Method for decoding image/sound data contained inteletext data of a digital television signal

Abstract

A data stream is separated from a television signal during the reception of data transmitted in the television signal. The data associated with a given page are collected. The pages thus assembled are temporarily stored. One or more separated pages with lists are transmitted and processed by the decoder at the receiver. Images and image sequences, if necessary, together with a text page, are displayed and sounds are reproduced using circuitry, such as the image and sound decoders, respectively, that already exist in a receiver compatible with digital signal transmission. A given separate page, referred to as the text-image-sound link table, contains addressing information and corresponding codes for image and/or sound data which are in the data stream. The separate page also contains search words and the text page numbers associated with the search words. When a specifically highlighted search word is selected by the user in a selected text page, a selection process is initialized. In the selection process, the user selected search word and the associated addressing information are obtained in the separate page under the page number of the selected text page. Based on the selected addressing information, the corresponding image and sound data are retrieved and reproduced in accordance with the code.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.