Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format
Open-knowledge reference entry
Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) is a multimedia content format defined by a specification developed under the OpenCable project of CableLabs (Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.). The primary purpose of the EBIF content format is to represent an optimized collection of widget and byte code specifications that define one or more multimedia pages, similar to web pages, but specialized for use within an enhanced television or interactive television system.
An EBIF resource (file), i.e., a sequence of bytes that conforms to the EBIF content format, forms the primary information contained in an ETV Application. An ETV User Agent acquires, decodes, presents (widgets), and executes (actions) contained in an EBIF resource in order to present a multimedia page to an end-user. Other types of more specialized EBIF resources play auxiliary roles to this principal role of encoding viewable and interactive pages.
Common Resource Format
An EBIF resource consists of the following components:
Resource Header
Optional Common Section
Optional Platform Section 1...N
A common or platform section of an EBIF resource consists of the following constructs:
Section Header
Table Directory
Table 0...N-1
Optional Heap
Tables
The following table types are defined for use with EBIF:
Action
Generic Data
Metadata
Palette
Platform Directory
Reference
Resource Locator
Trigger
Widget
In addition to the above, an EBIF resource may include one or more private use tables that may be interpreted or used by specific user agents.
Widgets
The following types of widgets are defined for use with EBIF:
Button
Collection
Container
Form
Hidden
Hot Spot
Image
Multi-Line Text
Page
Private Use
Radio
Radio Group Container
Rectangle
Selector
Text
Text Input
Timer
Video
Actions
In an EBIF resource, programmatic (procedural) information takes the form of byte code, where each operation and its (optional) operands is referred to as an action. Actions are organized into sequences by means of one or more action tables where each entry points at (1) an encoded action and (2) the action table index of the next action to execute after the current action's execution is completed. An action sequence terminates when the next action table index is a special value (0xFFFF) or in the case of certain flow of control actions. Action sequences effectively represent one or more traditional code blocks with potential internal looping behavior.
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