US 5,619,274 AGranted

Television schedule information transmission and utilization system and process

AssigneeStarsight Telecast, Inc.

InventorsJohn H. Roop, Alan R. Ebright, Jeffrey J. Kochy, David P. Warden, Konstantine Sokolik, Giambattista A. Alegiani

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Abstract

Television schedule information transmission and utilization systems (50A-50D) transmit TV schedule data and associated network control messages provided by computer (54) as packets via the Video Blanking Interval (VBI) lines in the TV signal from various television program providers (51). This data is acquired by regional data processing systems and forwarded by the regional data processing systems to subscriber units (52) and used to construct an internal database. This internal database can be accessed by the subscriber unit (52) to display a TV schedule for the channels that are received by the user's TV.

Claims32

Dependent claims

In a television schedule information transmission system including a direct broadcast satellite, a central data processing system having means for transmitting television schedule data for the direct broadcast satellite to the direct broadcast satellite, and subscriber data processing systems having means for receiving the television schedule data for the direct broadcast satellite from the direct broadcast satellite, the improvement which comprises a plurality of regional data processing systems, each located in a region of a predetermined territory, a means for transmitting television schedule data for the predetermined territory to said plurality of regional data processing systems, said plurality of regional data processing systems each including means for receiving the television schedule data for the predetermined territory, means, coupled to said means for receiving the television schedule data for the territory, for selecting the television schedule data for the region in which each of said plurality of regional data processing system is located and means, coupled to said means for selecting the television schedule data for the region, for transmitting the television schedule data for the region to a plurality of said subscriber data processing systems in each of the regions.

In a television schedule information transmission system, the method which comprises transmitting television schedule data including day, time and channel of television programs for a direct broadcast satellite to the direct broadcast satellite, receiving the television schedule data for the direct broadcast satellite from the direct broadcast satellite at a subscriber data processing system, transmitting television schedule data including day, time and channel of television programs for a predetermined territory to a plurality of regional data processing systems each located in a region of the territory, receiving the television schedule data for the predetermined territory in a regional data processing system located in a region of the predetermined territory, selecting the television schedule data for the region in which the regional data processing system is located and transmitting the television schedule data for the region to the subscriber data processing system for use by a user along with the television schedule data for the direct broadcast satellite to select television programs for reception.

A television schedule information system, comprising:

(a) a central data processing system;
(b) a data source coupled to the central data processing system, the data source having:
(1) television schedule data including day, time and channel of television programs for direct broadcast satellite and for a predetermined territory;
(c) the central data processing system comprising:
(1) a formatter that changes the television schedule data received from the data source into formatted television schedule data conforming to a predetermined format;
and
(2) a central transmitter coupled to the formatter which transmits the formatted television schedule data received from the formatter;
(d) a direct broadcast satellite which receives the formatted television schedule data for the direct broadcast satellite from the central transmitter;
(e) a plurality of regional data processing systems, each regional data processing system receiving the formatted television schedule data for the predetermined territory for the central transmitter and comprising:
(1) a data selector which selects a regional portion of the formatted television schedule data for the predetermined territory;
and
(2) a regional transmitter coupled to the data selector which transmits the regional portion of the formatted television schedule data to a corresponding region;
(f) a plurality of subscriber data processing systems located in each region, comprising:
(1) a data receiver which receives the formatted television schedule data for the direct broadcast satellite from the direct broadcast satellite and at least part of the regional portion of the formatted schedule data supplied by the regional transmitter;
(2) a data selector coupled to the data receiver to select at least some of the formatted television schedule data from the direct broadcast satellite and at least some of the regional portion of the formatted television schedule data from the regional transmitter;
(3) a memory coupled to the data selector which stores the formatted television schedule data selected by the data selector;
(4) a data assembler coupled to the memory which assembles portions of the formatted television schedule data stored in the memory;
and
(5) a display coupled to the data assembler that displays the assembled portions of the schedule data.

16 more elements

A television schedule information system, comprising:

(a) a central data processing system with a transmitter which transmits first and second television schedule data including day, time and channel of television programs for a direct broadcast satellite and for a predetermined territory, respectively;
(b) a direct broadcast satellite which receives the first television schedule data from the transmitter of the central data processing system and re-transmits the first television schedule data;
(c) a plurality of regional data processing systems each of which receives the second television schedule data, selects second television schedule data corresponding to a region of the receiving regional data processing system and transmits the second schedule data for the region to the region;
(d) a plurality of subscriber data processing systems, each of which receives the first television schedule data from the direct broadcast satellite and second television schedule data from one of the regional data processing systems and assembles the first and second television schedule data for display;
and
(e) a television coupled to one of the plurality of subscriber data processing systems which displays at least some of the first and second assembled schedule data.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 08/243,598Filed 13 May 1994 · continuation in part
Priority: 10 Sep 1990
Granted: 8 Apr 1997
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification49 codes

G04G 15/006
Time-pieces comprising means to be operated at preselected times or after preselected time intervals: for operating at a number of different times
G04G 21/02
Input or output devices integrated in time-pieces: detectors of external physical values, e.g. temperature
G04R 20/18
The radio signal being a telecommunication standard signal, e.g. GSM: decoding time data; Circuits therefor
G11B 15/023
Control of operating function, e.g. switching from recording to reproducing: remotely controlled

Family

Serial579,555Parent of this continuation · filed 10 Sep 1990
Serial198,538Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 18 Feb 1994
Serial239,225Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 4 May 1994
US 5,479,268 AParent of this continuation-in-part
US 5,619,274 AThis patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.