A video decoder system collates program guide information acquired from a
variety of local and remote sources. Program guide information is
received from a first source and a selectable program guide menu icon is
displayed. A category of program guide information items from the first
source is collated by a display attribute in response to selection of the
menu icon and the collated program guide information items are displayed.
The display attribute allocated to the category of program guide
information items is common to both the category of items and to the menu
icon. Codes identifying program categories may be converted to other
codes using equivalence mapping information for classifying programs
according to a master set of program categories. Composite program map
information may be formed including new data identifiers allocated to
program guide information items for use in retrieving the items from a
second source.