Multi-tuner television receiving apparatus and method of restricting the viewing

A viewing restricting method of a video signal apparatus, the method comprising:

• detecting discretionary control data of program received through a first tuner of the video signal apparatus, said video signal apparatus comprising a second tuner that is adjustable independently of said first tuner to receive video signals simultaneously with said first tuner from any channel selected by said second tuner, a viewing restricting portion and a control portion;
• comparing a viewing restricting data installed with a detected data;
• checking whether there is a recording command through other tuners in the video signal apparatus when a received data of the program received through the first tuner is greater than the installed viewing restricting data;
• blocking AGC signals of the first tuner receiving the program by the viewing restricting portion when the discretionary control data is greater than a discretionary threshold;
• and blocking AFT signals of the second tuner by the control portion when the viewing of the program received through the first tuner is restricted.

A video signal apparatus, comprising:

• a plurality of tunable tuners that may be tuned to simultaneously receive video signals carrying discretionary control data;
• a first circuit controlling transmission of automatic fine tuning signals to a first one of said tuners;
• a second circuit controlling transmission of automatic gain control signals to said tuners;
• an input stage accommodating entry of discretionary threshold data selectively provided by a user;
• a viewing restricting stage connected to said tuners to detect said discretionary control data accompanying video signals received by said first one of said tuners;
• and
• a controller coupled to read said discretionary threshold data from a memory and control application of said automatic fine tuning signals to said plurality of tuners in dependence upon comparisons between said discretionary control data accompanying video signals received by said first one of said tuners and said threshold data.