Patent ID: 8707368

Claim:
A digital television receiver comprising: a tuner to receive a digital broadcasting signal including program and system information protocol (PSIP) data including a virtual channel table (VCT) and a master guide table (MGT), the VCT defining a virtual channel and including a program number field and a service location descriptor, and the VCT being segmented into one or more sections, wherein a maximum number of one or more sections being 256 and each section contains information for one or more virtual channels but information for one virtual channel is not segmented and put into two or more sections, and wherein each section includes a section header and a section body and the section body includes a predefined data field which is set to zero for an inactive channel, wherein the inactive channel is a channel that is not presently carrying a broadcast program; however, the same inactive channel is scheduled to carry a broadcast program at a predetermined later time from a broadcasting station without local viewer interaction; and a display processor to process display of the corresponding virtual channel, wherein when the virtual channel is currently inactive, the receiver is capable of skipping over the virtual channel while a user is surfing.