

• a first-in-first-out (FIFO) memory configured to receive a transport packet of the packetized stream;
• and
• a micro-code engine configured to sequentially read contents of the transport packet from the FIFO and to detect a start of a Virtual Channel Table (VCT) in the read contents of the transport packet, wherein the VCT includes channel information associated with the one or more virtual channels;
• wherein the micro-code engine is further configured so that, if no VCT is detected in the read contents of the transport packet, to write the read contents of the transport packet to a buffer, and
• wherein the micro-code engine is further configured so that, if a start of a VCT is detected, for each virtual channel represented in the VCT, to discard, from the FIFO memory without reading, bits representative of channel descriptors of the virtual channel, and to write replacement bits having equal bit length as the discarded bits to the buffer;
• and
• means for generating a channel map useable in displaying the broadcast channels using only contents of the buffer.

A method of processing a packetized stream containing program content and information corresponding to a broadcast channel associated with one or more virtual channels, comprising:

• (a) receiving a transport packet of the packetized stream in a first-in-first-out (FIFO) memory;
• (b) sequentially reading contents of the transport packet from the FIFO memory;
• (c) detecting a start of a Virtual Channel Table (VCT) in the read contents of the transport packet, wherein the VCT includes channel information associated with the one or more virtual channels;
• (d) if no VCT is detected in step (c), writing the read contents of the transport packet to a buffer;
• (e) if a start of a VCT is detected in step (c), for each virtual channel represented in the VCT, discarding, from the FIFO memory without reading, bits representative of channel descriptors of the virtual channel and modifying a “descriptors length” field having a value representative of the length of said bits to have a value of zero;
• and
• (f) generating a channel map useable in displaying the broadcast channels using only contents of the buffer.