Patent ID: 6486925
Filing Date: 2002-11-26
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
A channel managing apparatus for a digital/analog TV comprising:a memory; a controller coupled to said memory, and configured to, sequentially detect each TV signal of a plurality of sources to obtain a set of TV signals, wherein the set of TV signals has more than one broadcast format, extract broadcast format information from the detected TV signals indicating the broadcast format of a detected TV signal, decrease channel tuning time by assigning channel information including at least a channel number to the detected TV signals based on each broadcast format of the detected TV signal to form a linear sequence of channels ordered and grouped by broadcast format in said memory, store the assigned channel information in said memory, receive a user input selecting a TV channel, extract corresponding assigned channel information from said memory in accordance with said user input, and output a control signal in accordance to the extracted corresponding assigned channel information to tune the selected TV channel; a first switching portion coupled to said controller and configured to select and output one of the plurality of sources including each of a digital broadcasting receiver and an analog broadcasting receiver; and a signal processing and display portion coupled to said first switching portion and configured to process and display an output signal of said first switching portion, wherein the controller determines the broadcast type based on a linear location in the linear sequence of channels corresponding to a channel determined by the user input, wherein the controller is configured to assign portions of said linear sequence of channels to the same broadcast format regardless of a broadcaster's prescribed channel ordering.