Patent ID: 7603077
Filing Date: 2009-10-13
Classification: H04H

Abstract:
1. A broadcast receiver comprising: a smart antenna which is configured to receive airwaves comprising a plurality of channels; a tuner which is configured to extract an extracted signal of each of the plurality of channels; a signal processing unit which is configured to process the extracted signal; and a control unit which is configured to control an antenna direction of the smart antenna, wherein the control unit performs an automatic scanning of at least one of a plurality of antenna directions to detect a receivable antenna direction for at least one of the plurality of channels, the receivable antenna direction being defined as a direction where a power level of the signal of the at least one of the plurality of channels is above a threshold value, wherein the control unit ranks a plurality of antenna directions according to frequency of detection as the receivable antenna direction in past automatic scanning, and the control unit first scans the first ranked antenna direction in the plurality of the antenna directions, and subsequently scans the other antenna directions in descending order of frequency during the automatic scanning for the at least one of the plurality of channels, and wherein when the receivable antenna direction for one of the plurality of channels is detected during execution of an automatic scanning for the one of the plurality of channels, the automatic scanning for the one of the plurality of channels is stopped and an automatic scanning for another of the plurality of channels is started.