Abstract: In a television system in which at least program title information for programs which are to be transmitted in the future is transmitted in advance to form a channel guide listing, apparatus is provided for searching for specific television programs which satisfy certain criteria concerning a user's viewing preferences, and upon successful conclusion to the search, the apparatus generates a list of such television programs in order to predict for the viewer certain programs which may be of interest. In a first embodiment of the invention the apparatus stores information about the particular television shows which the user watches, as search criteria. In a second embodiment of the invention the search criteria is editable by the viewer to further refine the searches.

Abstract: A television receiver, provides a hierarchy of menus for controlling functions affecting the display of the video image. A "fetch" menu which can be customized by a user, which is absent from the screen during normal program viewing, and which is easily accessible by means of a single key, holds a given number of the user's favorite commands. The user may add commands to the fetch menu which normally reside any position in the menu hierarchy. The user may thereafter cause display of his list of favorite commands via a remote control key, and cause the execution of his desired command without having to find that command at its normal position in the hierarchy.

Abstract: A television system for receiving a plurality of television programs includes a programming unit for causing the television system to receive and record a particular television show aired on a given channel, at a particular time and date in accordance with schedule data entered by a user. The television system includes a controller for generating the on-screen displays in response to user-entered data. Upon completion of a programming entry, the controller causes a display of a substantially grammatically correct sentence summarizing the entered programming instructions and acting as a confirmation screen. In one embodiment, the confirmation screen is interactive in that certain variables within the sentence may be modified by the user to change the sense of the sentence, and thus to modify the programming instructions.