Television – Basic receiver with additional function – For display of additional information
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-22
2001-06-19
Kostak, Victor R. (Department: 2611)
Television
Basic receiver with additional function
For display of additional information
C725S056000, C348S901000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06249320
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention is related to the processing and displaying of program guide information, and more specifically to processing and displaying of program guide information having major and minor channel number information.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In video broadcast and processing applications, digital video data is typically encoded to conform to the requirements of a known standard. One such widely adopted standard is the MPEG2 (Moving Pictures Expert Group) image encoding standard, hereinafter referred to as the “MPEG standard”. The MPEG standard is comprised of a system encoding section (ISO/IEC 13818-1, 10th Jun. 1994) and a video encoding section (ISO/IEC 13818-2, 20th Jan. 1995). Data encoded to the MPEG standard is in the form of a packetized datastream which typically includes the data content of many program channels (e.g. content corresponding to cable television channels 1-125). Further, several digital services and channels may occupy the frequency spectrum previously occupied by a single analog television channel.
A 6 MHz bandwidth previously allocated to an analog NTSC compatible broadcast channel may now be split into a number of digital sub-channels offering a variety of services. For example, the broadcast spectrum for RF channel 13 may be allocated to sub-channels including a main program channel, a financial service channel offering stock quotes, a sports news service channel and a shopping and interactive channel. In addition, both the quantity of sub-channels transmitted and the individual sub-channel bandwidth may be changed dynamically to accommodate changing broadcast programming requirements.
Therefore, conveying channel information in this environment of dynamically changing bandwidth may post difficulties. First, the quantity of channels will increase greatly due to the addition of the sub-channels. This will require changes in the way channels are presented to users for channel selection. In addition, a broadcaster may not want to lose an original analog NTSC broadcast channel number even though the broadcaster is transmitting several program channels in the frequency spectrum previously occupied by the single analog program channel. The broadcaster may have a significant investment in the channel number as a brand identity e.g. Fox 5™, Channel 13™. These problems and derivative problems are addressed by a system according to the present invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In a method and a system for displaying program information, program information comprising a plurality of major channel identifiers for identifying a respective plurality of major channels is received. Program information comprising a plurality of minor channel identifiers for identifying a respective plurality of minor channels is also received. Each of the minor channels is associated with one of the major channels. The major and minor channel identifiers are displayed. They are displayed such that a group of minor channel identifiers identifying a group of minor channels associated with a particular major channel are displayed along with the major channel identifier identifying the particular major channel in a hierarchical manner for indicating the association of a group of minor channels with a particular major channel.
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MPEG systems standard—ISO/IEC 13818-1, Jun. 10, 1994, Section 2.4 and Section 2.6.
Program Guide for Digital Television, ATSC Standard of Jan. 3, 1996, prepared by the United States Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) Doc. A/55.
Electronic Programme Guide(EPG); Protocol for a TV Guide Using Electronic Data Transmission, ETS 300 707 of May 1997, prepared by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Sections 8-11, pp. 30-62.
European Telecommunications Standards Institute, “Digital Broadcasting Systems For Television, Sound And Data Services; Specification For Service Information (SI) In Digital Broadcasting (DVB) Systems”, 10/95, pp. 1-61, France.
PCT Search Report Attached.
Dinwiddie Aaron Hal
Schneidewend Daniel Richard
Kostak Victor R.
Liao Frank Y.
Thomson Licensing S.A.
Tripoli Joseph S.
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