Receivers for television signals
A television signals receiver for receives and stores television signals encoded at a variable data rate. Time information is generated based on the time of receipt of the signals that defines the duration of the television signals when output in decompressed form at a substantially constant data rate. The received signals are then written to a file on a hard disk 13 in received order together with the time information. The time information of signals stored in the file is monitored and old signals are deleted from the file such that the file stores signals corresponding to a predetermined period of time.
1. A method of storing data comprising:
storing a data stream as a data file in a memory such that the data file does not exceed a specified size by deleting the oldest stored data from the data file whilst storing new data at the end of the data file,
wherein the oldest data is deleted by moving the start of the data file to later in the stored data stream,
wherein the memory is formatted as plural storage sectors and the data file occupies a plurality of the storage sectors, and
wherein the new data is stored in any available sector of said plural storage sectors that was not allocated to the oldest data being deleted from the data file.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data file occupies a series of the storage sectors, and wherein the start of the data file is identified as at a particular storage sector.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the start of the data file is moved by identifying another particular storage sector later in the series of storage sectors such that the preceding storage sectors in the series are removed from the data file.
4. A method of recording data representing a programme for subsequent playback of the programme, the method comprising:
storing one set of received data for one programme in a store in accordance with the method of claim 1 while simultaneously outputting the same data for display of the programme represented thereby; and
simultaneously recording another set of received data for another programme in the store.
5. A non-transitory computer program product arranged to perform the method of claim 1 when executed by a processor.
6. An apparatus for storing data, comprising:
means for storing a data stream as a data file in a memory; and
a file manager for managing the size of the data file such that it does not exceed a specified size by deleting the oldest data stored in the data file whilst new data is stored at the end of the data file,
wherein the file manager deletes the old data by moving the start of the data file to later in the stored data stream,
wherein the memory is formatted as plural storage sectors and the data file occupies a plurality of the storage sectors, and
wherein the apparatus is arranged to allocate the new data is stored in any available sector of said plural storage sectors that was not allocated to the oldest data being deleted from the data file.
7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the data file occupies a series of the storage sectors, and wherein the file manager identifies the start of the data file as at a particular storage sector.
8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the file manager moves the start of the data file by identifying another particular storage sector later in the series of storage sectors such that the preceding storage sectors in the series are removed from the data file.
9. An apparatus for recording data representing a programme for subsequent playback of the programme, the apparatus comprising:
means for storing one set of received data for one programme in a store by the apparatus of claim 6 while simultaneously outputting the same data for display of the programme represented thereby; and
means for recording another set of received data for another programme in the store.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data is television program data, said storing a data stream as a data file in a memory comprises storing a television program data stream as a review buffer in the data file, and wherein the method further comprises converting the data file to a television program recording for subsequent playback by stopping the deletion of the oldest data while continuing to store the new data at the end of the data file.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the data file is converted to a television program recording in response to a user selection.
12. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the data is television program data and the apparatus is further arranged to convert the data file to a television program recording for subsequent playback by stopping the deletion of the oldest data while continuing to store the new data at the end of the data file.
13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the data file is converted to a television program recording in response to a user selection.