A method for interactive delivery of information services to subscriber televisions over a cable distribution network comprising the steps of: receiving at a node over a data communication link a request for an interactive session from a home interface controller associated with a subscriber television; assigning one of a plurality of television information signals carried by the cable distribution network to the requesting home interface controller to satisfy the request; informing the requesting home interface controller of the assigned television information signal over the data communication link; receiving at the node over the data communication link a request for an information service from the home interface controller associated with the subscriber television; and putting the information service on the assigned television information signal. view more

The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of assigning one of a plurality of multimedia processing means to control the step of putting and to communicate with the requesting home interface controller.

An interactive cable system comprising:</claim-text> (i) an information service distribution network, for delivering information services from a headend to subscriber television; (ii) a plurality of home interface controllers, each home interface oller associated with a subscriber television and having a data transceiver operative over a data communications link to the headend; (iii) a plurality of subscriber selection devices, each such device associated with a home interface controller and in communication with the data transceiver thereof; (iv) a plurality of individually assignable processors, disposed at the headend, in assignable data communication with an assigned home interface controller and in television communication over the network with the subscriber television associated with the assigned home interface controller, and (v) a frame server in communication with a plurality of home interface controllers each assigned to one of a plurality of processes running in said frame server for interactive service, said processes receiving data communications from the subscribers associated with their respective assigned home interface controllers, said frame server generating interactive pages responsive to the data communications and supplying the interactive pages to the subscriber televisions associated with the assigned home interface controllers in digitally encoded television signals over the information service distribution network. view more

The interactive cable system of claim <HIL><BOLD>5</BOLD></HIL> wherein said information service distribution network comprises a plurality of cables each serving a different service area and wherein the interactive cable system further comprises a ch television signal from one of said plurality of individually assignable processors to the cable serving the service area in which the respective assigned home interface controller is served. view more

The interactive cable system of claim <HIL><BOLD>7</BOLD></HIL> further comprising a common channel transmitted throughout said information service distribution network for carrying the digitally encoded television signals from said frame server.

A system according to claim 8, wherein the data communications link is over the network.

A method for providing interactive service on a cable television system that distributes television signals from a cable headend over an information service distribution network to a plurality of subscriber television sets, said method comprising: detecting at a node on the information service distribution network a request, from a home interface controller associated with one of the subscriber television sets, for an information service in an interactive mode; controlling at a processor in the node, in response to detection of the request, an interactive session with the requesting home interface controller; providing an information signal capable of full motion video responsive to the interactive session through the information service distribution network to the subscriber television set associated with the requesting home interface controller for display of an image produced by the information signal; and receiving data communications at the processor from the requesting home interface controller during the interactive session representative of commands interactive with the image on the associated subscriber television set. view more

The interactive television information system according to claim 25 further comprising a network manager for assigning an available one of said processors to furnish interactive service to one of said home interface controllers in interactive mode based on data obtained from the data communication path so that assignment of processors to home interface controllers is accomplished on a demand basis. view more