Patent ID: 8429689

Claim:
A program data processing method, comprising: receiving, for each one of a plurality of broadcast channels, a user selection regarding whether to allow or not allow automatic recording for that broadcast channel; obtaining program guide data associated with each one of the plurality of broadcast channels by sequentially obtaining, from program guide data carried over a single specific program guide obtaining channel, the program guide data relating to only one of the plurality of broadcast channels at a time, the program guide obtaining channel being set by the user from among a plurality of alternative program guide obtaining channels, and the program guide data being obtained at a time specified by the user; storing the received program guide data; determining, from the stored program guide data, whether any of the plurality of broadcast programs coincides with a predetermined condition; and when a particular one of the plurality of broadcast programs coincides with the predetermined condition, automatically performing recording reservation of the particular broadcast program based on the stored program guide data upon a channel providing the particular broadcast program being one of the channels previously selected by the user to allow automatic recording, and displaying on a display the stored program guide data relating to the particular broadcast program and receiving a user selection to record the particular broadcast program upon the channel providing the particular broadcast program being one of the channels previously selected by the user to not allow automatic recording, wherein when the time specified by the user for obtaining guide data is a time for obtaining guide data for ground wave broadcasting the time is selected from among a multiple of predetermined times, and when the time specified by the user for obtaining guide data is a time for obtaining guide data for satellite broadcasting the time is selected from among a multiple of times that do not overlap with the multiple of predetermined times for obtaining the guide data for ground wave broadcasting, wherein after the time for obtaining guide data has been specified, it is determined whether or not there is a recording reservation that has a time overlapping with the time for obtaining guide data, and when there is an overlap an indication of the overlap is displayed.