US 7,690,016 B2Granted

Television broadcast receiver

AssigneeFunai Electric Co., Ltd.

InventorsToshihiro Takagi, Tatsuo Miyagawa

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Abstract

A television receiver is connected to a multi-directional antenna having multiple receiving directions for receiving a television signal by making one receiving direction active, and comprises a clock, a tuner, a memory for storing a receiving direction table having content containing channel numbers and a best receiving direction, and a microprocessor for controlling the receiver. Based on the time measured by the clock, the microprocessor renews the content of the table at a preset time, and outputs, to the antenna, a control signal to command a receiving direction for receiving one channel based on the renewed content of the table. The receiver can properly adapt to the variations in time of the receiving conditions of terrestrial broadcasts based on the renewed content of the table, and can automatically renew the content of the table in a time zone when a user does not view a television program.

Claims3

Dependent claims

A television broadcast receiver connected to a multi-directional antenna having predetermined multiple receiving directions for receiving a television broadcast signal, transmitted in one of multiple channels from one of multiple broadcast stations, by making one of the multiple receiving directions active, the television broadcast receiver comprising:

a clock for measuring time;
a tuner connected to the multi-directional antenna for receiving a television broadcast signal;
a memory for storing a receiving direction table having content containing information of channel numbers of the channels transmitted from the broadcast stations and information of a best receiving direction or directions of the multi-directional antenna for receiving one or more of the channels;
and
a microprocessor for controlling the entire television broadcast receiver including the tuner and the memory,
wherein based on the time measured by the clock, the microprocessor renews, at a time preset by a user, the content of the receiving direction table stored in the memory, and the microprocessor further outputs, to the multi-directional directional antenna, a control signal to command a receiving direction for receiving one of the channels on the basis of the renewed content of the receiving direction table,
wherein based on the time measured by the clock, the microprocessor sequentially outputs, to the multi-directional antenna, a control signal to command all the receiving directions of the multi-directional antenna at a time preset by a user for the tuner to sequentially receive the television broadcast signal in all the receiving directions, and the microprocessor further determines the best receiving direction for an arbitrary one of the channels transmitted from the broadcast stations on the basis of signal intensities of the television broadcast signal in all the receiving directions, and still further renews the information of the best receiving direction in the receiving direction table on the basis of the determination of the best receiving direction,
wherein the memory stores a receiving direction table for each of predetermined time zones preset by the user,
wherein based on the time measured by the clock, the microprocessor renews the content of the receiving direction table for each of the predetermined time zones preset by the user,
wherein the microprocessor renews the content of the receiving direction table when a state, where the signal intensity of the television broadcast signal received by the tuner is lower than a predetermined value, continues for a predetermined delay time,
wherein the microprocessor determines the delay time for each of the predetermined time zones, and
wherein the delay time of the time zone when short-range receiving conditions are more likely to deteriorate due to influence of noise is set to be longer than the delay time of the time zone when short-range receiving conditions are less likely to deteriorate due to influence of noise.

9 more elements

a time measuring means for measuring time;
a control signal output means for outputting, to the multi-directional antenna, a control signal to command a receiving direction of the television broadcast signal;
a receiving means connected to the multi-directional antenna for receiving a television broadcast signal;
a receiving direction table storage means for storing a receiving direction table having content containing information of channel numbers of the channels transmitted from the broadcast stations and information of a best receiving direction or directions of the multi-directional antenna for receiving one or more of the channels;
an omni-directional scan means:
for determining the best receiving direction for an arbitrary one of the channels transmitted from the broadcast stations by sequentially commanding all the receiving directions of the multi-directional antenna with the control signal output means, and by receiving the television broadcast signal in all the receiving directions with the receiving means;
and for renewing the content of the receiving direction table on the basis of the determination of the best receiving direction;
a no-signal scanning means for causing the omni-directional scan means to determine the best receiving direction when a state, where the signal intensity of the television broadcast signal received by the receiving means is lower than a predetermined value, continues for a predetermined delay time so as to renew the content of the receiving direction table;
and
a delay time determining means for determining, on the basis of the time measured by the time measuring means, the delay time used by the no-signal scanning means for each of predetermined time zones,
wherein the delay time of the time zone when short-range receiving conditions are more likely to deteriorate due to influence of noise is set to be longer than the delay time of the time zone when short-range receiving conditions are less likely to deteriorate due to influence of noise.

8 more elements

a time measuring means for measuring time;
a control signal output means for outputting, to the multi-directional antenna, a control signal to command a receiving direction of the television broadcast signal;
a receiving means connected to the multi-directional antenna for receiving a television broadcast signal;
a receiving direction table storage means for storing a receiving direction table having content containing:
information of channel numbers of the channels transmitted from the broadcast stations;
information of a best receiving direction or directions of the multi-directional antenna for receiving one or more of the channels;
and register channel information indicating whether or not the respective channels are registered as selectable channels;
an omni-directional scan means:
for determining, based on signal intensities of the received television broadcast signal, the best receiving direction and the register channel information for an arbitrary one of the channels transmitted from the broadcast stations by sequentially commanding all the receiving directions of the multi-directional antenna with the control signal output means, and by receiving the television broadcast signal in all the receiving directions with the receiving means;
and for renewing the content of the receiving direction table on the basis of the determination of the best receiving direction;
an all-channel scan means for causing the omni-directional scan means to repeat the determination of the best receiving direction so as to determine the best receiving direction and the register channel information for each of all the channels transmitted from the broadcast stations, and renew the content of the receiving direction table on the basis of the determination of the best receiving directions;
a timer scan means for causing the omni-directional scan means or the all-channel scan means to determine the best receiving direction or directions at a time preset by a user on the basis of the time measured by the time measuring means so as to renew the content of the receiving direction table;
a time zone-divided receiving direction table creating means:
for creating a receiving direction table for each of predetermined time zones preset by the user on the basis of the time measured by the time measuring means;
and for storing the receiving direction table in the receiving direction table storage means;
a no-signal scanning means for causing the omni-directional scan means to determine the best receiving direction when a state, where the signal intensity of the television broadcast signal received by the receiving means is lower than a predetermined value, continues for a predetermined delay time so as to renew the content of the receiving direction table;
and
a delay time determining means for determining, on the basis of the time measured by the time measuring means, the delay time to be used by the no-signal scanning means for each of predetermined time zones,
wherein by the delay time determining means, the delay time of the time zone when short-range receiving conditions are more likely to deteriorate due to influence of noise is determined to be longer than the delay time of the time zone when short-range receiving conditions are less likely to deteriorate due to influence of noise.

16 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 11/167,269Filed 28 Jun 2005
Priority: JP 2004-18997528 Jun 2004
Published: US 2005/0289625 A129 Dec 2005
Granted: 30 Mar 2010
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

H04N 21/4345
Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream;…: extraction…
H04N 5/44
Details of television systems: receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards
H04N 21/4383
Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. retrieving encoded video stream packets from an IP…
H04N 21/44209
Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times…