A real-time stream recovery scheme for recording IPTV programs

A real-time stream recovery (RTSR) scheme is proposed to solve the problem of critical packet loss while receiving multicast streaming for recording Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) programs. Applied to time-shifted TV, RTSR not only restores program files instantly once streaming failure is detected, but also provides fluent playback to viewers when multicast streaming is interrupted. An analysis is addressed to prove that RTSR gains many more benefits than conventional recovery mechanism. Since streaming failure highly depends on actual network environment and is difficult to be predicted, a RTSR system is developed and estimated directly based on a commercial IPTV platform to ensure its feasibility. RTSR is so for the best way to guarantee time-shifted TV service against playback failure, especially in the real-time trick mode of live programs, which is proven to be the most popular time-shifted TV function.