Apparatus and method for processing a program guide in a digital video system

US 20060075434A1

(io) Pub. No.: US 2006/0075434 Al (43) Pub. Date: Apr. 6, 2006

(54) APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR

PROCESSING A PROGRAM GUIDE IN A
DIGITAL VIDEO SYSTEM

(76) Inventors:

John William Chaney, Gilroy, CA (US); Bill Wesley Beyers JR., Carmel, IN (US); Michael Wayne Johnson, Indianapolis, IN (US); James Edwin Hailey, Indianapolis, IN (US); Kevin Elliott Bridgewater, Indianapolis, IN (US); Michael Scott Deiss, Zionsville, IN (US); Raymond Scott Horton, McKinney, TX (US)

A television system for receiving a plurality of digitallyencoded television programs includes circuitry for selecting a particular digital data transmission channel from a plurality of digital data transmission channels containing a desired digitally-encoded television program in response to a control signal, at least one of the data transmission channels also including television program schedule data. The system also includes user-operable data entry circuitry for entering data, and a controller for generating the above-noted control signal in response to user-entered data. The controller selects a virtual channel from a plurality of virtual channels in response to user-entered data, each virtual channel being subject to reassignment to a different one of said a plurality of digital data transmission channels, the television program schedule data defining the relationship of each of the television programs to respective ones of the plurality of digital data transmission channels.