Electrical program guide system and method
US5926230A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 25, 1996 |
| Grant date | Jul 20, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 25, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04N21/47
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An electrical program guide system and method by which a desired program can be selected rapidly with certainty, intuitively and directly from among a large number of programs, in which nine reduced screens reduced from nine screens of different programs are arranged in a 3.times.3 matrix to construct one multi-screen as a screen for program selection. Six such screens for program selection are individually produced by multi-screen production circuits and encoded by MPEG video encoders, and then multiplexed by a multiplexer so that they may be transmitted via a single transmission channel. The multiplexed signal is subjected to error correction coding and QPSK modulation by a transmission line coding apparatus and then it is further subjected to frequency conversion by an up converter. The resultant signal is transmitted to an artificial satellite through a mixer and a parabola antenna. Each multi-screen received on the reception side from the satellite is displayed as 3.times.3 pieces of reduced screens of full motion, and a viewer will find out and directly select a desired program from a preview screen formed from the reduced screens.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.