Method of providing contents information for a network television

• US 9,219,946 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2010
• Issued: 12/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Bae, Wonchul, Park, Daesuk, Ahn, Eunseon, Kim, Jaeuk
• Primary Examiner(s): Lewis, Jonathan V
• Application Number:
  US12/938,626
• Publication Number:
  US 20110119707A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,875 Days
• Field of Search: 725/39, 725/43, 725/46, 725/59
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 21/4622 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 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/50 Tuning indicators; Automatic tuning control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver

Abstract

Embodiments provide a method that allows users for easily acquire contents information by receiving and displaying only providable contents lists without connecting to servers of a plurality of contents providers, in a network TV that can receive and play contents while being connected with the contents providers.

Claims

1. A method of providing contents information in a display apparatus connectable to a network, the method comprising:

requesting a plurality of contents providers to transmit a plurality of contents lists, respectively, wherein the plurality of contents lists correspond to the plurality of contents providers, respectively;

receiving the plurality of requested contents lists and location information of contents included in each of the plurality of contents lists from the contents providers, respectively, wherein each of the plurality of contents list is a list of a plurality of contents that can be provided by a corresponding contents provider; and

displaying the plurality of received contents lists on a plurality of areas of a screen, respectively,

wherein the plurality of contents included in each of the plurality of contents lists are linked based on the location information, and

wherein displaying the plurality of received contents lists includes displaying, differently, sizes of the plurality of areas in accordance with an access number, and wherein the access number represents a total number of times that the display apparatus has accessed a content provider, in order to obtain a content from the content provider.

2. The method of providing contents information according to claim 1, wherein the location information of the contents includes URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of a server of the contents provider that can receive the contents.

3. The method of providing contents information according to claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of contents list includes all the contents that can be provided from the contents provider or some contents requested by the user in all contents that can be provided from the contents provider.

4. The method of providing contents information according to claim 3, wherein the some contents are any one of a plurality of contents types including newest contents, popular contents, contents requested to be searched by the user, and contents uploaded/downloaded by the user, in all of the contents that can be provided by the contents provider.

5. The method of providing contents information according to claim 4, further comprising:

receiving the contents type for some contents that will be included in the contents list, for at least any one of the plurality of contents providers,

wherein the requesting of transmission is transmitting information on the contents type to the contents provider.

6. The method of providing contents information according to claim 1, wherein the contents providers are all of contents providers that can be connected to the display apparatus, or contents providers that are designated by a user in the connectable contents providers.

7. The method of providing contents information according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of at least one of the contents included in the contents list from a user; and

receiving the contents selected by the user.

8. The method of providing contents information according to claim 1, further comprising performing a control instruction from a user for at least one of the contents included in the contents list.

9. The method of providing contents information according to claim 8, wherein the control instruction includes at least one of locking, programming watch time, and registering favorite contents for the selected contents.

10. The method of providing contents information according to claim 1, further comprising:

requesting update information of user-designated contents to the contents provider that provides at least one contents designated by a user;

receiving update information of the user-designated contents; and

displaying the update information of the received contents.

11. A display apparatus connectable to a network, comprising:

a display unit; and

a control unit configured to;

request a plurality of contents providers to transmit a plurality of contents lists, respectively,

receive the plurality of contents lists and URL (Uniform Resource Locator) information on contents included in each of the plurality of contents lists, from the plurality of contents providers, respectively, wherein the plurality of contents lists correspond to the plurality of contents providers, respectively, wherein each of the plurality of contents list is a list of a plurality of contents that can be provided by a corresponding contents provider

control the display unit to display the plurality of contents lists on a plurality of areas of a screen, respectively,

link the contents included in the plurality of contents lists with the received URL information, and

control the display unit to display, differently, sizes of the plurality of areas based on an access number, wherein the access number is a total number of times that the display apparatus has accessed to a content provider in order to obtain a content from the content provider.

12. The display apparatus according to claim 11, wherein at least one of the contents list is any one of newest contents, popular contents, contents requested to be searched by the user, and contents uploaded/downloaded by the user, in all contents that can be provided from the contents provider.

13. The display apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the control unit performs any one of control instructions of locking, programming watch time, and registering favorite contents for at least one of the contents included in the contents list.

14. The display apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the control unit receives update information of user-designated contents from a contents provider that provides contents designated by the user, and the update information of the received user-designated contents are displayed by the display unit.

15. The display apparatus according to claim 11, wherein a total number of contents in a corresponding contents list is dependent on a size of an area.

16. The display apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the total number of contents in the corresponding contents list is decreased in accordance with the size of the area.

17. The display apparatus according to claim 11, wherein a size of an area corresponding to the most accessed content provider, from among the plurality of areas, is larger than sizes of other ones of the plurality of areas.