System and method for carriage of program-related information in vertical blanking interval (VBI) of video output signal of program guide-Equipped video equipment

摘要

Apparatus that transfers program identifying data of the video signal delivered by video equipment such as satellite and cable set-top boxes accesses program-related information from an electronic program guide or from the received television signal and encodes the information into the VBI of the received video signal before transmitting the signal to a video recorder. Apparatus according to the present invention includes a tuner which receives the video signal and circuitry which receives electronic program guide (EPG) information. The apparatus also includes a processor and an XDS encoder. The processor extracts selected EPG information for the program currently being received and, using the XDS encoder, inserts the selected information into the XDS data area of the received signal.