Series reminders and series recording from an interactive program guide

• US 20080184313A1
• Filed: 08/20/2007
• Published: 07/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Ellis, Michael D., Lemmons, Thomas R., Knudson, Edward B., Satterfield, Kevin D., Allison, Donald W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,745,669 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4583 Automatically resolving scheduling conflicts, e.g. when a recording by reservation has been programmed for two programs in the same time slot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6143 involving transmission via a satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/79 Processing of colour television signals in connection with recording

Abstract

An interactive television program guide system with program series reminder and recording capabilities is provided. The system allows a user to set a reminder or schedule a recording for a single episode or for each episode of a program series. In addition, other options may be provided that allow the user to determine, for example, whether to schedule reminders/recordings for episodes on all channels on which the program airs or only on a selected channels, whether to schedule reminders/recordings for all episodes including reruns or only new episodes, whether to schedule reminders/recordings for network or syndicated episodes, and whether to schedule reminders/recordings for episodes on all days or only on selected days of the week. Before the scheduled broadcast time of each episode of each selected program series, the system sends a reminder message to the user that reminds the user of the program episode or sends a record command to a videocassette recorder to initiate recording of the episode. The system allows a user to view a list of all currently requested program reminders and scheduled program recordings. The user may update, change, or cancel any entry in either list or the system may automatically update the lists to match new broadcast schedule information. If the user sets a reminder or schedules a recording that conflicts with an existing reminder or recording, the system may inform the user of the conflict and allow the user to resolve the conflict or the system may resolve the conflict.

Claims

1. (canceled)

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the task is a recording.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the task is a reminder.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a user selection of the prompt; and

in response to receiving the user selection, tuning to the episode.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying an advertisement associated with the episode.

2. A method for displaying program information with user equipment, comprising:

receiving a user indication to schedule a task for a program;

determining at the user equipment that the program is an episode of a series of programs; and

in response to the determining, displaying a prompt, wherein the prompt indicates the next time an episode of the series is scheduled to be broadcast.

7. A method for displaying program information with user equipment, comprising:

receiving a selection of an option to view previously scheduled tasks; and

in response to receiving the selection of the option, displaying a list of at least some previously scheduled tasks, wherein;

the list includes at least one series recording for at least one series of programs, and

the at least one series of programs does not include any episode currently scheduled to be recorded.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the task is a recording.

9. The method of claim 7, where the task is a reminder.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

receiving a user indication to cancel one of the at least one series recording;

in response to receiving the user indication, canceling the one of the at least one series recording.

11. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

receiving a user indication to cancel a recording of an episode of the one of the at least one series recording;

in response to receiving the user indication, canceling the recording of the episode.

12. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

receiving a user indication to update one of the at least one series recording; and

in response to receiving the user indication, displaying options associated with the one of the at least one series recording.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

receiving one or more user selections of one or more of the options; and

in response to receiving the one or more user selections, scheduling a recording of a subset of the at least one series of programs, wherein the subset is based on the one or more user selections.

14. A method for recording programs with user equipment, comprising:

receiving a first selection of a first option to schedule a series recording for each episode of a series;

in response to receiving the first selection, scheduling each episode of the series to be recorded;

providing a second option to cancel the recording of an episode of the series;

receiving a second selection of the second option; and

in response to receiving the second selection, canceling the recording of the episode.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

providing one or more additional options that allow the user to update the series recording.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

presenting a display that indicates the recording of the episode has been canceled.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the presenting further comprises:

deleting the episode from a recording list; and

displaying the recording list on a display screen.