METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR FAST CHANNEL CHANGE BETWEEN LOGICAL CHANNELS WITHIN A TRANPORT MULTIPLEX

A system, method and computer program product are provided for fast channel change between logical channels within a transport multiplex. By reducing the amount of time it takes to acquire and display a tuned channel, fast channel change can improve a viewer's experience. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention, a fast channel change system can simultaneously decode channel data for each channel in a transport multiplex, reconstruct all access units for each channel and send them out on their respective channel stream in the order that each access unit completes to a streamer, store and maintain a minimum amount of channel data in a buffer in each streamer, and output channel data from a streamer corresponding to a tuned channel to a media player.