Receivers for television signals
A Hard Disk Recorder (HDR) ( 3 ) is arranged to receive signals signals defining television programmes and television programme schedule data. The HDR receives updated programme schedule data substantially constantly in a dedicated programme schedule data channel. The HDR is arranged to output the programme schedule data for display on a television screen ( 2 ). The HDR comprises a hard disk ( 16 ) for recording received television programmes. A remote control ( 28 ) is provided to select television programmes to be recorded from the displayed programme schedule. Furthermore, the HDR is arranged to receive additional programme schedule information included in each of the received television channels which information is used to control the hard disk to record pre-programmed television programmes according to schedule. The hard disk is operable to record simultaneously two different television programmes received in different channels. Also, the HDR is operable to replay a currently broadcast programme offset in time. The time offset can be overcome by playing back the part of the programme inside the time offset at an increased frame rate. Furthermore, the HDR is arranged to receive transition signals indicating transitions between parts of programmes, such as transitions between advertisements and the “actual” programmes. The HDR is operable to use these transition signals, for example, to skip between transitions in previously recorded programmes replayed from the hard disk.
1. 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.
2. The receiver of claim 1 , wherein the third data buffer is arranged to output signals representative of data at a third data rate, and the rate at which data is transferred selectively from the recorder to the third buffer is equal to or higher than the first, second and third data rates combined.
3. The receiver of claim 2 , wherein 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, second and third data rates combined.
4. The receiver of claim 1 , wherein the recorder comprises a hard disk.
5. The receiver of claim 1 , wherein the recorder comprises an optical storage medium.