Electronic program guides which provide television program schedule information are known in the art.
Such electronic program guides are described, for example, in the following U.S. patents assigned to Starsight Telecast Incorporated of Fremont Calif. : U.S. 5,532,754; 5,479,266, 5,479,268, 4,706,121 and 5,353,121. Some program guide systems also allow VCR (Video Cassette Recorder) scheduling such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,977,455 and 5,151,789 which are also assigned to Starsight Telecast Incorporated of Fremont Calif.
U.S. Pat. 5,684,525 to Klosterman et al., which is also assigned to Starsight Telecast Incorporated, describes a scheme for merging television schedule information received from multiple sources. A microprocessor mixes and sorts the television schedule information received from the multiple sources, and the schedule information is then displayed in a television schedule guide. A user can select a program by pointing to that program in the displayed schedule information. The system then carries out an automatic switching/tuning such that the required source device is input to the destination device, and a tuner is then tuned to the selected program's channel.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,539,450 and 5,592,212 to Handelman describe a pay television gaming system including a pay television network having a multiplicity of subscriber units each including a television, receiving apparatus for receiving gaming inputs from the multiplicity of subscriber units, transmitting apparatus for transmitting to the multiplicity of subscriber units information relating to gaming results and accounting apparatus for settling gaming debts and winnings via the pay television network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,412 to Handelman et al. describes a CATV system including a CATV network and apparatus for transmitting over the CATV network information to a multiplicity of subscriber units, each including a CATV decoder and an IC card reader and writer coupled to the CATV decoder, the IC card reader and writer includes two separate IC card receptacles, such that IC cards inserted into the two separate IC card receptacles are separately accessed by the IC card reader and writer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,838 to Lawler et al. describes a program time guide for an interactive viewing system which allows a user to control the time and channels for which program information is displayed.
Electronic program guides are also described in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,264,924; 4,264925; 4,602,279; 5,051,822; 5,181,107; 5,393,057; 5,459,522; 5,465,113; 5,473,609; 5,515,106; 5,541,738; 5,559,548.
The disclosures of all references mentioned above and throughout the present specification are hereby incorporated herein by reference.