Electronic television program guide schedule system and method with scan feature

• US 8,875,187 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2009
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: UV Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: United Video Properties Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Ellis, Michael D., Davis, Bruce L., Knudson, Edward B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Parra, Omar S
• Application Number:
  US12/632,047
• Publication Number:
  US 20100180302A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,786 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/52
• 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 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4823 using a channel name

Abstract

An electronic program schedule system which utilizes a receiver for receiving broadcast, satellite or cablecast television programs for a plurality of television channels and a tuner for tuning a television receiver to a selected one of the plurality of channels. A data processor receives and stores in a memory television program schedule information for a plurality of television programs to appear on the plurality of television channels. A user control apparatus, such as a remote controller, is utilized by a viewer to choose user control commands and transmit signals in response to the data processor which receives the signals in response to user control commands. A television receiver is used to display the television programs and television program schedule information. A video display generator receives video control commands from the data processor and program schedule information from the memory and displays a portion of the program schedule information in overlaying relationship with a television program appearing on a television channel in at least one mode of operation of the television programming guide. The data processor controls the video display generator with video control commands, issued in response to the user control commands, to display program schedule information for any chosen one of the plurality of television programs in overlaying relationship with at least one television program then appearing on any chosen one of the plurality of channels on the television receiver. The system includes a scan feature to permit the user to scan program schedule listings for multiple programs in any of the operational modes of the system with the issuance of a single user control command.

Claims

1. A method for generating for display program listings using an interactive program guide, comprising:

receiving a first user selection

in response to receiving the first user selection;

determining a scan mode and scan direction based on the first user selection wherein the scan mode is a channel-wise scan or a time-wise scan;

automatically scanning a sequence of the program listings; and

generating a display of a first stationary program listing simultaneously with a first video corresponding to the first stationary program listing for a first period of time, and

generating a display of a second stationary program listing simultaneously with a second video corresponding to the second stationary program listing for a second period of time.

2. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the first user selection generates a start scan command and wherein the automatically scanning a sequence is initiated in response to the start scan command.

3. The method defined in claim 1, wherein a user input generates a stop scan command and wherein the automatically scanning a sequence is terminated in response to the stop scan command.

4. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the first and second periods of time that the first and second stationary program listings are generated for display are user definable.

5. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the program listings generated for display are for programs scheduled to appear on a plurality of television channels.

6. The method defined in claim 5, wherein the program listings generated for display are for programs scheduled to appear during a common time period.

7. The method defined in claim 5 wherein the plurality of television channels comprises a sequence of consecutively numbered channels.

8. The method defined in claim 5, further comprising receiving a second user selection of a desired program in the sequence of program listings, wherein the desired program is generated for display in response to the second user selection.

9. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the first user selection is received while generating a display of a program on a given channel and wherein the sequence of program listings contains programs scheduled to appear on the given channel.

10. The method defined in claim 9, wherein the sequence of program listings contains programs scheduled to appear in a window of time for the given channel.

11. The method defined in claim 9, wherein the sequence of program listings is determined by category of the program on the given channel.

12. An interactive program guide system implemented on user equipment, the user equipment comprising:

a user input device configured to receive a first user selection

a processor configured to, in response to receiving the first user selection;

determine a scan mode and scan direction based on the first user selection, wherein the scan mode is a channel-wise scan or a time-wise scan; and

automatically scan a sequence of program listings, wherein the processor is further configured to;

generate for display a first stationary program listing simultaneously with a first video corresponding to the first stationary program listing for a first period of time, and

generate for display a second stationary program listing simultaneously with a second video corresponding to the second stationary program listing for a second period of time.

13. The system defined in claim 12, wherein the first user selection generates a start scan command, and wherein the processor is further configured to initiate the automatically scanning the sequence in response to the start scan command.

14. The system defined in claim 12, wherein the user input device is further configured to receive a user input of a stop scan command, wherein the processor is further configured to terminate the automatically scanning the sequence in response to the stop scan command.

15. The system defined in claim 12, wherein the first and second periods of time that the first and second stationary program listings are generated for display are user definable.

16. The system defined in claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to generate for display program listings for programs scheduled to appear on a plurality of television channels.

17. The system defined in claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to generate for display program listings of programs scheduled to appear during a common time period.

18. The system defined in claim 16 wherein the plurality of television channels comprises a sequence of consecutively numbered channels.

19. The system defined in claim 16, wherein the user input device is further configured to receive a second user selection of a desired program in the sequence of program listings, wherein the processor is further configured generate for display the desired program in response to the second user selection.

20. The system defined in claim 12, wherein the first user selection is received while generating a display of a program on a given channel and wherein the sequence of program listings contains programs scheduled to appear on the given channel.

21. The system defined in claim 20, wherein the sequence of program listings contains programs scheduled to appear in a window of time for the given channel.

22. The system defined in claim 20, wherein the sequence of program listings is determined by category of the program on the given channel.