Patent ID: 7397516

Claim:
A television broadcast receiver connected to a unidirectional antenna having a single receiving direction, or to a multi-directional antenna having a predetermined number of receiving directions, for receiving television broadcast signals in respective channels transmitted from broadcast stations, the television broadcast receiver comprising: a tuner connected to the unidirectional antenna or the multi-directional antenna for receiving a television broadcast signal; a reception control unit for outputting, to the tuner, a channel control signal to command a channel to be selected, and for outputting, to the multi-directional antenna, a receiving direction control signal to command a receiving direction for receiving the television broadcast signal, so as to control a reception process of receiving the television broadcast signal; and an antenna selection switch to be operated by a user for selecting either the unidirectional antenna or the multi-directional antenna to be connected to the tuner; wherein the reception control unit switches a control mode between a unidirectional antenna control mode and a multi-directional antenna control mode in a manner that if the unidirectional antenna is selected using the antenna selection switch, the reception control unit switches the control mode to the unidirectional control mode in which the reception control unit outputs the channel control signal to the tuner for controlling the reception of the television broadcast signal, while if the multi-directional antenna is selected using the antenna selection switch, the reception control unit switches the control mode to the multi-directional antenna control mode in which the reception control unit outputs the channel control signal and the receiving direction control signal to the tuner and the multi-directional antenna, respectively, for controlling the reception of the television broadcast signal.