Patent ID: 8417098

Claim:
A broadcast program recorder comprising: a receiver receiving instructions from a user, said instructions including a first instruction issued to program recording a broadcast program, a second instruction issued to extract a group of broadcast programs periodically broadcasted and recorded, and a third instruction issued to change the location of a program in a playlist resulting in a user-defined order of reproduction; a tuner selecting a channel of a broadcast signal received by an antenna; a storing device for recording data, said data including broadcast program content data of a broadcast program corresponding to said channel selected by said tuner; a controller controlling an operation of the broadcast program recorder, said controller including: means for determining identification information specifying said broadcast program subject to programming of periodical recording, if said first instruction indicates that said periodical recording be programmed and also designates a periodical recording interval, means for setting said identification information to an unused series identification number when said periodical recording is first set to be recorded, wherein said unused series identification number is set independent of information obtained from Electronic Program Guide information and is set independent of a recording date or time, means for controlling said tuner to select said programmed channel when a time for which a recording is programmed arrives, means for controlling said storing device to record said broadcast program content data in association with said identification information, means for searching and retrieving said broadcast program content data corresponding to said identification information specified by said second instruction, wherein said identification information is set independent of information obtained from Electronic Program Guide information and is set independent of a recording date or time, and means for generating, in accordance with a result of searching and retrieving by said means for searching and retrieving and said third instruction, a play list representing an order in which said group of broadcast programs subjected to said programming of periodical recording is reproduced; and an output device outputting at least one of a video signal corresponding to said play list and a video signal corresponding to said broadcast program content data.