Method for performing channel scan within a multi-channel broadcasting program receiver, and associated multi-channel broadcasting program receiver

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9380251-B2
Application number	US-47792309-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 4, 2009
Priority date	Jun 4, 2009
Publication date	Jun 28, 2016
Grant date	Jun 28, 2016

Abstract

A method for performing channel scan within a multi-channel broadcasting program receiver includes: calculating a plurality of frequency representatives of intermediate frequency (IF) signals of one or more received multi-channel broadcasting program signals within a specific band of a plurality of bands; and locating a video IF signal out of the IF signals according to the frequency representatives in order to determine a frequency of a video carrier corresponding to the specific band, wherein the frequency of the video carrier is utilized as a reference for tuning to an associated channel. An associated multi-channel broadcasting program receiver includes a tuner, a processing module, a memory and a controller. The tuner is arranged to select one of a plurality of channels. In particular, the controller controls channel scan and further utilizes the frequency of the video carrier corresponding to the specific band as the reference for tuning to the associated channel.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for performing blind channel scan within an analog multi-channel broadcasting program receiver, the method comprising:
performing frequency transform on intermediate frequency (IF) signals of one or more received analog multi-channel broadcasting program signals within a specific band of a plurality of bands to obtain frequency transform results as frequency representatives of the IF signals;
locating a video IF signal out of the IF signals according to the frequency representatives in order to determine a frequency of a video carrier corresponding to the specific band;
jumping directly from the start frequency of the specific band to the location where the video carrier is;
utilizing the frequency of the video carrier as a reference for tuning to an associated channel; and
jumping from the location of the video carrier directly to the start frequency of the next band for further channel scan.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing the frequency of the video carrier corresponding to the specific band as the reference for tuning to the associated channel.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of performing the frequency transform on the IF signals of the received analog multi-channel broadcasting program signals within the specific band to obtain the frequency transform results as the frequency representatives of the IF signals further comprises:
calculating a plurality of frequency representatives of IF signals of one or more received analog multi-channel broadcasting program signals within each band of the plurality of bands.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the frequency transform comprises Fast Fourier Transform (FFT); and the frequency transform results are FFT results.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the frequency transform comprises Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT); and the frequency transform results are DCT results.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of locating the video IF signal out of the IF signals according to the frequency representatives in order to determine the frequency of the video carrier corresponding to the video IF signal further comprises:
when a noise level does not reach a predetermined threshold, determining a strongest IF signal of the IF signals to be the video IF signal.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of locating the video IF signal out of the IF signals according to the frequency representatives in order to determine the frequency of the video carrier corresponding to the video IF signal further comprises:
when a noise level reaches a predetermined threshold, determining an IF signal of the IF signals that is larger than a predetermined threshold to be the video IF signal.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein the step of locating the video IF signal out of the IF signals according to the frequency representatives in order to determine the frequency of the video carrier corresponding to the video IF signal further comprises:
locating a video IF signal out of the IF signals of the one or more received analog multi-channel broadcasting program signals within each band, if the video IF signal corresponding to the band exists, according to the frequency representatives corresponding to the band, in order to determine a frequency of a video carrier corresponding to each band, wherein the frequency of the video carrier corresponding to each band is utilized as a reference for tuning to a corresponding channel of a plurality of channels.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
storing the frequency of the video carrier corresponding to each band as the reference for tuning to the corresponding channel of the plurality of channels.

10. An analog multi-channel broadcasting program receiver, comprising:
a tuner arranged to select one of a plurality of channels; and
a controller arranged to control the analog multi-channel broadcasting program receiver to perform blind channel scan according to code embedded in the controller or received from outside the controller, wherein the controller is arranged to perform frequency transform on intermediate frequency (IF) signals of one or more received analog multi-channel broadcasting program signals within a specific band of a plurality of bands to obtain frequency transform results as frequency representatives of the IF signals;
wherein the controller is arranged to locate a video IF signal out of the IF signals according to the frequency representatives in order to determine a frequency of a video carrier corresponding to the specific band, and is arranged to jump directly from the start frequency of the specific band to the location where the video carrier is, utilize the frequency of the video carrier as a reference for tuning to an associated channel, and jump from the location of the video carrier directly to the start frequency of the next band for further channel scan.

11. The analog multi-channel broadcasting program receiver of claim 10 , further comprising:
a storage arranged to store the frequency of the video carrier corresponding to the specific band as the reference for tuning to the associated channel.

12. The analog multi-channel broadcasting program receiver of claim 10 , wherein the controller is arranged to calculate a plurality of frequency representatives of IF signals of one or more received analog multi-channel broadcasting program signals within each band of the plurality of bands.

13. The analog multi-channel broadcasting program receiver of claim 10 , wherein the frequency transform comprises Fast Fourier Transform (FFT); and the frequency transform results are FFT results.

14. The analog multi-channel broadcasting program receiver of claim 10 , wherein the frequency transform comprises Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT); and the frequency transform results are DCT results.

15. The analog multi-channel broadcasting program receiver of claim 10 , wherein when a noise level does not reach a predetermined threshold, the controller determines a strongest IF signal of the IF signals to be the video IF signal.

16. The analog multi-channel broadcasting program receiver of claim 10 , wherein when a noise level reaches a predetermined threshold, the controller determines an IF signal of the IF signals that is larger than a predetermined threshold to be the video IF signal.

17. The analog multi-channel broadcasting program receiver of claim 12 , wherein the controller is arranged to locate a video IF signal out of the IF signals of the received analog multi-channel broadcasting program signals within each band, if the video IF signal corresponding to the band exists, according to the frequency representatives corresponding to the band, in order to determine a frequency of a video carrier corresponding to each band;
and the frequency of the video carrier corresponding to each band is utilized as a reference for tuning to a corresponding channel of a plurality of channels.

18. The analog multi-channel broadcasting program receiver of claim 17 , further comprising:
a storage arranged to store the frequency of the video carrier corresponding to each band as the reference for tuning to the corresponding channel of the plurality of channels.

Assignees

• Kang Chih-Wei
• Chien Lu-Chung
• Lin Ray-Kuo
• Mediatek Inc

Inventors

• Kang Chih-Wei
• Chien Lu-Chung
• Lin Ray-Kuo

Classifications

• H04N21/4345

  Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream · CPC title

• H04N5/50 Primary

  Tuning indicators; Automatic tuning control · CPC title

• H04N5/46

  for receiving on more than one standard at will (deflecting circuits of multi-standard receivers H04N3/27) · CPC title

• H04N21/4263

  involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners · CPC title