Sony Corporation

Sony Electronics Inc

Xuan Zhang

Norifumi Takaya

Jenny S Chow

Improved channel mapping is provided wherein both virtual channel information associated with the currently-tuned channel, as well as physical channel information associated with this same channel is added to a television system's channel map. User inconvenience associated with errors in the virtual channel information may be mitigated since the television system's channel map will contain, not only the standard virtual channel information provided by broadcast stations in their broadcast signals, but also the corresponding physical channel information for the broadcast station in question. In other embodiments, multiple channel maps may be maintained and be user-selectable.

System and method for providing improved channel mapping

Alternative-channel user selectivity is provided when a user tunes to a broadcast channel for which the desired broadcast station corresponding to such broadcast channel has been reassigned. In one embodiment, after tuning to broadcast channel in response to a user input, it may first be determined if in fact the desired broadcast station corresponding to the tuned broadcast channel has been reassigned. If so, one or more alternative broadcast channels corresponding to the desired broadcast station may be identified, and an alternative channel availability indicator may then be displayed to the user to provide alternative-channel user selectivity.

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Xuan Zhang