APPARATUS FOR ACQUIRING PACKETIZED PROGRAM DATA, APPARATUS FOR ADAPTIVELY DECODING RE-PARTITIONABLE PACKETIZED PROGRAM GUIDE DATA, METHOD FOR FORMING PACKETIZED PROGRAM DATA TO BE SUITABLE FOR PROCESSING IN A DECODER, AND STORAGE MEDIUM CONTAINING DIGITAL DATA

摘要

A program guide information data structure and processing system for processing large quantities of guide information facilitates achieving a desirable compromise between transmission bandwidth and decoder complexity. A decoder acquires data for collating program guide information including objects by both area (e.g. a geographic, broadcast, or network market area), and by scheduled time of broadcast. The decoder collates the program guide information using the collation data which comprises channel and program map information for associating the program guide information with particular areas and broadcast times. The decoder collates the program guide information to provide a program guide selected from at least two available program guides associated with different areas in response to a User selection input. The collated program guide information is processed for display.