System and method for providing a plurality of programming services in a television system

Abstract

A system and method of providing for displaying a full service cable television system. The cable television system is adapted to provide a plurality of different user services. Accordingly, the system and method are designed to allow a user to access services in an efficient memory conserving fashion. Using a plurality of data tables, a cable television system is able to access a plurality of different services including cable channels, interactive program guides, pay per view activation, video on demand and interactive online services such as world wide web browsing and E-mail via their home television set.

1 . In a cable television system having a headend and a set-top, a method of activating a service provided by the headend to the set-top, wherein the service is one service of a plurality of services provided by the headend to the set-top, the method comprising the steps of: 
 receiving from the headend a plurality of tables, wherein a first table of the plurality of tables includes multiple sets of service attributes, wherein each set of service attributes is associated with a particular service;    storing the plurality of tables in a memory of the set-top;    receiving at the set-top a signal associated with a specific service of the plurality of services provided by the headend, wherein the specific service has a set of one of the multiple sets of service attributes associated therewith;    retrieving and reading the set of service attributes associated with the specific service; and    launching the specific service responsive to the set of service attributes associated with the specific service including a launch attribute permitting non-subscriber launch.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of tables includes a second table that associates channel numbers with service identifiers and associates service identifiers with channel numbers, and wherein a third table associates service identifiers with applications and sets of parameters, wherein each service of the plurality of services provided by the headend is associated with a unique service identifier and defined by a particular application and particular set of parameters.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the second table includes a bitmap for indicating whether a channel number is valid.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the second table further includes a plurality of blocks of data, each block of data associating a service identifier with a valid channel number.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein each block of data has a service identifier field and a channel number field, and the blocks of data are arranged such that the service identifiers in the service identifier fields are increasing in magnitude and non-contiguous.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the bitmap represents a contiguous range of channel numbers, each bit of the bitmap representing a particular channel number, and each bit that represents a valid channel number is set to a predetermined value.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , further including the steps of: 
 accessing a specific block of data of the plurality of data blocks, whereby the specific block of data contains the unique service identifier of the specific service; and    retrieving the channel number associated with the service identifier.    
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the step of accessing a specific block of data further includes the step of: 
 searching on the plurality of data blocks to find the specific block of data that contains the unique service identifier of the specific service.    
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein each block of data of the plurality of blocks of data further includes an attribute specifying that the channel associated with that block of data is reachable by incrementing or decrementing channel numbers with an input device.