MXPA99003577A - Television browsing system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

A home-based television system has a set top box (26) that receives from a cable operator television programs (24) for broadcast on many channels. The set top box (26) also receives additional information for display and an application. In response to a user input, the application causes some of the received additional information to be displayed while other received information is discarded and not displayed.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD OF VISUALIZATION AND SELECTION BY TELEVISION FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a broadband television network, and in particular to a cable television system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In many cable television systems, one or more television channels are dedicated to providing programming information, local community information and / or advertisements (such as house sales). One channel that is commonly used to transmit programming information is the Advances Channel, a commercial service that is available at Prevue Networks, Inc. of Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the Advances Channel, a cable company broadcasts a calendar of television programs that are moving in the middle of the television screen and, in the other half of the screen, is putting ads. With this service, the observer must wait for 4 minutes for the entire cycle of the program calendar to scroll, and a user has no control over what or how the program information is displayed. - The current boxes or devices that are P1261 / 99MX placed on top of the television set, as the 8600x Home Communications Terminal produced by Scientific Atlanta, Inc. of Norcross, Georgia, has a significant memory, for example, 256 kB, for storing an application program and for storing other data for visualization. This home terminal is discussed, for example, in U.S. Patent No. 5,485,211 to Banker showing a block diagram of a top box. When the user selects a menu button on a remote control, the top box causes a menu to be displayed. These menus have options that can be selected by the user with the remote control. A main feature is an electronic program guide (EPG Electronic Program Guide) that is similar in appearance to those found in newspapers, in that it has time columns and rows of channels with cells that identify the programs. By using the remote control, the user can match these rows and columns. When a user selects a cell, the system changes directly to the program identified in the cell. The memory in the upper box stores the application program that runs the system, the EPG, and other information to be displayed, as shown in Figure 5 of the Banker patent. When -1261 / 99MX the user chooses a menu selection, the application program retrieves data stored in memory. The upper box, therefore, has a memory for storing all the information for display and, consequently, the amount of information that can be transmitted to the user is limited by the capacity of the memory. The upper box is in standby mode when it is not turned on. The update of the data in memory is made after the upper case is turned off, remaining in the standby mode and when the upper case is turned on again. This means, however, that there is no update if the top box is not turned off for the standby mode. Another top box used recently is the CFT 2200 model of General Instrument. This particular model uses a separate part of the spectrum for "out of band" transmission at a relatively low frequency (compared to VHF channels) at a rate of about 14.2 kb / sec. This top box also contains an entire program guide and other information in memory in the top box.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, while the television programs are continuously transmitted, the additional information for the P1261 / 99MX user display, such as calendar information and descriptive information of the program, is also transmitted by a cable to the RF section. This information can be transmitted in sweep lines during vertical extinction intervals (VBIs), in the sweep lines in a channel dedicated to data transmission, or encoded with digital program signals. The RF section of the cable also continuously transmits an application that is stored when it is needed and executed by a processor in the upper box to filter the information transmitted in response to the data entered by the user, in such a way that some parts of similar information they are visualized by the user, while other parts of the information are not displayed and are discarded. The filtering of the data is carried out as they are received, in such a way that there is a small latent time evident for the user. Because this other information is continuously transmitted, it is not necessary for memory to store all the information and, therefore, a smaller memory than that of the previous systems can be used, this promotes flexibility and efficiency. In preferred embodiments, an upper case for use with a television system has sufficient memory to receive and store the P-2S1 / 99MX application and to store information in buffer memory for viewing while it is received, and a CPU to run the application. Different methods can be used to filter the information transmitted, depending on the number of categories of information, the amount of data, and the number of information selections for the categories. In the preferred embodiment, however, it is not necessary for the memory to store a complete set of data, such as a complete program calendar, because the information is filtered when it is continuously received, so that the selected information is regulated for visualization, while unselected information is eliminated by filtering and is discarded. In another aspect, the invention includes a server in the RF section of the cable and a method for operating as a server. The server is connected to the data store, such as a database, to transmit data in such a way that they can be filtered in the upper box. For data that has many types that can be searched with different keys, a preferred transmission approach is for the server to transmit blocks of data in one or more scan lines and transmit keys associated with those blocks in one or more scan lines. . Keys and blocks are transmitted as byte streams P1261 / 99MX ordered corresponding to one another, preferably in such a way that the nth key is related to a corresponding nth block of data of some initial reference. Relative to this aspect of the invention there is a system and a method that allows the data to be continuously filtered by an upper box, without it being necessary to store all the transmitted data, even if there are many choices and selections. The upper box has an application that receives the keys and blocks of data and uses the keys to identify the desired blocks of data. The present invention provides a convenient system in which the cable operator can use the existing capability to continuously transmit information unrelated to programming for display while the television programs are being transmitted, and a user can select portions of the information to be displayed in a interactive form that imitates a client-server environment, without requiring the user to be able to send data to the RF section. By continuously transmitting the application and not requiring it to reside permanently in the hardware, the application can be easily provided to the user when the user accesses the system, and can be easily updated when desired, to include new filtering methods, new graphics, etc. By filtering the information to P12S1 / 99MX as it is transmitted instead of storing it in an entire programming calendar or EPG, the hardware required for the upper boxes, in particular the memory, is minimized and much more information can be transmitted and accessed. The system can filter information with a latency per search that is controllable by a cable operator. Other features and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description, drawings, and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a block diagram of a cable television system according to the present invention. Figure 2 is a block diagram of a top box according to the present invention. Figure 3 is a block diagram of a cable television system according to another embodiment of the present invention. Figure 4 is a menu chart that shows options with the system. Figures 5 and 6 are representations of information transmitted according to the present invention.

P12S1 / 99MX DETAILED DESCRIPTION According to the present invention, a cable operator transmits television programs and other information for visualization at the same time and continuously. A user has an application that filters the information transmitted continuously in response to the data entered by the user, in such a way that the user receives selected desired parts of information, and not other non-selected parts of information that can then be discarded. In the United States, a television signal is divided in half, in equal and unequal fields. Each half of the fields is regenerated 60 times per second in "one" interlaced form, and in this way a complete television image is regenerated 30 times per second. In Europe, the method is similar but the image is regenerated 50 times per second per field or 25 frames per second. Between the transmission of the field information, there is an extinction time, known as the vertical extinction interval (VBI), which is used by the television to readjust its sweep position. The VBI is visible as a black line when the vertical contained in the television is poorly adjusted. During the VBI, 21 sweeping lines are transmitted, with a line currently used during some programs to send subtitles for P1_S1 / -9MX deaf. In one of the embodiments of the present invention, the scan lines during the VBI are used to transmit information continuously for display. Referring to Figure 1, a cable television provider has an RF section 10 that includes a server 12 and a database 14. The database 14 stores information to be transmitted to a user for viewing, as is the calendar information, program information with description, announcements, and community information. The database 14 also stores an application for filtering the information transmitted by the server 12 for viewing. This application preferably conforms to the Protocol of Interactive Communication Applications (ICAP) developed by ink Communications, Inc. of Alameda California. The server 12 provides the information from the database 14 to one or more data insertion units (DIU) 16 that arranges the data in the scan lines. Optionally, an encoder (apparatus for coding radio or telephone broadcasts) can also be included with the IUD. Meanwhile, television programs 24 representing signals, which can be obtained from various sources including satellites, fiber optic feeders, local transmissions, and microwave transmissions are also P12S1 / 99MX supplied to the IUDs 16. While there is an IUD 16 for each channel, the information of the database 14 may be provided to all IUDs 16 or only selected ones. The resulting signals are supplied to RF modulators 18 that modulate each video signal to an appropriate channel in the video bandwidth, with a modulator 18 corresponding to each channel and then for a combiner 20 that combines all the television programs and other joint information for the transmission. The application and the other information for viewing from the database 14, in this way are effectively broadcast together with the television programs. The combined data is supplied to an input port 24 of a home-based television system 25, which includes a top box 26 connected to the user's television set 28. Alternatively, the upper case may be integrated within the television set. In a modality similar to that shown in Figure 1, the server can transmit most or all of the data to an individual DIU 16 that is not connected to the television programs 24. In this case, an individual channel is dedicated to the transmission of data and all the scan lines are dedicated to data transfer. Therefore, this data channel will not display television programs.

P1261 / 99MX Referring also to Figure 2, the upper case 26 continuously receives the application 30 and the other non-programmatic information to display it from the database 14. The upper case 26 has an operation system 36 and a Graphical user interface (GUI) environment 34 such as OpenTV, a product of the Thomson Sun Interactive Alliance; PowerTV available from Power TV Inc. of Cupertino California; or the Java platform of Sun Microsystems, Inc. The preferred GUI environment is a Wink Engine available from Wink Communications of Alameda, California. Wink Communications also provides a design tool called Wink Studio that allows users to develop ICAP applications for use with the Wink Engine. The GUI environment interprets the applications and then translates them to the user interface and the graphic capabilities to be displayed on television. The application is continuously transmitted on one or more scan lines, preferably dedicated to the transmission of the application. Therefore, the application does not need to reside permanently in the upper case and can be conveniently replaced or updated from the RF section. The application may not be sent completely during a VBI, but it may be sent during a succession of the VBIs. If the application does not P12S1 / 99MX changes, the higher channel will receive redundant data that can be discarded by the application 30 as it is received. Although the application is transmitted, the operator system and the GUI preferably reside permanently in the upper case and do not have to be replaced with each use. The upper case 26 also has a computational hardware that includes a central processing unit (CPU) 42 that controls the operation of the upper case including the execution of the application, the memory 32 similar to the random access memory (RAM) to store the application and temporarily store transmitted information, a display interface to make the connection to the screen on the television set, and a remote interface to receive the data entered by the user from his manual remote control. The data entered by the user are typically infrared (IR) signals, but the remote control can be wired to the upper case. The memory can be divided into a first memory to store the application and the second memory for temporary storage of the most important information that it is desired to transmit before being visualized. These first and second memories can be incorporated into a memory accessory or they can be physically separated if their separate tasks are better performed by different types of accessories.

P1261 / 99MX memory. With reference to Figure 3, other methods than transmitting during the VBI, for example, digital transmission, can be used to transmit non-programming information for viewing. In this case, the analog signals of television programs for each channel are supplied to a respective encoder 44 which includes an RF modulation functionality. The digital application and other information for viewing are also supplied to at least one of the encoders. Each encoder 44 combines the television program signals, the application, and other information from the database to produce digital MPEG video to a combiner 46. The combiner combines all the channels and transmits the digital data to an upper box similar to the which is shown in Figure 2, except that it has an appropriate decoder to separate the video signal from the other digital information to be displayed. Therefore, when the description that continues is expressed mainly in terms of transmission of information in scan lines during the VBI, the application and information can be transmitted with other methods of transmission of byte streams ordered continuously, while the television programs are transmitted.

P12S1 / 99MX With reference also to Figure 4, the user interacts with the upper box, preferably when using the remote control, to choose from the selection shown in the menu displayed on the television screen. When the user first selects the television viewing and selection system of the present invention, preferably with a dedicated button on the remote control, the application causes the upper case to change to the channel or one of the channel numbers on which the information of visualization and application are transmitted during the sweeping lines of the VBIs. In response to this selection, after the application 30 is downloaded, this causes the main menu 50 to be displayed with a number of different entries with general categories. For example, the main menu 50 has Program Information, Classified Ads, Yellow Directory, City Hall and Schools. The data of each of these categories are continuously disseminated during successive VBIs, preferably with one or more scan lines in the VBI that is associated with each category or groups of categories or subcategory. These categories have selections or subcategories that can be selected by the user with the remote control, when going through the displayed menus. The transmitted data corresponding to the P12S1 / 99MX selection is filtered to the upper case by application 30, so that the user is provided with only selected portions of the information transmitted for viewing, while other parts of the information are not displayed. Although all the information is actually received, therefore, while a significant amount of data relating to a number of selections of categories is continuously transmitted in a single direction from the RF section of the upper box, the system is effectively interactive in one. While this seems to be similar to an environment of this type, however, it is not necessary for the data to be transmitted from the upper box to the RF section, the server in the RF section of the The cable (see Figure 1) arranges the data for transmission, for example, in the scan lines during the VBI, such that the data can be b used by the data filters in the application 30. Different types of filters and data arrangements can be used depending on the amount of data and the number of different choices and selections in the desired category of information. A menu 53 of Schools and a menu 54 of the City Council, for example, have relatively few selections and a limited number of data that is preferable to be P1261 / 99MX transmitted and filtered differently from other general categories. An exemplary approach to transmit and filter City Hall data is illustrated in Figure 5. There are three selections for each city: offices, events and news. When the user selects the Town Hall from the main menu 50, the application 30 provides the Town Hall menu 54 with a list of cities (or neighborhoods, villas, etc.) in the area of the cable operator. For each town, there is a menu 56 that lists the tickets for events, offices and news. The data server transmits data on one or more sweep lines 58 dedicated only to City Hall information. The scan line 58 carries data blocks 60, each preceded by a key 62 used for the data type in the multiple selections. The amount of data that can be transmitted with each field during a Wipe line of a VBI is typically insufficient to transmit a complete set of City Hall information, but the server can use a number of transmissions in successive VBIs to convey all the appropriate information . The data for the three City Council selections can be sent consecutively or alternatively, that is, an event key and event data can be sent with fields 1, 4, 7, etc .; the office key and the data P12S1 / 99 X offices are fields 2, 5, 8, etc .; and the news key and news data with fields 3, 6, 9, etc. Alternatively, the data for each category can be sent in sweep lines during successive VBIs until completing each selection in the Town Hall category. If the selection is made for news, the application 30 checks the data stream to detect the key associated with the news. When found, the data blocks associated with the key are temporarily held in the memory 32, which serves as a buffer to transmit the data to the television set for viewing. The data to be displayed can be completely accumulated first before being visualized, or certain blocks of data can be visualized upon being received to provide a quick response. Data blocks associated with the key of an unselected selection are discarded. Because the data is continuously transmitted, it can be found quickly because the data represents the desired information if the cycle is indeed continuous. The information for Schools can operate in a similar way to that of the City Council. In this case, the menu 53 lists the schools individually and for each school, there is a menu 58 with three categories: events, P1261 / 99 X news and sports. Consequently, if there are 5 schools, there may be a total of 15 selections that can be coded in a 4-bit key (or more) if desired. The data can be transmitted by a server and filtered to the upper box with a key that combines the selection and the individual school as described above, or it can be classified first by school and then subclassified by selection. The school information can be one or more dedicated VBI sweep lines, or it can be combined with City information on certain sweep lines with a key for all combinations of cities and schools and their respective sub-selections. With such filtering, a user can thus make a selection from among different items of information under one category or type of information, and discard other information also in the same type of category. For other selections, data is transmitted and filtering is done differently due to the large number of different selections in the general category and / or the large amount of data or subselections. If the user selects Program Information from the main menu 50, the user has Menu 52 of programs with three selections: What's Next, Search for Programs, or Align. To allow the user not to select these P1261 / 99MX selections, each television program has the following data associated with it: program name, program description, channel, start and end time, and type of program category. The name, channel and start and end times are self-explanatory. The description of the program may indicate the content of the program or episode, and may typically be limited to a certain maximum number of bytes. The type of program category has a key that can be associated with the programs by the individual cable operator and may include general groups, such as movies, sports, situation comedies and drama; or the types can be much more specific, for example, sports can be divided into subcategories, or they can be selections by nature, education, police drama, etc. The type of program category can be searched by the user by selecting Program Search from menu 52 of the program. In response, the application displays a menu 59 with a list of the types of program categories from which the user selects a type. Referring to Figure 6, in a preferred embodiment, the server uses at least one sweep line 70 to transmit the category type keys for each program with the keys that are concatenated in sequence ordered in the line of P12S1 / 99MX swept. In one or more scan lines 72, the server transmits more detailed information of the program that may include some of the other fields associated with the program. The cable operator can supply detailed program information on as many scan lines as desired, with more scan lines used to reduce the waiting time (delay) between selection and display in a time below the desired threshold. When the application receives the user selection program type (s), each of the keys is verified for the category category of the program transmitted on the sweep line 70. When the application detects a category type of the user's selection, it stores the program information from the scan lines 72 associated with the program number. For example, if the third program in the sweep line 70 has the desired key, the application finds and stores in memory the information from the sweep line 72 in the corresponding third position. More generally, the keys of the category category of the program and blocks of detailed information of the program are transmitted in at least two ordered byte streams, in such a way that the first data stream has keys such as an nth key corresponds to the nth block of detailed information in a second stream P1261 / 99 X of data. Therefore, while the category information of the program can be continuously transmitted for 100 separate programs, the filtering in the application allows the user to see information only about the types of program categories specified by the user, while filtering towards outside and preferably information is discarded for other types of program categories. The selection of the Program Menu by "What Hay Ahora "can operate in a similar way, in this case, a sweeping line 74 carries the information of the start and end time In a modality, each program that has a start time in a half hour of the current time is stored for Transmission, for previous programs, the end time is checked to determine if the program is already finished.Alternatively, the key can be simply a time interval divided into each half hour, in which case the upper box uses a clock to determine the interval As another alternative, the database and the server in the RF section of the cable can cause only a general programming to be transmitted over a sweep line, in this way, part or all of the filtering for this particular selection It can be controlled in the RF section of the cable.

P12S1 / 99MX Referring again to Figure 4, if the user selects classified ads or yellow directory from the main menu 50, the user is provided with a menu 80 of classified advertisements or a yellow directory menu 82, respectively. The filtering method can be similar to either the filtering method-program information or the method for filtering information from Schools, depending on the amount of data and the number of types of categories desired by the cable operator. For classified ads, for example, a small number of general base categories can be used, such as pers_onal.es appointments, sales and employment opportunities; or they can be many different categories by dividing these groups "into subgroups, such as sales in car sales, musical instruments, household items, pets, etc., or jobs in professionals, sales, doctors, etc. If there is a small number of keys corresponding to the categories and a small number of ads, the data can be filtered in a similar way to the information of the City Council and of Schools with keys and blocks transmitted together on one or multiple sweep lines. "If many categories are used and there is a large amount of information, the data can be transmitted and filtered in a similar way to the P12S1 / 99 X program information. As shown in Figure 6, the sweep line category type carries ad types classified as keys that indicate a classified ad based on its position, such that the nth key in the type of data stream it may correspond to the nth ad in the other stream or data streams. As indicated in the above, an advantage of the transmission of the application rather than a permanent storage is that the application can be conveniently updated. Therefore, when the amount of data is small, an approximate filtering can be used; but the approximate filtering can be changed when the quantity and / or category of the data is increased. For the selection of Yellow Directory, many categories can typically be used. Consequently, the data can preferably be arranged as programming information, as described in conjunction with Figure 6. As noted above, a field is transmitted 60 times per second, so the scan lines for many VBI can be obtained in a short period of time while providing the user with a quick response. The cable operator can use the server to control the latency, that is, the response time, by its distribution of lines of P12S1 / 99 X sweep, with information on more lines that provides less latency. If more data are added to some selection but not to the others, the number of lines can be adjusted accordingly. While the system is receiving, filtering and temporarily storing information for viewing, the cable operator can view a sponsor screen or a public service announcement for a fixed period of time. Such a screen can be transmitted as text over a dedicated scan line, and its display time can be controlled by the application. While the program information and calendar information may originate with. The cable operator, City Council information, School information, classified ads and Yellow directory can be received externally and entered into the database, or such information can be provided directly from the information provider through one In a number of different ways "to get in touch." By using the classified ads as an example, a way to get in touch to put the classified ads in the database for transmission requires that the person who wants to place an announcement communicate the information to the cable operator in person, by telephone, or by mail or e-mail.

P12S1 / 99MX cable operator effectively enters or re-enters the information in the database. Alternatively, users can be provided with direct access to the online database to provide them with information. For this option, s_ provides the information provider with a template to enter the information. This approach is particularly useful for regular users such as local government or local school departments. Before being transmitted, the information must be verified by the cable operator for potentially questionable words or phrases. A preferred method of supplying a large number of classified ads in the system is to interface with the database of newspapers that "have a significant number of classified ads." The cable operator and the newspaper can work together to establish categories for the ads. announcements, or standards that can be used as they are developed (for example, Edgil Associates of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, is developing categories used to convert advertisements from the newspaper database into related databases). Yellow Directory, the cable operator can receive data from a large number of ad directories with existing categories, or the cable operator can P1261 / 99 X develop their own categories. Having described the embodiments of the present invention, it should be evident that other modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. While the above description refers to a top box, as an accessory, it does not need to be on top of the television set, but can be integrated into the chassis of the television set.

P1261 / 99 X

Claims (18)

1. NOVELTY OF THE INVENTION Having described the present invention, it is considered as a novelty and, therefore, the content of the following CLAIMS is claimed as property: 1. A method for use by a television system based on the home, comprises the steps of: (a) receiving signals representing television programs to broadcast them on many different channels; (b) receiving signals to be displayed represent information other than that of television programs, additional information is received together with television programs; (c) continuously receive an application transmitted with the television programs; (d) in response to user input, the information is filtered with the received application to select a part of the additional information received for viewing and to eliminate by filtering the remaining part of the additional information; and (e) display the selected part of the information and not display the remaining part of the information.
2. 2. The method according to claim 1, in P12S1 / 99MX which step (b) includes receiving the signals on sweep lines during the vertical extinction intervals.
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (b) includes receiving the digitally encoded signals with signals representing the television programs.
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (b) includes receiving a series of keys in a first data stream and receiving additional information in blocks associated with the keys in a second scan line, and wherein the step (d) includes identifying an nth key in the first data stream and retrieving the additional information in the n th block in the second scan line.
5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the keys in the first data stream are codes associated with program types and the second data stream has blocks of descriptive information related to the type of program.
6. 6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of discarding the additional information received during step (b) when the user has not entered data to select a part of the additional information received.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the television systems based at home P12S1 / 99MX have an operating system and a graphical user interface that reside permanently in it and are not discarded.
8. 8. A method for use by a home-based television system that receives signals from an RF-section cable operator, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving signals from the RF section representing programs of television to spread over many different channels; (b) receiving continuously from the RF section, program signals that represent information other than television program information and that will be displayed to a user in a home-based television system; (c) filtering the information received in step (b) in response to user input to obtain a subset of received information; and (d) display the subset of the information in the television system and discard the rest of the information.
9. The method according to claim 8, wherein step (b) includes receiving a series of keys in the first data stream and receiving additional information in blocks associated with the keys, in a second data stream and in which step (c) includes identifying nth keys corresponding to P12S1 / 99MX subset of information received in the first data stream and retrieve the additional information in the nth block in the second scan line.
10. 10. The method according to claim 8, further comprising one of several different steps consisting of continuously receiving from the RF section, an application that is executable to carry out steps (c) and (d).
11. 11. The method of claim 8, in which step (c) includes identifying keys in the data stream, the key corresponds to the user input for the subset of the received information and to retrieve the data associated with the key.
12. 12. A method for use by a home-based television system, the method comprises the steps of: ^ (a) receiving signals representing television programs to broadcast on many different channels; (b) receiving a series of keys including at least two different types of keys _in a first data stream transmitted with the signals representing the television programs; (c) receive additional information associated with the keys in the second data stream transmitted with the signals representing the programs of P1261 / 99 X television; (d) in response to the data entered by the user by means of a desired key, identifying at least one desired key in the first scan line and retrieving the information associated with the key in the second scan line; and (e) display the information retrieved and not display the information associated with the keys not selected.
13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the first data stream has a series of keys including first, second, ..., n-th keys, and the "second data stream has first, second, .. ., n-th information blocks, so that the i-th key corresponds to an i-th block
14. 14. A method to be used by the cable operator connected to a large number of home-based television systems , the method comprises the steps of: (a) transmitting signals representing television programs to broadcast on many different channels, (b) transmitting a series of keys in the first data stream, and "(c) transmitting additional information not relative to the programming for its visualization, in a second data stream, the information Additional P1261 / 99MX is received together with the television programs and is displayed for the users and divided into blocks, each of which is associated with a key in the first data system.
15. 15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the steps (b) and (c), the transmission steps are performed on scan lines during the vertical blanking intervals.
16. The method according to claim 14, wherein steps (b) and (c), the transmission steps are performed by joint coding, such as digital signals, of signals representing television and information programs additional.
17. 17. The home-based television system comprising: a port of entry to receive signals representing television programs to broadcast on many different channels, and to continuously receive signals representing information other than that of television programs; a screen to view television programs and other information; a memory including a first memory for storing the application and the second memory for temporary storage of the information to be displayed; a processor to run the application on P1261 / 99MX the first memory and that responds to the input of the user, to filter the information as it is received and to cause the parts selected by the user to be displayed; and an interface to receive data inputs from the input accessory operated by the user, the data entry chooses a selection in the selection menu. The system according to claim 17, wherein the accessory interface, data input is a manual remote control and the memory is housed in a top case. P12S1 / 99MX