Patent ID: 8190797

Claim:
A method of automatically managing digital and/or analog sources available as inputs to an audio/video reader system ( 10 ), the system being suitable for reading a current source selected from said plurality of available sources, the method being characterized by the steps consisting in: a) associating a source identifier and a state flag to each of the available sources ( 18 , 20 , 22 , 26 ), the state flag being activatable or deactivatable as a result of an action taken by a user on a source; b) defining a register containing an identifier of the current source being read by the system; c) defining a multiple-level stack ( 44 ) suitable for storing an ordered list of n source identifiers, with n≧0, the identifiers being associated with sources other than the current source, which other sources are on standby, waiting to be read; d) on activation of a new source from amongst the available sources other than the current source: replacing the content of the register with the identifier of said new source so as to substitute the new source as the current source so as to enable it to be read by the system; and concurrently, adding the identifier of the current source to the stack; execution of this step being controlled in automatic manner by the system, without the user taking action on the system.