Television tuner

• US 20060055831A1
• Filed: 06/13/2005
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd. (Funai Electric Holdings Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd. (Funai Electric Holdings Company Limited)
• Inventors: Onomatsu, Takehiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,600,247 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/725
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4263 involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/4446 IF amplifier circuits specially adapted for B&W TV RF amplifiers in general H03F3/189
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/50 Tuning indicators; Automatic tuning control

Abstract

A television tuner that receives a television signal using a smart antenna includes a rescan unit that executes rescan; that is: that when an instruction that instructs direct selection of a reception channel on which a television signal is currently received is issued during reception of a television broadcast service, causes an antenna control section to vary or control the receiving direction of the smart antenna and causes a signal state detector section to detect the states of signals sampled in all receiving directions; and that if the state of a signal detected by the signal state detector section agrees with a predetermined signal state, preserves the receiving direction of the smart antenna in which the signal is sampled. Consequently, rescan can be executed for all the receiving directions of the smart antenna by performing a simple manipulation.

Claims

1. A television tuner that receives a television signal using a smart antenna that can be statically adjusted with an electric signal to exhibit directivity in a selected direction, comprising:

a directivity control section that generates an electric signal with which the directivity of the smart antenna is adjusted so that the smart antenna will be directional to a selected direction;

a tuner section that receives a television signal, which falls within a frequency band corresponding to a predetermined reception channel, via the smart antenna; and

a signal state detector section that detects the state of a signal sent from the tuner section by detecting an AGC voltage that defines an amplification factor of a signal sent from the tuner and/or by detecting a bit error rate of a digital signal sent from the tuner section, wherein;

the reception channel refers to a physical channel assigned to a frequency band on one-to-one correspondence or one or two or more virtual channels arbitrarily associated with each physical channel,

the television tuner further comprising;

a memory unit in which a first table indicating the relationship of correspondence between the physical channels and the frequency bands, a second table indicating the relationship of correspondence between the virtual channels and the physical channels, and a reception channel on which a television picture is received;

a verification unit that when an instruction is issued to instruct direct selection of a reception channel, verifies whether the reception channel specified in the instruction agrees with the reception channel stored in the memory unit;

a rescan unit that executes rescan;

that is;

that when the verification unit verifies that the reception channel specified in the instruction of direct channel selection agrees with the reception channel stored in the memory unit, if the reception channel is a physical channel, references the first table stored in the memory unit so as to determine a frequency band within which the tuner section receives a television signal;

that if the reception channel is a virtual channel, references the first table and the second table, which are stored in the memory unit, so as to determine a frequency band within which the tuner section receives a television signal;

that then causes the antenna control section to vary or control the receiving direction of the smart antenna and causes the signal state detector section to detect the states of signals sampled in all receiving directions;

that when the state of a signal detected by the signal state detector section agrees with a predetermined signal state, preserves the receiving direction of the smart antenna in which the signal is sampled; and

a display control unit that displays a representation signifying that rescan executed by the rescan unit is under way.

2. A television tuner that receives a television signal using a smart antenna that can be statically adjusted with an electric signal to exhibit directivity in a selected direction, comprising:

a directivity control section that generates an electric signal with which the directivity of the smart antenna is adjusted so that the smart antenna will be directional to a selected direction;

a tuner section that receives a television signal, which falls within a frequency band corresponding to a predetermined reception channel, via the smart antenna;

a signal state detector section that detects the state of a signal sent from the tuner section,

the television tuner further comprising;

a rescan unit that executes rescan;

that is;

that if an instruction that instructs direct selection of a reception channel on which a television picture is currently received is issued during reception of a television broadcast service, causes the antenna control section to vary or control the receiving direction of the smart antenna and causes the signal state detector section to detect the states of signals sampled in all receiving directions; and

that if the state of a signal detected by the signal state detector section agrees with a predetermines signal state, preserves the receiving direction of the smart antenna in which the signal is sampled.

3. The television tuner according to claim 2, further comprising a display control unit that displays a representation signifying that rescan executed by the rescan unit is under way.

4. The television tuner according to claim 2, wherein:

the reception channel refers to a physical channel assigned to a frequency band on one-to-one correspondence or one or two or more virtual channels arbitrarily associated with each physical channel,

the television tuner further comprising;

a memory unit in which a first table indicating the relationship of correspondence between the physical channels and the frequency bands, a second table indicating the relationship of correspondence between the virtual channels and the physical channels, and a reception channel on which a television picture is currently received; and

a verification unit that when an instruction is issued to instruct direct selection of a reception channel, verifies whether the reception channel specified in the instruction agrees with the reception channel stored in the memory unit, wherein;

when the verification unit verifies that the reception channel specified in the instruction of direct channel selection agrees with the reception channel stored in the memory unit, if the reception channel is a physical channel, the rescan unit references the first table stored in the memory unit so as to determine a frequency band within which the tuner section receives a television signal;

if the reception channel is a virtual channel, the rescan unit references the first table and the second table, which are stored in the memory unit, so as to determine a frequency band within which the tuner section receives a television signal;

the rescan unit then causes the antenna control section to vary or control the receiving direction of the smart antenna and causes the signal state detector section to detect the states of signals sampled in all receiving directions; and

if the state of a signal detected by the signal state detector section agrees with a predetermined signal state, the rescan unit preserves the receiving direction of the smart antenna in which the signal is sampled.

5. The television tuner according to claim 2, wherein the signal state detector section is realized with an AGC circuit that detects an AGC voltage with which the amplification factor of a signal sent from the tuner section is defined.

6. The television tuner according to claim 2, wherein the signal state detector section is realized with a demodulator circuit that detects a bit error rate of a digital signal sent from the tuner section.