PROGRAM GUIDE DISPLAY CONTROLLER AND TELEVISION RECEIVER

• US 20010035915A1
• Filed: 10/27/1998
• Published: 11/01/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/1996
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: YAMASHITA, AKIHIKO, TSUNODA, HIROSHI, WAKISAKA, MASAKO
• Granted Patent: US 7,051,353 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/569
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/162 Authorising the user terminal, e.g. by paying; Registering the use of a subscription channel, e.g. billing

Abstract

A program-guide-display controlling apparatus for displaying a plurality of program guides on a display unit in a matrix form by using one of the ordinate and the abscissa as a channel number axis and another one as a time axis comprises means for displaying to discriminate a time zone in which a purchased program is present and a time zone in which the purchased program is not present, so as to ensure that a situation in which two or more PPV programs which are broadcast during the same time zone happen to be purchased is made difficult to occur.

Claims

1. A program-guide-display controlling apparatus for displaying a plurality of program guides on a display unit in a matrix form by using one of the ordinate and the abscissa as a channel number axis and another one as a time axis, comprising:

means for displaying to discriminate a time zone based on designation by a user.

10. A television receiver provided with the program-guide-display controlling apparatus according to any one of claims 1, 2, and 6.

2. A program-guide-display controlling apparatus for displaying a plurality of program guides on a display unit in a matrix form by using one of the ordinate and the abscissa as a channel number axis and another one as a time axis, comprising:

means for displaying to discriminate a time zone in which a purchased program is present and a time zone in which the purchased program is not present.

3. A program-guide-display controlling apparatus for displaying a plurality of program guides on a display unit in a matrix form by using one of the ordinate and the abscissa as a channel number axis and another one as a time axis, comprising:

means for displaying in different colors a program guide belonging to a time zone in which a purchased program is present and a time zone in which the purchased program is not present among program guides displayed on said display unit.

4. A program-guide-display controlling apparatus for displaying some program guides of all program guides on a display unit in a matrix form by using one of the ordinate and the abscissa as a channel number axis and another one as a time axis, comprising:

means for displaying such that, if a program guide concerning a program which has been purchased is included in each of the program guides displayed on said display unit, that program guide can be discriminated from a program guide concerning a program which has not been purchased; and

means for displaying a mark indicating a direction of the channel axis and a direction in which a channel of a purchased program is present in a region corresponding to said time zone in a display region of said display unit if a time zone in which a purchased program is present is included in the time zone of a program guide displayed on said display unit, and the purchased program guide is not displayed on said display unit.

5. A program-guide-display controlling apparatus for displaying a plurality of items of program guide information on a display unit in a matrix form by using one of the ordinate and the abscissa as a channel number axis and another one as a time axis, comprising:

means for displaying a bar if a time zone in which a purchased program is present is included in the time zone of a program guide displayed on said display unit, said bar being displayed in a region corresponding to said time zone in a display region of said display unit.

6. A program-guide-display controlling apparatus for displaying a plurality of program guides on a display unit in a matrix form by using one of the ordinate and the abscissa as a channel number axis and another one as a time axis, comprising:

setting means for allowing an arbitrary time zone to be set by a user; and

discriminatingly displaying means for effecting display to discriminate the time zone set by the user and other time zones.

7. The program-guide-display controlling apparatus according to

claim 6

, wherein said discriminatingly displaying means causes a region corresponding to the time zone set by the user and a region corresponding to the other time zones to be displayed in different colors in a display region in which the plurality of program guides are displayed.

8. The program-guide-display controlling apparatus according to

claim 6

or

7

, wherein said setting means allows the starting time and the ending time of an arbitrary time zone to be set by the user.

9. The program-guide-display controlling apparatus according to

claim 6

or

7

, wherein setting means allows the starting time and the ending time of an arbitrary time zone to be set for each day of the week by the user.