发明名称 |
Navigation among grouped television channels |
摘要 |
A television viewer can easily navigate programs which are grouped according to a common service provider or other grouping criteria by depressing the "channel up" or "channel down" buttons on a hand-held remote control. Programming services which are provided via one or more transmission paths are integrated, thereby allowing a viewer to successively select the grouped channels regardless of the broadcast signal, transmission path, frequency spectrum, transport stream and/or PID in which the channel is carried. Data is provided with broadcast signals to indicate broadcast address information which corresponds to a primary channel and one or more secondary channels of a channel group. A viewer can successively view the channels of the group while bypassing intermediate non-group channels. Grouped channels can thus be designated by a common channel designator such as a channel number. Goodwill and brand loyalty which has been built up over time in a local station channel number can be used to define a family of programs to maintain continuity as channels are added or dropped, or channel assignments of programming services are rearranged. <IMAGE> |
申请公布号 |
EP0849954(A2) |
申请公布日期 |
1998.06.24 |
申请号 |
EP19970122129 |
申请日期 |
1997.12.16 |
申请人 |
GENERAL INSTRUMENT CORPORATION |
发明人 |
EYER, MARK K.;RAST, ROBERT |
分类号 |
G06Q50/00;G06Q50/10;G06Q50/32;H04B1/16;H04H20/00;H04H60/43;H04N5/445;H04N5/50;H04N7/16;H04N7/173;H04N21/438;H04N21/482 |
主分类号 |
G06Q50/00 |
代理机构 |
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代理人 |
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主权项 |
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地址 |
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