Pioneer Electronic Corporation

Kazushi Sakuma

Masahiko Kawasaki

Takashi Nozaki

Eiji Ohga

Tatsuo Takahashi

Kimihito Harada

Ryusuke Tozaki

Ruysuke Tozaki

An exciting command is transmitted from a center of a CATV system to a plurality of terminals in a block at the same time for exciting circuits in each terminal. A command to request each of the terminals to send response data is transmitted from the center to the terminals in sequence after excitation of the circuits. In response to the command, each of the terminals sends response data to the center.

Bidirectional communication method for CATV system

Based on in-band data transmitted from a center facility that include titles, start times, lengths and channel numbers of respective programs of linked channels, the titles and start times are displayed together with selection numbers on a TV receiver upon depression of a schedule switch by a user. While watching a displayed picture, the user selects one of the selection numbers. Data indicating the start time, length and channel of the selected program is stored in a timer reservation area of a memory. The selected program is automatically displayed based on the stored data.

CATV system with an easy program reservation

A terminal device for a CATV system is described which includes a microcomputer for controlling the operation of the terminal device. The type of module which is connected to an input/output port of the microcomputer is recognized by a recognizing element and information identifying the recognized kind of module is displayed on a display in response to a predetermined operation of a keyboard.

Terminal device for a catv system having a read out function

A CATV center facility transmits, together with the television signals of a plurality of programs, display control data indicating program names and selection numbers of the respective programs and channel data indicating the numbers of channels on which the respective programs are being broadcast or to be broadcast. A terminal apparatus detects the program names, selection numbers and channel numbers from the display control data and the channel data, and makes a TV receiver display the detected program names and selection numbers in an associated manner. While looking at a picture thus displayed, a user selects a desired program by pushing a corresponding numeral button of a remote controller or a keyboard. In response to the program selection by the user, the terminal apparatus is tuned to the channel of the selected program.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Kazushi Sakuma