Program viewing apparatus and method
First Claim
1. A system for receiving, storing, and displaying television programs comprised of video and audio portions, comprising:
- a user display and associated audio transducer having visual and audible output;
digital data storage memory, configured to store a first television program;
a user remote;
a delivery channel interface responsive to a delivery channel, which delivery channel provides data comprising a second television program that is being currently broadcast, without the user'"'"'s request, by a programming source; and
a data manager configured to perform each of different functions responsive to each user selection via said user remote, wherein the different functions include;
(i) said second television program being stored in said digital data storage memory simultaneously with the outputting of said first television program from said digital data storage memory to said user display to display the video portion of said first television program as a visible image on said user display and output the audio portion of said first television program as an audible sound to the audio transducer;
(ii) an unstored portion of the video portion of said first television program being displayed as a visible image on said user display and an unstored portion of the audio portion of said first television program being output as an audible sound to the audio transducer simultaneously with said second television program being stored in said digital data storage memory; and
(iii) the video portion of said second television program being displayed as a visible image on said user display and the audio portion of said second television program being output as an audible sound to the audio transducer while another portion of said second television program is being stored.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention relates to improvements in program viewing apparatus and methods, some of which are now commonly referred to as personal video recorder (PVR) and program guide features in television sets, set top boxes and other video devices. The invention provides for a user display such as a flat panel program display device, a user remote for the user to control operations and features, program data storage for storing programs and related information, removable data storage for storing programs and related information on removable storage media. Also included is a data manager which functions include response to the user'"'"'s desires via the user remote to control receiving and storing programs and select received or stored programs to be displayed on the user display device. The data manager may also be responsive to receive, store and display other services such as programming guide services to provide enhanced program viewing and storage management as directed by the user.
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Citations
59 Claims
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1. A system for receiving, storing, and displaying television programs comprised of video and audio portions, comprising:
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a user display and associated audio transducer having visual and audible output; digital data storage memory, configured to store a first television program; a user remote; a delivery channel interface responsive to a delivery channel, which delivery channel provides data comprising a second television program that is being currently broadcast, without the user'"'"'s request, by a programming source; and a data manager configured to perform each of different functions responsive to each user selection via said user remote, wherein the different functions include; (i) said second television program being stored in said digital data storage memory simultaneously with the outputting of said first television program from said digital data storage memory to said user display to display the video portion of said first television program as a visible image on said user display and output the audio portion of said first television program as an audible sound to the audio transducer; (ii) an unstored portion of the video portion of said first television program being displayed as a visible image on said user display and an unstored portion of the audio portion of said first television program being output as an audible sound to the audio transducer simultaneously with said second television program being stored in said digital data storage memory; and (iii) the video portion of said second television program being displayed as a visible image on said user display and the audio portion of said second television program being output as an audible sound to the audio transducer while another portion of said second television program is being stored. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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2. A system for receiving, storing, and displaying television programs comprised of video and audio portions, comprising:
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a user display and associated audio transducer and a second user display and associated second audio transducer; digital data storage memory; a delivery channel interface responsive to a plurality of delivery channels, each said delivery channel simultaneously providing data comprising a respective television program that is currently being broadcast, without the user'"'"'s request, by a respective programming source; a data manager responsive to a user remote to cause a first of the delivered television programs to be displayed on said user display; said data manager also responsive to said user remote to cause a second of the delivered television programs to be stored in said digital data storage memory while said first television program is being displayed, without first storing said first television program in said digital data storage memory; said data manager also responsive to said user remote to cause the first of the delivered television programs to be displayed on any one of said user display and said second user display; and said data manager also responsive to a second user remote to cause the second of the delivered television programs to be displayed on any one of said user display and said second user display, while said first of the delivered television programs is being displayed on the other one of said any one of said user display and said second user display.
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3. A system for receiving, storing, and displaying television programs comprised of video and audio portions, comprising:
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a user display and associated audio transducer; digital data storage memory with at least a first television program previously received from a delivery channel and stored in said memory; a user remote; a delivery channel interface responsive to a plurality of delivery channels, each said delivery channel simultaneously providing data comprising a respective television program that is currently being broadcast, without the user'"'"'s request, by a respective programming source; a data manager responsive to said user remote and said data to cause at least one of said respective television programs to be displayed on said user display without being stored in said digital data storage memory; and said data manager configured to cause, when a storage capacity of said memory has been reduced, one or more portions of a television program stored in said memory to be deleted in accordance with at least two numerical priorities determining an order in which the television program is to be deleted, each of said numerical priorities representing a feature desired by the user, said numerical priorities being entered through said user remote.
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4. A system for receiving, storing, and displaying television programs comprised of video and audio portions, comprising:
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a user display and associated audio transducer; digital data storage memory; a user remote; a delivery channel interface responsive to a plurality of delivery channels, each said delivery channel simultaneously providing data comprising a respective television program that is currently being broadcast, without the user'"'"'s request, by a respective programming source; a data manager responsive to said user remote and to said data to cause to be provided a respective first television program to said user display; said data manager further responsive to said user remote and to said data to cause at least one other of said respective television programs to be stored by said digital data storage memory simultaneously with the display of said first television program on said user display, without first storing said first television program in said memory; and said data manager further responsive to a pause command, entered by a user via said user remote, to cause a pause in said first television program being provided to said user display and said first television program to be stored in said memory, said data manager further responsive to a disable-pause command, entered via said user remote, to cause the first television program to be read from said memory at a catch-up rate which is faster than a normal viewing rate and displayed on said user display from the point where the first television program was paused, without loss of program material, said data manager being configured to cause, when a storage capacity of said memory has been reduced, one or more portions of a television program stored in said memory to be deleted in accordance with at least two storage parameters associated with said television program, each of said storage parameters determining an order in which the television program is to be deleted, each of said storage parameters representing a feature desired by the user. - View Dependent Claims (5, 7, 8, 9)
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6. A system for receiving, storing, and displaying a television program comprised of video and audio portions, comprising:
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a user display and associated audio transducer; digital data storage memory; a user remote; a delivery channel interface responsive to a delivery channel, which delivery channel provides data comprising a television program that is being currently broadcast, without the user'"'"'s request, by a programming source; a data manager responsive to said user remote to cause said television program to be provided to said user display without passing said television program through said memory; said data manager also responsive to said user remote to cause said digital data storage memory to store said television program while it is being displayed on said user display; said data manager further responsive to a command, entered by a user via said user remote to cause the storage in said memory of a series of broadcasts of a predetermined television program each time said predetermined television program is broadcast; and said data manager being configured to cause, when a storage capacity of said memory has been reduced, one or more portions of a television program stored in said memory to be deleted in accordance with at least two numerical priorities determining an order in which the television program is to be deleted, each of said numerical priorities representing a feature desired by the user, said numerical priorities being entered through said user remote.
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24. A method for receiving, storing, and displaying television programs comprised of video and audio portions, comprising:
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using a first tuner to receive a first television program which is being currently broadcast, without any user request, by a programming source via a delivery channel, and simultaneously using a second tuner to receive a second television program which is being currently broadcast; using a data manager coupled to said first and second tuners to simultaneously store the first and second television programs in a storage device as the television programs are received; and in response to a user command transmitted by a user remote, the data manager provides video and audio portions of said first television program to a user display and associated audio transducer without first passing said first television program through said storage device while maintaining simultaneously storing the first and second television programs in said storage device. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59)
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25. A method for receiving, storing and displaying television programs comprised of video and audio portions, comprising:
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simultaneously receiving first and second television programs which are being currently broadcast, without any user request, by respective first and second programming sources via respective first and second delivery channels; in response to a user communication transmitted by a first user remote to a data manager, simultaneously storing said first and second television programs in a storage device, said storage device also containing a program previously received over a delivery channel and stored on said storage device, at least a portion of said previously received program being deleted during the storing of said first and second television programs, wherein the second television program is higher priority than said previously received program; and in response to a user command transmitted by a second user remote to the data manager, providing video and audio portions of a newly-received television program to a user display and associated audio transducer without first storing said newly-received television program in said storage device.
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26. A method for receiving, storing, and displaying television programs comprised of video and audio portions, comprising:
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receiving a plurality of television programs which are being currently broadcast, without any user request, each from a respective programming source via a respective tuner; storing at least one of said plurality of television programs in a storage device, said storage device also containing a program previously received over a tuner and stored on said storage device; said storing step including the step of providing a warning message to a user when the user attempts to enter conflicting storage information for a received television program, which conflicting storage information would conflict with a user-defined priority of television program storage; overwriting a portion of said previously received program in the memory in accordance with at least two storage parameters associated with said previously received program, each of said storage parameters determining an order in which said previously received program is to be deleted, each of said storage parameters representing a feature desired by the user; and in response to a user command transmitted by a user remote, providing video and audio portions of another of the received television programs to a user display and associated audio transducer without first sending said another television program to said storage device.
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27. A method for receiving, storing, and displaying television programs comprised of video and audio portions, comprising:
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receiving a plurality of television programs which are being currently broadcast, without any user request, each from a respective programming source via a respective one of a plurality of tuners, each of said television programs comprising program data; storing a first of said television programs in a storage device, said storage device also containing a program previously received over another tuner and stored on said storage device; assigning at least two numerical priorities to at least said previously received program stored in said storage device, each of said numerical priorities determining an order in which said previously received program is to be deleted, each of said numerical priorities representing a feature desired by the user; the storing of said first of said television programs including overwriting the previously stored program in accordance with the at least two numerical priorities; in response to a user command transmitted by a user remote, providing said first television program to a user display and associated audio transducer in response to its respective program data without passing said first television program through said storage device; and in response to a user pause command transmitted by said user remote, switching the video and audio portions of said first television program provided to said user display to said storage device, causing a pause in said first television program being displayed on said user display. - View Dependent Claims (28, 31)
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29. A method for receiving, storing, and displaying television programs comprised of video and audio portions, comprising:
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receiving at least a first television program which is being currently broadcast, without any user request, by a programming source via a first tuner; storing said first television program in a storage device, said storage device also containing a program previously received over another tuner and stored on said storage device, and providing video and audio portions of said previously received program to a user display and associated audio transducer; overwriting a portion of said previously received program in said storage device in accordance with at least two storage parameters associated with said previously received program, each of said storage parameters determining an order in which said previously received program is to be deleted, each of said storage parameters representing a feature desired by the user; in response to a user command transmitted by a user remote, stop providing said video and audio portions of said previously received program to said user display and start providing video and audio portions of said first television program to said user display as said portions are received by said first tuner without passing said first television program through said storage device; in response to a subsequent user pause command transmitted by said user remote, pausing the display of said first television program on said user display and causing the video and audio portions of the first television program received by the first tuner to be stored in said storage device; and in response to a further user command transmitted by said user remote after the pause command, causing said first television program to be read out of said storage device at a catch-up speed that is faster than a normal television display speed and with an audio pitch correction to compensate for the increased read-out speed. - View Dependent Claims (30)
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32. A method for receiving, storing, and displaying television programs comprised of video and audio portions, comprising:
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receiving a plurality of television programs which are being currently broadcast, without any user request, by respective programming sources via respective tuners; storing said plurality of television programs in a storage device, said storage device also containing a television program previously received over a delivery channel and stored on said storage device; in response to a user command transmitted by a user remote, providing the video and audio portions of any one of the received television programs to a user display and associated audio transducer as it is received without passing said any one television program through said storage device; in response to a further user command transmitted by said user remote, providing the video and audio portions of any one of the plurality of stored television programs to the user display and associated audio transducer simultaneously with any one of the received television programs that is received and not passing through said storage device; in response to another user command transmitted by said user remote, causing a still frame of said any one of the plurality of stored television programs provided from said storage device and displayed on said user display; and in response to a further user command transmitted by said user remote, providing the video and audio portions of said any one of stored television programs which corresponds to said still frame to the user display to play from the point of said still frame.
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Specification