Program guide apparatus

摘要

A method acquires program guide information in an image signal receiver, and program guide method and apparatus using the same. In the program guide apparatus, information immediately required by a user is obtained first, and information of less preferential channels is obtained next, thus presenting a smooth interface to the user. The method of acquiring program guide information for channels includes acquiring the program guide information for each channel by scanning accessible channels while a received program is not displayed. The program guide apparatus includes a tuner tuning a channel, a program guide information detector, a memory, a key input, a microprocessor, and a character signal generator.

主权项

1. A method of channel searching for a digital television receiver, the method comprising:
receiving a transport stream including audio, video and additional information, the transport stream being transmitted from each of broadcast stations accessible in the receiver; obtaining the additional information from the transport stream; generating a channel list that is designed to be shown in a single display window based on the additional information, where the channel list is made up of one or more separately identifiable channel groupings, each having one or more two-part channel numbers, where each of the one or more two-part channel numbers includes a main channel number as a first part and a sub-channel number as a second part, and where each two-part channel number of a respectively identifiable channel grouping has a same main channel number and different sub- channel numbers; and enabling a user to navigate the channel list to search a two-part channel number, wherein the navigation of the channel list is performed in a two-dimension number-based order on the single display window, between two-part channel numbers of a channel grouping or between channel groupings, where the window is vertically and horizontally embedded with two- part channel numbers, so that a user can select channels easily, where the selection is made to show channel information compatible with an ATSC standard and contents of video or audio conforming with an MPEG standard, and wherein information included in the channel list reflects program associated information of Program Specific Information (PSI) data conforming with the MPEG standard.