Method and system for generating a user interface for digital televisions

Abstract

A method (200) and apparatus (100) for displaying in a remote display device a user command, or status information, in a digitally encoded video signal containing a plurality of pictures transmitted from the apparatus to a remote display device. The method comprises the steps of: generating (216 or 220) at least one digitally encoded indicia representing the user command, or status information; and in response to the user command, modifying (218) at least one picture from a plurality of pictures being sent to the display device for decoding and display by replacing at least a portion of the picture with the digitally encoded indicia such that the indicia is decoded and displayed (220) when the picture is decoded and displayed by the display device. The method can further include reading the digitally encoded signal from a storage medium contained in the apparatus, and the generating step and the modifying step can be performed during the reading step. Alternatively, the generating step can be performed prior to the reading step.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.