Patent ID: 7761895

Claim:
A method to set transmission cycles for tables to be transmitted as part of a digital television (DTV) transport stream, the method comprising: setting transmission cycles for a sequence of event information tables EIT 0 , EIT 1 , EIT 2 , and EIT 3 containing program information covering different time spans, wherein the transmission cycle for the EIT 0 is less than the transmission cycle for the EIT 1 ; setting transmission cycles for a sequence of extended text tables ETT 0 , ETT 1 , ETT 2 , and ETT 3 containing program description information associated with the EIT 0 , EIT 1 , EIT 2 , and EIT 3 , respectively, wherein the transmission cycle of the ETT 3 is greater than a sum of the transmission cycle of the EIT 0 and the transmission cycle of the EIT 1 , wherein the transmission cycle of the EIT 0 is less than the transmission cycle of the EIT 2 ; and broadcasting the DTV transport stream having the EITs and ETTs therein to receiving devices.