The HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV) consortium, an European initiative for web-based smart TV applications for TVs and set-top boxes, has recently released version 1.5 of the HbbTV specification.
The latest specification adds support for HTTP adaptive streaming based on MPEG-DASH (ISO/IEC 23009-1), improving the perceived quality of video presentation on busy or slow Internet connections. It also enables content providers to protect DASH delivered content with multiple DRM technologies based on the MPEG CENC specification (ISO/IEC 23001-7). Finally, HbbTV Version 1.5 significantly enhances access to broadcast TV schedule information (DVB-SI EIT-Schedule), enabling operators to produce full 7-day electronic program guides (EPG) as HbbTV applications that can be deployed across all HbbTV receivers to provide a consistent user experience.
The diagram above show the main improvement of HbbTV 1.5 over HbbTV 1.0 that is, as mentionned above, EIT-Schedule for EPG, MPEG-DASH for streaming video and MPEG CENC for multiple DRM schemes.
The ISO/IEC blue rectangle is the part of the specification defined by the Internal Organization for Standardization and the green OIPF rectangle correspond to specifications defined by the Open IPTV Forum.
The HbbTV Specification version 1.5 PDF can be freely downloaded on HbbTV website. The HbbTV consortium has already started working on HbbTV specification version 2.0, but did not provide details at this time.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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