CHANNEL INFORMATION WINDOW VIA SERVER-CENTRIC INTERACTIVE USER INTERFACE

摘要

A user interface for an interactive information distribution system is generated in a headend (102) of the system as a digital bitstream and transmitted to subscriber terminal (106) for display. Operation of the user interface is facilitated by functions on both a local level within the terminal (106) and on a system level within the headend. The user interface may comprise an interactive program guide. A "channel information" or "spotlight" window for the interactive program guide is described. A bitmap for a spotlight window may be encoded and continuously broadcast from a server (130), for example, at a cable headend, to terminals (106). Upon receiving a signal from a remote control to bring up the channel information window, the terminal overlays the appropriate window over currently broadcast video. Also, selectable modes for navigation by way of the channel information window are described, which restrict navigation from within the channel information window to a predetermined subset of available channels.