Music interface for media-rich interactive program guide

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

US007464394B1

(12) United States Patent

Gordon et al.

(io) Patent No.: (45) Date of Patent:

US 7,464,394 Bl Dec. 9, 2008

(56) References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,250,521 A 2/1981 Wright
(Continued)
FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
EP 0838958 Al 4/1998

(Continued)

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

European Search Report, EP 01 96 3811. date Sep. 22, 2005.

Primary Examiner—Hunter B. Lonsberry

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Patterson & Sheridan, LLP

(57) ABSTRACT

Techniques for providing a music interface in a media-rich interactive program guide. In one implementation, an interactive music interface page includes one or more (e.g., two) display regions, a channel description region, and (possibly) a header region. The display regions, channel description region, and the header region are respectively configurable to display a listing of a number of music channels, information for a particular music channel, and one or more objects (icons) used to identify the music interface page. Each display region can include a particular (stripped) background and can further be configurable to display a video. In constructing the music interface page, a set top terminal (STT) may retrieve graphics for the page. The background and commonly used icons may be pre-loaded to the STT. In case of icon changes, the pre-loaded icons may be periodically or occasionally sent from a head end to the STT. During construction of the music interface page, the STT may overlay pre-generated (bitmap) the text within the stripes of the background to create the listing of music contents. In addition, icons may be overlayed at specific locations in the page.

18 Claims, 38 Drawing Sheets

Page 2

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