On-Screen Show Guide Offers Multiple Features

Surveys show that about 70 percent of VCR owners do not know how to program their machines, and now another challenge looms for people intimidated by living room electronics.

The average cable system currently offers more than 12,000 program choices a week on roughly 30 channels. With hundreds of channels on the horizon, how will viewers keep track of what’s on?

Enter Starsight, a new kind of on screen guide developed by Starsight Telecast of Fremont, Calif. Starsight flashes schedules and program information onto the center of the screen in ways that might become almost too helpful. First, a grid provides constantly updated lists of everything on every channel up to seven days in advance. A viewer can highlight a listing with a special remote-control device, hit a button and see the program’s length and a summary of its contents.

Starsight allows a viewer to choose programs by category and subcategory. It also lets a viewer program and rearrange a list of channels, eliminating those that are never watched.

To go surfing, hit a button, and Starsight skims channels, stopping on command to describe the program being shown and indicate how much time is left. And for the viewer who wants to surf now and watch later, the push of a single button will program the VCR to record the highlighted show.

Starsight is currently available in eight high-end Zenith and five Mitsubishi television sets; three Samsung and two Goldstar VCRs; a set-top receiver manufactured by Magnavox; and cable converter boxes from Zenith, Scientific Atlanta and General Instruments-Jerrold.