1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of controlling an apparatus for receiving an electronic program guide (EPG) and to an EPG receiver using the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A video device, e.g., a digital television receiver, may be provided with a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disc drive to perform a video recording operation. Such a video device may include a personal video recorder, digital video recorder, or the like—typically for recording a broadcast program currently being televised. On the other hand, such devices may be provided with a reserved (pre-programmed) recording function for recording programs scheduled to be broadcast at some known time in the future. For example, a user may program the video device to perform a recording operation in the future, whereby the recording operation is executed according to the programming, and the user can access and view the recorded broadcast programs after the recording operation is completed. An electronic program guide, or EPG, is used to reference scheduled start and end times of target broadcast programs.
To view broadcast programs recorded by the above reserved recording function of a contemporary video device, the user must search the storage device to access one or more desired programs to be reproduced for viewing, which is time-consuming and can be tedious. That is, a contemporary video device as above is essentially a static device, whereby program viewing can be achieved only by searching through a plurality of recordings (files) to select a specific file and then entering a playback mode for reproducing each searched file or a playback mode for reproducing a queue assembled by the user and made up of several individually searched programs. Therefore, a more dynamic method of viewing selected programs stored by a reserved recording function is needed.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds