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HBBTV System
HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV) is a
new industry standard that seamlessly combines
TV services delivered via broadcast with services
delivered via broadband and also enables access
to Internet only services for consumers using
connected TVs and set-top boxes. Services
delivered through HbbTV include traditional
broadcast TV channels, catch-up services,
video-on-demand, EPG, interactive advertising,
personalisation, voting, games, social networking
and other multimedia applications.
HbbTV applications are available on channels
where they are signalled by the broadcaster
(currently various channels on Astra broadcast
HbbTV applications). The broadcaster marks one
application as “autostart” and this one is started
by the platform automatically. The autostart
applications are generally launched with a small
red button icon to notify the user that there is an
HbbTV application on that channel (The shape
and the location of the red button depends on the
application). The red button is displayed for some
and then may disappear. The user then should
press the red button to open the application page.
After the page is displayed the user can go back
to the initial red button icon state by pressing the
red button again. The user can toggle between
the red button icon mode and full UI mode of the
application via pressing red button. It should be
noted that the red button switching capability is
provided by the application and some application
may behave differently.
Figure x: Service with red button application
(taken from HbbTv specification)
If the user swicthes to another channel while
an HbbTv application is active (either in red
button icon mode or full UI mode), the following
scenarios can occur.
- The application can continue running.
- The application can be terminated.
- The application can be terminated and another
autostart red button application can be launched.
HbbTv allows the applications to be retrieved
both from broadband or broadcast. The
broadcaster may enable both ways or one of
them. If the platfrom does not have an operational
broadband connection, the platform can still
launch applications transmitted on broadcast.
The autostart red button applications generally
provide links to other applications. An example
of this is shown below. The user then can
switch to other applications by using the links
provided. The applications should provide a
way to terminate themselves, usually button 0
is used for this.
Figure a: ARD start bar application
Figure b: ARD EPG application, broadcast video
is shown on the left bottom, can be terminated
by pressing 0.
HbbTv applications use keys on the remote
control to interact with the user. When an HbbTv
applications is launched, the control of some
keys are owned by the application. For example,
numeric channel selection may not work on a
teletect application where the numbers indicate
teletext pages.
HbbTv requires AV streaming capability for
the platform. There are numerous applications
providing VOD (video on demand) and catch-up
TV services. The user can use play, pause, stop,
forward, and rewind keys on the remote control
to interact with the AV content.
Note
: You can enable or disable this feature
from the Other Settings menu in Settings menu.
Connectivity Functions
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