Method and apparatus for displaying differences in the characteristics of multiple versions of an entertainment program

• US 7,240,356 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2001
• Issued: 07/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Shah-Nazaroff, Anthony A., Williams, Christopher D., Moore, Kenneth Alan, Iki, Jean M. Goldschmidt, Buscheck, Gregory D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Grant; Christopher
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chowdhury; Sumaiya A.
• Application Number:
  US09/779,778
• Publication Number:
  US 20010005903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,336 Days
• Field of Search: 725/48, 725/49, 725/50, 725/51, 725/47, 725/39, 725/40
• US Class Current: 725/48
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/434 Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Extraction or processing of SI; Disassembling of packetised elementary stream demultiplexing of data packets for data networks, e.g. RTP/UDP H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available
• 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 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4758 for providing answers, e.g. voting
• 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 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• 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

Abstract

A method and apparatus for displaying differences in the characteristics of multiple versions of an entertainment program includes receiving entertainment programming input, identifying multiple versions of an available entertainment program, identifying, for each of the multiple versions, a set of descriptive information regarding the respective version, the descriptive information comprising a plurality of characteristics of the respective version, identifying the differences in characteristics between the multiple versions displaying the differences in characteristics between the multiple versions to a user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving entertainment programming input;

identifying multiple versions of an available entertainment program;

identifying, for each of the multiple versions, a set of descriptive information regarding the respective version, the descriptive information comprising a plurality of video and audio quality characteristics of the respective version;

identifying the differences in characteristics between the multiple versions; and

displaying characteristics of the identified multiple versions and highlighting the differences in characteristics between the multiple versions to a user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein highlighting the differences comprises displaying only the identified differences in characteristics.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristics further comprise at least one of a source identifier, a channel transport medium, program duration, pricing, enhanced programming availability, closed captioning availability, language of subtitles in the version and language spoken in the version.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection from the user identifying one of the plurality of the multiple versions; and

displaying the multiple version corresponding to the user selection.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple versions are available using different channel transport media the method further comprising displaying an identification of the channel transport medium for each respective version.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the channel transport media include one or more of cable broadcast, satellite broadcast, radio frequency broadcast, telephone interface, computer network interface, CD-ROM, video disk, and video cassette.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying multiple versions comprises searching through data of an electronic programming guide.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the video quality characteristics comprise at least one of letterbox format, standard television format and director'"'"'s cut version.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio quality characteristics comprise at least one of mono, stereo, surround, digital stereo and digital surround.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the plurality of instructions which when executed by the processor, result in highlighting the differences, further result in displaying only the identified differences in characteristics.

10. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a computer result in:

receiving entertainment programming input;

identifying multiple versions of an available entertainment program;

identifying, for each of the multiple versions, a set of descriptive information regarding the respective version, the descriptive information comprising a plurality of video and audio quality characteristics of the respective version;

identifying the differences in characteristics between the multiple versions; and

displaying characteristics of the identified multiple versions and highlighting the differences in characteristics between the multiple versions to a user.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the characteristics further comprise at least one of a source identifier, a channel transport medium, program duration, pricing, enhanced programming availability, closed captioning availability, language of subtitles in the version and language spoken in the version.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the plurality of instructions, when executed by the processor, further result in receiving a selection from the user identifying one of the multiple versions, and displaying the multiple version corresponding to the user selection.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the multiple versions are available using different channel transport media and wherein the plurality of instructions, when executed by the processor, further result in displaying an identification of the channel transport medium for each respective version.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the channel transport media include one or more of cable broadcast, satellite broadcast, radio frequency broadcast, telephone interface, computer network interface, CD-ROM, video disk, and video cassette.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, result in identifying multiple versions comprise searching through data of an electronic programming guide.

17. An apparatus comprising:

a program guide controller to receive entertainment programming input;

a selection controller coupled to the program guide controller to identify multiple available versions of an entertainment program, to identify, for each of the multiple versions, a set of descriptive information regarding the respective version, the descriptive information comprising a plurality of video and audio quality characteristics of the respective version and to identify the differences in characteristics between the multiple versions; and

a device controller, coupled to the selection controller, to display characteristics of the multiple versions and to highlight the differences in characteristics between the multiple versions to a user.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the device controller in highlighting the differences is to display only the identified differences in characteristics.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the characteristics further comprise at least one of a source identifier, a channel transport medium, program duration, pricing, enhanced programming availability, closed captioning availability, language of subtitles in the version and language spoken in the version.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising a user interface controller to receive a selection from the user identifying one of the plurality of the multiple versions;

and wherein the device controller is further to display the multiple version corresponding to the user selection.

21. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the multiple versions are available using different channel transport media and wherein the device controller is further to display an identification of the channel transport medium for each respective version.

22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the channel transport media include one or more of cable broadcast, satellite broadcast, radio frequency broadcast, telephone interface, computer network interface, CD-ROM, video disk, and video cassette.