CE-HTML[1] is a language for creating user interface pages for Consumer Electronics (CE) devices such as televisions. These CE-HTML pages are typically placed online and are based on a 10-foot user interface for easy control from a distance. It is profiled on XHTML and associated standards with special CE-HTML extensions.
CE-HTML is part of the CEA-2014 standard (also referred to as Web4CE[2]), defined within the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).[3]
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CE-HTML consists of the following internet languages:
CE-HTML can both be used in-home through UPnP as via the Internet. It allows the content creator to use the common and known languages in the web to define a user interface that can be controlled on a CE device. A CE-HTML client typically consists of a web browser adapted for the CE-HTML standard running on a consumer electronics device. CE-HTML offers specific extensions for these browsers such as :
Typical CE-HTML code looks like this[13]:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "ce-html-1.0-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>CE-HTML</title> </head> <body onload="document.getElementById('myvid').play(1);"> CE-HTML a/v object:<br/> <object type="video/mp4" id="myvid" data="myvideo.mp4" width="640" height="480"></object> </body> </html>
CE-HTML was developed within the Consumer Electronics Association R7WG9 working group – consisting of a number of CE-manufacturers – to formulate an answer to the problem of displaying HTML (web) content on a device that does not possess the characteristics of a typical personal computer[14]. CE devices have problems displaying regular web pages because these pages make use of:
Further difficulties with using a CE device to display web content are caused by the fact that CE devices typically have different capabilities such as different resolutions, remote controls and audio/video codecs.
CE-HTML is increasingly used within other standards, such as the Open IPTV Forum[15], the Digital Living Network Alliance (as of version 2) and HbbTV. Some research suggests that CEA-2014 (of which CE-HTML is an important part) will be one of the key technologies in the living room internet experience[16]. There are currently a number of browser vendors and solution providers that claim to have a CE-HTML capable browser, such as Oregan[17] developed by Oregan Networks Ltd and the Wedison project[18] which is based on Webkit.
Philips released the first devices which support the CE-HTML standard[19] through the Net TV feature in Europe in April, 2009[20][21], which in 2010[22] expanded to include Sharp[23] and Loewe[24] platforms. Connected TV's are also being released by Samsung[25], Panasonic[26] and Sony[27], although these base their work on different languages[28][29][30].