Receivers for television signals

• US 7,684,681 B1
• Filed: 08/09/2000
• Issued: 03/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sky CP Limited (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: British Sky Broadcasting Limited (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Crossley, Robin, Willame, Xavier, James, Nick, Bodkin, Nigel
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Thai
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dunn; Mishawn
• Application Number:
  US10/049,042
• Time in Patent Office: 3,513 Days
• Field of Search: 386/46, 386/83, 386124-126, 725 14- 21, 725 33- 35, 725 60- 66, 348/565, 348/567
• US Class Current: 386/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4263 involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42661 for reading from or writing on a magnetic storage medium, e.g. hard disk drive
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440281 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. by frame skipping television signal recording using magnetic recording on tape for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate H04N5/783
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4508 Management of client data or end-user data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 : Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 : involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 : by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 : Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 : Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 : between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/7755 : the recorder being connected to, or coupled with, the antenna of the television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 : on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 : on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/783 : Adaptations for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 : on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 : involving data reduction

Abstract

A Hard Disk Recorder (HDR) (3) is arranged to receive signals signals defining television programmes and television programme schedule data. The HDR receives updated programme schedule data substantially constantly in a dedicated programme schedule data channel. The HDR is arranged to output the programme schedule data for display on a television screen (2). The HDR comprises a hard disk (16) for recording received television programmes. A remote control (28) is provided to select television programmes to be recorded from the displayed programme schedule. Furthermore, the HDR is arranged to receive additional programme schedule information included in each of the received television channels which information is used to control the hard disk to record pre-programmed television programmes according to schedule. The hard disk is operable to record simultaneously two different television programmes received in different channels. Also, the HDR is operable to replay a currently broadcast programme offset in time. The time offset can be overcome by playing back the part of the programme inside the time offset at an increased frame rate. Furthermore, the HDR is arranged to receive transition signals indicating transitions between parts of programmes, such as transitions between advertisements and the “actual” programmes. The HDR is operable to use these transition signals, for example, to skip between transitions in previously recorded programmes replayed from the hard disk.

Claims

1. A receiver for receiving signals representative of television programmes in a plurality of channels, the receiver comprising:

a first tuner for receiving signals in a first channel;

a first data buffer for buffering data representative of signals received by the first tuner;

a second tuner for simultaneously receiving signals in a second channel;

a second data buffer for buffering data representative of signals received by the second tuner;

a recorder for recording data representative of signals in the first and the second channel received simultaneously by the first tuner and the second tuner;

a third data buffer for buffering data from the recorder representative of television pictures to be displayed on a television screen; and

a processor for selectively causing data to be transferred from the first data buffer or the second data buffer to the recorder for recording the transferred data and to transfer data from the recorder to the third data buffer;

wherein the first data buffer is arranged to receive signals from the first tuner representative of data at a first data rate, the second data buffer is arranged to receive signals from the second tuner representative of data at a second data rate, and the rate at which data is transferred selectively from the first data buffer or the second data buffer to the recorder is equal to or higher than the first and second data rates combined;

whereby the recorder is operable successively to record data buffered in the first and the second data buffer, and to transfer data from the recorder to the third data buffer, the successively stored and transferred data being representative of signals simultaneously received by the first and the second tuners and output from the third data buffer, respectively.

2. The receiver of claim 1, wherein the third data buffer is arranged to output signals representative of data at a third data rate, and the rate at which data is transferred selectively from the recorder to the third buffer is equal to or higher than the first, second and third data rates combined.

3. The receiver of claim 2, wherein the rate at which data is transferred selectively from the first data buffer or the second data buffer to the recorder is equal to or higher than the first, second and third data rates combined.

4. The receiver of claim 1, wherein the recorder comprises a hard disk.

5. The receiver of claim 1, wherein the recorder comprises an optical storage medium.