Unified program guide interface

A program guide interface, comprising:

• a source of analog and digital video signals, each of which is representative of a picture and each of which may carry program guide information;
• a demultiplexer having said digital video signal as an input and having said program guide information as a first program guide output;
• a demodulator having at least a luminance component of said analog video signal as an input and having said program guide information as a second program guide output;
• a first multiplexer having said digital and analog video signals as inputs and having a selected video signal as an output;
• and,
• a video graphics adapter;
• a microprocessor;
• a data bus interconnecting said demultiplexer, said demodulator, said video graphics adapter and said microprocessor, any one of said first and second program guide outputs being transferable to said video graphics adapter, said video graphics adapter formatting a graphics video signal representative of said program guide information;
• and,
• a second multiplexer having said graphics video signal and said selected video signal as inputs and having a combined output video signal representative of both said program guide information and said picture represented by said selected video signal.

A program guide interface, comprising:

• a source of an analog video signal representative of a first picture and including program guide information transmitted therewith, a digital video signal representative of a second picture and including said program guide information encoded therewith and an information signal including only said program guide information;
• a first multiplexer for selecting one of said analog and digital video signals as a source for a video display;
• means for separating said program guide information from each of said analog video signal, said digital video signal and said digital information signal;
• a video graphics generator;
• a microprocessor for routing said separated program guide information to said video graphics generator, said video graphics adapter formatting a graphics video signal representative of said program guide information;
• and,
• a second multiplexer for combining said graphics video signal with said selected one of said analog and digital video signals to generate a combined video display including one of said first and second pictures and said program guide information.

A program guide interface, comprising:

• a source of analog and digital video signals, each of which is representative of a picture and each of which may carry program guide information;
• means for separating said program guide information from at least one of said analog and digital video signals;
• a video graphics generator;
• a microprocessor for routing said separated program guide information to said video graphics generator, said video graphics generator formatting a graphics video signal representative of said program guide information;
• a video encoder for said graphics video signal formatted by said video graphics generator;
• and,
• means for combining said encoded graphics video signal with any one of said analog and digital video signals to generate a combined video display including said program guide information and any one of said pictures.

A program guide interface, comprising:

• a source of analog and digital video signals, each of which is representative of a picture and each of which may carry program guide information;
• respective means for separating said program guide information from each of said analog and digital video signals;
• a video graphics generator;
• a microprocessor for routing said separated program guide information to said video graphics generator, said video graphics generator formatting a graphics video signal representative of said program guide information;
• and,
• means for combining said graphics video signal with either one of said analog and digital video signals to generate a combined video display including said program guide information and any one of said pictures.

A program guide interface, comprising:

• a source of analog and digital video signals, each of which is representative of a picture and each of which may carry program guide information;
• means for separating said program guide information from at least one of said analog and digital video signals;
• a video graphics generator;
• a microprocessor for routing said separated program guide information to said video graphics generator, said video graphics generator formatting a graphics video signal representative of said program guide information and supplying a control signal;
• and,
• multiplexing means responsive to said control signal for combining said graphics video signal with either one of said analog and digital video signals to generate a combined video display including said program guide information and any one of said pictures.