Synching a recording time of a program to the actual program broadcast time for the program

摘要

A recording system receives a broadcast signal from at least one service provider. An offset controller of the recording system samples a portion of the current broadcast signal on a particular channel over a particular interval of time. The offset controller then compares the sampled portion with a selection of features anticipated to be broadcast during the particular interval of time. Next, if the offset controller detects that a particular feature from among the selection of features matches within the portion of the current broadcast signal, then the offset controller calculates an offset time from a difference between an expected time for broadcast of the particular feature and an actual time of broadcast. The recording time for a program to be recorded is initially set to the start time and end time from a predetermined broadcast schedule. The offset controller adjusts the recording time of the program that is affected by the offset time so that the recording time of the program is synched to the actual broadcast time of the program on the particular channel.