Gradual tune-in pictures for fast channel change

This paper presents a novel approach for fast channel change based on tune-in streams. The presented solution is based on gradual decoder refresh (GDR) with H.264 for the main and for the tune-in stream. In normal GDR mode a receiver would have to wait for several received NAL units of multiple frames before it can render a complete frame without visible GDR artifacts. We propose an additional tune-in stream that fills the missing regions of a partially complete frame. Our simulation results show that the solution is at least as bitrate-efficient as previous tune-in solutions but offers the advantages of a bitstream with less variable bitrate and a consistent gradual improvement of picture quality.