MHP - Media Home Platform

By: Christine Martz

Meaning of MHP - "Media Home Platform", is a generic interface between interactive digital applications and the terminals on which those applications perform. It is an open standard describing how interactive applications are written. MHP applications are written in the JAVA programming language.

MVP applications are run within the receiver of a digital terminal, like a television or computer, that has MHP support. Applications can be anything from web services like email or web browsing to applications which allow a viewer to answer questions on a live TV Quiz show.

MHP applications are stored in object carousel at the content provider's location. The applications are multiplexed in a DVB (Digital Video Broadcast) stream and transmitted alongside audio and video to the receiver.

MHP was produced by the Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB), a European-based consortium of broadcast companies and regulatory bodies. DVB Standards are published by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

Other Related Definitions:

“…MHP is attractive because it is open. For the service provider, it means applications need to be written only once rather than as many times over as there are types of set-top boxes (STBs) out there. For the users, it means a free choice of STBs from any manufacturer, as long as it is MHP-compliant.” [Bob Pank - Broadcast Engineering]

“…MHP has created new business models in the digital TV environment. Unlike the older proprietary Applications Program Interface (API) systems, MHP is an open standard. This means that, in Finland, viewers are free to buy or rent any MHP-compliant set-top boxes or other MHP terminal from whatever manufacturer they want. They can watch any free-to-air TV program and use any free MHP service with any MHP terminal.” [Visa Noronen - Sofia Digital]

“…The Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) attempts to adapt existing Internet and web standards for to digital Television (DTV). The aim is to provide interactive digital content that can be viewed on set top boxes and multimedia PCs. MHP is intended to operate with satellite, cable, terrestrial and microwave.”[Tom Worthington Ð Tomw Communications Pty Ltd]

“…The current MHP standard1 uses an application programming interface (API) based on HTML/Java. This API defines mechanisms for downloading applications, also called Xlets, that are embedded in digital broadcast data streams such as MPEG-2 or accessed over Internet protocol (IP) client/server connections. Most MHP-compliant home terminals include writeable non-volatile storage, allowing Xlets to be dynamically upgraded, replaced, or augmented from a remote location. MHP also defines tools for conditional access (CA), including the DVB common scrambling algorithm for the encryption of transport streams like pay-per-view programs.”[Anthony Daniels - Zarlink Semiconductor]

Related Links:

MHP Site - Media Hme Platform Homepage.
An Introduction to MHP - MHP tutorial.
Internet-TV Convergence - with the Multimedia Home Platform.
MHP and iTV: - The real digital difference
The Self-Compliance Scheme - How To Identify DVB-MHP Products

Technical Resources:

An Introduction to MHP - White Paper - White Paper from MHP.com
MHP Test Suites - MHP Conformance Testing
MHP Documents - Blue Books and Implementation Guidelines 

Products and Solutions:

Blogs, News, Feeds, Discussion Lists:

Official MHP Forum - Discussion forum hosted at MHP.com 

Books About:

Interactive TV Standards : A Guide to MHP, OCAP, and JavaTV - by Steven Morris, Anthony Smith-Chaigneau.
Introduction to MHP - by Christophe Declerck. 

See Also:

Other MHP resources

 

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