Patent ID: 7493639

Claim:
In an interactive televideo system having a central control node in bidirectional communication with plural viewer stations that include video display sets operably coupled to interactive station controllers, the central control node delivering video programming over multiple channels to the plural viewer stations and receiving information from the interactive station controllers, the system including a programming guide from which viewers select programming, a method of displaying summary information chosen from one or more kinds of summary information ranging in relatedness to the selected programming with a preference for displaying the most closely related kind of summary information available, comprising: providing programming information from the central control node to an interactive station controller, the programming information including at least an identity for each of a plurality of available programs; providing summary information from the central control node to an interactive station controller, wherein the summary information is associated with at least one of the available programs and comprises display imagery including one or more of a still image, a plurality of images, a video segment of less than the entire program, or the current broadcast of the program; storing the programming information at the interactive station controller; storing the summary information at the interactive station controller; accessing the programming information and displaying the programming information in the programming guide on the video display; obtaining a user selection indication corresponding to programming selected by the viewer from the programming guide; accessing in response to the user selection indication the summary information relating to the programming selected by the viewer; and displaying the most closely related kind of summary information available for the selected programming; and wherein the most closely related kind of summary information includes at least a text description and imagery relating to the programming selected by the user, wherein the imagery includes a still picture of programming selected by the user, a video sequence of the programming selected by the user, or video content in broadcast stream of the programming selected by the user as it is being broadcast; the video content of the broadcast stream being broadcast, the video sequence, or the still picture of programming selected by the user is automatically retrieved and displayed according to a priority order, wherein the still picture is automatically retrieved and displayed when both programming selected by the user is not being broadcast and the video sequence of programming selected by the user are not available.