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 Giovanni Ballocca, Roberto Borri {giovanni.ballocca, 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 1.1Internet Access Profile a few STBs support such a profile, higher price PersonalJava ~Java Java TV API HAVi UI DAVIC API DVB API to provide Internet access under MHP 1.0 profile

How Integration is achieved (1/2) Specs-Constraints: MHP 1.0 JDK 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) WebClimb XHTML web browser as a DVB-J application

How Integration is achieved (2/2) WebClimb XHTML web browser as a DVB-J application Considerations about existing web browser: TV web browser embedded appl, no Java, raw GUI SMALL DEVICE web browser no Java appl, server-side conversion JAVA web browser Java 1.2+

Return channel WWW BROADCASTER The Infrastructure TV 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……..

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 Giovanni Ballocca, Roberto Borri {giovanni.ballocca, 24 March 2009

System Architecture – Rendering/Layout

Web Climb prototype MVC architectural design pattern Facade design pattern Visitor design pattern Controller design pattern

System Architecture – Rendering/Layout