Patent ID: 7684681

Claim:
A receiver for receiving signals representative of television programmes in a plurality of channels, the receiver comprising: a first tuner for receiving signals in a first channel; a first data buffer for buffering data representative of signals received by the first tuner; a second tuner for simultaneously receiving signals in a second channel; a second data buffer for buffering data representative of signals received by the second tuner; a recorder for recording data representative of signals in the first and the second channel received simultaneously by the first tuner and the second tuner; a third data buffer for buffering data from the recorder representative of television pictures to be displayed on a television screen; and a processor for selectively causing data to be transferred from the first data buffer or the second data buffer to the recorder for recording the transferred data and to transfer data from the recorder to the third data buffer; wherein the first data buffer is arranged to receive signals from the first tuner representative of data at a first data rate, the second data buffer is arranged to receive signals from the second tuner representative of data at a second data rate, and the rate at which data is transferred selectively from the first data buffer or the second data buffer to the recorder is equal to or higher than the first and second data rates combined; whereby the recorder is operable successively to record data buffered in the first and the second data buffer, and to transfer data from the recorder to the third data buffer, the successively stored and transferred data being representative of signals simultaneously received by the first and the second tuners and output from the third data buffer, respectively.