Broadcast receiver utilizing either signal amplification or signal attenuation

A television receiver equipped with a signal-power increasing/decreasing section between an antenna and a tuner, the signal-power increasing/decreasing section being configured to amplify and attenuate a signal power to be input to the tuner, the television receiver comprising:

• a flag storage section having stored therein a re-search flag;
• a reception state detecting section that detects AGC, C/N, and BER based on an output signal from the tuner;
• and
• a control section that determines, based on a detection result of the reception state detecting section, if a signal of a corresponding channel can be normally received, and performs, based on a determination result, a feedback control for amplifying or attenuating the signal power in the signal-power increasing/decreasing section,
• wherein
• the signal-power increasing/decreasing section includes a switch section that switches between an amplifier and an attenuator, and
• said control section further comprises a counter section for counting a number of receivable channels on each of the attenuator side and the amplifier side in a channel search, wherein
• when the channel search is performed on the amplifier side to acquire the reception state information for each channel, if a channel is determined to be “normally receivable,” the counter on the amplifier side is incremented, and, upon generation of at least one channel with a signal that is determined to be “not normally receivable” and have high power based on a value of the AGC, the re-search flag is set to “1,” and
• upon termination of the channel search on the amplifier side, if the re-search flag in the flag storage section indicates “1,” the switch section is switched to the attenuator side to perform a similar channel search, and upon termination of the channel search, values of the counters on both sides are compared so that the switch section is fixed to the side on which more channels can be normally received.

A television receiver equipped with a signal-power increasing/decreasing section between an antenna and a tuner, the signal-power increasing/decreasing section being configured to amplify and attenuate a signal power to be input to the tuner, the television receiver comprising:

• a reception state detecting section that detects AGC, C/N, and BER based on an output signal from the tuner;
• and
• a control section that determines, based on a detection result of the reception state detecting section, if a signal of a corresponding channel can be normally received, and performs, based on a determination result, a feedback control for amplifying or attenuating the signal power in the signal-power increasing/decreasing section,
• wherein
• the signal-power increasing/decreasing section includes a switch section that switches between an amplifier and an attenuator, and
• said control section further comprises a counter section for counting a number of receivable channels on each of an attenuator side and an amplifier side in a channel search, wherein
• the television receiver has a configuration with two or more tuners including a first tuner and a second tuner, and
• the amplifier and the attenuator are provided in a splitter section that divides a signal to be input to the tuners,
• the television receiver further comprising:
• a flag storage section having stored therein a re-search flag, wherein
• when the channel search is performed on the amplifier side to acquire the reception state information for each channel, if a channel is determined to be “normally receivable,” the counter on the amplifier side is incremented, and, upon generation of at least one channel with a signal that is determined to be “not normally receivable” and have high power based on a value of the AGC, the re-search flag is set to “1,” and
• upon termination of the channel search on the amplifier side, if the re-search flag in the flag storage section indicates “1,” the switch section is switched to the attenuator side to perform a similar channel search, and upon termination of the channel search, values of the counters on both sides are compared so that the switch section is fixed to the side on which more channels can be normally received.