Digital television system and method of obtaining datacast information transmitted by a plurality of digital broadcast signals

摘要

A client-side intelligent controller device in a digital system (e.g., a televisionsystem) and method of same for obtaining datacast information transmitted by a plurality of digital broadcast signals. The intelligent device, in one embodiment, is a set-top-box, but could be any intelligent device or computer system. A tuner coupled to the intelligent controller device automatically accesses a digital broadcast signal when the tuner is off-line (e.g., the tuner is not being used to receive a particular broadcast channel). The tuner receives datacast information from the digital broadcast signal, the datacast information containing the program information for the broadcast channel associated with the digital broadcast signal. These steps are repeated for each of the plurality of digital broadcast signals. The program information from the plurality of digital broadcast signals is compiled and stored in a memory unit of the digital television system. The program information for a plurality of broadcast channels is thereby available to be displayed to a viewer of the digital television system. In one embodiment, a second tuner is used to receive a particular digital broadcast signal for display to the viewer on the digital television system while the method of above is performed in the background. Thus, program information for a plurality of broadcast channels is automatically retrieved from each of the plurality of digital broadcast signals either off-line or in the background and made available to the viewer.