1. A system for programming and automatically recording programs transmitted using video signals, by a video recorder, under control of sets of channel, date, time-of-day and program length commands, the system comprising: an input for receiving compressed coded indications into said system, each compressed coded indication incorporating the data represented in a set of individual channel, date, time-of-day and program length commands, wherein each of one or more of said compressed coded indications has a length that is less than the length of the concatenation of said incorporated individual channel, date, time-of-day and program length commands; and a decoder for decoding and expanding each of one or more of said compressed coded indications into said set of individual channel, date, time-of-day and program length commands for control of the video recorder.