Deletion of entries from the channel mapping list of a videocassette recorder

Claim 1

A videocassette recorder, comprising: tuner means for selecting a particular RF signal from a group of RF signals in response to a control signal, said RF signals corresponding to television channels; control means for generating said control signal for causing said tuner means to select said particular RF signal; means, coupled to said control means, for entering data in response to operation by a user; display generator means for generating on-screen display signals; and memory means having a first plurality of memory locations for storing data related to the tuning of ones of said RF signals, said control means in response to said data entered by said user causes said tuner means to automatically tune to each of said television channels, said control means storing in said first plurality of memory locations data indicative of an active channel when an RF signal is detected at each of said television channels; said control means including programming means responsive to an entry of a numeric code for programming said videocassette recorder to record a particular television signal for a specific duration of time; and said memory means includes a second plurality of memory locations for storing data representing a list of channel guide numbers initially bearing a one-to-one correspondence to tunable the channels; said control means uses an autoprogramming data to identify the active channels and causes said display generator means to produce a display of a list comprising channel numbers of only active channels and their respective channel guide numbers; in response to said data entered by said user, said control means modifies channel guide channel number data stored in ones of said memory locations of said second memory means; said programming means decoding said numeric code to produce a particular channel guide channel number, searching for said particular channel guide channel number in said second memory means, deriving a respective active channel number from said particular channel guide channel number, and causing said tuner means to tune to a specific active channel on a specific time and date and record a received television signal for a specific duration of time; said control means being responsive to data received from said data entry means for deleting ones of said channel numbers of said first plurality of memory locations and said second plurality of memory locations independently of each other.