HNTF/Home Network TF Discussions/MediaIdentification

Submitter: BBC

Tracker Issue ID: ISSUE-19

Description: Where available, applications should be able to determine and refer to programmes using a unique and consistent identifier. If the same programme is available from multiple devices or services, the programme should have the same identifier associated with it across all devices or services.

Scenario: An application, wants to present more information associated with a particular programme that the user is currently viewing on their television, without the television acting as an intermediary that serves that additional information.

1. The application discovers an appropriate service
2. The application sends a request to the service to return an identifier for the programme currently playing on the television
3. The application discovers a service that can return metadata for an identified programme
4. The application sends a request to the service to retrieve a unique identifier for the programme that was assigned by the original broadcaster, content publisher or content creator
5. The application contacts an internet service that can resolve identifiers to additional programme metadata
6. The internet service returns additional metadata for the programme

Justification:

• Allows anyone (not just the original content creator or distributor) to create an application that can associate programmes with metadata and web based content; without that metadata or content having to be delivered, or referenced by data served from services on the television or set top box.
• Recommendations to be fed to any groups defining home network protocols to add global content identifier support where not present
• Areas for standardisation: (Application specific API/protocols)
  • Requirement for any high level media playback API abstractions (see issue-20) should include the ability to:
    • expose such identifiers as part of programme metadata
    • search for programmes using such identifiers
    • request playback of a programme using such an identifier
  • This use case does not suggest mandating a particular identifier format.

Dependencies: TV Querying and Control use case (for outlined user scenario)

Comments:

Giuseppe: isn't this already implicitly included in other use cases? is the use cases only about being able to query a unique identifier for content/programs or also about standardize this identifier?

• Matt: An identifier for a programme needs meaning outside of the scope of the device serving or presenting that programme. For example, a home media storage device could allocate its own self-generated identifiers to distinguish one item of content from another; but such identifiers do not allow association with any other content outside of the domain of that device (e.g. from an internet based web service). [Service UI] use case, for example, does not specifically require this. Standardisation could be quite lightweight - as described.

From conf call (21-jun-2011): need to understand what components there are to be standardised in this