TELEVISION SYSTEM DISTRIBUTING A DYNAMICALLY VARYING NUMBER OF CONCURRENT VIDEO PRESENTATIONS OVER A SINGLE TELEVISION CHANNEL

摘要

A method and system for providing, in a television system, the combination, transmission, and reception of multiple video presentations over a single channel of a television distribution system. Presentations may be concurrently broadcast for viewing by many users, as well as interactively requested for display by many (potentially a thousand or more) individual users. A presentation consists of a sequence of images which reproduce a full motion, reduced motion, or a still image video presentation for the user when displayed. The signal is transmitted in a standard television format, and consists of a sequence of video images from the various presentations being transmitted. A user terminal receiving the transmitted signal is selectably operable to display one of the multiple transmitted presentations with accompanying audio. The terminal identifies the video images of the selected presentation, stores and displays the images on an associated television receiver. The number of concurrent presentation, and the degree of motion in the presentations are dynamically variable. Interactive instructions between a user at the terminal end and the presentation system are transmitted by an associated telephone line or other communications link.