System and method for providing channel selection in an electronic programming guide

• US 20020078457A1
• Filed: 12/20/2000
• Published: 06/20/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Diaz, Ronaldo, Nishikawa, Yuko S., Chow, Jenny Su, Dew, Aaron John
• Granted Patent: US 7,721,309 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/61
• 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 21/4532 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 21/47 End-user applications
• 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

Abstract

The present invention relates to an entertainment system and method for selectively storing broadcast channels by the entertainment system. To store a broadcast channel, the system first receives programming data associated with the channel. A show associated with the channel is displayed and a menu associated with the storing of the channel in memory may also be displayed. The viewer may then select to add to or remove from memory the programming data associated with the currently tuned channel via a one-step process, and the programming data is subsequently loaded into the memory.

Claims

1. A method for selectively storing a show associated with a broadcast channel capable of being received and displayed by an entertainment system, the method comprising:

receiving programming data associated with the channel;

displaying a show associated with the channel;

displaying a menu associated with storing of the channel in memory;

selecting to load the programming data of the channel into memory of the entertainment system; and

loading the programming data associated with the channel into the memory.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting to load includes specifying that the channel is to be added to a list of stored channels.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising removing a current channel from the list of stored channels.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting for display, a list of stored channels and displaying the list of stored channels.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising navigating through the list of stored channels.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving programming data comprises receiving a digital bit stream including the programming data and sensory data corresponding to the programming data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting to load the programming data comprises:

executing software by a central processing unit, implemented within the entertainment system, to produce a screen menu; and

selecting an option icon of the screen menu to prompt selection of the channel for storage in memory.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein loading the programming data into memory includes loading the channel number information and source of the channel into memory.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

selecting for display, a list of the stored channels;

selecting an option to cause a broadcast receiver to tune to a channel in the list of the stored channels to broadcast a show corresponding to the channel.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

selecting an option to exit the screen menu.

11. An entertainment system comprising:

a display monitor; and

a broadcast receiver coupled to the display monitor, the broadcast receiver including

a front-end unit capable of receiving programming data associated with a show broadcast for viewing on the display monitor,

a memory, and

a central processing unit coupled to the memory, the central processing unit coupled to receive programming data associated with a broadcast channel, the central processing unit to execute software to load programming data associated with the channel into the memory.

12. The entertainment system of claim 11, wherein the central processing unit executes software to display a screen menu on said display monitor, the screen menu including an icon selectable to add a current channel to a list of channels stored in said memory.

13. The entertainment system of claim 11, wherein the central processing unit executes software to display a screen menu on said display monitor, the screen menu including an icon selectable to remove a current channel from a list of channels stored in said memory.

14. The entertainment system of claim 11, wherein the display monitor includes a television receiver.

15. The entertainment system of claim 11, wherein the broadcast receiver includes an integrated receiver decoder.

16. The entertainment system of claim 11, wherein the central processing unit of the broadcast receiver executes software to provide a screen menu, and wherein selection of an icon of the screen menu signals the central processing unit to execute software to add a currently displayed channel to a list of channels stored in said memory.

17. The entertainment system of claim 16, wherein the screen menu further comprises a second icon selectable to display a second screen menu that displays the list of channels stored in said memory.

18. The entertainment system of claim 17, wherein the second screen menu further comprises a graphical portion, said list of channels being scrollable, said graphical portion displaying a show corresponding to a channel in said list during scrolling.

19. The entertainment system of claim 18, wherein the second screen menu further comprises a text portion, said text portion including a description of said show corresponding to said channel.

20. The entertainment system of claim 16, wherein the screen menu further comprises a second icon which is selectable to exit the screen menu.