Patent ID: 7690016

Claim:
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.