WTVP/Processes/Retrieving settings

After receiving the final headwaiter response on a successful login, the WebTV/MSN TV client will contact a service to retrieve the settings for the current account from the server before fully activating and going to the home page. This service is specified in the wtv-settings-url header after all the wtv-service headers are defined, and the URL for this service is typically either wtv-setup:/get or wtv-setup:/get-settings. On official WebTV/MSN TV clients, if this header isn't present, then it will default to using the former URL. The settings specified by the service are used to enable or disable certain features and configure how the client is supposed to behave.

Process

The request made to the settings service is a standard WTVP GET request. The server will send a response with a query string in the body containing the settings for the current WebTV/MSN TV account, as well as headers for the client's printer settings and language, and a header named wtv-backgroundmusic-load-playlist, which contains a service URL for the client to get a list of songs to play as background music while the user is online:

200 OK\n
Connection: Keep-Alive\n
wtv-encrypted: true\n
wtv-backgroundmusic-load-playlist: wtv-setup:/get-playlist\n
wtv-printer-model: -1,-1\n
wtv-printer-pen: 0,0,1,0\n
wtv-printer-setup: 0,0,1,0\n
wtv-language-header: en-US,en\n
wtv-lzpf: 0\n
Content-length: {length of body}\n
Content-type: text/html\n
\n
from-server=1&setup-advanced-options=0&setup-play-bgm=1&setup-bgm-tempo=-1&setup-bgm-volume=100&setup-background-color=c6c6c6&setup-font-sizes=medium&setup-in-stereo=1&setup-keyboard=alphabetical&setup-link-color=2222bb&setup-play-songs=1&setup-play-sounds=1&setup-text-color=0&setup-visited-color=8822bb&setup-japan-keyboard=roman&setup-japan-softkeyboard=roman&setup-chat-access-level=0&setup-chat-on-nontrusted-pages=1&setup-tv-chat-level=2

Retrieving background music playlist

After receiving the response from the settings service, the client will send a GET request to the service URL for the BGM playlist service specified in the wtv-backgroundmusic-load-playlist header from the response. The service will respond with command headers that make the client clear any existing BGM from its playlist and add background songs as specified by the current user's settings by setting the location to the music file (usually from the service) in a wtv-backgroundmusic-add header:

200 OK\n
Connection: Keep-Alive\n
wtv-encrypted: true\n
wtv-backgroundmusic-clear: no_zits\n
wtv-backgroundmusic-add: wtv-setup:/MusicCache/song.mid
wtv-backgroundmusic-add: wtv-setup:/MusicCache/song2.mid
wtv-backgroundmusic-add: wtv-setup:/MusicCache/headspace/RMF/upbeat/popster.rmf
wtv-backgroundmusic-add: wtv-setup:/MusicCache/headspace/RMF/underground/polyzoot.rmf
...
Content-length: 0\n
Content-type: text/html\n
\n

Official clients should theoretically be able to support any audio formats they already support as background music, but the official service offered predefined tracks in MIDI and RMF (a proprietary format developed by Beatnik) as background songs that subscribers could choose from.

List of settings

Name	Type	Description
from-server	integer	Unknown. Usually 1.
setup-advanced-options	integer	Unknown. Usually 0.
setup-play-bgm	integer	Toggles whether background music can play for the subscriber/user. 1 for yes, 0 for no.
setup-bgm-tempo	integer	Unknown. Usually -1.
setup-bgm-volume	integer	Unknown. Usually 100.
setup-background-color	string	Unknown. Usually c6c6c6.
setup-font-sizes	string	Likely meant to configure the text size for web pages on the WebTV/MSN TV client. Default is medium.
setup-in-stereo	integer	Unknown. Usually 1.
setup-keyboard	string	Unknown. Usually alphabetical.
setup-link-color	string	Unknown. Usually 2222bb.
setup-play-songs	integer	Unknown. Usually 1.
setup-play-sounds	integer	Unknown. Usually 1.
setup-text-color	integer	Unknown. Usually 0.
setup-visited-color	string	Unknown. Usually 8822bb.
setup-japan-keyboard	string	Unknown. Usually roman.
setup-japan-softkeyboard	string	Unknown. Usually roman.
setup-chat-access-level	integer	Unknown. Usually 0.
setup-chat-on-nontrusted-pages	integer	Unknown. Usually 1.
setup-tv-chat-level	integer	Unknown. Usually 2.