Electronic program guide feature for AV system

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for displaying broadcast history information of a plurality of episodes of a program on an audio-visual system, which enable a viewer to select a program for which the history information of each episode will be stored. In response to the viewer's selection, the audio-visual system stores the history information for the episodes of the selected program that has been received by the audio-visual system. The audio-visual system can display the history information when the viewer watches the current episode of the program in a future time.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . An electronic program guide (EPG) circuit comprising: 
 a) an EPG processor circuit, including a central processing unit (CPU), supplied with a video signal input, a horizontal sync input, and a vertical sync input, wherein the video signal input includes EPG program information in electronic form describing viewable programs which is extracted from the video signal by the EPG processor circuit;    b) a read only memory (ROM) connected to the EPG processor circuit for storing a program used by the EPG's CPU; and    c) a random access memory supplied with the EPG program information by the EPG processor circuit, for storing EPG program information for a plurality of episodes of a given program.    
     
     
         2 . An EPG circuit according to  claim 1 , wherein the EPG processor circuit outputs an on screen display (OSD) signal for displaying the history information of a selected episode of a program.  
     
     
         3 . An EPG circuit according to  claim 1 , further comprising a non-volatile memory for storing user specific information pertaining to the EPG circuit.  
     
     
         4 . An EPG circuit according to  claim 1 , wherein the EPG program information is extended data service data contained in the vertical blanking interval of the video signal.  
     
     
         5 . An EPG circuit according to  claim 1 , wherein video signal is a digital signal and the EPG program information is in the digital signal's program specific information protocol (PSIP).  
     
     
         6 . An EPG circuit according to  claim 1 , wherein the EPG program information is received via the Internet.  
     
     
         7 . An EPG circuit according to  claim 1 , wherein the EPG program information is received via a public switched telephone network.  
     
     
         8 . An EPG circuit according to  claim 1 , wherein the EPG program information is received via a cable system's out of band (OOB) data stream.