System and method for an electrical program overview

摘要

The invention provides an electrical program guide system and method by which a desired program can be selected rapidly with certainty, intuitively and directly from among a large number of programs. A program selection screen as a multi-screen is formed from nine reduced screens reduced to one third in the horizontal and vertical directions from screens of programs broadcast in different broadcasting channels. A plurality of such program selection screens are transmitted to a reception side. On the reception side, the program selection screens are stored into a virtual frame memory so that reduced screens of them may make a single virtual screen. From among the reduced screens of the virtual frame, desired 3x3 reduced screens are read out and displayed on a multi-screen of full motion. A viewer finds out and directly selects a desired program from within the 3x3 reduced screens of full motion displayed as the multi-screen. The array of the reduced screens can be automatically changed, based on enjoyment program histories, so that a reduced screen of a program enjoyed frequently by the viewer is disposed at a position which facilitates selection by the viewer such as the left upper position of the screen. The array may be customized such that it is changed to an arbitrary array based on a desire of the viewer. IMAGE