IN-BAND CONTROLLER

The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for providing a cable TV system with the ability to issue information from a system manager, determine whether the information is intended for a set top designed to receive out-of-band information or in-band information, send the information to the appropriate circuitry. Reformatting of some information is necessary and is performed by a format translator. For in-band information, information may be sent over one or more of a plurality of data streams. Certain types of information are sent over one or more data streams based on the type of information and characteistics of the data streams. It is further disclosed that for efficiency, similar information intended for several addresses is grouped together in a database manager so that the information may be sent to plural addresses at one time. Scramblers are employed with the capability of inserting data onto nonscrambled channels.