Tizen and webOS Smart TV Apps
The CONNECT Player Web HTML5 SDK supports LG (webOS) and Samsung (Tizen) Smart TV platforms from the 2018 model year onwards when accessed via an Application built for the respective platforms enclosing the Web App implementation.
Although the webOS and Tizen platforms also support Native Apps, this is out of scope here.
The CONNECT Player Web HTML5 SDK also supports Hisense VIDAA platforms; however, here the Store lists purely hosted HTML5 Apps rather than installed Apps. For more about becoming a partner with a Store listing, see https://www.vidaa.com/partners/.
You can design, build, install and debug applications for these platforms with the Integrated Development Environment (IDE), SDKs and supporting tools.
LG webOS TV IDE/SDK
https://webostv.developer.lge.com/Tizen Studio IDE/SDK
https://developer.tizen.org/
Both IDEs included support for Emulated devices to develop and test Apps across a wider set of devices and models to which you physically have access.
Web Engine capabilities
As the Smart TV product lines develop, the brands use different Web Engines and versions. These model-year variations significantly affect the capabilities, streams/codecs support and Player user experience.
Apps
There are two different App design approaches to bring the CONNECT Player SDK to end-users' TV to enable playback of content:
Player SDK and components hosted on your website
Player SDK and components embedded into the payload of the App.
Take the following into consideration when selecting the preferred approach.
Hosted SDK | Payloaded SDK | |
|---|---|---|
Benefits | Reuse of the same hosted location as a Browser solution. | Increased security in this closed environment. |
Risks | Potential increased risk of hacker exposure. The App Stores will apply tighter restrictions on hosted apps as a result. | Enlarged app size:
App build/deploy/store approval update overheads when components change. |
NAGRA has developed example code for both styles, described below. The payloaded example includes the dasWebSDK.js component to demonstrate whatever is needed of the App can be included.
Store listings
Both platforms have their own content stores whereby end-users can initially download and subsequently obtain updates. The procedure is similar to creating listings in other stores like Google Play for Android, the Apple AppStore or the Google Chrome Webstore. It involves creating an account, uploading the binary file of your app and supplementing it with metadata to tailor how your listing appears in the store and evidence supporting your application. Once submitted, the application must pass a QA review process before approval for the listing is granted.
Full details on how to prepare store listings are out of scope.