Methods and apparatus for visually displaying recording timer information

A method for visually displaying television recording timers, the method comprising:

• setting a plurality of recording timers associated with a plurality of television programs, wherein a first portion of the recording timers are associated with a first television receiving resource and a second portion of the recording timers are associated with a second television receiving resource;
• displaying a visual interface menu having a time axis and a resource axis, the resource axis separately presenting the recording timers associated with each of the first and second television receiving resources;
• and
• displaying a plurality of visual representations of the recording timers, the first portion of the recording timers presented along a first portion of the resource axis and the second portion of the recording timers presented along a second portion of the resource axis, with each of the visual representations positioned along a portion of the time axis associated with a beginning time and an ending time of an associated recording timer.

A digital video recorder comprising:

• a television tuner that receives and tunes video signals from a programming source;
• a storage medium communicatively coupled to the television tuner that stores at least a portion of the video signals received by the television tuner;
• an interface module that receives a first user input requesting to record a first television program and that receives a second user input requesting to record a second television program;
• a processor communicatively coupled to the television tuner, the storage medium and the interface module that is configured to:
• identify a recording conflict between the first television program and the second television program during a conflict time period;
• output, for display by a display device, a first visual representation of the first television program and a second visual representation of the second television program simultaneously along a time axis of a user interface menu, with at least a portion of the first visual representation being overlaid on a portion of the second visual representation along the time axis corresponding to the conflict time period;
• and
• coordinate storage of at least one of the first television program and the second television program onto the storage medium.

A digital video recorder comprising:

• a first television tuner;
• a second television tuner;
• a storage medium;
• an interface module that receives a plurality of first user input requesting to record a plurality of television programs;
• and
• a processor communicatively coupled to the first television tuner, the second television tuner, the storage medium and the interface module that is configured to:
• set a plurality of recording timers associated with the plurality of television programs based on the plurality of first user input, wherein a first portion of the recording timers are associated with the first television tuner and a second portion of the recording timers are associated with the second television tuner;
• output a visual interface menu, for display by a display device, the visual interface menu having a time axis and a resource axis, the resource axis separately presenting the recording timers associated with each of the first and second television tuners;
• output a plurality of visual representations of the recording timers, the first portion of the recording timers presented along a first portion of the resource axis and the second portion of the recording timers presented along a second portion of the resource axis, with each of the visual representations positioned along a portion of the time axis associated with a beginning time and an ending time of an associated recording timer;
• and
• coordinate the storage of at least a portion of the plurality of television programs onto the storage medium.