Main Page/Technical Use Cases

Technical Use Cases of TV Control API

• Contributor: Bin Hu, AT&T
  • Based on the content and supplemental information from current channel, the API fires an event to trigger content overlay.
  • The API is able to fire another event to dismiss the content overlay
  • The triggering event and dismiss event may be fired based on the channel (e.g. when channel is switched), and/or date, and/or time, and/or content boundary, and/or other criteria supported by the channel/content source
  • The API is able to provide the webapps with the validity information so that the content overlay is dismissed after the validity period expires
  • The API is able to provide the webapps with the content source information to be overlayed on top of current channel content
  • The API is able to provide the webapps with the content of multiple video/audio tracks in the same media stream of a given channel, including live, time-shifted programming, linear commercial, service provider-encoded, cable TV, IPTV, VoD, personal video, IP multicasting video, cellular multicasting video, etc.

• Contributor: Chris Needham, BBC
  • Tuner channel scan
    • The API is able to initiate a scan for available DVB channels on a tuner
    • The API is able to report channels as and when they are found during a channel scan
    • The API is able to report the signal strength of channels found during a channel scan
    • The API is able to give a indication of progress during a channel scan
    • The API is able to stop an in-progress channel scan
    • The API is able to report when the channel scan is complete
  • Integration with HTML <video> and <audio>
    • The API is able to render broadcast TV and radio content via the HTML <video> and <audio> elements respectively

• Contributor: Gene Lian, Gina Yeh and Shelly Lin, Mozilla
  • Tuner
    • The API is able to let the user know the meta information of the tuners:
      • The set/number of tuners that are currently installed.
      • The broadcasting type of each tuner, including terrestrial, cable, satellite... etc.
      • The broadcasting protocol of each tuner, including DVB, ATSC, ISDB... etc.
    • The API is able to let the user know the streaming signal strength of the tuners.
    • The API is able to notify the user of the tuner changes from time to time (e.g., hot-plug detection).
  • Channel
    • The API is able to let the user know the meta information of the channels:
      • The set/number of channels that have already been scanned.
      • The broadcasting type of each channel, including a regular TV type or a radio type... etc.
      • The Logical Channel Number (LCN) of each channel.
      • The name of each channel (e.g, "CNN", "NHK"... etc).
    • The API is able to let the user scan (or stop scanning) the channels that are available on the air.
    • The API is able to let the user switch the channel that (s)he is currently watching by using the remote control.
    • The API is able to let the user switch the video/audio/text tracks of the channel that (s)he is currently watching.
    • The API is able to notify the user of the channel set/content changes from TV broadcasters from time to time.
  • Program
    • The API is able to let the user know the meta information of the programs:
      • The set/number of programs that are currently broadcast.
      • Title, start time, duration, description, language, rating, classification... etc of each program.
    • Electronic Program Guide (EPG)
      • The API is able to let the user know the EPG information given a channel or a time period.
      • The API is able to let the user navigate through the EPG and directly select a program to watch.
      • The API is able to let the user browse through the list of other programs while (s)he is watching a program.
      • The API is able to notify the user of the EPG changes from TV broadcasters from time to time.
  • Others
    • Recording
      • The API is able to let the user record a program given a start time and a duration.
      • The API is able to let the user record a program given a program Id.
      • The API is able to let the user watch a program and record other programs at the same time.
    • Emergency Broadcasting
      • The API is able to notify the user when an emergency happens, including earthquake, tsunami... etc.
    • Parental Control
      • The API is able to let the user know whether a channel is protected from children or not.
      • The API is able to let the user unlock the protected channels by entering the correct password.
    • The API is able to let the user watch multiple programs concurrently on the screen (e.g., Picture-in-Picture).
    • The API is able to let the user retrieve data from the broadcaster's remote servers to provide more program-/content-related information. To do this, we need to define a universal way to identify the program on the web.

• Contributor: SungHei Kim, ETRI
  • Source
    • The API is able to select different types of media sources through URI(unified resource identifier)
      • RFC2838 "Uniform resource identifiers for television broadcasts" defines "TV:" URI, but it is not recommended for local tuner
  • Channel
    • The API is able to sort and filter the program list:
      • Parental control can be enforced with rating information for filtering
      • Program list can be in order of startTime, name, etc.
    • The API is able to support channel up and down based on the current channel
  • Program
    • The API is able to provide information on audio such as language supported, codec used, etc.
    • The API is able to provide information on video stream such as quality, codec used.
    • The API is able to provide information on captions with languages supported.
    • The API is able to support channel bounded services.
      • Webapp provides detailed information of the channel/program with TV stream.
      • Webapp is replaced with the change of channel/program.

• Contributor: Matt Haynes, BBC
  • Accessibility Requirements
    • The API is able to enable / disable the display of subtitles
    • The API is able to enable / disable the playback of supplementary audio streams (audio description)

• Contributor: Chris Needham, BBC
  • Recording
    • The API is able to let the user record a program given a programme's unique identifier.
    • The API is able to let the user record series-linked programs.
    • The API is able to provide information on programmes that have been recorded.
    • The API is able to let the user to play back recorded programmes.
    • The API is able to let the user to delete recorded programmes.
    • The API is able to apply parental controls to playback of recorded programmes.
  • Time Shifting
    • The API is able to let the user pause a live program and resume playback at a later time.

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• Contributor: <Name, Company>
  • <Technical Use Case 1>
  • <Technical Use Case 2>

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