Television guide reader and programmer
First Claim
1. An apparatus for controlling a television receiving unit to receive a television program, comprising:
- means for receiving a listing of television programs, wherein the listing bears printed schedule indicia for a plurality of programs, each said program defined by a channel, a start time and a duration;
detection means for the apparatus to determine a position on said listing, said position corresponding to the schedule indicia of a selected program of said plurality of programs;
determining means for the apparatus to determine the channel, start time and duration of the selected program in response to the position; and
control means for controlling the receiver to receive said channel for said duration from said start time.
8 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The encoded television receiver timer pre-programming indicia listed on reverse side of a program schedule page allows a timer pre-programming feature on a television or, in particular, a video cassette recorder (VCR) to be programmed. The control indicia are decoded by a decoder built into either the video cassette recorder or controller, which convert the indicia into channel, date, time and length information for timer preprogramming. The channel, date, time and length information is communicated to the VCR to automatically activate the VCR to record a given television program with the corresponding channel, date, time and length. Alternately, the channel, date, time and length information is decoded directly in the controller and appropriately sent to the VCR for recording a program. The program schedule pages with control indicia utilized with the present invention can be printed in advance and used with a VCR or controller with the decoding.
201 Citations
22 Claims
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1. An apparatus for controlling a television receiving unit to receive a television program, comprising:
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means for receiving a listing of television programs, wherein the listing bears printed schedule indicia for a plurality of programs, each said program defined by a channel, a start time and a duration; detection means for the apparatus to determine a position on said listing, said position corresponding to the schedule indicia of a selected program of said plurality of programs; determining means for the apparatus to determine the channel, start time and duration of the selected program in response to the position; and control means for controlling the receiver to receive said channel for said duration from said start time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of controlling the operation of a television receiving unit to receive a television program comprising the steps of:
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detecting pressure applied by a user to a position on a page of television listings identifying respective television programs to select one of the television programs for reception; determining the channel, start time, and duration of the selected program in response to the pressure; and controlling the receiver to receive said channel for said duration from said start time. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification