Ocean Blue Software:

Combining IP and DVB,

the Middleware Debate
Introduction
This paper has been produced by
Ocean Blue Software, to help steer the
manufacturers through the complexity
of available standards, and associated
middlewares, and to understand the
various technical, commercial, and
regulatory factors associated with each.
Areas of discussions cover the
following technologies: DVB, MHEG,
MHP, HbbTV, YouView and Android.
Support for connected, IP based,
services is becoming prevalent
amongst the majority of new TVs,
blueray players, and STBs. Catch-up
TV and VOD services are now key
features for the consumer, with CE
manufacturers also transforming into
content aggregators to provide service
portals for their connected products.
The BBCs iPlayer, for example,
registered 101 million accesses for
catch-up TV in the month of January
2011 alone, [1]. The majority of those
were still via the PC, but increasingly
consumers are using their connected
TV, or STB to gain access to iPlayer.
For example, the Virgin Media STB
platform accounted for 25% of the
iPlayer accesses for TV content alone.
Similarly, Samsung TV owners now
enjoy access to LoveFILM VOD
services, and Sony has a similar
offering with its Qriocity entertainment
library, which contains both movies
and music on its TVs, STBs, and
blueray players.
These are just a few examples of the
connected IP services that consumers
are beginning to expect, and
manufacturers are required to support.
The challenge for manufacturers is

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how to combine support for these

features with traditional broadcast
requirements, without resulting in
excessive proprietary solutions, and
potentially even different solutions for
different geographical markets.
Naturally, manufacturers are turning to
standards bodies to help in providing
an answer, and as well as existing
standards such as MHEG, and MHP,
addressing IP services, new standards
such as HbbTV and YouView, are also
emerging.
The question for the manufacturer then
becomes which standard(s) to adopt,
and therefore, which of the
corresponding middlewares should be
supported, and how best to support
them. The question of which to support
is dependant on a range of commercial,
technical and regulatory factors. In
thinking about how to support the
various standards, one thing that is
clear is that with such diverse market
requirements, more and more
manufacturers are choosing to buy in
middleware stacks that are proven and
accredited, rather than developing,
seeking accreditation, and maintaining
their own. This leaves the
manufacturer free to focus their
precious internal resources on their
own value added.

DVB/IP Middlewares
The advent of connected services
means that existing DVB middlewares
have had to consider how best to
integrate new IP features with
historical broadcast reception. In
addition, new middlewares associated
with new standards, are emerging to
address the new market requirements.

MHEG Multimedia
Hypermedia Experts Group
MHEG is an interactive DVB
middleware that has been in the market
Copyright Ocean Blue Software Ltd.

since 2004, and as such, predates IP

services, [2]. Its appeal lies in the fact
that it offers consumers a good
interactive experience, and is a
relatively lightweight middleware that
has a low impact on receiver
requirements (see Table 1 for details).
In addition, MHEG is license free from
a standards body perspective, meaning
that cost implications for the platform
are relatively modest.
Initially deployed in the UK (for
Freeview and more recently Freesat),
MHEG has now been deployed in
Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand,
and India. Also specified in Ireland and
South Africa, and trialled in Malaysia
and Turkey. In addition, MHEG has
been specified as mandatory for
receivers supporting the CI+
specification. MHEG has now been
deployed in tens of millions of
receivers, and numbers continue to rise
as new markets adopt the technology.
In order to address the market
requirements for IP services, the DTG
in the UK has led the development of
the MHEG Interaction Channel
(MHEG-IC) [11]. The aim is to
provide the consumer with a seamless
experience of broadcast content
augmented with IP delivered content.
MHEG-IC uses a sophisticated file
system so the user is unaware about
whether content has been delivered via
broadcast or IP. This also allows
broadcasters to create common
applications that work on IP connected
and unconnected receivers in a
seamless user friendly manner.
MHEG-IC supports streaming media
via HTTP(S), using a minimum of
2mbits/sec H264 enabling catch up TV
and VOD services to be offered. A
prime example of this is the BBC
iPlayer which is now available via
MHEG-IC enabled Freeview and
Freesat platforms, (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1, BBC iPlayer implemented in

MHEG

Accordingly, MHEG, with the MHEGIC extensions, enables the seamless

integration of traditional broadcast and
connected IP services, with modest
platform requirements, which
ultimately helps to keep down the
receiver costs. Ocean Blues Voyager
MHEG stack, is market proven in an
extensive range of products, and fully
supports the MHEG-IC extensions for
IP services.
However, MHEG can seem to have
some limitations, when compared to
other emerging middlewares.
Although MHEG employs internet
standards to support streaming media,
what it does not allow for is access to
any form of HTML based content;
meaning content has to be authored
specifically for the TV environment,
and cannot easily be repurposed from
web authored content. Indeed, special
authoring tools must be used, rather
than web related authoring tools,
which are becoming more common
place.
Table 1, MHEG platform requirements
MHEG Platform
Requirements
Average Memory
16MB RAM, 2-4MB
Footprint
Flash (including
DVB)
Processor
100 MIPS
requirements
Graphics
Minimum 16bit
colour for HD, 8bit
CLUT for SD. PNG
& JPG bitmaps,
graphics co-ordinates

Copyright Ocean Blue Software Ltd.

License costs

Application authoring

Security

IP Streaming

restricted to SD
resolution.
No standards body
royalties, only
software provider
royalties.
Custom MHEG-5
applications using
ASN.1 scripting,
some authoring tools
available.
Tradition CA system
for broadcast,
HTTPS for IP return
channel content.
HTTP streaming

MHP Multimedia Home

Platform
MHP was created by the DVB
standards body [3] to address the same
issues as MHEG, namely how to
provide consumers with a good
interactive TV experience. Work
started on the standard in 1997, with
the first over-air demonstrations in
1999, and the first complete draft of
the standard being published by ETSI
in 2000. It took a couple of years to
resolve the technical teething issues
with MHP and first deployments were
made in July 2002. (See figures 2 and
3.)

Figure 2, typical MHP application

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Figure 3, example MHP VOD portal

MHP middleware is similar to MHEG

in that it is based on a virtual machine
to enable applications to be cross
platform. However, but rather than
using an optimised virtual machine,
tailor made for CE devices, which
MHEG does, it borrows from the PC
world and uses Java. This provides a
much greater flexibility, and
potentially wider compatibility with
the world of PCs and the internet, but it
also makes it a more heavyweight
solution, and considerably more
demanding in terms of memory and
CPU cycle requirements. Accordingly
the cost impact of implementing MHP
on a receiver is more significant than
MHEG, and in areas where MHP was
adopted, the receivers were often
subsidised to the consumer.
Furthermore, initial user experiences
were not optimal, as the platforms
available at the time of launch simply
did not have the power required.
In addition to the hardware costs of the
receiver the MHP licensing body also
charges a per unit royalty (currently
$1.75) as well as an access fee for a
manufacturer (ranges from $1000 to
$15000 depending on the size of the
company). There is also a per
household fee to the service provider
offering an MHP based solution.
Accordingly, MHP is not as cost effect
as some other solutions. See Via
licensing for further information [7].
Copyright Ocean Blue Software Ltd.

Despite the downsides, MHP has now

been successfully deployed across
various DVB networks (DVB-T/S/C)
in several countries. Finland, Korea,
Austria, Spain, Belgium, Poland,
Norway, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland,
Germany, Taiwan, and Italy. Of these
Italy is currently the largest
deployment having over 9.5 million
receivers deployed as of December
2010 [6], and is predominantly due to
the fact that the government subsidised
the cost of receivers to the consumer.
In total approximately 15 million MHP
capable receivers have been deployed
worldwide, [6].
When it comes to integrating IP
services with traditional broadcast, it
can be argued that MHP started out a
little ahead of MHEG. The MHP
standard included support for an IP
connection from the start, but this was
only for application and data use, not
for streaming media services. Recent
revisions of the standard have now
added support for VOD (as of
MHP1.1), and IPTV (as of MHP1.2),
as well as extensions for Conditional
Access and DRM systems. HTML is
supported to a degree with MHP1.1
having optional support for the DVBHTML profile. However, this is not a
full browsing experience, and is not
widely used outside the MHP world.
Moreover, the current market trend is
for CE-HTML, which many of the
mainstream browser providers are now
supporting.
It can be said, and has been argued by
MHP proponents, that it does not
necessarily compete with MHEG, or
other HTML based middlewares, as
you can write MHP applications to
support MHEG, or other HTML
profiles, and hence an MHP platform
can support various standards.
However, in practice, this would be a

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significant effort, and the resulting

performance far from optimal.
MHP remains a proven solution, that
integrates broadcast and IP services,
and performance on current generation
TV/STB platforms is much improved.
However, there is still a cost overhead
when compared to lighter weight
solutions.
Table 2, MHP platform requirements
MHP Platform
Requirements
(Internet profile)
Average Memory
>32MB RAM, 8Footprint
16MB Flash
Processor
>150 MIPS
requirements
Graphics
SD & HD resolution.
Minimum 12 bit per
pixel up to 24bit per
pixel. PNG & JPG
bitmaps, option for
GIF.
License costs
Manufacturing
standards license of
$1.75 per receiver.
Service provider
standards license cost
of $0.25 per receiver.
Additional
administration fee to
standards body
($1000 to $15000
depending on size of
manufacturer).
Software provider
royalties on top.
Application
Customer MHP
authoring
applications using
Java. Range of
predefined classes
available for graphics,
DVB system control,
etc. However
applications
essentially have to be
coded.
Security
Traditional CA
system for broadcast,
DRM can be
integrated for IP
channel (e.g. Marlin).
Applications are
protected via signing
and DVB MHP
certificates.

Copyright Ocean Blue Software Ltd.

IP Streaming

DVB-IP streaming
(RTSP), and OTT
streaming (HTTP1.1,
adaptive streaming
can be implemented
but is not specified)

HbbTV Hybrid Broadcast

Broadband TV
HbbTV is the first
new standard
specifically designed
to provide an open platform that
harmonizes broadcast and broadband
content delivery. A cross industry
consortium comprised of broadcasters,
software providers, manufacturers, and
technology partners, has developed the
standard, which draws heavily on the
Open IPTV Forum specification, [9]
and DVB standards for signalling and
transport, [3]. HbbTV was created in
June 2009, with the first major public
demonstrations being held the same
year. The specification was approved
by ETSI in June 2010.
The EBU has given its backing to
HbbTV as one of the most exciting
developments in media today, [10]
and is a member of the steering
committee together with: Astra, ANT
Software Ltd, France Television, IRT,
OpenTV, Philips, Samsung, Sony and
TF1. Other prominent members of
HbbTV include: Access CO, BSkyB,
Canal+ Group, Humax, ITV Plc,
Opera, and ST Microelectronics.
Figure 4 shows some example HbbTV
applications for EPG, and catch-up TV
services, being broadcast today.

Figure 4, typical HbbTV applications

From a technology perspective HbbTV

combines open W3C web standards,
with existing DVB standards to
provide the best of broadcast and
broadband. A web browser is at the
heart of the middleware, and this is
integrated with AIT, DSM-CC, and a
DVB software stack. CE-HTML is
used to define the core functionality of
the browser, which is a W3C standard
also used by the OIPF [9], and DLNA
2.0 [12] specifications. CE-HTML is a
central feature of the CE-2014
specification, which is predicted to
become a key technology for the
connected living room, [13].
HbbTV applications can be broadcast,
or accessed via the IP connection, or a
combination of both, with a broadcast
application being able to redirect a user
to additional IP based content. Catchup TV and VOD service are supported
via the provision for HTTP streaming
of MP4, or MPEG2-TS based H264
AVC content up to a resolution of
1920x1080. HTTPS is employed to
provide a secure mechanism to
implement transactions and billing
options with the standard, including as
an option DRM APIs for secured
premium content.
As HbbTV is browser based, it is more
demanding from a platform
requirement perspective than an
MHEG class solution, see Table 3.
However, HbbTV has been designed

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Copyright Ocean Blue Software Ltd.

from the ground up to support

broadcast and IP services, rather than
having the IP elements retrofitted into
the specification. Accordingly,
performance has been optimised for
current generation TV and STB
platforms, and the additional cost over
a standard HD receiver is minimal.
HbbTV has no license fees associated
with the standard itself, so the only
license costs are those associated with
the software stack provider.

Table 3, HbbTV Platform Requirements

HbbTV Platform
Requirements
Average Memory
64MB RAM, 8Footprint
16MB Flash
Processor
400 MIPS (CHECK
requirements
THIS)
Graphics
16/32 per pixel colour
support.
License costs
No standards body
royalties, only
software provider
royalties.
Application authoring Applications are
authored using CEHTML
Security
Tradition CA system
for broadcast, DRM
can be integrated for
IP channel (e.g.
Marlin). HTTPS for
secure transactions
and billing.
IP Streaming
HTTP1.1 streaming
for MPEG-TS
encapsulated content,
RTSP/RTP for nonTS encapsulated
content. Adaptive
streaming is being
considered for the
next release of the
specification.

transmissions of HbbTV services, and

TDF has announced it will be carrying
HbbTV on the terrestrial network.
Manufacturers such as Humax, Vestel,
Topfield, LG, and Technotrend, are
launching products into the market,
and key technology companies are
offering HbbTV middleware solutions.
Interestingly, Freesat in the UK
recently announced that its new 2.0
specification would be based on
HbbTV, rather than the competing
YouView specification, citing delays
in the Youview specification, current
lack of DTH support, and a wider
HbbTV market helping to drive down
receiver costs, as factors in their
decision making process, [11]. Another
important factor in Freesats decision
was the fact that HbbTV can easily
coexist with MHEG-5, which Freesat
needs to support for legacy reasons.
Accordingly, although it is still early
days for HbbTV, analysts are
predicting that by 2014, of the 135.5
million connected TVs/STBs installed
in Western Europe 63% will support
HbbTV [11].
HbbTV is driving a co-operation
between browser vendors and DVB
software stack providers to offer
manufacturers a complete solution.
Most major browser suppliers
including ANT, Opera, and Access,
now offer HbbTV compliant products
and have integrations with DVB
software stacks providers. Ocean Blue
has worked closely with both ANT and
Opera in order to be able to offer
TV/STB Manufacturers a proven
turnkey HbbTV solution.

HbbTV is a pan European standard,

but initial focus markets are Germany
and France, with broadcasters such as
ARD, ZDF, RTL in the process of
trialling or launching services in
Germany. The French media authority,
the CSA, has approved test

YouView

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Copyright Ocean Blue Software Ltd.

YouView, formerly known as Project

Canvas, is a new UK specific standard
designed to combine the best of
broadband and broadcast TV on a
single platform, [14]. At the heart of
the standard is the concept of an EPG

that works forwards and backward in

time. Present and future programmes
are available via broadcast channels,
and past content via the IP network,
with the user being essentially unaware
of where the content is coming from.
Initially developed by a small
consortium of broadcasters (BBC,
ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5), network
providers (BT, Arqiva, Talk Talk), and
manufacturers (Technicolor, Humax,
Cisco), it is due to publish as an open
standard in the first half of 2011.
Similar to HbbTV, it is designed to
combine tradition broadcast reception
with IP catch-up TV services, and
VOD, but also offers greater flexibility
supporting a wide range of 3rd party
Apps and widgets. One way to think
about it is more of an Apple, or
Android like Appstore for TV, where
the Apps can provide various forms of
interactive content, including free and
premium video content.
Although the standard is not officially
published the consortium has been
publishing high level information on
the architecture and requirements via
the DTG over the last 12 months,
which is accessible to members. Where
YouView is trying to offer more
flexibility compared with HbbTV, it is
a more complex middleware,
supporting a wider range of content
rendering engines. For example, as
well as supporting a browser for
HTML based content, Adobe Flash is
also used as a major component for
authoring Apps. MHEG is still a core
component for supporting legacy DVB
content in the UK, and the three
presentation technologies are
combined with a tradition DVB stack
for broadcast reception, IP stacks, and
DRM technologies for protecting
premium content.

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Accordingly, the YouView standard

has to enable these disparate
technologies to work together in a
seamless fashion to ensure a good user
experience. This may go some way to
explaining the fact that, unlike other
standards, YouView has some very
specific requirements on the
underlying platform software, and a
compliant receiver must support
specific versions of Linux, and
libraries for graphics, application
coexistence, and HTTP client, to name
a few. In the case of the graphics
libraries, a minimum performance
level is also specified.
The Youview hardware requirements
are also quite demanding from a CPU
and memory perspective, (see Table 4),
and it is suggested that YouView will
specify an amount of local storage,
either HDD or Flash, in the receiver.
YouView has indicated it will actually
publish a list of silicon platforms that
are compliant with its requirements,
which manufactures wanting to
develop YouView products will have
to select from.
To be able to offer Catch-up TV and
VOD services YouView will support
HTTP streaming for unicast and
progressive download. The
specification is not published but it is
highly likely that some form of HTTP
adaptive streaming will also be
supported. For premium content via IP,
Youview has announced that it will
support a range of DRMs, with Marlin
being the first on offer, with plans to
integrate further DRM systems in the
future, to provide content providers
with a choice of technologies.
Table 4, YouView Platform Requirements
YouViewPlatform
Requirements (As
understood today)
Average Memory
512MB RAM, 64Footprint
128MB Flash

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Processor requirements
Graphics

Storage

License costs

Application authoring

Security

IP Streaming

700 MIPS
16/32 per pixel
colour support.
Minimum
1280x720
resolution.
Minmum 2D
blitting
performance levels
are specified.
It is suggested
YouView will
mandate a level of
local HDD/Flash
storage in the
receiver
No standards body
royalties, only
software provider
royalties.
Applications are
authored using
MHEG, HTML, or
Adobe Flash
Tradition CA
system for
broadcast, DRM
can be integrated
for IP channel
(Marlin is first
announced).
HTTPS for secure
transactions and
billing.
HTTP1.1 for
streaming and
progressive
download. Highly
likely that adaptive
streaming will be
supported.

Accordingly, from what we know

today, YouView is a very
comprehensive and flexible standard,
designed to offer consumer a seamless
broadcast and broadband experience,
combining the concept of an EPG that
works forwards and backwards in time,
with an Appstore environment for 3rd
party services. The standard appears to
be quite heavyweight, and complex,
and this may be why YouView has
been delayed several times now.
Initially the first YouView products
were to be available in the market at
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the end of 2010 with the latest

indication being that trials will begin in
the second half of 2011, with formal
products launches in 2012. It remains
to be seen how successful YouView
will be in the market, but it is
generating a lot of interest from key
broadcasters, manufacturers, and
technology providers.
Youview introduces new features to
the receiver, including Adobe Flash,
and HTML support, but also relies on
traditional DVB and MHEG software.
OceanBlue is following YouView
closely and ensuring that its range of
products is YouView ready for
manufacturers.

Android/GoogleTV
Android and GoogleTV, are both
developed by Google, and although
both are finding their way into TVs
and STBs, currently they are targeted
at two distinct markets. Android is an
operating system environment,
designed at delivering connected
experience to the consumer on their
smart phone, or more recently, tablet
PC. It is based around a browser and
the concept of Apps, which can be
downloaded from an App store or
market place. Apps are available to
cover a whole range of features and
functions, from games, to mapping, to
e-book readers; the list goes on and on,
[16].
Android has some similarities to MHP
in that it is based on a flavour of Java,
combined with a web browser, [15].
Apps can be local on the consumer
devices, or remote on the web, and can
be authored in Java, or in HTML for
display via the browser. AV media,
and AV streaming is supported, but is
currently focused on mobile devices
supporting only baseline profile H264,
and recommending lower bitrates and

Copyright Ocean Blue Software Ltd.

resolutions. Accordingly, Android has

no formal support for TV, or broadcast
content. Despite this, we are seeing
various manufacturers showing
technology demonstrators of TVs and
STBs that are using the Android
platform, with proprietary extensions
to facilitate broadcast reception.

websites for GoogleTV, and the 10ft

UI experience, (see figure 5).

The attractiveness of Android on an

STB or TV, is that it provides a
common platform across
manufacturers, for delivering
connected services, and downloadable
apps. Android already has the
infrastructure in place for an App store,
billing, and a wide market of existing
applications, albeit for mobile and
tablet devices. The problem is that
there is no official TV profile of
Android, but if enough manufacturers
show interest then it may well come
about. After all, the tablet edition of
Android (3.0, a.k.a Honeycomb) was
launched after tablet PCs were
shipping in the market using the
smartphone editions (2.x, a.k.a
Gingerbread). Indeed it is not hard to
envisage a DVB, or MHEG,
application for Android, and Ocean
Blue is considering the potential of
such a solution.
GoogleTV, is Googles attempt to
create a web channel on TV, with the
best of the web, widgets, and
connected applications, [17]. Based on
Googles Chrome browser, together
with Adobe Flash support, GoogleTV
can support the full open internet on
TV. Up until now, TVs and STBs have
been limited to browsing tailor made
content, or a limited subset of sites in a
walled garden environment. With
GoogleTV the user can access the
complete internet, and obtain AV
content from popular entertainment
websites that were previous restricted
to the PC. However content providers
are encouraged to optimise their

Under the hood of GoogleTV you will

see Android lurking as the
underpinning software stack. However,
GoogleTV is not a simple add-on for
Android platforms, and it is marketed
as a distinct product. Google has not
released the specifications for
GoogleTV, and today it is only
available on a very limited range of
TVs and STBs from manufacturers that
have worked with Google directly. The
products that are available are all based
on the same Intel CE4100 platform,
which is not too distant from a PC.
Hence receiver prices are currently

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Copyright Ocean Blue Software Ltd.

Figure 5, sample GoogleTV application

high, and initial uptake by the market

has been limited. Yet, it has been
recently speculated that Google will
make GoogleTV as an offering in the
next version of Android (a.k.a
icecream), [18], and hence portable
across a wider range of platforms. If
this is the case then the uptake of
GoogleTV could increase significantly.
Ocean Blue is monitoring
developments in GoogleTV closely,
with the view to making its MHEG and
DVB products compatible with the
platform.

Summary
Catch-Up TV, VOD, widgets, and
other connected services are driving
the need for platforms which integrate
traditional broadcast reception with
new broadband services. In order to
avoid a plethora of proprietary
solutions, CE manufacturers are
turning to standards bodies to provide
an answer. Existing standards such as
MHEG, and MHP are providing
updates that address the requirement
for IP services, and new standards,
such as HbbTV, and YouView, which
are designed from the ground up to
encompass both broadcast and
broadband worlds, to emerge.
MHEG
Of the existing standards, MHEG, with
the interactive channel update, which
enables the provision of HTTP based
catch-up and VOD services, is one of
the lighter weight middleware
solutions. It is a natural choice for
those territories already using MHEG,
and is compelling as a low cost
solution for new markets. However,
compatibility with modern web
standards is extremely limited, and the
application authoring environment
unique to MHEG. Ocean Blue has
been shipping DVB and MHEG
products for many years, and has
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proven, off the shelf, Digital TV

software solutions for manufacturers.
We believe that the market for such
lightly connected will continue and
grow as broadcasters target specific
services in lower cost devices.
MHP
MHP, being Java based, is a more
heavyweight solution, and unlike
MHEG is not license free, both of
which impact the cost of receivers.
That said, from a hardware perspective
most modern HD STBs are more than
capable of running MHP middleware
well, so additional costs are mainly
associated with license fees. MHP
supports both HTTP, and RTP/RTSP
based streaming, and has some web
compatibility with its DVB-HTML
profile. However, this is out of step
with modern market requirements,
which see a shift to CE HTML.
HbbTV
Of the new emerging middlewares,
HbbTV is the one gaining most market
traction, with estimates of 85 million
compatible receivers being in the
market by 2014. Combining open web
standards with tradition DVB
middleware, it delivers the best of
broadband and broadcast TV to the
consumer. Video services are catered
for by HTTP streaming and
progressive download, and a CEHTML profile browser supports
interactive applications, and widgets.
Ocean Blue understood early on that it
was essential to be part of this potential
market, and have worked closely with
key browser vendors to ensure full
compatibility with the HbbTV browser
and associated standards.
YouView
YouView is the other emerging
standard catering for combined IP and
broadcast services. With the concept of
the EPG that works forwards and

Copyright Ocean Blue Software Ltd.

backwards in time, and a 3rd party

appstore it is a compelling offering.
Potentially it will provide greater
flexibility, supporting Adobe Flash as
well as HTML and MHEG, but it is a
more complex middleware, and the
market deployment has been delayed
until 2012. It is certainly one to watch,
being backed by key broadcasters,
network providers, and manufacturers.
Ocean Blue Software, with its full
product range and long standing
relationships with the key browser
companies, is well positioned to help
manufacturers with a compliant
software solution.
Android
The last middleware to consider is
Android/GoogleTV combination.
Currently Android is marketed
separately to GoogleTV, with Android
gaining great traction in the mobile and
tablet domains, but having no official
TV profile. Nevertheless
manufacturers are experimenting with
Android on STB/TV platforms.
GoogleTV is the missing Android TV
profile, bringing the open internet and
all its AV content to the TV platform.
However market uptake has been
minimal with only a few, expensive
products available, all based on the
same Intel hardware. Should
speculation that GoogleTV will be
integrated with the next release of
Android, then this could improve the
market penetration of the solution
considerably.
Ocean Blue is watching developments
carefully and ensuring that its range of
DVB and MHEG products are
compatible. If you would like further
information about Ocean Blues DVB
family of software products, please
visit www.oceanbluesoftware.com

Page 11 of 11

References
1. BBC iPlayer statistics,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcint
ernet/bbc_iplayer_performance_ja
n_2011.pdf
2. MHEG spec, DTB D BOOK 6,
http://www.dtg.org.uk/
3. DVB website,
http://www.dvb.org/
4. MHP 1.2.2 specification, ETSI TS
102 727.
5. MHP website,
http://www.mhp.org/
6. MHP deployment statistics,
http://new.blog.mhp.org
7. MHP licensing,
http://www.vialicensing.com/licen
sing/mhp-fees.aspx
8. HbbTV specification, ETSI TS
102 796.
9. Open IPTV Forum specifications,
http://www.openiptvforum.org/spe
cifications.html.
10. EBU HbbTV endorsement,
http://itvt.com/story/6193/ebugeneral-assembly-endorseshybrid-broadcast-broadband-callscommon-approach
11. Freesat press release,
http://www.screendigest.com/new
s/freesat-beams-uphbbtv/view.html.
12. DLNA website,
http://www.dlna.org
13. CE2014 overview,
http://www.techce.org/viewtopic.p
hp?f=6&t=12
14. YouView website,
http://www.youview.com/
15. Android developer site,
http://developer.android.com/inde
x.html
16. Android market place,
https://market.android.com/apps/.
17. GoogleTV overview,
http://www.google.com/tv/
18. Android/GoogleTV speculation,
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Gin
gerbread-Honeycomb-Ice-CreamGoogle-TV-Eric-Schmidt,news10728.html

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