Searching electronic program guide data

摘要

Searching electronic program guide (EPG) data is described. The EPG data may be compartmentalized into channel metadata that describes characteristics of one or more channels and content metadata that describes characteristics of one or more content items. In a implementation, a method includes searching channel metadata and content metadata. A result of the searching is formed for output in conjunction with an electronic program guide (EPG).

主权项

1. A method implemented by one or more processors executing instructions stored in one or more memories, the method comprising:
displaying, at a client device, an electronic program guide (EPG) that comprises schedule and channel information for a plurality of content items, said EPG including a search window that is concurrently displayed with the schedule and channel information, the search window for receiving entry of a plurality of alphabetic characters from a user to update the concurrently displayed schedule and channel information in response to entry of each alphabetic character of the plurality of alphabetic characters; receiving alphabetic search input from the user describing a channel of interest by entry of the plurality of alphabetic characters into the search window; communicating a search request including the alphabetic search input over a network to a head end to direct the head end to search channel metadata based upon the alphabetic search input to determine a relevant channel by searching channel metadata that describes channel characteristics of channels that are accessible to the user via the EPG, and also direct the head end to search content metadata that describes content characteristics of particular content items, wherein the channel metadata describing the channel characteristics including channel call signs, channel owners, and channel titles is stored at the head end separately from the content metadata describing the content characteristics, wherein as a result of directing the head end to search channel metadata, searching by the head end further comprises determining other channels which are also owned by an owner of the relevant channel that satisfies the search input; receiving a result of the searching from the head end; outputting the results of the searching in conjunction with the EPG, the results comprising a redisplay of the EPG to present a list displayed in the EPG including a representation of the relevant channel that satisfies the search input and representations of one or more channel identifiers determined to be relevant to the alphabetic search input, the one or more channel identifiers including the other channels which are also owned by the owner of the relevant channel that satisfies the search input, along with one or more names of one or more content items that are determined to be relevant to the alphabetic search input; receiving a highlight input from the user describing a selected channel representation displayed in the EPG without highlighting an associated content item; receiving a new alphabetic search input into the search window while the selected channel representation is highlighted; interpreting from the highlight input that the user wishes to search for a particular channel rather than the associated content item; and communicating the search request over the network to the head end for searching only the channel metadata and not the content metadata based on the received search input for one or more channels that satisfy the search input.