Integration between Digital Terrestrial Television and Internet by means of a DVB-MHP web browser
Irene Amerini, Roberto Caldelli, Rudy Becarelli, Francesco Filippini{irene.amerini, roberto.caldelli, rudy.becarelli, francesco filippini}@unifi.it
Giovanni Ballocca, Roberto Borri{giovanni.ballocca, roberto.borri}@csp.it
24 March 2009
Outline
• Why Integration? • Digital Terrestrial Television• How Integration is achieved• WebClimb system architecture• WebClimb prototype evaluation• Conclusions
Why Integration?
• 2012: digital TV convergence in Europe (hundred of millions of terminals)• To enrich the user experience in DTT • Reduction of digital divide
• A multifunctional platform that provides an access to both interactive TV and also to Internet services
TV WEB BROWSER
Digital Terrestrial Television
• Many standards exist (OCAP, ACAP, ISDB, DMB)
• DVB-MHP: Europe, part of Asia, Latin America, some country of Africa
DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) consortium: standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television. This system transmits compressed digital audio, video and other data in an MPEG transport stream.
MHP (Multimedia Home Platform):open standard platform for interactive digital TV and multimedia services.
MHP applications: DVB-J application or XLET
embedded in STB or downloaded from an object carousel
Digital Terrestrial Television
• MHP 1.0 Enhanced Broadcast Profile
Interactive Broadcast Profile (return channel)
• MHP 1.1 Internet Access Profile
a few STBs support such a profile, higher price
PersonalJava ~Java 1.1.8 +
Java TV APIHAVi UIDAVIC APIDVB API
to provide Internet access under MHP 1.0 profile
How Integration is achieved (1/2)
• Specs-Constraints:
• MHP 1.0
• JDK 1.1.8 + Java TV, HAVi UI, DAVIC, DVB API
• Reduced interactivity (only remote control)
• Low screen resolution
• Small memory footprint (<1Mbyte)
• Downloaded from an object carousel as a normal Xlet (device independent)
WebClimbXHTML web browser as a DVB-J
application
Return Return channelchannel
WWW
BROADCASTER
The Infrastructure
TV Digital SignalTV Digital Signal
STB
WebClimb System Architecture
GUI
Rendering/Layout
Networking
• presentation
• layout engine• parsing
• HTTP Client (Apache) - HTTP/HTTPS connection over return channel• Ethernet/PPP Resolver - session management connection DVB API• URL Resolver
URL
XHTML CSS data
display
System Architecture – Rendering/Layout (1/2)
JTidy
Visual formatting model specs W3C
Assignment algorithm
SACParser
System Architecture – Rendering/Layout (2/2)
GUI Viewport
Text paragraph
Title h1 link
CSS
System Architecture – GUI (1/2)• Two navigation levels: UI, Content Area
System Architecture – GUI (2/2)• Virtual keyboard
• Remote control: key to key navigation
WebClimb evaluation
• Test on various XHTML pages• Execution on commercial STBs
• different model and brand (ADB, Humax, Elsag, TeleSystem)
• Memory RAM 8Mbytes-64Mbytes• Modem, Ethernet connection or both
Results
• Clear visualization, correct character encoding and management of the graphical elements on the screen
• Compatibility with respect to different model and brand STBs
• 900 kbytes dimension
WebClimb evaluation• some examples……..
• some examples……..
WebClimb evaluation
WebClimb evaluation• some examples……..
WebClimb evaluation• some examples……..
Conclusions
• Integration between TV and web• Development of a DVB-MHP web browser: WebClimb• Positive results of testing with different kinds of STBs
Future Trends• Compare WebClimb functionalities with others DVB-MHP web browser
on the market (preliminary test give positive results)• Total dimension optimization• A deeper evaluation of the usability
Integration between Digital Terrestrial Television and Internet by means of a DVB-MHP web browser
Irene Amerini, Roberto Caldelli, Rudy Becarelli, Francesco Filippini{irene.amerini, roberto.caldelli, rudy.becarelli, francesco filippini}@unifi.it
Giovanni Ballocca, Roberto Borri{giovanni.ballocca, roberto.borri}@csp.it
24 March 2009