Television receiver receiving a plurality of channels carrying a data signal representing pages of information

• US 6,665,017 B1
• Filed: 12/03/1999
• Issued: 12/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Raiyat, Farzad
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Michael H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): NATNAEL, PAULOS M
• Application Number:
  US09/454,343
• Time in Patent Office: 1,474 Days
• Field of Search: 348/468, 348/465, 348/461, 348/467, 348/473, 348/563, 348/564, 348/714, 725/137
• US Class Current: 348/468
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4221 Dedicated function buttons, e.g. for the control of an EPG, subtitles, aspect ratio, picture-in-picture or teletext
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4263 involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4383 Accessing a communication channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4888 for displaying teletext characters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0882 for the transmission of character code signals, e.g. for teletext circuits for the digital non-picture data signal H04N7/035

Abstract

A television receiver for receiving data, such as teletext, multiplexed with the television signal, includes a data acquisition circuit (6) for acquiring at least selected pages of the data signal and a memory (13) for storing a plurality of pages. A non-volatile memory (11) holds a Favorite Pages List for the user for each of a plurality of channels, and a microprocessor (7) causes the receiver to tune to each channel, in turn, to acquire and store in the memory (13) the favorite pages for all of the channels. The microprocessor (7) causes the receiver to tune to each of the channels in turn on switch-on and acquires the favorite pages for that channel. The receiver is tuned to each channel, in turn, for a period long enough to acquire the favorite pages either by allowing a set time or by monitoring the receipt of the favorite pages. Alternatively, a second tuner is used to scan the non-viewed channels.

Claims

1. A television receiver for receiving a plurality of television channels, at least some of said television channels carrying a data signal representing pages of information to be displayed, said data signal being multiplexed with a television program transmitted in said channel, said television receiver comprising:

means for selecting each of the received channels;

means for storing addresses of favorite pages of data associated with at least some of said channels;

means for causing the receiver to automatically select, in turn, each of the channels having associated therewith stored addresses of favorite pages for acquiring the data representing the favorite pages for each channel, and for storing the data; and

means for selecting one or more of the stored favorite pages,

wherein said television receiver further comprises;

means for selecting, for display, favorite pages associated with channels other than that to which the receiver is currently tuned for reception.

2. A television receiver for receiving a plurality of television channels, at least some of said television channels carrying a data signal representing pages of information to be displayed, said data signal being multiplexed with a television program transmitted in said channel, said television receiver comprising:

means for selecting each of the received channels;

means for storing addresses of favorite pages of data associated with at least some of said channels;

means for causing the receiver to automatically select, in turn, each of the channels having associated therewith stored addresses of favorite pages for acquiring the data representing the favorite pages for each channel, and for storing the data; and

means for selecting one or more of the stored favorite pages,

wherein the television receiver further comprises two channel selectors, the first channel selector selecting a channel for viewing and or/acquisition of the data signal associated with that channel, and the second channel selector selecting, in turn, each channel for which favorite pages of data exist and acquiring those favorite pages being transmitted in each of those channels.

3. The television receiver as claimed in claim 2, wherein said television receiver further comprises:

means for causing the second channel selector to continuously cycle round those channels having favorite pages of data associated with them to enable the data stored to be updated.

4. The television receiver as claimed in claim 3, wherein said television receiver further comprises:

means for preventing the second channel selector from selecting the channel which is presently selected by the first channel selector.

5. The television receiver as claimed in claim 3, wherein said television receiver further comprises:

means for causing the second channel selector to stop cycling round those channels having favorite pages of data associated with them.

6. The television receiver as claimed in claim 5, wherein said television receiver further comprises:

means for causing the second channel selector to select a channel for display as a picture in a picture.

7. The television receiver as claimed in claim 5, wherein said television receiver further comprises:

means for causing the second channel selector to selected a channel for recording.