Multi-channel electronic programming guide and soft picture-in-picture acquisition for use with digital television
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorsMikhail Tsinberg, Bhavan Shah, Bob Gupta, Manabu Sakai
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Abstract
Multi-channel Electronic Program Guide acquisition and soft picture-in-picture system for use with digital television receiver. The digital television receiver uses its central processing unit (CPU) to perform a software decode of packets received from a main tuner and/or a picture-in-picture. This allows the CPU to display video from pictures within the same RF channel or within another channel simultaneously with video information decoded in real-time by a hardware decoder. Also, in the case of a digital television with two tuners, the CPU can acquire and accumulate EPG data from multiple channels.
Claims2
A method of acquiring electronic program guide information for a plurality of channels using a digital television receiver having a first tuner and a second tuner comprising the steps of:
- a) receiving a command from a user to tune the second tuner to a first channel;
- b) tuning the second tuner to the first channel;
- c) receiving and decoding video signals from the second tuner;
- d) automatically tuning the second tuner to at least one of said plurality of channels other than said first channel;
- e) receiving and decoding signals representing electronic program guide information from the at least one of said plurality of channels;
- and
- f) repeating steps b) through e).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.