Television program guide interface for the presentation and selection of subdivisions of scheduled subsequent television programs

摘要

A viewer who is consulting a television programming guide with additional information that involves a comprehensive set of visual images. Preferably, the set of sequential images are stills or snapshots representative of portions of the television program.

主权项

1. A method for selecting segments of listed television programs in a displayed television scrollable program guide comprising:
displaying a scrollable program guide having a list of channels, each having a row of sequential future time segments, each segment representing a television program scheduled for the future time segment; enabling a viewer to select a segment in a channel sequence, wherein the television program represented by said segment will be shown at the scheduled future time; displaying one or more of said future time segments, each including a sequence of still images in the represented television program in the form of a video film strip, each still images representing an initial image in a sequence of images of a portion of the television program at a sequential point in the television program; enabling the viewer to select one of the still images in said sequence of still images, wherein the television portion at said sequential point represented by said sill image will be shown at the scheduled future time of said sequential point; enabling the viewer to select one of the still images portion in said sequence of still images, wherein the television portion at said sequential point represented by said still image will be recorded at the scheduled future time of said sequential point; and enabling a viewer to select an image in said film strip to display a sub-strip having a sequence of sub-images within the portion of the television program represented by the selected image.