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

Question

Does javascript work proberly? What colors should I avoid? Does flash work as it should? Do .hover .click, etc work as they should? What about TV browsers?

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

Answer 1

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