Tuner selection in digital broadcasting receiver having multiple tuners
Contents
1. In addition the digital broadcasting receiver has a channel search function which should be performed before the first use of the digital broadcasting receiver and is performed periodically to update channel data in use FIG 1 is a flowchart showing how a digital broadcasting receiver having two tuners typically searches for channels Referring to FIG 1 in step 110 an antenna of a satellite connected to the digital broadcasting receiver is physically configured to the digital broadcasting receiver and this pro cess is called antenna connection state setup After setting the antenna connection state in step 120 antenna setting is performed to configure satellite data LNB data on off of 22 KHz tone and a value of Diseqc switch which are antenna setting conditions The Diseqc switch is a device for automatically selecting an antenna when there are plural antennas and can select up to four 4 antennas After setting the antenna in step 130 a tuner connected to the antenna is selected and this is referred to as tuner selec tion After the antenna setting and before the tuner selection or after the tuner selection transponder data is inputted in step 140 for channel search Conventionally the user had to manually select the tuner However since it is not easy for ordinary users to understand the input condition for tuner selection most users had to rely on the technician to setup the digital broadca2. 2012 Sheet 4 of 10 US 8 228 442 B2 FIG 4 SATELLITE 1 U S Patent Jul 24 2012 Sheet 5 of 10 US 8 228 442 B2 E13 5 FIRST TUNER SECOND TUNER SIGNAL LINE SINGLE TUNER TYPE U S Patent Jul 24 2012 Sheet 6 of 10 US 8 228 442 B2 FIG 6 FIRST TUNER SECOND TUNER SIGNAL LINE LOOP THROUGH U S Patent Jul 24 2012 Sheet 7 of 10 US 8 228 442 B2 mic FIRST TUNER SECOND TUNER SIGNAL LINET SEPARATE TYPE US 8 228 442 B2 Sheet 8 of 10 Jul 24 2012 U S Patent AV 1dS IG LNN 98 39v3831N d 56 51 0 9 0 L L g3T11081NOO PA 8 7914 015 VIVO TSNNVHO 015 VIVO d30NOdSNVd1 U S Patent Jul 24 2012 Sheet 9 of 10 US 8 228 442 B2 AUTO CHANNEL SETUP MODE 210 TUNING EACH TUNER WITH TRANSPONDER DATA OF SATELLITE TO BE SEARCHED CHECKING TUNING COMPLETION RATES AT EACH TUNER 230 no 5 TUNING COMPLETION RATES AT EAGH TUNER ARE DIFFERENT 240 YES NO SELECTING A TUNER HAVING HIGHEST TUNING COMPLETION RATE 280 SELECTING A TUNER HAVING HIGHER PRIORITY DISPLAYING UI SCREEN FOR SELECTING TUNER SELECTING TUNER U S Patent Jul 24 2012 Sheet 10 of 10 US 8 228 442 B2 FIG 10 MANUAL CHANNEL MODE 310 SIMULTANEOUSLY TUNIN
3. the plural channels that are set up as described above Here the transponder which is referred to as a channel group is a satellite relay that receives a radio wave trans mitted from a broadcasting station on the ground and then amplifies and retransmits the radio wave back to the ground Satellite broadcasting data is managed separately in the digital broadcasting receiver For example a sub menu linked with satellite 1 among the plural satellites consists of chan nels CH111 CH11L that belong to satellite 1 as shown in 5 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 FIG 2 ortransponders 1 M included in satellite 1 as shown in FIG 3 Also a sub menu of TP 1 consists of chan nels CH111 CH11L included in TP 1 as shown in FIG 4 FIG 5 to FIG 7 show the antenna connection state of the digital broadcasting receiver having two tuners Referring to FIG 5 to FIG 7 the antenna connection state can be one of a single tuner type loop through type and separate type The single tuner type connects the antenna to one tuner and if the digital broadcasting receiver has two tuners the antenna is connected to one of the first tuner or the second tuner FIG 5 In the loop through type two tuners share an LNB signal inputted via one signal line FIG 6 and in the separate type the LNB signals coming from two signal lines are tuned by two tuners independently FIG 7 Hereinafter some emb
4. to the input from the user the digital broadcasting receiver selects the tuner connected to the satellite to be searched in step 290 Step 220 to step 290 are repeated as many times as the number of antennas connected to the digital broadcasting receiver to select the tuners for receiving signals from each satellite Inaddition the method of selecting a tuner according to the embodiment is more effective with the separate type of antenna connection In the single tuner type or loop through type one signal line is connected so it may be not needed to select the tuner However in case each antenna connected to a different satellite is connected to each tuner in the separate type the signal lines coming into each tuner are different so it is needed to select the tuner to determine from which satellite the signal comes FIG 10 is a flowchart of selecting a tuner in the digital broadcasting receiver according to another embodiment of the present invention Referring to FIG 10 in step 310 when a tuner selection request is received or inputted by selecting a manual tuner selection mode key the digital broadcasting receiver in step 320 makes each tuner simultaneously perform the tunings with one of the transponder data frequency symbol rate FEC polarization etc of the satellite to be searched and in step 330 determines the completion of tuning If only one of the two tuners completes tuning the digital broadcasting receiver search
5. G EACH TUNER WITH 390 TRANSPONDER DATA OF SATELLITE TO BE SEARCHED SIMULTANEOUS TUNING COMPLETE 330 YES NO 340 350 SAME SIGNALS YES NO 370 SELECTING A TUNER DISPLAYING UI SCREEN HAVING HIGHER PRIORITY FOR SELECTING TUNER 380 SELECTING TUNER SELECTING A TUNER COMPLETING TUNING US 8 228 442 B2 1 TUNER SELECTION IN DIGITAL BROADCASTING RECEIVER HAVING MULTIPLE TUNERS CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Appli cation No 10 2006 0113200 filed on Nov 16 2006 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital broadcasting receiver particularly to a digital broadcasting receiver having multiple tuners and a method of selecting a tuner in the digital broadcasting receiver 2 Description of the Related Technology Generally a digital broadcasting receiver is equipped with a PVR Personal Video Recorder function for recording a digital broadcasting program on a recording medium such as an HDD Hard Disc Drive and can be connected to a satellite broadcasting antenna and a television This digital broadcast ing receiver sometimes has multiple tuners so as to allow a user to watch one channel in a PIP Picture in Picture mode or record one channel while watching another channel
6. US008228442B2 az United States Patent 10 Patent No US 8 228 442 B2 Yi 45 Date of Patent Jul 24 2012 54 TUNER SELECTION IN DIGITAL 7 929 062 B2 4 2011 OW serere 348 732 BROADCASTING RECEIVER HAVING 2006 0035610 1 2 2006 Potrebic 455 178 1 MULTIPLE TUNERS 2006 0150219 Al 7 2006 Lee et al FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 75 Inventor Ho Yi Seongnam si KR EP 0 669 725 6 1994 73 Assignee HUMAX Co Ltd Gyeonggi Do KR EP 0 967 746 12 1999 EP 0 967 749 12 1999 Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this EP 1 355 496 10 2003 patent is extended or adjusted under 35 JE 2004 064478 2 2004 U S C 154 b by 1317 days OTHER PUBLICATIONS 21 Appl No 11 872 282 European Search Report dated Feb 9 2009 22 Filed Oct 15 2007 European Search Report dated Dec 19 2008 oi European Search Report dated Oct 21 2011 65 Prior Publication Data cited by examiner US 2008 0117335 A1 May 22 2008 30 Foreign Application Priority Data Primary Examiner Kristine Kincaid tenes Wick 102360616133500 Assistant Examiner Gigi L Dubasky SUIS 74 Attorney Agent or Firm KED amp Associates LLP 51 Int CI H04N 5 50 2006 01 HOAN 7 20 2006 01 67 ABSTRACT G06F 3 00 2006 01 A digital broadcasting receiver having multiple tuners and a 52 US Cl mb 348 131 348 732 725 38 725 63 method of selecting a tuner in the digital broadcasting 58 Field of Classificat
7. ated tuning completion rate of each tuner wherein selecting a tuner includes selecting US 8 228 442 B2 7 a tuner with a highest tuning completion rate from among the multiple tuners and wherein the tuning completion rate is a total sum of a number of completions for the tuner over all transpon ders 2 The method of claim 1 wherein when two or more tuners have the same highest tuning completion rate the selecting comprises determining whether or not a signal outputted from each of the tuners is identical to each other and when the signal output from each of the tuners is identical to each other selecting a tuner having a higher predeter mined priority 3 The method of claim 2 wherein when the signal output from each of the tuners is not identical to each other a tuner is selected to correspond to an input signal for tuner selection 4 The method of claim 2 wherein identicalness of the signal outputted from each of the tuners is determined by interpreting PSI SI data from a transport stream of a transpon der 5 The method of claim 1 wherein tuning each tuner includes tuning each tuner by use of all of the transponder data corresponding to the satellite to be searched 6 The method of claim 1 wherein the tuning the calcu lating and the selecting are repeated as many times as a number of antennas connected to the digital broadcasting receiver 7 The method of claim 1 wherein an antenna connection state of t
8. e second tuner 13 Assuming that the first tuner completes 8 times and the second tuner completes 3 times after tuning to TP 1 to TP 10 successively the tuning completion rates of each tuner are calculated to be 80 and 30 respectively and since the first tuner s completion rate is higher than the sec ond tuner s the digital broadcasting receiver determines that the satellite to be searched is connected to the first tuner 11 Therefore the user does not need to manually input the transponder data frequency symbol rate FEC value and polarization etc or to select tuner any more If both tuners have same tuning completion rates PSI data as defined in ISO IEC 13181 1 or SI data as defined in EN 300 468 from transport stream is analyzed to determine whether both signals are identical in step 260 0 20 25 30 40 45 65 6 the PSI program specific information which is program selection data on a program control table being transmitted by use of MPEG 2 transport stream is defined in ISO IEC 13818 1 and the SI is defined in ETSI EN 300 468 If it is determined that the signals in both tuners are iden tical the tuner having higher predetermined priority is selected at step 270 If it is determined however that the signals in both tuners are not identical the user interface 50 displays a UI screen for the user to select the tuner connected to the satellite to be searched in step 280 According
9. embodiment of the present invention will be described FIG 9 is a flowchart of selecting a tuner in the digital broadcasting receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention Referring to FIG 9 in step 210 when an auto tuner selec tion request is received or inputted by selecting an auto chan nel setup mode key the digital broadcasting receiver in step 220 searches one of the transponder list of one of the satellites being connected to the digital broadcasting receiver and tunes the first tuner 10 and the second tuner 13 by succes sively using all transponder data such as frequency symbol rate FEC value and polarization It is assumed that the list of satellites connected to the digital broadcasting receiver is already inputted in the digital broadcasting receiver prior to selecting the tuner and the transponder list of the satellites and each of the transponder data are also already stored in the transponder data storage 30 When tuning on all of the transponder data is complete the digital broadcasting receiver determines whether each tuner is successfully tuned for each transponder and collects the results of the determination to calculate a tuning completion rate in step 230 The tuning completion rate can be for example the total sum of the number of completion for the tuner over all transponders The reason why the tuning is performed by use of all of the transponder data to find the tuner connected to the satel
10. es a channel on the complete tuner in step 340 However if all tuners complete the tuning the controller 20 analyzes THE PSI data as defined in ISO IEC 13181 1 or the SI data as defined in EN 300 468 from a transport stream to determine whether both signals are identical in step 350 If it is determined that the signals in both tuners iden tical in step 360 the tuner having a higher predetermined priority is selected In this case it is better for the user not to manually set the tuner on a menu If it is determined however that the signals in both tuners are not identical in step 370 the digital broadcasting receiver displays a user interface screen on a display device e g LCD for the user to select one out of the two tuners After this in step 380 the tuner is selected according to the input signal from an input device The present invention is not intended to limit to the afore mentioned embodiments and it is also possible for those who skilled in the art to make various modifications changes and additions within the mete and scope of the present invention What is claimed is 1 A method of selecting a tuner in a digital broadcasting receiver having multiple tuners comprising tuning each tuner with at least one of transponder data corresponding to a satellite to be searched calculating a tuning completion rate of each tuner and selecting a tuner to search channels of the satellite by referencing the calcul
11. from the other For instance the first element can be named the second element and vice versa without departing the scope of claims of the present inven tion The term and or shall include the combination of a plurality of listed items or any ofthe plurality of listed items When one element is described as being connected or accessed to another element it shall be construed as being connected or accessed to the other element directly but also as possibly having another element in between On the other hand if one element is described as being directly con nected or directly accessed to another element it shall be construed that there is no other element in between The terms used in the description are intended to describe certain embodiments only and shall by no means restrict the present invention Unless clearly used otherwise expressions in the singular number include a plural meaning In the present description an expression such as comprising or consisting of is intended to designate a characteristic a number a step an operation an element a part or combina tions thereof and shall not be construed to preclude any presence or possibility of one or more other characteristics numbers steps operations elements parts or combinations thereof Unless otherwise defined all terms including technical terms and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as how they are generally unde
12. he digital broadcasting receiver is a separate type 8 8 The method of claim 1 wherein the transponder data is pre stored in the digital broadcasting receiver 9 A digital broadcasting receiver comprising a plurality of tuners a transponder data storage to store transponder data of a satellite to be searched and a controller to select one tuner to search a channel of the satellite from the plurality of tuners by referencing tun ing completion rates resulted from tuning the plurality of tuners by use of the transponder data wherein the controller selects a tuner having a highest tuning completion rate and wherein the tuning completion rate is a total sum of a number of completions for the tuner over all transpon ders 10 The digital broadcasting receiver of claim 9 wherein when two or more tuners have the same highest tuning completion rate the controller determines whether or not output signals from both tuners are identical and the controller selects a tuner having a predetermined higher priority when the output signals from both tuners are identical and selects a tuner corresponding to an input signal when the output signals from both tuners are not identical 11 The digital broadcasting receiver of claim 9 further comprising a channel data storage to store channel data of a searched channel when the channel search by the selected tuner is stopped or completed
13. ion Search 348 731 732 An embodiment of the present invention attempts to fication file f 1 hhi 725 38 63 tune each tuner with transponder data of a satellite being See application file for complete search history connected to a digital broadcasting receiver having multiple tuners and selects one tuner to search channels according to 56 References Cited 5 the result of tuning The transponder input procedure and the U S PATENT DOCUMENTS following tuner selection procedure can be omitted such that 5757441 A 5 1998 Lee et al the tuner selection procedure can be simplified 6 133 910 A 10 2000 Stinebruner 6 519 011 Bl 2 2003 Shendar 6 980 529 B1 12 2005 Arsenault 370 316 11 Claims 10 Drawing Sheets AUTO CHANNEL SETUP MODE 210 TUNING EACH TUNER WITH TRANSPONDER DATA OF SATELLITE SEARCHED SELECTING A TUNER HAVING HIGHEST TUNING COMPLETION RATE 280 SELECTING A TUNER HAVING HIGHER PRIORITY DISPLAYING UI SCREEN FOR SELECTING TUNER U S Patent Jul 24 2012 Sheet 1 of 10 US 8 228 442 B2 FIG 1 PRIOR ART START SET ANTENNA CONNECTION STATE 110 SET ANTENNA 120 SELECT TUNER 130 SEARCH CHANNEL 140 ENO U S Patent Jul 24 2012 Sheet 2 of 10 US 8 228 442 B2 m 2 SATELLITE U S Patent Jul 24 2012 Sheet 3 of 10 US 8 228 442 B2 FIG 3 SATELLITE 1 TP 1 IPM U S Patent Jul 24
14. lite to be searched is because it may not be possible to determine through which tuner the signal comes in based on the comple tion of tuning by use of one of the transponder data only For example although there are signals coming into each tuner from different satellites if the number of TP that the satellite has increases it may happen that tuning data frequency symbol rate FEC polarization etc of each satellite is over lapped within the general input frequency range 950 2150 MHz Namely if each tuner performs the tuning with similar transponder data the digital broadcasting receiver cannot determine which tuner is connected to the satellite to be searched According to the embodiment however even if there is an unknown signal input the wrong search due to the aforementioned reason can be prevented In step 240 the digital broadcasting receiver compares the tuning completion rates of each tuner If the tuning comple tion rates of each tuner are different from each other it is determined that the tuner of a higher tuning completion rate is connected to the satellite to be searched and the tuner is selected in step 250 For example in a digital broadcasting receiver having two tuners assuming that there are 1 to 10 transponders TP 1 TP2 TP 10 for the satellite and both tuners are tuned to the data of TP 1 concurrently the digital broadcasting receiver recognizes the tuning completion of both the first tuner 11 and th
15. odiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings In describing the present invention identical or corresponding elements will be given the same reference numerals regardless of the figure number FIG 8 is a block diagram ofa digital broadcasting receiver having two tuners according to an embodiment of the present invention As shown in FIG 8 the digital broadcasting receiver according to this embodiment includes a first tuner 11 a second tuner 13 a controller 20 a transponder data storage 30 a channel data storage 40 and a user interface 50 Each of the first tuner 11 and the second tuner 13 receives a converted signal from an LNB Low Noise Block down converter which converts high frequency signals inputted from the antenna and extracts video signals and audio signals from the converted signals for transmission to a TV or another device The LNB converts a high frequency of 4 12 GHz trans mitted from a satellite into an intermediate frequency of 1 GHz and is located in the center of an antenna The controller 20 operates on receiving a tuner selection request by the user or on a predetermined period to recognize the transponder list 1 the frequency list to be searched by a tuner in charge obtains channel data by providing each transponder data in the recognized transponder list to the tuner in charge and stores it on the channel data storage 30 In addition the controller 20 entirely con
16. roadcasting receiver having two tuners in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention FIG 9 is a flowchart of selecting a tuner in a digital broad casting receiver in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention and FIG 10 is a flowchart of selecting a tuner in a digital broadcasting receiver in accordance with another embodi ment of the present invention DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN INVENTIVE EMBODIMENTS As described above the embodiment of present invention can search channels by automated input step of transponder data and selecting step of tuner thereof Also another embodiment of present invention can simplify the tuner selec tion procedure and save tuner selection time by allowing user s manual tuner selection only when output signals of each tuner are different Since there can be a variety of permutations and embodi ments of the present invention certain embodiments will be illustrated and described with reference to the accompanying US 8 228 442 B2 3 drawings This however is by no means to restrict the present invention to certain embodiments and shall be construed as including all permutations equivalents and substitutes cov ered by the spirit and scope of the present invention Terms such as first and second can be used in describ ing various elements but the above elements shall not be restricted to the above terms The above terms are used only to distinguish one element
17. rstood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains Any term that is defined in a general dictionary shall be construed to have the same meaning in the context of the relevant art and unless otherwise defined explicitly shall not be interpreted to have an idealistic or excessively formalistic meaning Hereinafter for the convenience of description an example of having two tuners a first tuner and a second tuner will be mainly described It shall be apparent however that the present invention can be embodied in the same or similar manner in a case of having three or more tuners In addition before describing some embodiments of the present invention a menu list in a satellite connected to a digital broadcasting receiver and an antenna connection state will be described in detail FIG 2 to FIG 4 show a menu list ina satellite connected to the digital broadcasting receiver Referring to FIG 2 to FIG 4 each satellite has more than one transponder TP data Several tens of transponders are installed in each satellite delivering digital satellite broadcast ing signals and this list of transponders is referred to as transponder list Also although there is no limit on the num ber several to several tens of channels are set up in each transponder within the range of data transmission rate of signal being transmitted The digital broadcasting receiver can receive various satellite broadcasting signals through
18. s of output signals from the tuners Yet another aspect of the present invention features a digi tal broadcasting receiver which includes a plurality of tun ers a transponder data storage storing at least one of tran sponder data of a satellite to be searched and a controller selecting one tuner to search a channel ofthe satellite from the plurality of tuners in accordance with a plurality of tuning completion rates being produced by tuning the plurality of tuners with the transponder data Still another aspect of the present invention features a digital broadcasting receiver which includes a plurality of tuners a controller resulted from attempting to tune each tuner with transponder data corresponding to a satellite to be searched selecting one tuner to search a channel if only one tuner completes tuning or selecting one tuner from the plu rality of tuners according the identicalness of output signals ofthe tuners iftwo or more tuners complete tuning and a user interface displaying a UI User Interface screen to receive an input signal BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 is a flowchart showing a typical channel search procedure in a digital broadcasting receiver having multiple tuners FIGS 2 to 4 show a menu list in a satellite connected to a digital broadcasting receiver FIGS 5 to 7 show the antenna connection state of a digital broadcasting receiver having two tuners FIG 8 is a block diagram ofa digital b
19. sting receiver Not only is this costly and time consuming but also this procedure had to be repeated every time a new channel is added SUMMARY OF CERTAIN INVENTIVE ASPECTS The present invention provides a digital broadcasting receiver and a method of selecting a tuner that make a tuning by use of transponder data in a transponder list corresponding to a satellite connected to the digital broadcasting receiver and select a tuner in accordance with the tuning result thereby automating or simplifying the tuner selection 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 An aspect of the present invention features a method of selecting a tuner in a digital broadcasting receiver having multiple tuners In the method each tuner is tuned with at least one oftransponder data corresponding to a satellite to be searched tuning completion rates of each tuner are produced and a tuner to search channels of the satellite is selected to correspond to the tuning completion rates Another aspect of the present invention features a method of selecting a tuner in a digital broadcasting receiver having multiple tuners If only one tuner completes tuning as a result of attempting to tune each tuner with at least one of transpon der data corresponding to a satellite to be searched channels ofthe satellite are searched by the tuner If two or more tuners complete tuning one tuner is selected to search the channel according to the identicalnes
20. trols the operation of the digital broadcasting receiver by determining whether or not each tuner completes tuning and whether or not output signals from each tuner are the same by decoding PSI SI data from the transport stream of the transponder The channel data storage 30 stores channel data searched by the tuner For example the channel data storage 30 may be embodied by a memory device such as a RAM flash memory or hard disc drive The transponder data storage 40 stores data of a satellite connected to the digital broadcasting receiver and transpon der data of the satellite The transponder data includes fre quencies symbol rates FEC values and polarization of each transponder and the transponder list and transponder data can be pre stored in the digital broadcasting receiver for example by referencing a website in which updated satellite data can be found The user interface 50 provides an interface to the user and includes for example a display e g an LCD 55 and an input device e g a button a switch etc 53 In case it is not possible to select a tuner automatically the user interface 50 displays a UI User Interface screen to allow the user to select any one of the tuners to the satellite to be searched and receives input of a selection signal for the designated tuner US 8 228 442 B2 5 Hereinafter the procedure of selecting a tuner by the digital broadcasting receiver having two tuners according to an
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