System and method for transmitting and utilizing electronic programs guide information
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Television schedule information transmission and utilization systems transmit TV schedule data and associated network control messages provided by computer as packets via the Video Blanking Interval (VBI) lines in the TV signal from various television program providers. This data is acquired by regional data processing systems and forwarded by the regional data processing systems to subscriber units and used to construct an internal database. This internal database can be accessed by the subscriber unit to display a TV schedule for the channels that are received by the user'"'"'s TV.
145 Citations
46 Claims
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1-24. -24. (canceled)
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25. A method of updating television schedule information data in a television schedule information transmission system having a central data processing system and a plurality of subscriber systems, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving commands via a television telecast signal which include command data and the television schedule information data used by the commands;
responsive to receiving a command, reading a portion of the command data from the command to determine whether to store the television schedule information included in the command;
storing the television schedule information included in the command if the television schedule information should be stored; and
skipping over the command if the television schedule information should not be stored, wherein skipping over the command comprises;
determining the length of the command from the command data; and
ignoring the television telecast signal for the length of the command. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method of updating television schedule information data in a television schedule information transmission system having a central data processing system and a plurality of subscriber systems, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving television schedule information data including an associated identifier via a television telecast signal;
responsive to receiving the television schedule information data, comparing the associated identifier to a second identifier associated with other television schedule information data stored in a memory;
determining whether to store at least a portion of the received television schedule information data based on the comparison;
storing the at least a portion of the received television schedule information data and the associated identifier in the memory if the portion should be stored; and
ignoring the television schedule information data and the associated identifier if the portion should not be stored. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A system for updating television schedule information data in a subscriber system included in a television schedule information transmission system having a central data processing system and a plurality of subscriber systems, comprising:
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a decoder for receiving commands via a television telecast signal which include command data and the television schedule information data used by the commands;
control circuitry configured to;
determine whether to store the television schedule information data included in each command based on the command data from each command;
if the television schedule information data should not be stored;
determine the length of the command from the command data; and
ignore the television telecast signal for the length of the command; and
a memory for storing the television schedule information data if the television schedule data should be stored. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A system for updating television schedule information data in a television schedule information transmission system having a central data processing system and a plurality of subscriber systems, comprising:
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a decoder for receiving via a television telecast signal television schedule information data including an associated identifier;
control circuitry configured to;
compare the associated identifier to a second identifier associated with other television schedule information data stored in a memory; and
determine whether to store at least a portion of the received television schedule information data based on the comparison; and
a memory for storing the received television schedule information data and the associated identifier if the received television schedule information data should be stored. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46)
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Specification