Patent ID: 8422867

Claim:
A digital broadcast media recording apparatus comprising: a recording unit capable of recording a broadcast digital signal representing programs; and a control unit arranged to control the recording unit, the control unit being arranged to read signaling data represented by a broadcast digital signal which comprises: identifiers that identify programs which are scheduled to be broadcast; and attribute data that identifies at least one attribute of the broadcast digital signal representing the programs which are scheduled to be broadcast, the control unit being arranged automatically and without user intervention to determine if a program which is scheduled to be broadcast has already been recorded based on an automated comparison of an identifier of the program which is scheduled to be broadcast with an identifier of each of the programs which have been rendered, and, if it has been, to automatically and without user intervention decide if the program which is scheduled to be broadcast should be recorded based on a comparison of the read attribute data that identifies attributes of the broadcast digital signal representing the program which is scheduled to be broadcast with the read attribute data that identifies attributes of the recorded digital signal representing the program, and the control unit being arranged automatically and without user intervention to cause the recording unit to record the broadcast digital signal representing the program which is scheduled to be broadcast if it is decided that the program which is scheduled to be broadcast should be recorded.