Patent ID: 7793319

Claim:
A system for navigating through multiple channels of broadcast content to locate channels that are running programs of interest comprising; an input port to receive a broadband source comprising multiple channels of broadcast content; a plurality of auxiliary tuners coupled to the input port to select and demodulate channels of broadcast content and to output baseband information for the channels; a commercial detector coupled to the baseband information of at least one channel, the commercial detector to provide a commercial status signal to indicate whether a commercial segment is running on the at least one channel; a channel buffer to provide a buffered feed of the baseband channel information of the at least one channel; an output port; and a switch to selectively couple the buffered feed of the baseband channel information for the at least one channel to the output port in response to the commercial status signal, wherein if a beginning of the commercial segment is detected by the commercial detector, feed to the channel buffer is interrupted; wherein if any of the commercial segments is inadvertently recorded to the channel buffer, which is indicated by the commercial status signal obtained from scanning the baseband channel information for a predetermined period of time, the buffered feed is rolled back to delete any inadvertently recorded commercial segments; wherein a size of the channel buffer is varied to correspond to an average length of the commercial segments encountered for a particular channel and a particular time slot.