A demand television system comprising a broadcast encoder and a storage encoder.
The broadcast encoder encodes a real-time video frame sequence to form a broadcast
bitstream and broadcasts the broadcast bitstream to a plurality of subscriber equipment,
while simultaneously the storage encoder encodes the real-time video frame sequence
to form a storage bitstream that is stored in an information server. The subscriber
equipment decodes the broadcast bitstream to display the broadcast program. At
any time, the subscriber equipment may request to review the information previously
displayed in the broadcast bitstream. As such, the storage bitstream is transmitted
to the subscriber equipment. The storage bitstream facilitates standard play of
the previously broadcast information as well as trick play such as fast forward
and fast reverse functions.