A television receiver, comprising: a plurality of tuners; one or more processors; and a memory communicatively coupled with and readable by the one or more processors and having stored therein processor-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: identify a set of the tuners that are idle, wherein being idle corresponds to not being used to receive any television channel data for presentation or recording; output for presentation an electronic programming guide that indicates programming; select one or more television channels for preparation, wherein the one or more television channels are selected based at least in part on one or more navigation operations received by the electronic programming guide, and wherein one or more television channels are selected prior to receiving a user input selecting a television channel of the one or more television channels for presentation; and prepare each of the selected one or more television channels for presentation by tuning each of the identified set of idle tuners to the selected one or more television channels, prior to receiving the user input selecting the television channel of the one or more television channels for presentation; characterized in that the instructions further cause the one or more processor to: following passage of a particular time period after receiving user input selecting a particular television channel for presentation, release each of the other identified set of tuners from preparing the selected one or more television channels for presentation. a plurality of tuners; one or more processors; and a memory communicatively coupled with and readable by the one or more processors and having stored therein processor-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: identify a set of the tuners that are idle, wherein being idle corresponds to not being used to receive any television channel data for presentation or recording; output for presentation an electronic programming guide that indicates programming; select one or more television channels for preparation, wherein the one or more television channels are selected based at least in part on one or more navigation operations received by the electronic programming guide, and wherein one or more television channels are selected prior to receiving a user input selecting a television channel of the one or more television channels for presentation; and prepare each of the selected one or more television channels for presentation by tuning each of the identified set of idle tuners to the selected one or more television channels, prior to receiving the user input selecting the television channel of the one or more television channels for presentation; characterized in that the instructions further cause the one or more processor to: following passage of a particular time period after receiving user input selecting a particular television channel for presentation, release each of the other identified set of tuners from preparing the selected one or more television channels for presentation. identify a set of the tuners that are idle, wherein being idle corresponds to not being used to receive any television channel data for presentation or recording; output for presentation an electronic programming guide that indicates programming; select one or more television channels for preparation, wherein the one or more television channels are selected based at least in part on one or more navigation operations received by the electronic programming guide, and wherein one or more television channels are selected prior to receiving a user input selecting a television channel of the one or more television channels for presentation; and prepare each of the selected one or more television channels for presentation by tuning each of the identified set of idle tuners to the selected one or more television channels, prior to receiving the user input selecting the television channel of the one or more television channels for presentation; characterized in that the instructions further cause the one or more processor to: following passage of a particular time period after receiving user input selecting a particular television channel for presentation, release each of the other identified set of tuners from preparing the selected one or more television channels for presentation.