Television – Receiver circuitry – Tuning
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-12
2002-11-26
Miller, John (Department: 2614)
Television
Receiver circuitry
Tuning
C348S732000, C348S901000, C348S465000, C348S554000, C348S555000, C348S558000, C725S049000, C725S139000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06486925
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a TV, and more particularly, to a channel managing apparatus and method for a digital/analog TV.
2. Background of the Related Art
Generally, an analog TV has poor picture quality in case of a large size, and has a limited channel structure including 80 channel bands of very high frequency and ultra high frequency. For these reasons, the analog TV has a limitation as a unidirectional medium.
To solve this problem of the analog TV, there is provided a digital TV which provides clear picture quality by two times as compared with the analog TV. Moreover, the digital TV can use all the channel regions which were not previously available because there is no interference between adjacent channels.
However, to convert the current analog broadcasting to the digital broadcasting, it is necessary to convert all of broadcasting apparatuses and a TV receiver This requires much time and thus it is probably that there co-exist the analog broadcasting and the digital broadcasting for a certain time period.
It is therefore expected that there will be a trend to a digital/analog TV which is capable of receiving both analog signals and digital signals at the same time, until the digital broadcasting system is completely established. A system which receives different broadcasting systems such as the digital/analog TV and a satellite broadcasting TV is required to overcome various drawbacks which may obstruct broadcasting quality.
A channel managing apparatus and method for a related art digital/analog TV will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1
is a block diagram illustrating a channel managing apparatus for a related art digital/analog TV, and
FIG. 2
is a flow chart illustrating a channel managing method for a related art digital/analog TV.
As shown in
FIG. 1
, the related art digital/analog TV includes a satellite tuner
1
for selectively receiving a certain frequency band among satellite broadcasting signals, a demultiplexer
2
for demultiplexing broadcasting signals received by the satellite broadcasting tuner
1
to image signal, voice signal and various control signals, an A/V decoder
3
for decoding voice signals and image signals output from the demultiplexer
2
, an NTSC encoder
4
for encoding a digital image signal output from the A/V decoder
3
to an NTSC signal and outputting a luminous signal Y and a color signal C to be displayed on a TV or a monitor, a ground wave tuner
5
for selectively receiving a certain frequency band among analog ground wave broadcasting signals, an outer input portion
6
for inputting outer signals such as a VTR signal or audio signal, a switching portion
7
for selecting one of the output of the ground wave tuner
5
and the output of the outer input portion
6
, a VCD processor
8
for processing a series of signals to display the output of the switching portion
7
on a screen, a display portion
9
for displaying the output of the VCD processor
8
on the screen, a controller
10
for outputting a control signal to the switching portion
7
to tune into a channel selected by a user, and a memory
11
for storing channel information of all the broadcasting signals.
The satellite broadcasting tuner
1
and the ground wave tuner
5
receive the satellite broadcasting or the analog ground wave broadcasting to select a desired channel.
The demultiplexer
2
outputs a corresponding signal only by a control signal of the channel selected by the user among signals output from the satellite broadcasting tuner
1
. The A/V decoder
3
recovers and outputs image and voice signals among signals selectively output from the demultiplexer
2
.
The NTSC encoder
4
encodes the digital image signal to an NTSC signal and then outputs the luminous signal Y and the color signal C to be displayed on a TV or monitor
The switching portion
7
selectively outputs one of the outputs of the NTSC encoder
4
, the ground wave tuner
5
, and the outer input portion
6
in response to the control signal of the controller
10
.
The VCD processor
8
processes image and deflection by inputting signals output from the switching portion
7
, and the display portion
9
displays signals processed by the VCD processor
8
on the screen.
A channel managing method for the aforementioned digital/analog TV will be described with reference to FIG.
2
.
First, an input mode is selected by key input operation of the user (S
1
). Subsequently, it is determined whether or not outer apparatuses have been selected (S
2
). As a result, if the outer apparatuses have been selected, an outer input mode is switched (S
3
). While, if the outer apparatuses have not been selected, it is determined whether or not the ground wave broadcasting mode has been selected (S
4
). If the ground wave broadcasting mode has been selected, the channel selected by the user is tuned (S
5
). If the ground wave broadcasting mode has not been selected, the satellite broadcasting mode is switched (S
6
). A channel is selected by manipulating a number key or a channel up/down key so that the selected channel is tuned (S
7
).
However, the related art digital/analog TV has a problem that causes the user inconvenience because a desired channel should be tuned after determining a type of broadcasting.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a channel managing apparatus and method for a digital/analog TV that substantially obviate one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a channel managing apparatus and method for a digital/analog TV in which if a user selects a desired channel, a type of broadcasting corresponding to the channel selected by the user is automatically switched to tune the channel.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, a channel managing apparatus for a digital/analog TV according to the present invention includes a memory for storing tabled channel information of all the broadcasting signals including digital and analog broadcasting signals, a controller for extracting channel information corresponding to a channel selected by a user if the user selects the channel and for outputting a control signal to tune the corresponding channel, a first switching portion for selecting one of outputs of a digital broadcasting receiver and an analog broadcasting receiver, and a signal processing and display portion for processing and displaying output signals of the first switching portion.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5661526 (1997-08-01), Hamamoto et al.
patent: 5900912 (1999-05-01), Nishigaki et al.
patent: 5956097 (1999-09-01), Nguyen et al.
patent: 5982411 (1999-11-01), Eyer et al.
patent: 6031580 (2000-02-01), Sim
patent: 6133910 (2000-10-01), Stinebruner
Fleshner & Kim LLP
LG Electronics Inc.
Miller John
Natnael Paulos
LandOfFree
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