DLNA releases CVP-2 Guidelines for viewing TV content on home devices

Tuesday, March 18th, 2014
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The Digital Living Network Alliance Releases CVP-2 Guidelines for Viewing Subscription TV Content on Multiple Home Devices

  • Latest DLNA Guidelines were developed with broad industry participation.
  • Alliance Members can now build products in preparation for the certification program for CVP-2 Guidelines, which DLNA will launch in September.
  • Guidelines are the next step in DLNA’s mission to enhance and extend the digital lifestyle.

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA®) today released the organization’s CVP-2 Guidelines and announced that DLNA Members can begin certifying products to the specifications in September. The availability of devices such as TVs, game consoles, tablets, phones, PCs and set top boxes certified to the CVP-2 Guidelines will enable consumers to enjoy their service providers’ full subscriber experiences on many different screens in the home.

“We are very pleased to be releasing DLNA’s CVP-2 Guidelines,” said Scott Lofgren, chairman and president of DLNA. “The availability of devices certified to the CVP-2 Guidelines will enable more consumers to view subscription TV content on more screens, all the while maintaining the full subscriber experience and user interface. Numerous DLNA members have been building and pre-testing products to the CVP-2 Guidelines and previewing their capabilities at a variety of industry venues and events, and we expect to see many exciting new products entering and achieving DLNA Certification in September.”

CVP-2 Guidelines were developed through a close collaboration between service providers and members of the consumer electronics product development ecosystem. These Guidelines are an extension of the standard DLNA Guidelines and enable client devices certified to the CVP-2 Guidelines to interoperate and share media with the billions of existing DLNA Certified servers. As CVP-2 capabilities are built into home network products, consumer choice will be improved for seamlessly enjoying subscription TV content from providers on multiple devices in the home.

“Providing our products and services on the devices that our customers love and use is increasingly important to us,” said Mark Hess senior vice president, Comcast Cable. “The DLNA CVP-2 Guidelines will provide a standardized platform for Comcast customers to watch the content they want on a broad range of devices within the home.”

“The CVP-2 standard enables the continued innovation and evolution of the multi-platform video experience,” said Steve Necessary, vice president of product development, Cox Communications. “This effort will enable Cox to expand the ecosystem of devices that integrate with our highly personalized Contour service offering by giving customers the flexibility to choose the device platform that best suits their needs.”

“DLNA’s new CVP-2 Guidelines provide the industry with a foundation to significantly enhance consumer enjoyment of premium content offerings from their service provider. Content providers’ rights are preserved, devices will have greater functionality, and consumers will have greater viewing device options. This is a win for all stakeholders,” said Tom Lookabaugh, chief R&D officer, CableLabs.

“DLNA has established a widely recognized and important standard for interoperability between networked home and mobile entertainment devices. CVP-2 extends the benefits of the DLNA standard to subscription TV content while supporting the full range of subscriber features, security and user interface capabilities,” said Brett L. Sappington, director of research with Parks Associates. “Because of the FCC’s prompting for an industry standard that allows TV services to be delivered to CE devices, North American cable operators will be among the first to adopt CVP-2.”

About the CVP-2 Guidelines

In addition to enabling a consistent user interface for viewing subscription content, CVP-2 Guidelines also preserve the rights of content providers. CVP-2 includes Digital Transmission Content Protection over Internet Protocol (DTCP-IP) to protect content streamed within the home, and authentication capabilities that establish a common, automated and secure mechanism for verifying CVP-2 on client devices.

CVP-2 also provides for remote diagnostics and optimizes the consumer viewing experience by including support for Moving Picture Expert Group Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), an adaptive delivery technology for high-quality streaming regardless of bandwidth variations on the home network. A Networked Device Power Save feature enables devices certified to the CVP-2 Guidelines to meet today’s tighter power regulations and voluntary energy efficiency initiatives.