A novel video encoding and splicing method is proposed which minimizes the tune-in time of "channel zapping", i.e. changing from one audiovisual service to another, in IPDC over Digital Video Broadcasting for Handheld terminals (DVB-H). DVB-H uses a time-sliced transmission scheme to reduce the power consumption used for radio reception. Tune-in time in DVB-H refers to the time between the start of the reception of a broadcast signal and the start of the media rendering. One of the significant factors in tune-in time is the time from the start of media decoding to the start of correct output from decoding, which is minimized when a time-slice is started with a random access point picture such as an independent decoding refresh (IDR) picture in H.264/AVC. In IPDC over DVB-H, encapsulation to time-slices is performed independently from encoding in a network element called IP encapsulator. At the time of encoding, time-slice boundaries are not known exactly, and it is therefore impossible to govern the location of IDR pictures relative to time-slices. It is proposed that an additional stream consisting of IDR pictures only is transmitted to the IP encapsulator, which replaces pictures in a normal bitstream with IDR pictures according to time-slice boundaries in order to achieve the minimum tune-in time. It has to be ensured that the "spliced" stream resulting from the operation of the IP encapsulator complies with the Hypothetical Reference Decoder (HRD) specification of H.264/AVC.