IPTV Finds Its Place With Philips Electronics And GDBTV

Philips Electronics (AEX: PHI; NYSE: PHG) joins forces with IP software specialist, Global Digital Broadcast (GDBTV), to launch the first television set with a fully-integrated IPTV service, creating a platform which is seven times the size of Sky.

Philips’s Net TV feature is viewer-ready in the 8000 and 9000 series television sets, along with the Cinema 21:9 series. It carries around 120 channels from GDBTV’s electronic programme guide (EPG). It is due to launch at the end of September 2009.

TV sets with the Net TV feature have a full browser on board. It is based on the open CE-HTML specification, which is a subset of existing open internet standards, such as XHTML1.0, CSS TV Profile 1.0, DOM level 2 (the Core, Style, Events and a subset of the HTML modules), ECMAScript 262 (3rd edition) and XMLHttpRequest (AJAX).

Additionally, CE-HTML describes specific extensions for TV use, including Mediaobject (for A/V rendering control), spatial navigation (up-down/left-right/OK) and guidance for text input with a simple TV remote control (SMS style).

CE-HTML (i.e. CEA-2014 or Web4CE) was co-developed by major CE companies and standardised by the CE Association. The Open IPTV Forum has chosen CE-HTML as its browser standard.