engineering

TV-Anytime

TV-Anytime is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand TV-Anytime rather than just read about it. In short: TV-Anytime is a set of specifications for the controlled delivery of multimedia content to a user's local storage. It seeks to exploit the evolution in convenient, high capacity storage of digital information to provide consumers with a highly personalized TV experience.

Key takeaways

TV-Anytime belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect TV-Anytime to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of TV-Anytime from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

TV-Anytime is a set of specifications for the controlled delivery of multimedia content to a user's local storage. It seeks to exploit the evolution in convenient, high capacity storage of digital information to provide consumers with a highly personalized TV experience. Users will have access to content from a wide variety of sources, tailored to their needs and personal preferences. TV-Anytime specifications are specified by the TV-Anytime Forum.

The TV-Anytime Forum The global TV-Anytime Forum is an association of organizations which seeks to develop specifications to enable audio-visual and other services based on mass-market high volume digital storage in consumer platforms. It was formed in Newport Beach, California, United States, on 27–29 September 1999 after DAVIC was closed down. It was wound up on 27 July 2005 following the publication of RFC 4078 (reference: http://www.tv-anytime.org/). Its first specifications were published by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) on August 1, 2003 as TS 102 822-1 'Broadcast and On-line Services: Search, select, and rightful use of content on personal storage systems ("TV-Anytime")'. RFC 4078 (The TV-Anytime Content Reference Identifier (CRID)) was published in May 2005. TV-Anytime has more than 60 member companies from Europe (including BBC, BSkyB, Canal+ Technologies, Disney, EBU, Nederlands Omroep Productie Bedrijf (NOB), France Telecom, Nokia, Philips, PTT Research , Thomson), Asia (including ETRI, KETI, NHK, NTT, Dentsu, Hakuhodo, Nippon TV, Sony, Panasonic, LG, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba) and the USA (including Motorola, Microsoft, and Nielsen).

The objectives The TV-Anytime Forum has set up the following four objectives for their standardization work:

Develop specifications that will enable applications to exploit local persistent storage in consumer electronics platforms. Be network independent with regard to the means for content delivery to consumer electronics equipment, including various delivery mechanisms (e.g. ATSC, DVB, DBS and others) and the Internet and enhanced TV. Develop specifications for interoperable and integrated systems, from content creators/providers, through service providers, to the consumers. Specify the necessary security structures to protect the interests of all parties involved.

Current status Several implementations of the TV-Anytime specifications exist among broadcasters, EPG operators, press guide printers, etc. Early implementations have been done in the field of metadata aggregation. More is coming in the field of hybrid broadcast-broadband delivery. A licensing program for TV-Anytime was managed by Via Licensing Corporation until early December 2010. More information on known patents of the defunct licensing programme's patent holders, claimed to be essential, is provided on the new TV-Anytime website now officially hosted by EBU.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with TV-Anytime

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what TV-Anytime claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to TV-Anytime before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about TV-Anytime ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of TV-Anytime

In research: TV-Anytime appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses TV-Anytime in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: TV-Anytime is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Broadcast engineering, Digital Video Broadcasting, Digital broadcasting, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for TV-Anytime outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study TV-Anytime in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what TV-Anytime means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain TV-Anytime out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is TV-Anytime in simple terms?

Why does TV-Anytime matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study TV-Anytime?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on TV-Anytime.