Abstract: A play list of songs or other media items is automatically generated (380) based on external factors (314, 324, 334) such as weather conditions, stock market conditions, sales of songs, or calendar data, e.g., day of week, holidays or user designated dates such as birthdays, anniversaries and the like. External data (310, 320, 330) relating to the external factors can be received (115) from a radio broadcast, Internet link, or link to a vehicle computer, for instance. The external data is mapped (360) to media items to obtain matching media items (370) for the play list. The mapping may also account for user preferences (145). The user may select (305) the external factor, which represents the mood and/or current preferences of the user in a much better way than the conventional criteria such as genre, artist or album alone.

Abstract: An improved electronic program guide (EPG) (200) is provided which assists a viewer to quickly and easily identify programs of interest by displaying limited schedule information. The improved EPG (200) includes a series of time tab increments (203) demarcating the start and stop times in minutes of the displayed scheduling information relative to a viewer selected display time (205). In this manner, the viewer is aware of exactly how much time has elapsed and exactly how much time remains to the end of each currently broadcasted program. According to one aspect, a viewer has the option of toggling between the EPG display (200) and an alternate EPG display (700) which further filters the limited schedule information to include only favorite channels of the viewer.

Abstract: A play list of songs or other media items is automatically generated (380) based on external factors (314, 324, 334) such as weather conditions, stock market conditions, sales of songs, or calendar data, e.g., day of week, holidays or user designated dates such as birthdays, anniversaries and the like. External data (310, 320, 330) relating to the external factors can be received (115) from a radio broadcast, Internet link, or link to a vehicle computer, for instance. The external data is mapped (360) to media items to obtain matching media items (370) for the play list. The mapping may also account for user preferences (145). The user may select (305) the external factor, which represents the mood and/or current preferences of the user in a much better way than the conventional criteria such as genre, artist or album alone.

Abstract: Multiple television monitors (160, 170, 360, 370) share access via a network (150) to a central tuning device (100) that is able to tune multiple channels concurrently. The monitors communicate channel requests to the central device via the network. The central device processes the requests by controlling a number of individual tuners (330, 335, 340) to tune the requested channels, and couples the monitors to a data stream that is output from the appropriate individual tuner. Predictive tuning may be performed with any unused tuners to reduce delays. The monitors decode (425) the received data streams. Optionally, decoders (130, 135, 140) are provided for each tuner at the central device so that a decoded data stream is provided to the monitors.