Method for automatically setting time and digital broadcast receiving apparatus using the same

• US 20060112412A1
• Filed: 10/07/2005
• Published: 05/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Park, Chul-jun
• Granted Patent: US 7,668,206 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895

Abstract

A method for automatically setting a time includes receiving a time set by a user and corresponding to a geographic region where a digital broadcast receiver is located, and then determining if a broadcast signal received by the digital broadcast receiver includes time information; if the broadcast signal includes the time information, calculating a difference between the set time and received time information; setting a time zone based on the difference in the digital broadcast receiver; and if a command to display time information is received, applying a time difference corresponding to the set time zone to the time information in the broadcast signal, which is received at the time the command is received, and displaying the resulting time information. A digital broadcast receiver using the method is also provided.

Claims

1. A method for automatically setting a time, the method comprising:

setting a first time by a user, said first time corresponding to a region where a digital broadcast receiver is located; and

if a broadcast signal received by the digital broadcast receiver includes time information indicating a second time;

calculating a difference between the first time and the second time;

setting a first time zone, corresponding to the difference between the first time and the second time, in the digital broadcast receiver; and

if a command to display time information is received, applying a time difference corresponding to the first time zone to the time information in the broadcast signal received when the command to display the time information is received to obtain adjusted time information, and displaying the adjusted time information.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second time is independent of the region where the digital broadcast receiver is located.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second time is a Greenwich mean time.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the time information includes at least one of a current time of the region where the digital broadcast receiver is located, electronic program guide information, an on operation time of the digital broadcast receiver set in advance and an off operation time of the digital broadcast receiver set in advance.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein if the broadcast signal received by the digital broadcast receiver includes information to apply daylight saving time, the information to apply daylight saving time is set in the digital broadcast receiver, and one hour is subtracted from the adjusted time information.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

determining if a command to set a second time zone is input; and

if the command to set the second time zone is input, applying the time difference corresponding to the second time zone to the time information in the broadcast signal received by the digital broadcast receiver to obtain the adjusted time information; and

displaying the adjusted time information.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising if the broadcast signal received by the digital broadcast receiver includes no time information, displaying a message indicating that there is no time information.

8. A digital broadcast receiver using automatic time setup, the digital broadcast receiver comprising:

a signal processing unit which performs signal processing on a broadcast signal received by the digital broadcast receiver to display the broadcast signal and extract time information indicating a second time from the broadcast signal;

a calculating unit which calculates a difference between the second time and a previously input first time corresponding to a region where the digital broadcast receiver is located;

a timer which stores the first time and enables the first time to proceed;

a storage unit which stores information about the difference between the second time and the first time, and information about a plurality of time zones and time differences corresponding to the time zones; and

a controlling unit which sets a specific time zone in the digital broadcast receiver based on the difference between the second time and the first time, and if a command to display time information is received, applies a time difference corresponding to the specific time zone to the time information in the broadcast signal received when the command to display the time information is received to obtain adjusted time information, and displays the adjusted time information.

9. The digital broadcast receiver as claimed in claim 8, wherein the second time is a time independent of the region where the digital broadcast receiver is located.

10. The digital broadcast receiver as claimed in claim 8, wherein the second time is a Greenwich mean time.

11. The digital broadcast receiver as claimed in claim 8, wherein the time information includes at least one of a current time of the region where the digital broadcast receiver is located, electronic program guide information, an on operation time of the digital broadcast receiver set in advance and an off operation time of the digital broadcast receiver set in advance.

12. The digital broadcast receiver as claimed in claim 8, wherein if the broadcast signal received by the digital broadcast receiver includes information to apply daylight saving time, the controlling unit sets the information to apply daylight saving time in the digital broadcast receiver, and subtracts one hour from the adjusted time information.

13. The digital broadcast receiver as claimed in claim 8, wherein the controlling unit determines whether a command to set a second time zone is input, and if the command to set the second time zone is input, applies the time difference corresponding to the second time zone to the time information in the broadcast signal received by the digital broadcast receiver to obtain the adjusted time information, and enables display of the adjusted time information.

14. The digital broadcast receiver as claimed in claim 8, wherein if the broadcast signal received by the digital broadcast receiver includes no time information, the controlling unit enables a message to be displayed indicating that there is no time information.

15. The digital broadcast receiver as claimed in claim 12, wherein the storage unit stores the information to apply daylight saving time.

16. The digital broadcast receiver as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a display unit which displays the time zones and the time differences corresponding to the time zones, and the adjusted time information.