Interactive television program guide with selectable non-program options
First Claim
1. User equipment for use in an interactive program guide system in which information for television program listings and selectable non-program options is provided to a distribution facility, comprising:
- means for receiving the information from the distribution facility;
means for simultaneously displaying at least one television program listing in at least one row of a grid and at least one selectable non-program option in at least one other row of the grid and for panning non-program options without panning television program listings;
means for periodically updating information received by at least one of said at least one selectable non-program options; and
means for displaying the updated information when a selectable non-program option is selected by a user.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An interactive program guide system is provided. The program guide system displays a program guide grid on a user'"'"'s television equipment. The grid contains rows of television program listings for various channels. Columns in the grid are associated with the scheduled start times of the listed programs. The grid also contains non-program listings. Non-program listings rows contain selectable non-program options, such as options related to weather or sports information. The user can select a given one of the selectable non-program options by positioning a highlight region on one of the options and pressing an appropriate key on a remote control. When the system receives the corresponding command from the remote control, the system displays additional information for the selected non-program option on the user'"'"'s display screen.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. User equipment for use in an interactive program guide system in which information for television program listings and selectable non-program options is provided to a distribution facility, comprising:
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means for receiving the information from the distribution facility;
means for simultaneously displaying at least one television program listing in at least one row of a grid and at least one selectable non-program option in at least one other row of the grid and for panning non-program options without panning television program listings;
means for periodically updating information received by at least one of said at least one selectable non-program options; and
means for displaying the updated information when a selectable non-program option is selected by a user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for using user equipment in an interactive program guide system in which information for television program listings and selectable local content options is provided to a distribution facility, comprising the steps of:
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receiving the information from the distribution facility; and
simultaneously displaying at least one television program listing in at least one row of a grid and at least one selectable non-program option in at least one other row of the grid;
panning non-program listings without panning television program listings;
periodically updating information received by at least one of said at least one non-program options; and
displaying the updated information when an associated non-program option is selected by a user. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. User equipment for use in an interactive program guide system in which information for television program listings and selectable local content options is provided to a distribution facility, comprising:
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a monitor; and
control circuitry that receives the information from the distribution facility, wherein the control circuitry is configured to simultaneously display at least one television program listing in at least one row of a grid and at least one selectable non-program option in at least one other row of the grid, to pan the non-program options without panning the television program listings, and to periodically update information received by at least one of said at least one selectable non-program options. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification