Table Of Contents

Using the Web-Based Program Guide

Overview

Software Requirements

Launching the WBPG

Setting User Preferences

Searching for Programs

Accessing Online Help

Retrieving Program Listings

Retrieving Scheduled Program Listings

Retrieving On-Demand Program Listings

Playing Programs

Retrieving Program Information

Using the Web-Based Program Guide

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This chapter describes the web-based program guide (WBPG). It contains the following sections:

•Overview

•Software Requirements

•Launching the WBPG

•Retrieving Program Listings

•Playing Programs

•Retrieving Program Information

Overview

The WBPG allows IP/TV end users to review available program listings and to view programs directly from their browsers, without having to individually install the IP/TV Viewer application on their local systems. The WBPG generates dynamic HTML content based on the programs managed by one or more IP/TV Program Managers, and takes advantage of the IP/TV plug-in technology for streaming video programs.

Software Requirements

The WBPG supports both the Netscape browser (Versions 4.5x through 4.7x) and the Internet Explorer browser (Versions 5.5 and later).

Netscape users must perform the following tasks:

•Enable JavaScript.

•Accept (at least) cookies that are sent back to the originating server.

Internet Explorer users must perform the following tasks:

•Enable Active Scripting.

•Enable the option to allow cookies to be stored on their computers.

Launching the WBPG

There are two ways to launch the WBPG. If you have IP/TV Program Manager running on your system, you can click the Program Guide link in the IP/TV Program Manager main window to launch the WBPG. You can also access the WBPG on other IP/TV Program Managers through the browser using the URL of the Program Manager host.

When you launch the WBPG for the first time, you must enter some information to create a user profile. (See Figure 9-1.)

Figure 9-1 User Profile Window

The default WBPG main window is illustrated in Figure 9-2.

Figure 9-2 Default WBPG Main Window

From the WBPG main window you can perform the following operations:

•Review, play, and sort scheduled programs.

•Review, play, and sort on-demand programs.

•Set user preferences.

•Search for programs matching specific criteria.

•Edit user profile information.

•Launch online help.

Each of these tasks is discussed in the sections that follow.

Setting User Preferences

The Preferences window helps you to set up the window of your choice as the WBPG main window.

To set up your preferences, follow these steps:

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Step 1 Click Preferences in the banner bar of the WBPG main window.

The WBPG Preferences window appears. (See Figure 9-3.)

Figure 9-3 Preferences Window

Step 2 Choose one of the following from the Launch the following as my home page options:

•The page defined by the system administrator

This option retains the default main window for the WBPG.

•The Scheduled Program Guide

This option sets up the Scheduled Program window as your IP/TV WBPG main window.

•The OnDemand Program Guide

This option sets up the OnDemand Program window as your IP/TV WBPG main window.

Step 3 Check or uncheck the Show category hierarchy when launching the OnDemand Program Guide check box.

If this check box is checked, on-demand programs are displayed in hierarchical fashion. If it is unchecked, programs are displayed in flat fashion.

Step 4 Click the Go button next to Preferences to save your preferences.

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Searching for Programs

Click Search in the banner bar of the WBPG main window to search for any programs of particular interest. You can search for scheduled programs by entering the preferred program start and end times, or on-demand programs by specifying the parent category or keywords. (See Figure 9-4.)

Figure 9-4 Search Criteria Window

Figure 9-5 illustrates how the search results are displayed for scheduled programs.

Figure 9-5 Search Result Window for Scheduled Programs

Figure 9-6 illustrates how the search results are displayed for on-demand programs.

Figure 9-6 Search Result Window for On-Demand Programs

Accessing Online Help

Click Help in the banner bar of the WBPG main window to access context-sensitive online help.

Retrieving Program Listings

The following section describes how to retrieve program listings from the scheduled programs and on-demand programs listings. Scheduled programs can be sorted by program schedule or program name. On-demand programs can be sorted by program name or program length.

Retrieving Scheduled Program Listings

From the banner bar of the WBPG main window, choose Scheduled Programs to review the program listings for the current day. In the Scheduled Program Listing window (Figure 9-7) you can click the tabs at the top of the listing to retrieve the program listings for the current week, the current month (see Figure 9-8), and the current year, or program listings for a specific date.

Figure 9-7 Scheduled Program Listing Window—Daily View (Sorted by Schedule)

Figure 9-8 Scheduled Program Listing Window—Monthly View (Sorted by Schedule)

Retrieving On-Demand Program Listings

From the banner bar of the WBPG main window, choose OnDemand Programs to review on-demand program listings. You can choose to view the listing in either a category hierarchy fashion or a flat structure. Figure 9-9 illustrates the top-level categories. You can click a particular category to retrieve the program under that selected category.

Figure 9-9 On-Demand Program Listing Window—Category Level

Playing Programs

You can click the Play button or the program name in the WBPG to launch a program. When you click either of these, the application launches the browser plug-in in a new window and starts playing the program. (See Figure 9-10.)

Figure 9-10 Program Video Window

IP/TV supports both IP/TV Viewer plug-in and the QuickTime plug-in. However, IP/TV Viewer is the default choice for programs invoked from the WBPG.

Table 9-1 shows which plug-in is used in different situations.

Table 9-1 Relationship of Plug-Ins to Programs

IP/TV Plug-In Installed1	QuickTime Plug-In Installed	Plug-In Used
X	X	Program is played using the IP/TV plug-in.
X	—	Program is played using the IP/TV plug-in.
—	X	Program is played using the QuickTime plug-in.2
—	—	Program is not played, and you are prompted to download the QuickTime plug-in from the Apple website.2

1 The IP/TV plug-in is used by default to play a program unless only the QuickTime plug-in is available. 2 The program administrator can enforce the use of IP/TV Viewer for any program. In such cases, IP/TV Program Manager prompts you to download the IP/TV plug-in to play the program.

Retrieving Program Information

To review detailed program information for a selected program, click the information button in the Description field of the scheduled or on-demand program listing. The information is displayed in a separate browser window, as shown in Figure 9-11.

Figure 9-11 Program Information Page