Web on TV Browsers and Applications
This Web-related line of product consists in:
- A Web on TV browsing environment (HTML, JavaScript) based on customized open source software (WebKit, GTK+, DirectFB, etc.)
- That can be extended towards HbbTV compliance (application manager, JavaScript bindings, DSM-CC client, etc.)
- A Flash on TV browsing environment (including ActionScript support) based on customized open source software (libswfdec)
- A range of TV SDKs for major Web services: Facebook, Twitter (social networking), etc.
- A collection of “native” TV clients for Web services: Skype (VoIP), Netflix, VUDU, CinemaNow, Yahoo! TV (VoD), etc.
- A TV widget manager and a suite of TV widgets: Flickr (photo sharing), blip.tv (VoD), vTuner (Internet radio), ZDF, WDR (broadcaster), etc.
The diagram hereafter gives an overview of the architecture of the product line.
The Web on TV Browser
It is a WebKit-based, full featured embedded browser for TV.
WebKit is used by popular browsers (Apple Safari, Google Chrome, etc.), especially for mobile handsets. It is made of WebCore (HTML browser) and JavaScriptCore (JavaScript engine).
The browser gives support to the following Web technologies:
- HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.1, DHTML
- ECMAScript 3
- CSS 3 (partial), CSS 2.1
- DOM 3 (partial), DOM 2, DOM 1
- XMLHttpRequest (AJAX)
- I-Frames
- XPath
- Plug-in API: Netscape NP API
- Image support: GIF, JPEG, PNG
- Transport: http 1.1, https (based on OpenSSL support)
- Navigation: through remote control or pointing device
The browser relies on the following support libraries:
- DirectFB as the graphic back end
- GTK+, Glib for window management
- Cairo for 2D drawing
- Pango, Freetype2, fontconfig for text layout and rendering
- Libsoup for HTTP
- LibXML2 and Expat for XML parsing
It is optimized for embedded, resources-constrained devices especially with respect to its memory footprint.
The HbbTV Browser
The HbbTV browser extends the Web on TV browser to give support to HbbTV. It is compliant with the “base level” capabilities set defined in ETSI TS 102 796 V1.1.1 (“Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV” technical specification).
It is composed of:
- The bindings towards a DVB engine through the Netscape plug-in API of the HbbTV JavaScript APIs: applications management, configuration and setting, parental rating and parental control, scheduled content and hybrid tuner (incl. the video/broadcast embedded object), media playback, etc.
- An application manager which handles DVB signaling for application detection (PMT, AIT, AIT XML parsing), and manages HbbTV applications lifecycle
- A DSM-CC client which handles carousels for downloading of HbbTV applications and acquisition of DSM-CC stream events
The Flash on TV Browser
It is an embedded Flash browser for TV based on customized open source software (libswfdec) that may be used as a plug-in of the Web on TV browser through the Netscape plug-in API.
It gives support to Adobe Flash Lite V3 (Flash Player 8, ActionScript 2)
The browser relies on the following support libraries:
- DirectFB as the graphic back end
- GTK+, Glib for window management
- Cairo for 2D drawing
- Pango, Freetype2, fontconfig for text layout and rendering
- Libsoup for HTTP
It is optimized for embedded, resources-constrained devices especially with respect to its memory footprint.
The TV SDKs and Clients
It is a collection of “native” TV clients that give access to major Web services from TV.
They have been developed:
- Either on top of in-house made SDKs: Facebook and Twitter (social networking)
- Or on top of SDKs or on the basis of specifications made available by service provider: Skype (VoIP), Netflix, VUDU, CinemaNow, Yahoo! (VoD), etc.
The User Interface (UI) of the TV client may be Web- or Flash-based.
The TV Widget Manager and the Suite of TV Widgets
The TV widget manager provides an execution environment for TV widgets.
It allows to launch and decode TV widgets as well as to control their execution (several TV widgets may run simultaneously).
A suite of TV widgets (that may be Web- or Flash-based) is available to give access to major Web services from TV: Flickr (photo sharing), blip.tv (VoD), vTuner (Internet radio), ZDF, WDR (broadcaster), etc.