The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 05, 2004
Filed:
Nov. 17, 2000
Yuichi Yagawa, Kawasaki, JP;
Hiromi Ukai, Kawasaki, JP;
Akira Tanaka, Kawasaki, JP;
Hideo Nishijima, Yokohama, JP;
Hitoaki Owashi, Yokohama, JP;
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A support method for helping the user find a desired program from a collection of recorded television programs easily and quickly, and a recording/reproducing apparatus using this method. The recorded program viewing support system, when recording a television program, records electronic program information on the program, classifies the electronic program information according to predefined program category criteria, and successfully assigns predefined category numbers (recording channels) to the program to be recorded. Before the user views a recorded program, the user specifies the number of the recorded channel. A recorded channel number is allocated with a category item and hence the user can easily know the contents of the recorded programs. The user can change the channel number successively or directly specify it by using a remote controller to find a desired program easily and quickly. When disk media such as HDD and DVD-RAM are used as a storage in particular, the recorded programs can be randomly accessed allowing the user to zap through recorded programs.