METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RECEIVING FULL-MOTION DIGITAL VIDEO MULTI-CASTS, INTERACTIVE DATA AND INTERACTIVE VOICE VIA A DSL CIRCUIT

摘要

An IP multicast aware switched digital method andapparatus (114) are provided in a settop unit (116) wherein packetstreams containing reference information are multicast while aselect set of program information is routed to the settop units(116) so that multicast streams can be identified and full contentcan be routed individually to the settop unit (116) for decoding.Specific or preferred embodiment applications includedsimultaneous output and interactive communication with atelevision (112) (true video on demand), computer (124) (Internetaccess), videophone and telephone (120).