Program preselecting/recording apparatus for searching an electronic program guide for programs according to predetermined search criteria
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Abstract
A program preselecting apparatus is provided. An electronic program guide storing unit stores an electronic program guide made up of a plurality of sets of program information of a plurality of programs, each of the plurality of sets of program information including a time slot, channel number, and content information of a respective program. A preselection criteria storing unit stores a plurality of preselection criteria used for specifying programs to be preselected, each of the plurality of preselection criteria including at least one criterion item which specifies at least the content information. A searching unit searches, according to each of the plurality of preselection criteria, the electronic program guide for a program corresponding to each set of program information that satisfies the criterion items of the preselection criterion. An overlap judging unit judges whether there are programs whose time slots overlap among programs found as a result of the search by the searching unit. A choosing unit chooses, when there are the programs whose time slots overlap, one of the programs with the overlapping time slots. A preselecting unit preselects the chosen program by storing a time slot and channel number of the chosen program.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1-12. -12. (Cancel)
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13. A broadcast program recording apparatus for receiving programs to be recorded and recording the received programs into a fixed storing unit, the broadcast program recording apparatus comprising:
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time assigning means for assigning, to a received program, a delete-protect time before which the program cannot be automatically deleted;
recording means for recording the program to which the delete-protect time has been assigned, into the fixed storing unit; and
automatic deleting means for automatically deleting the recorded program whose delete-protect time has been reached. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A broadcast program recording apparatus for receiving programs to be recorded and recording the received programs into a fixed storing unit, the broadcast program recording apparatus comprising:
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content information acquiring means for acquiring a set of content information relating to a content of a received program;
delete condition storing means for storing delete conditions corresponding to sets of content information, each of the delete conditions showing a condition for allowing a program to be automatically deleted;
content information assigning means for assigning the set of content information acquired by the content information acquiring means to the received program;
recording means for recording the received program to which the set of content information has been assigned, into the fixed storing unit; and
automatic deleting means for retrieving, from the delete condition storing means, a delete condition corresponding to the set of content information assigned to the recorded program, and automatically deleting the recorded program when the retrieved delete condition is satisfied.
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21. A broadcast program recording apparatus for receiving programs to be recorded and recording the received programs into a fixed storing unit, the broadcast program recording apparatus comprising:
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time assigning means for assigning, to a received program, a delete-protect time before which the program cannot be deleted;
recording means for recording the program to which the delete-protect time has been assigned, into the fixed storing unit;
delete candidate program searching means for searching the fixed storing unit for delete candidate programs whose delete-protect times have been reached;
displaying means for displaying a list of the delete candidate programs;
delete instruction receiving means for receiving from a user a selection of a delete candidate program which should be deleted among the delete candidate programs in the displayed list; and
deleting means for deleting the delete candidate program selected by the user.
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22-26. -26. (Canceled)
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27. A computer-readable storing medium storing a broadcast program recording program for receiving programs to be recorded and recording the received programs into a fixed storing unit, the broadcast program recording program comprising:
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a time assigning step for assigning, to a received program, a delete-protect time before which the program cannot be automatically deleted;
a recording step for recording the program to which the delete-protect time has been assigned, into the fixed storing unit; and
an automatic deleting step for automatically deleting the recorded program whose delete-protect time has been reached.
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28. A computer-readable storing medium storing a broadcast program recording program for receiving programs to be recorded and recording the received programs into a fixed storing unit, in a broadcast program recording apparatus equipped with a delete condition storing unit storing delete conditions which correspond to sets of content information and which each show a condition for allowing a program to be automatically deleted, the broadcast program recording program comprising:
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a content information acquiring step for acquiring a set of content information relating to a content of a received program;
a content information assigning step for assigning the set of content information acquired by the content information acquiring step to the received program;
a recording step for recording the received program to which the set of content information has been assigned, into the fixed storing unit; and
an automatic deleting step for retrieving, from the delete condition storing unit, a delete condition corresponding to the set of content information assigned to the recorded program, and automatically deleting the recorded program when the retrieved delete condition is satisfied.
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29. A computer-readable storing medium storing a broadcast program recording program for receiving programs to be recorded and recording the received programs into a fixed storing unit, the broadcast program recording program comprising:
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a time assigning step for assigning, to a received program, a delete-protect time before which the program cannot be deleted;
a recording step for recording the program to which the delete-protect time has been assigned, into the fixed storing unit;
a delete candidate program searching step for searching the fixed storing unit for delete candidate programs whose delete-protect times have been reached;
a displaying step for displaying a list of the delete candidate programs;
a delete instruction receiving step for receiving from a user a selection of a delete candidate program which should be deleted among the delete candidate programs in the displayed list; and
a deleting step for deleting the delete candidate program selected by the user.
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30-31. -31. (Canceled)
Specification