Importance

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Abstract

In A direct broadcast satellite (DBS) systems, local over the air channels are not included in the satellite signal or in the program guide provided by conventional direct broadcast satellite systems. Rather, over the air channels may be received from a television antenna or a cable television system. The disclosed system for providing an electronic program guide for both over the air channels and direct broadcast satellite channels includes a VCR (80) with an RP tuner. The RE signal carrying the over the air channels is connected to the RF input (64) of the DBS receiver (50), combined with all RF modulation on channel 3 (or 4) of the DBS channel tuned by the DBS receiver. The combined RF signal is sent to the RF tuner in the VCR, which tunes either channel 3 (or 4) for the DBS channel or the appropriate RF channel for a local over the air channel. The output of the RF tuner is output on the VCR's baseband video output (84) which is connected to a baseband video input (66) on the DBS receiver. This system provides a baseband video signal for both over the air and DBS channels which can be used by an electronic program guide controller in the DBS receiver to produce a program guide which has the video picture as an integral part of the guide to use the picture of both over the air and DBS channels. This system also allows an electronic program guide controller in the DBS receiver to receive program data from either the satellite signal or the over the air signal.

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First Claim