Method and apparatus of channel switching using pre-acquisited PSI table

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for switching channels to reduce channel zapping time, which use channel information generated prior to channel switching and generates audio and video data of a switched channel, thereby skipping a process of calculating channel information of a channel to be switched at the time of channel switching.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for switching channels carried out by a media play apparatus, the method comprising:
 obtaining channel information about a plurality of channels; 
 receiving a channel switching signal; and 
 generating channel data according to the channel switching signal by using the obtained channel information, 
 wherein the channel information is included in a transport stream of a currently received channel including a program association table (PAT), and 
 the PAT includes (i) transport stream identifiers identifying the transport stream of the currently received channel and other transport streams of other channels, and (ii) an actual transport stream flag specifying position of a transport stream identifier of the transport stream of the currently received channel on a transport stream identifier field containing the transport stream identifiers. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the obtaining of the channel information about the plurality of channels comprises obtaining the channel information by using at least one idling tuner among a plurality of tuners. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 2 , wherein the obtaining of the channel information by using at least one idling tuner among the plurality of tuners comprises
 obtaining the channel information of a channel not included in a transport stream under reception. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the actual transport stream flag specifies in form of an index at which cell of array the transport stream identifier of the transport stream of the currently received channel is located. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein channel information of the other channels is included a program map table (PMT) included in the transport stream of the current received channel. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the obtaining channel information of the plurality of channels comprises obtaining channel information by using an internet protocol (IP) network. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the obtaining channel information about the plurality of channels comprises
 receiving channel information from a transport stream received by using a tuner; and 
 receiving channel information of a channel not included in the transport stream from a server by using an internet protocol (IP) network. 
 
     
     
       8. An apparatus for switching channels of a media play apparatus, the apparatus for switching channels comprising:
 at least one tuner for obtaining channel information about a plurality of channels; and 
 a controller for extracting the obtained channel information, and 
 generating channel data according to a received channel switching signal by using the previously obtained channel information, 
 wherein the channel information is included in a transport stream of a currently received channel including a program association table (PAT), and 
 the PAT includes (i) transport stream identifiers identifying the transport stream of the currently received channel and other transport streams of other channels, and (ii) an actual transport stream flag specifying position of a transport stream identifier of the transport stream of the currently received channel on a transport stream identifier field containing the transport stream identifiers. 
 
     
     
       9. The apparatus of  claim 8 , wherein the channel information is obtained by using at least one idling tuner. 
     
     
       10. The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein the idling tuner obtains channel information of a channel not included in a transport stream under reception. 
     
     
       11. The apparatus of  claim 8 , wherein the actual transport stream flag specifies in form of an index at which cell of array the transport stream identifier of the transport stream of the currently received channel is located. 
     
     
       12. The apparatus of  claim 8 , wherein channel information of the other channels is included a program map table (PMT) included in the transport stream of the current received channel. 
     
     
       13. The apparatus of  claim 8 , further comprising an internet protocol (IP) transceiver which receives channel information from a server by using an IP network. 
     
     
       14. The apparatus of  claim 13 , wherein the IP transceiver receives channel information of a channel from a server, the channel being not included in a transport stream received through the tuner. 
     
     
       15. The apparatus of  claim 8 , further comprising
 a memory in which obtained channel information is stored, 
 wherein the controller stores the obtained channel information in the memory when channel information stored in the memory is different from the obtained channel information and performs channel switching according to the channel switching signal by using the channel information stored in the memory.