Patexia seeks prior art for US Patent 7,493,649 (US ‘649) - “Broadcast receiving apparatus.” The patent allegedly describes a broadcast receiver that is able to queue incoming tuning requests from multiple sources (such as a user or another software application on the device) while it is in the middle of a tuning process.

The broadcast receiver is able to handle the number of incoming tuning requests by including the following:

• a reception section for receiving the incoming request
• ​a storage section for storing the requests received
• the storage section being able to store a finite number of requests and once exceeded can execute an action that is predetermined, possibly having a new request replace an old request at random or replace the oldest/newest request
• ​a processing section for the device to tune to the requested signal
• an erasure section for erasing the record of request that the processing section acted on
• ​the erasure occurring at a time that is predetermined, possibly while the request is being processed or only after the request is successfully completed
• a notification to the source of the request that the tuning has been completed

In broad terms, the patent describes an invention that is able to queue tuning requests so that new tuning request will not interrupt an ongoing tuning of the device. The invention prevents a situation from occurring where a tuner is overloaded with too many requests that interrupt its actions and prevent the tuner from being able to successfully execute any tuning request.

Figure 2. Block diagram of a tuner queue processing device