OPENTV COMPLETE JOINT DEVELOPMENT OF MHP EXTENSION

OPENTV, one of the world's leading interactive television and media solutions companies, have completed joint development of a Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) extension to their advanced digital interactive TV (iTV) platform.
The MHP standard enables digital interactive content and services to be developed for all MHP compliant television set-top boxes, integrated TVs and even multimedia PCs.
OpenTV developed the MHP 1.0.1 extension in partnership with Matsushita Electric Industrial. The product will be immediately available for certification as soon as the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) releases their MHP Test Suite later this year.
The MHP standard was defined by the DVB project group as a common Application Programming Interface (API) for delivering multimedia services such as games, enhanced TV services or home banking. Until the MHP standard was set, these applications may have needed to be adapted to operate using technology selected by different broadcast networks or set-top box manufacturers.
There are a number of key OpenTV technologies that go beyond the functionality required by the current MHP standard, and in fact complement MHP functionality. These include a middleware extension that facilitates Personal Video Recorder (PVR) capability, allowing viewers to pause live TV or record without videotape. Another is the Service Platform Suite (SPS), which has been designed as a complete Client-Server platform for managing the operational and transaction demands of commerce, advertising, communication and profiling.
Network operators which have already deployed interactive television using OpenTV will be able to continue using existing set-top boxes and/or deploy set-top boxes running OpenTV and its MHP compliant extension. (CD)