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Contents
1. 9 1998 Yoshinobu et al 348 731 pear ation eine Fock Description ng tranlaralion er A ETE S Pe 348 584 Non Final Office Action dated Jan 19 2012 in U S Appl No 5 923 362 A 7 1999 Klosterman 11 841 520 6 072 983 A 6 2000 Klosterman Information Disclosure Statement submitted to the United States 6 177 931 Bl 1 2001 Alexander et al Patent and Trademark Office on Oct 14 1997 in U S Appl No 6 449 767 Bl 9 2002 Krapf et al 08 728 614 6 591 292 Bl 7 2003 Morrison et al RCA Satellite Receiver User s Manual Thomson Multimedia Inc 7 444 661 B1 10 2008 Wugofski 2001 oT Pa R 7 ae ae et al Schaas G Ein Gerat Fur Vielle Standards Funkschau WEKA 2008 0229364 Al 9 2008 Ryu etal Fii Verlag Poing DE No 18 Aug 25 1989 pp 124 E tena US Appl No 08 402 943 dled Mar 13 1995 tilled Method and S Appl No 943 file ar 13 titled Method an 42 a Die Al ace Apparatus for Managing Multiple Outside Video Service Providers DE 42 40 187 6 1994 VideoGuide User s Manual Copyright 1995 EP 0337336 A2 10 1989 Office Actions and Replies in U S Appl No 10 441 475 filed May EP 0 444 496 AI 9 1991 19 2003 EP 0 477756 A2 4 1992 Office Actions and Replies in U S Appl No 11 841 520 filed Aug EP 0 560 593 9 1993 20 2007 EP 0 566 454 Al 10 1993 Operating Guide for the Uniden UST 4800 Integrated Receiver EP 0701367 3 1996 Descrambler JP 61264430 11 1986 RCA Satellite Receiver User s Manual Thomso2. 038 A 10 1988 Testin et al 4 908 713 A 3 1990 Levine 4 914 517 A 4 1990 Duffield Continued FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS DE 3921847 A 1 1991 DE 41 17239 C2 12 1992 Continued OTHER PUBLICATIONS Hofmann J The Consumer Electronic Bus An Integrated Multi Media LAN for the Home International Journal of Digital and Analog Communication Systems vol 4 No 2 1991 pp 77 86 Continued Primary Examiner Pankaj Kumar Assistant Examiner Sahar Baig 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Ropes amp Gray LLP 57 ABSTRACT The present invention provides a tuning scheme for coordi nating schedule information and programs received from multiple sources 26 28 30 and 34 In the preferred embodi ment an identifier associated with the program s channel 52 is used to identify a source device 26 28 30 or 34 When a user selects a program 60 or 62 listed in displayed schedule information 50 the system 10 reads the source identifier attached to the program s channel 52 The system 10 then carries out an automatic switching tuning such that the required source device 26 28 30 or 34 is input to the destination device 22 and a tuner is then tuned to the selected program s channel 52 26 Claims 4 Drawing Sheets US 8 424 040 B2 Page 2 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS WO WO 92 03018 2 1992 i Gib oe Wo WO9204801 Al 3 1992 4 996 597 A 2 1991 Duffield wo WO 94 14281 6 1994 5 123 046 A 6 1992 Levi
3. 12 United States Patent Klosterman US008424040B2 10 Patent No US 8 424 040 B2 45 Date of Patent Apr 16 2013 54 75 73 21 22 65 63 51 52 58 56 GABLE BOX MULTI SOURCE SWITCHING IN A TELEVISION SYSTEM Inventor Brian Lee Klosterman San Ramon CA US Assignee Starsight Telecast Incorporated Fremont CA US Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 961 days Appl No 11 841 521 Filed Aug 20 2007 Prior Publication Data US 2008 0134243 Al Jun 5 2008 Related U S Application Data Continuation of application No 10 441 475 filed on May 19 2003 which is a continuation of application No 09 612 352 filed on Jul 6 2000 now abandoned which is a continuation of application No 08 810 199 filed on Mar 3 1997 now abandoned which is a continuation of application No 08 423 410 filed on Apr 17 1995 now abandoned Int Cl HOAN 5 445 2011 01 US Cl USPC ispune pals ni teens 725 48 725 39 725 51 Field of Classification Search 725 39 725 48 51 See application file for complete search history References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 3 730 986 A 5 1973 Morchand 3 745 240 A 7 1973 Morchand et al 4 488 179 A 12 1984 Kruger et al 4 598 423 A 7 1986 Hettiger 4 706 121 A 11 1987 Young 4 751 578 A 6 1988 Reiter et al 4 776
4. 8 424 040 B2 Page of 1 APPLICATION NO 11 841521 DATED April 16 2013 INVENTOR S Klosterman It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby corrected as shown below On the Title Page The first or sole Notice should read Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 1096 days Signed and Sealed this Twenty seventh Day of August 2013 Teresa Stanek Rea Acting Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO 8 424 040 B2 Page of 1 APPLICATION NO 11 841521 DATED April 16 2013 INVENTOR S Brian Lee Klosterman It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby corrected as shown below In the Claims Column 9 claim 4 line 59 delete channel Column 10 claim 14 line 39 change The to A Column 11 claim 19 line 12 delete program Signed and Sealed this Ninth Day of September 2014 VADs FO le Michelle K Lee Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
5. cable as source devices FIG 1d is a block diagram of a television program and television guide system which has DBS the coordinator and the television tuner all within the same IRD box FIG 2 is an example of an on screen display of a schedule grid guide that has been assembled from the television guide information FIG 3 is an exemplary process flow chart for automatic tuning and FIG 4 is an exemplary process flow chart for automatic unattended recording DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS The present invention provides a tuning scheme which coordinates television programs and television schedule guide information This television schedule guide informa tion can be received from numerous sources As stated above US 8 424 040 B2 3 these sources include an incoming cable line e g on a coax cable satellite broadcasts a dedicated telephone line e g twisted pair and any other medium capable of transmitting a signal In the preferred embodiment television channel broadcasts are received from at least two separate sources such as 1 cable and a satellite dish or 2 two different satellites or 3 local cable and DBS sources The schedule information is provided with a source identifier which iden tifies that schedule information as being from a particular source The schedule information is sorted and displayed in an organized fashion to the user When a user selects a show or channel located on one of the
6. comprising displaying the first program listing and displaying in response to a user selection the second pro gram listing 13 The method of claim 1 wherein one of the first trans mission scheme and the second transmission scheme is ter restrial or satellite 14 The system for use in a user equipment device having a first tuner for receiving a first plurality of television programs transmitted from a first source device using a first transmis sion scheme and a second tuner for receiving a second plu rality of television programs transmitted from a second source device using a second transmission scheme which is different from the first transmission scheme the system com prising means for receiving a plurality of program listings includ ing a first program listing corresponding to one of the first plurality of television programs and a second pro gram listing corresponding to one of the second plurality of television programs means for displaying a guide having the plurality of pro gram listings in response to receiving auser selection selecting one of the plurality of program listings means for selecting one of the first tuner and the second tuner wherein the first tuner is selected when the selected program listing is the first program listing and the second tuner is selected when the selected program listing is the second program listing and means for tuning the selected tuner to the television pro gram
7. ofthe plurality of program listings each signal source identifier identify ing one of the first transmission scheme and the second transmission scheme 8 The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a user selection selecting one of the plurality of program listings retrieving a signal source identifier that identifies one ofthe first transmission scheme and the second transmission scheme that corresponds to the selected program listing and receiving a television signal from one of the first tuner and the second tuner which uses the identified transmission scheme 9 The method of claim 1 wherein the first source device and the second source device are selected from the group consisting ofa cable a broadcast source an antenna source a terrestrial source a satellite source and a direct broadcast satellite source 10 The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying the transmission scheme used to transmit a television program corresponding to one ofthe plurality of program listings 11 The method of claim 10 wherein identifying the trans mission scheme used to transmit a television program corre sponding to one of the plurality of program listings includes displaying a transmission scheme identifier in a first color that corresponds to the first program listing and displaying a transmission scheme identifier in a second color that corre sponds to the second program listing 12 The method of claim 1 further
8. received by the selected tuner 15 The system of claim 14 wherein the plurality of pro gram listings are received from a single data source 16 The system of claim 14 wherein the first program listing is received from the first source device and US 8 424 040 B2 11 the second program listing is received from the second source device 17 The system of claim 14 further comprising means for merging the first program listing and the second program listing to form the channel guide 18 The system of claim 14 further comprising means for mixing and sorting the plurality of program listings in a desired order and means for displaying the plurality of program listings in a desired order 19 The system of claim 14 wherein said means for dis playing a program guide further comprises means for automatically deleting duplicate program list ings from the plurality of program listings 20 The system of claim 14 further comprising means for storing a signal source identifier for each of the plurality of program listings each signal source identi fier identifying one of the first transmission scheme and the second transmission scheme 21 The system of claim 14 further comprising means for receiving a user selection selecting one of the plurality of program listings means for retrieving a signal source identifier that identifies one of the first transmission scheme and the second transmission scheme that corresponds
9. subscribed to by a user then a separate IRD integrated receiving decoder box with an on screen display generator is usually provided An IRD box usually includes a receiver and a tuner at the most basic level A DBS subscriber receives access to potentially hundreds of television channels along with a program guide provided controlled by the DBS service provider Unfortunately a DBS system normally does not receive local network or local independent channels In order to provide these missing local channels some DBS receivers are capable of automatically switching between the DBS satellite input and a local input This is accomplished by placing the IRD box between the television or a VCR con nected to the television and the local line local cable or local antennae When a local channel is selected by the user the IRD box automatically removes DBS from service and becomes a bypass for the local input A user can select a local channel either manually or with a remote control Access to locally available channels is crucial because the majority of prime time viewing is on those local networks In contrast if a user is receiving television channels from both cable and a local antenna sources then the scenario is different Ifthe user s television has multiple television input ports then these two sources can easily be attached to the two input ports This solution works well as long as the number of sources does not become greater than
10. system with DBS and cable as source devices In this arrangement the coordinator is located within IRD box 47 and no IR emitter is needed IRD box 47 inputs to television 22 directly or through VCR 24 When DBS is removed from service by the coordinator within IRD box 47 cable box 26 inputs to television 22 FIG 1d is a block diagram of a television program and television guide system which has DBS the coordinator and the television tuner all within the same IRD box In this additional embodiment no cable source is present and DBS the coordinator and the television tuner are all located within IRD box 48 Thus no emitter is needed The coordinator switches between DBS and other available source s received on line 49 After the coordinator has switched and tuned to the desired channel as described below that channel is dis played on television display 23 or recorded by VCR 24 The VCR set forth in FIGS 1a 1d is optional Additionally the DBS receiver and tuner could be located within the television or the VCR Various formats can be used for the television schedule information For example data packets comprising a header section and information section can be received and sorted with other more complex data packet formats In the pre ferred embodiment coordinator 20 takes the television schedule information from the available source s or a data input line and sorts mixes it For example coordinator 20 may receive program sch
11. to the selected program listing and 20 25 12 means for receiving a television signal from one of the first tuner and the second tuner which uses the identified transmission scheme 22 The system of claim 14 wherein the first source device and the second source device are selected from the group consisting of a cable a broadcast source an antenna source a terrestrial source a satellite source and a direct broadcast satellite source 23 The system of claim 14 further comprising means for identifying the transmission scheme used to transmit a television program corresponding to one of the plurality of program listings 24 The system of claim 23 wherein the means for identi fying the transmission scheme used to transmit a television program corresponding to one of the plurality of program listings includes means for displaying a transmission scheme identifier in a first color that corresponds to the first program listing and means for displaying a transmission scheme iden tifier in a second color that corresponds to the second program listing 25 The system of claim 14 further comprising means for displaying the first program listing and means for displaying in response to a user selection the second program listing 26 The system of claim 14 wherein one of the transmis sion schemes is terrestrial or satellite ee ae ae UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO
12. R receiver 39 is connected to coordinator 20 and receives input from the remote IR emitter s 40 can be replaced by for example a bus interface or an RF transmitter The IR emitter s 40 controls one or more of IRD box 28 television 22 VCR 24 cable box 26 and other inputs 30 Thus IR emitter 40 acts as a remote control device by emulating remote control signals of television 22 VCR 24 cable box 26 and or other devices Because coor dinator 20 has the ability to simulate a remote controller coordinator 20 can be placed in the cable box 26 VCR 24 television 22 stand alone unit 20 or a satellite receiver Remote control 32 is a hand held remote controller for controlling coordinator 20 In the preferred embodiment remote control 32 is provided with an IR transmitter which controls the coordinator via IR receiver 39 Other remote controls not shown in FIG 1a can be used for manually controlling television 22 VCR 24 cable box 26 IRD box 28 and other inputs 30 Although in a preferred embodiment coordinator 20 performs all the necessary control functions of the system Ina preferred embodiment remote 32 works with coordinator 20 and emitter 40 to control the various devices in FIG 1a For example as the user adjusts the volume control on remote 32 coordinator 20 emits signals through IR emitter 40 to adjust the volume in television 22 IRD box 28 receives television programs along with other information via in one embodimen
13. blanking inter val on an available television channel In FIG 1a the source devices along with coordinator 20 are coupled to television 22 Thus coordinator 20 receives the program guide infor mation via telephone line 43 and television 22 receives the television programs from the multiple sources In addition television 22 receives the program guide information from coordinator 20 In another embodiment of the present invention coordina tor 20 receives all the source device inputs directly FIG 1b is a block diagram of a multi source television program and television schedule guide system with the multiple sources connected directly to the coordinator In this embodiment coordinator 20 switches between the multiple sources 26 28 and 30 and then outputs the information from the desired source to television 22 or to another destination device This arrangement allows for a single input to television 22 Coor dinator 20 inputs program guide information along with tele vision programs to television 22 via line 44 or through VCR 24 via lines 45 and 46 Other possible destination devices for the present invention are computer monitors audio recorders facsimile machines printers memory etc In yet another embodiment of the present invention DBS via IRD box 28 and cable via cable box 26 are source devices which are connected in series to television 22 FIG 1c is a block diagram of a television program and television schedule guide
14. channel 6 and DBS may have ABC on channel 7 By having the ability to delete and activate the channels displayed in grid guide 50 the user can determine whether to have one of the ABC channels both of the ABC channels or neither of the ABC channels The user s choice is entered into coordinator 20 via remote control 32 In an alternative embodiment coordinator 20 may automatically note duplicate network names and delete one of the duplicates In addition coordinator 20 is capable of automatically lining up channels based on user s habits If this mode for the automatic arrangement of channels is selected by the user an algorithm based on user habits is used to determine the channel order 52 Therefore any desired arrangement for the lineup of channels 52 is available In the preferred embodiment the user displays grid guide 50 by pressing a guide button on remote control 32 Coordi nator 20 responds to the initial pressing of the guide button by automatically tuning to the channel or device which carries grid guide 50 or overlaying a grid guide in a current broad cast When the user is done with grid guide 50 the user presses the guide button again or an exit button and coordi nator 20 1 automatically returns to the channel or source last viewed by the user or 2 removes the overlay The technique utilized by coordinator 20 for automatic tuning is described further below In order to track which channels are available from whic
15. d with the channel providing the selected show at step 72 see FIG 3 This transition between the process flow for automatic recording and the process flow for automatic tuning is indicated by B During the tuning sequence for automatic recording the VCR rather than the television is tuned to the correct channel see steps 80 and 82 When the process flow set forth in FIG 3 is complete as indicated by A coordinator 20 utilizes IR emitter 40 to acti vate the recording feature of the VCR at step 100 in FIG 4 This causes VCR 24 to record the selected program Coordi nator 20 then checks to see ifthe end time of the show matches the present time at step 102 If the show is not over coordi nator 20 waits at step 104 When the end time for the show matches the present time IR emitter 40 stops recording the show and then turns off the VCR at step 106 This scheme allows for the unattended automatic recording of any show available from any source coupled to VCR 24 US 8 424 040 B2 9 In another embodiment of the present invention coordina tor 20 is located within IRD box 28 and coordinator 20 handles the switching and tuning required for DBS and cable sources without utilizing an IR emitter When the user con sumer selects a non DBS channel from the guide the coor dinator switches from the integrated receiver decoder unit for the satellite to the cable if the source is originally DBS and proceeds to tune the television tu
16. de information The grid guide of the present invention also refers to and includes theme guides channel guides and other guides which display program information In the preferred embodiment after coordinator 20 has collected and sorted all the available program guide information coordinator 20 gen erates the grid guide set forth in FIG 2 for display on televi sion 22 This grid guide can also be generated within the IRD box a satellite receiver the television the VCR a central office location etc The grid guide designated generally with the reference numeral 50 provides a line up of all channels or a selection of channels 52 along with a description of the shows 54 available on those channels at certain times 56 For example channel 2 58 has BATMAN 60 as a show from 1 00 p m to 2 00 p m and SOAP 62 as a show from 2 00 p m to 2 30 p m A theme or channel or random etc listing can be used instead of the grid guide shown in FIG 2 If a grid guide is used the lineup of channels 52 can be arranged such that 1 channels are in numerical and or alpha betical order or 2 channels are in an order associated with their particular source or 3 channels are in a mixed order programmed by a user or 4 channels are in any other arrangement When multiple sources are used for receiving television channels an overlap of channels sometimes occurs For example both cable and DBS may carry the network ABC but cable may have ABC on
17. displayed channels within a displayed guide the system reads the source identifier associated with that show or channel In the preferred embodiment the system then carries out an automatic switching tuning process that switches the input to the television either RF or video to a source device Source devices include DBS cable box television tuner etc The system then tunes to the required channel for the desired show Additionally the source identifier can be utilized to switch between various devices automatically when unat tended VCR programming is desired Furthermore when program information is received from multiple satellite sources and a desired channel is selected the present inven tion can inone embodiment automatically move the custom er s satellite dish such that the customer receives the desired program from the associated source The present invention then tunes to the correct channel In creating a merged television guide a channel map is created which identifies the channels available on the mul tiple sources and identifies their source For example in the case of DBS local channel implementations a channel map is created with both local cable and DBS channels merged The local channels and the DBS channels are tagged with a source identifier When the user consumer selects a non DBS chan nel from the guide the integrated receiver decoder unit IRD box for the satellite switches the IRD to couple the local cabl
18. e to the receiver The system then tunes the television tuner or other tuning device to the required channel Ifa DBS channel is later selected the system switches the IRD to couple the satellite receiver decoder to the receiver The sys tem then tunes the DBS tuner to the selected DBS channel In the case of for example cable and antenna inputs the system switches to the correct video input and then tunes the televi sion tuner to the required channel for receiving the selected source Thus automatic access to multi source television schedule guide information is provided In another embodiment of the present invention the user can utilize the system to switch between destination devices For example information programs received from one of the multiple sources could be displayed on a computer screen or played on a stereo Additionally several destination devices can be used in conjunction with each other For example an FM radio station playlist could be shown on a computer monitor or television display and the songs selected from that playlist could be later recorded on an audio recorder Still further the system could be used to couple audio TV outputs to a stereo system Thus the present invention is not limited to television systems FIG 1a illustrates in simplified form an example of a multi source television schedule guide system 10 with mul tiple sources connected directly to a television 22 As shown multi source televisio
19. edule information via the vertical blanking interval in a television channel or via a transponder of DBS In order to sort mix the available schedule information coordinator 20 first creates a structured framework and then saves the received data in that structured framework This structure framework includes several levels for organized data storage After the levels of the framework are prepared by coordinator 20 pointers are utilized to save data within appro priate levels of the structure In an alternative arrangement the sorting mixing of pro gram schedule information is done in a separate location and then provided to system 10 for example on a satellite chan nel Thus program schedule information which has already 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 been mixed sorted organized etc is received in a format which is ready for immediate display Less memory is required within the coordinator in this latter situation because only the screen grid being viewed needs to be saved For example in this latter situation if a user wishes to view a grid guide which is four hours long only four hours worth of information needs to be saved within RAM 38 This ready for immediate display format can also be provided in a sepa rate data stream via a different medium or on a television channel FIG 2 is an example of an on screen display of a schedule grid guide that has been assembled from the television gui
20. er features of televi sion 22 or other devices The additional information associ ated with a particular show may include a short description of that show For example a short description of the story included in a sitcom may be provided To display this addi tional information coordinator 20 accesses the desired infor mation in RAM 38 or switches to a different input of data and displays the additional information in an appropriate place within grid guide 50 In the preferred embodiment this addi tional information is displayed 1 in an overlay or 2 as a pull down window under the selected show or 3 as a defined information window at the top or the bottom of the screen FIG 3 is an exemplary process flow chart for automatic tuning To begin automatic tuning the user selects a certain channel or show at step 70 The selection may be made by for example scrolling a cursor to a desired show and striking the enter key or entering a channel number using remote 32 Coordinator 20 then reads the source identifier at step 72 and determines if the present input to television 22 is the source associated with the source identifier see step 74 If the present input source to television 22 is the same as the source associated with the source identifier then coordinator 20 tunes that particular source to the desired channel at step 84 If the present source is not the source associated with the source identifier then the system switc
21. h sources a source identifier is located on each channel Each of the source identifiers may be included in the channel guide information or the source identifiers may be added by the system based on the origin of the channel guide information Therefore if these data are not already provided coordinator US 8 424 040 B2 7 20 attaches the appropriate identifiers to the received channel guide information For example if BATMAN 60 is received through IRD box 28 than BATMAN 60 will have a source identifier for identifying the IRD box 28 located on its chan nel 58 In the preferred embodiment the source identifier is not displayed to the user If desired the user can program coordinator 20 to display which source the channel is associ ated with For example channels which come from cable box 26 can be colored red in grid guide 50 and channels available from IRD box 28 can be the color green thus if desired the user can easily identify which source is associated with each channel Remote 32 can be utilized by the user to program coordi nator 20 or to move between different channels times and shows in grid guide 50 Moreover remote control 32 can be used to select a certain channel or show 1 for displaying additional information associated with a particular show 2 for tuning to a particular channel or show or 3 for automati cally recording a particular show Remote control 32 can also be used for adjusting the volume or oth
22. hes sources to the proper source For example processor 36 may cause IR emit ter 40 to send out a signal which switches from the present source and which activates or switches to the source associ ated with the source identifier The desired channel or show then serves as the source inputting information to television 22 Coordinator 20 then determines if the correct television channel or input for that particular source the source associ ated with the source identifier is activated at step 80 If the correct television channel or input is not activated then the appropriate tuner in the system is tuned to the proper channel For example IR emitter 40 may be used to tune the television to the desired television channel at step 82 Alternatively step 80 could be removed and coordinator 20 would then always tune or re tune to the required channel thereby confirming that television 22 is on the correct channel After or simul taneous with the activation of the correct television channel or input associated with the desired source IR emitter 40 tunes the receiver in that source to the desired channel at step 84 The desired broadcast is then displayed on television 22 If a program is input to television 22 and or VCR 24 via coordinator 20 see FIG 15 then no tuning is needed for the television and or VCR Therefore in this latter arrangement steps 80 and 82 are not present an 0 an 5 35 40 45 55 60 8 To f
23. ication Ser No 08 810 199 filed on Mar 3 1997 now abandoned which is a continuation application of U S patent application Ser No 08 423 410 filed on Apr 17 1995 now abandoned BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The prior art includes several arrangements for presenting information associated with a television schedule guide This information is often used to provide an on screen grid like display of the available channels along with their related television shows Usually a list of available channels are displayed on the y axis and time slots occupy the x axis These listed channels can appear sequentially or in any pre ferred predetermined order within the display on the televi sion U S Pat No 5 353 121 is representative of such sys tems and has found wide success in the industry U S Pat No 5 353 121 is hereby incorporated by reference Many different transmission schemes are available for pro viding the information required for a television schedule guide For example a Direct Broadcast Satellite System DBS can provide television programs and television pro gram schedule information via a satellite dish in conjunction with a set top receiver DBS systems are commercially avail able from for example Hughes and Primestar In addition conventional satellite dishes coax cable telephone lines fibre optic cable antennae etc are used to distribute televi sion program and or program schedule information If DBS is
24. n Multimedia Inc JP 62 60377 A 3 1987 2001 JP 64 041590 U 2 1989 Schaas Ein Gerat Fur Vielle Standards Funkschau WEKA I 12160133 6 1989 Fachzeitschriften Verlag Poing DE No 18 Aug 25 1989 pp JP 3 6130 A 1 1991 124 128 JP 3 22770 A 1 1991 PER JP 4 185088 7 1992 Starsight Operating System and quick reference Copyright 1994 JP 5 83688 4 1993 VideoGuide User s Manual Copyright 1995 JP 2005 204962 8 2005 WO WO 90 07844 Al 7 1990 cited by examiner U S Patent Apr 16 2013 Sheet 1 of 4 US 8 424 040 B2 CABLE BOX FIG 18 U S Patent Apr 16 2013 Sheet 2 of 4 US 8 424 040 B2 29SX IRD Box WITH COORDINATOR 48 se yi IRD BOX WITH COORDINATOR AND TV TUNER ee Ea e eT TM fee ae eee ia 54 s p i m E SPECIAL PRESENTATION U S Patent Apr 16 2013 Sheet 3 of 4 US 8 424 040 B2 READ SOURCE IDENTIFIER PRESENT SOURCE 82 CORRECT TUNE TV OR TV VCR CH FIG 3 U S Patent Apr 16 2013 Sheet 4 of 4 US 8 424 040 B2 CORRE T a WAIT cT YES og TURN OFF VCR FIG 4 US 8 424 040 B2 1 MULTI SOURCE SWITCHING IN A TELEVISION SYSTEM This is a continuation application of U S patent applica tion Ser No 10 441 475 filed on May 19 2003 which is a continuation of U S patent application Ser No 09 612 352 now abandoned filed on Jul 6 2000 now abandoned which is a continuation application of U S patent appl
25. n program and television schedule guide system 10 operates under the control of coordinator 20 Television 22 and VCR 24 are provided with input from cable box 26 and IRD box 28 Other inputs 30 may also be supplied to the television 22 and or VCR 24 A remote control 32 is 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 used by a viewer to tune the television and conduct other operations In this embodiment cable is provided via cable box 26 and DBS is provided via IRD box 28 Antennae 34 on television 22 may be used as an additional source of television broadcasts along with cable box 26 IRD box 28 and other inputs 30 In one typical embodiment antenna 34 and cable box 26 are local sources Other inputs 30 can include mul tiple satellite sources When multiple satellite sources are present coordinator 20 switches between the available satel lite sources by automatically moving the user s satellite dish or switching between satellite dishes In order to automati cally move the satellite dish a memory within IRD box 28 tracks the position of the DBS satellite dish in relation to satellite sources which are available via the DBS satellite dish The IRD box 28 then automatically positions the DBS satellite dish such that the desired satellite source is received by the IRD box 28 Coordinator 20 includes processor CPU 36 and memory RAM 38 The coordinator is connected to and controls infrared IR emitter s 40 I
26. ne of the second plurality of televi sion programs displaying a guide having the plurality of program listings in response to receiving a user selection selecting one of the plurality of program listings selecting one of the first tuner and the second tuner wherein the first tuner is selected when the selected program listing is the first program listing and the second tuner is selected when the selected program listing is the second program listing and tuning the selected tuner to the television program received by the selected tuner 2 The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of program listings are received from a single data source 3 The method of claim 1 wherein the first program listing is received from the first source device and the second program listing is received from the second source device 4 The method of claim 1 further comprising merging the first program listing and the second program listing to form the channel guide 5 The method of claim 1 further comprising mixing and sorting the plurality of program listings in a desired order and displaying the plurality of program listings in a desired order 6 The method of claim 1 further comprising automatically deleting duplicate program listings from the plurality of program listings 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 7 The method of claim 1 further comprising storing a signal source identifier for each
27. ne wo WO 94 14284 6 1994 5 151 789 A 9 1992 Young wo WO 94 21081 9 1994 5 161 019 A 11 1992 Emanuel wo WO 95 02945 1 1995 5 179 439 A 1 1993 Hashimoto wo WO 95 07003 Al 3 1995 5 231 494 A 7 1993 Wachob wo WO 95 24098 9 1995 5 307 173 A 4 1994 Yuen etal woe 386 83 wo WO 96 33572 10 1996 5 353 121 A 10 1994 Young etal oo 725 52 wo WO 9633572 Al 10 1996 5 410 344 A 4 1995 Graves et al wo WO 99 035849 7 1999 5 436 676 A 7 1995 Pint etal 5 485 630 A 1 1996 Lee et al OTHER PUBLICATIONS 5 550 576 A 8 1996 Klosterman 5 576 755 A E 11 1996 Davis et al IS 60 3 Physical Layer and Medium Specifications Part 3 CX veo N pre ae a A E EEE SEEE 725 43 Physical Layer amp Medium Specification CX Specification Revised 5 625 406 A 4 1997 Newberry et al Mar 19 1992 Table of Contents 2 pp and pp 1 41 5 635 978 A 6 1997 Alten et al O Brien Jr T E Physical and Media Specifications of the 5 635 989 A 6 1997 Rothmuller CXBus IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics vol 37 No 3 5 640 484 A 6 1997 Mankovitz oseese 386 245 Aug 1991 pp 357 366 5 642 153 A 6 1997 Chaney et al Davidson Ken CEBus A New Standard in Home Automation 5 666 645 A 9 1997 Thomas et al Circuit Cellar Ink Aug Sep 1989 pp 40 52 5 684 525 A 11 1997 Klosterman Cable Television Technology Book Description no tranlasation 5 729 687 A 3 1998 Rothrock et al 709 204 available 5 808 694 A 9 1998 Usui et al A date re y 5 808 702 A
28. ner or television tuner and cable box to the required channel If a DBS channel is later selected the system switches back to the integrated receiver decoder unit and tunes to the required DBS channel This arrangement allows for the coordinating of multi sources without the need for an IR emitter With the assistance of coordinator 20 a user does not have to manually select a television program source or manually tune to a desired channel or program Moreover with the automatic receiving grid guide generating switching and tuning available in system 10 there is little if any manual interaction from the end user or customer While a full and complete disclosure of the invention has been provided herein above it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various modifications and changes may be made What is claimed is 1 A method used in a user equipment device having a first tuner for receiving a first plurality of television programs transmitted from a first source device using a first transmis sion scheme and a second tuner for receiving a second plu rality of television programs transmitted from a second source device using a second transmission scheme which is different from the first transmission scheme the method com prising receiving a plurality of program listings including a first program listing corresponding to one of the first plural ity of television programs and a second program listing corresponding to o
29. ove step 82 and step 84 can occur simultaneously The program on is then displayed on televi sion 22 and the process set forth in FIG 3 is complete In other embodiments the television tuner will be used to select from numerous inputs from the sources or a mixed system may provide that the television tuner is used for some sources and the source tuner is used for other sources FIG 4 is an exemplary process flow chart for automatic unattended recording To begin automatic unattended recording the user selects a television show for recording with remote 32 In order to provide the automatic recording of the selected program VCR 24 is automatically turned on along with the activation of the VCR s record feature at the appropriate time and then turned off when the show is complete The tuning process used for automatic recording is the same as the process set forth for automatic tuning see FIG 3 but the VCR is tuned to the correct channel rather than the television As set forth in FIG 4 after the user selects a show at step 90 the coordinator checks to see ifthe beginning time for that show has passed see step 92 If the beginning time has not passed coordinator 20 waits at step 94 When the correct time the program s starting time does occur VCR 24 is turned on see step 96 and coordinator 20 acts as though auto matic tuning has occurred Therefore coordinator 20 reads the source identifier associate
30. rmation This information can be received from numerous sources These sources include an incoming cable line e g on a coax cable satellite broad casts a dedicated telephone line e g twisted pair and any other medium capable of transmitting a signal The present invention provides a method of operating a television system This method of operation includes the inputting and storing of system channel guide information The system channel guide information is received from mul tiple television sources and includes a source identifier When the user inputs a desired program the source identifier is used to select the source associated with that desired program from the available television signal sources The selected source is then tuned to the desired program These and other advantages will become apparent to those skilled in this art upon a reading of the following detailed description of the invention which should be taken in con junction with the accompanying drawings BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1a is a block diagram of a multi source television program and television schedule guide system with multiple sources connected directly to the television FIG 16 is a block diagram of a multi source television program and television schedule guide system with the mul tiple sources connected directly to the coordinator FIG 1c is a block diagram of a television program and television schedule guide system with DBS and
31. t satellite dish 29 IRD box 28 then provides program schedule information to the system The schedule information is added to the transmitted signal by the DBS service provider or a company under contract Examples of DBS service providers include Direct TV and USSB This program schedule information or guide may also include a channel map that contains the channel information which is available on a particular source Infor mation associated with the DBS guide is saved in the IRD box receiver s RAM 42 or downloaded Similarly program guide information can be received through cable box 26 other inputs 30 antennae 34 and or through any other transmission medium e g dedicated twisted pair telephone line Each of these sources may also be provided with television schedule data within the signal transmitted by the service provider Coordinator 20 finds and sorts the program guide informa tion available in system 10 In order to receive the required television guide information coordinator 20 is connected to the source s of this information For example if the channel map information is provided by a dedicated twisted pair tele phone line then that telephone line is input 43 to coordinator 20 Guide information can be provided from any commer cially available medium and can apply to all or several of the US 8 424 040 B2 5 available sources In the preferred embodiment television guide information is provided via the vertical
32. the number of televi sion input ports If the user s television does not have multiple inputs then a manual switch box attached to the multiple sources and to the television input can be utilized This solution forces the user to manually switch between one source and another depending on which channel is desired For example if the user wants the local news which is available from the local 0 ms 5 20 25 35 40 45 50 2 antennae and the switch is set to cable then the user must manually switch from cable to the local antenna In a society filled with remote controls and automation this solution is unacceptable to many consumers Moreover manually switching between channels becomes more complicated as the number of channel sources is increased While the IRD box multiple television input ports manual switching unit etc provide non automated and sometimes partial solutions to the above described problems a more versatile technique is needed SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the preferred embodiment the present invention is directed to coordinating input signals and program informa tion and more particularly to 1 coordinating television schedule guide information received from multiple sources 2 automatically switching to a desired signal source and 3 tuning to a desired television program Thus the present invention provides a tuning scheme which coordinates tele vision schedule guide info
33. urther illustrate the process set forth in FIG 3 the following example is provided In this example IRD box 28 has channels 100 200 available and is presently the input source to television 22 see FIG 1c Additionally cable box 26 is an input to IRD box 28 see FIG 1c A user selects BATMAN 60 on channel 2 58 at step 70 The selected show is available on a channel from cable box 26 Coordinator 20 reads the source identifier associated with the selected show and determines that channel 2 is from cable box 26 at step 72 Coordinator 20 then determines that the present source is IRD box 28 at step 74 Therefore a switching of sources must occur As set forth above when DBS is no longer the selected source IRD box 28 allows cable box 26 to send signals through an internal relay electronic or mechanical within IRD box 28 to television 22 Therefore coordinator 20 uti lizes IR emitter 40 to deactivate or decouple DBS at step 78 IRD box 28 is inputted to television 22 through channel 3 of television 22 In the present arrangement cable box 26 is also connected through channel 3 of television 22 Coordinator 20 may then check television 22 to ensure that it is on channel 3 as required for input from cable box 26 see step 80 Since television 22 is already on channel 3 no change is made to the television channel see step 84 Coordinator 20 then utilizes IR emitter 40 to tune cable box 26 to the desired channel 2 at step 84 As stated ab
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