What should I take into consideration when developing a website for a TV screen? [closed]

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Does javascript work proberly? What colors should I avoid? Does flash work as it should? Do .hover .click, etc work as they should? W开发者_StackOverflow中文版hat about TV browsers?

Are there any major gotchas that differentiate developing for the TV form factor, as opposed to a normal monitor?

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While it is difficult to discuss specific technical points without knowing the target browser or OS, there are design issues that can be addressed differently for TV vs. desktop vs. mobile browsing.

Jakob Neilsen's Alertbox article "TV Meets Web" provided an interesting - if somewhat dated - overview of the kinds of design issues one encounters when making websites for use on television screens. Except for the point about screen resolution (HD TVs today can have higher resolution than some computer monitors), most of his points are still valid.

He addresses two kinds of differences between desktop-based and TV-based web browsing. First, users will often access pages from their TV with a different purpose than mobile or desktop users. For example:

• People use their TV when they are in their living room. They are probably looking to enjoy entertainment as opposed to doing work (desktop) or looking up information (mobile).
• Using a TV is often a social activity shared with friends or family. They may even pass the remote control around the room. In contrast, most desktops and mobile devices are being used exclusively by one person.

Second, there is a difference in how people interact with the pages:

• Desktop users have a keyboard and mouse. This allows them to enter large quantities of text and to select elements precisely.
• TV users will likely use a remote to select elements or control an on-screen keyboard. Therefore, there should be fewer elements to manipulate and less text to enter. This is similar to requirements for mobile pages.
• TV users may not be able to directly point to an element like users with mice or touch-capable mobile devices.

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You can always start with SMPTE color bars, (make sure they have the three pluge bars) and see if they look similar, and correct, on both types of screens. Another issue to consider, although maybe not as big of an issue since HD is here, is whether the video signal is RGB, or R-Y, B-Y-, Y.

I still use a Standard Def, CRT monitor for my website color correction.

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There are several issues that you should adress, to name the few:

• low resolution (if you develop for PAL - 720x576)
• interlace - if you use horizontal lines of one pixel wide, you'l flicker - only on crts
• pixel aspect ratio - if you are on 16:9 screen an have 1024x768 resolution for example
• overscan / title safe area - crts don't have whole screen visible