SEAMLESS DIGITAL CHANNEL CHANGING

Seamless channel changing in a digital-television-based entertainment network can be implemented, for example, by providing an intra frame to a client device upon a change to a new channel even when the broadcast video data is previously compressed on a macroblock basis. In an exemplary implementation, a method includes: receiving a stream of broadcast video data that is encoded on a macroblock basis; continuously decoding the stream of broadcast video data into successive decoded images; and transmitting, responsive to a channel change message received from a client device, an intra frame that has been encoded from a decoded image of the successive decoded images. Other exemplary implementations are described herein.