Book Description
U.S DVD sales will top $8.1 billion in 2002, an increase of over 50%, according to Adams Media Research. DVD sales this year surpassed video, even though only 30% of households have DVD players (compared to 90% for VCRs). In August 2002 the New York Times dubbed DVD “the most successful home entertainment device in history…a true pop-culture phenomenon.” DVD Demystified has served as DVD’s bible since the format first shipped in 1997. Demystifying not only basic technology issues but detailing production and authoring processes, making sense out of the plethora of battling video, audio, and data formats, and clearly explaining how DVD standards and specs dovetail or clash with related digital media standards, this book has not only become DVD’s standard reference, but also required reading for DVD enthusiasts who wanting to peer behind the scenes and figure out how to get the most from their technology. Since then, Jim Taylor has become DVD’s most visible guru, now President of the DVD Association, author of the internet DVD FAQ, and profiled by E!Online and DVD Report. This third edition will be almost completely rewritten to cover the major technology, format, and standard changes of the past three years, and will once again include a DVD designed to show the extreme limits of performance of this dynamic technology.
Customer Reviews:
An extraordinary book .......2007-01-16
The 5-stars rating is probably reductive for the third Dvd Demystified edition. It is the most complete work about the amazing dvd technology,
its history, the production processes and its future (or should i say: actual?) developments. For video technicians, dvd authors, graphics designers and for those who love to get a deeper knowledge about dvd world DVD demystified is like the Bible, a must-have opera which the included dvd (with examples of all the contents allowed by dvd specs) has an enormous value by itself. Purchase it with no fear: it really keeps the promises it makes.
Everything I need to know about DVD's.......2007-01-11
Bought the 2nd edition about 1 year ago and immediately bought the 3rd edition when it came out. I find everything I need to know about DVD's. The included DVD has some helpful audio and video tests.
Highly recommend this book for anyone who want's to understand the technologies behind DVD's.
DVD Demystified.......2007-01-09
This is an excellent book that caters for a wide range of knowledge bases and explains some of the technical issues very clearly. It also gives some very useful background about the development of VHS and DVD, and this also helps to understand the rationale behind the various standards.
Quite technical in places, but certainly answers most questions concerning anything to do with music and video media. Very useful for anyone working in entertainment to know some of this. A good book, I recommend it.
DVD Demystified 3rd Edition.......2007-01-05
Very comprehensive. At times repeatative, but gives a good history of the subject. I would like to see a larger and more interactive DVD supplied with the book.
Interesting.......2006-07-25
DVD Demystified is good book to understand what's the state of the art of optic storage and digital video.
Book Description
Flash MX 2004 Game Design DemystifiedYour comprehensive guide to creating games using Flash MX 2004. It will take you through the process of creating a game in Flash MX 2004. The first several chapters introduce general processes for creating games, while the second section looks at the important concepts for creating realistic games. Such concepts include math, physics, collision detection, and collision reaction. A third section delves into more creative concepts: tile-based worlds, 3D visualization, artificial intelligence, using graphics, and using sound. Later chapters provide an introduction to multiplayer games, creating a high score list for games, and a selection games for which the authors share the development process, including code. The accompanying CD will provide the code for each function discussed in the book as well as working versions of the games.
Customer Reviews:
Technically good, except for one flaw........2007-04-11
Very informative as far as what it teaches, but I noticed it's written for the experienced user...so why does it come with a demo of the software you're being taught? If you're experienced, you already own it, I think.
Decent book with a mixed approach.......2006-12-01
This book does not use the typical approach where various games of increasing complexity and size are used to explain concepts throughout the chapters. Instead, part of the book is dedicated to small games pieces or recipes and another to full games. In any case, there are many areas of Flash game programming that are covered. Some of the topics include game math, level editors, artificial intelligence (AI) and even multiplayer games. Of course not ever topic is covered with as much detail as others. But, plenty of references to both web links and books are provided throughout the chapters and in the appendix for more information on certain topics. The book includes a CD with demo software, game files, PDFs and other various files.
The first chapters (Part I) start with an introduction to gaming, including terminology and genres. Then is a description of Flash's capabilities and limitations. Surprisingly, there is no basic introduction to Flash or ActionScript that is frequently seen in other books. The rest of this section is dedicated to general development issues including game design and planning.
The core material of this book was cover in Part II (Chapter 3-14). Here many of the fundamentals of game programming were explained through small example scripts and incomplete games. Game math is one of the first topics introduced, followed by physics and then collisions (detections and reactions). Following the math and physics related scripts did get a bit difficult at times. However, full understanding is not necessarily required since the many scripts provided can be easily implemented into other games. Also, the PDF files on the CD consisted of some of the equations used in the scripts with the math worked out in pencil. Aside from the math intensive chapters, there was still a lot of useful material in the remaining chapters. The chapters on tile and isometric based games provided good information on how to handle them more easily and efficiently. In addition, the chapter on AI was original, since it covered maze creation and path finding as well as the usual enemy attack/pursuit scripts that many books focus on. There was even a decent, although single and short, chapter on sound, including using it in Flash and creating your own. All the material in these chapters were explained in detail and included numerous images.
The final part of the book concludes with discussion on several full functioning games. There is one game for each of the remaining chapters (15-18). Not all of the code from each game could be discussed, as the chapters from Part II took up the bulk of the book. Nonetheless, the key areas of each game were described in detail and the .fla source files on the CD did include comments. The CD also provided additional source files for a handful of full and incomplete games. Still, the games in these chapters were each complex and large enough to have warranted more coverage. The multiplayer chess game, which used a socket server (Chapter 16), could have definitely benefited from more content. Ultimately there were probably too few pages to fairly discuss the games in the final chapters.
This book is certainly not for a beginner, since it does not have a Flash or ActionScript primer that most of these books would include. On the back cover it is categorized as intermediate to advance and I agree for the most part. It was at least a notch above in difficulty from beginner level books I have read so far. However, with little coverage on object oriented programming (OOP), it probably can not be considered a true advanced book. Some of the examples did use exported class files, but actual discussion on them was limited. In the end, I found the middle part on game pieces to be more helpful. Nevertheless, "Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Game Design Demystified" is still a good book and will work as both a reference and a standard guide.
Rating: 4/5
Not recommended.......2006-11-04
I would suggest any books by Colin Moock or the Robert Penner book "Programming Macromedia Flash MX" over this book. I bought this book because I hoped it would explain some physics applications that I was having trouble with and because it dives into topics like multiplayer games. To be fair, I haven't gotten to the multiplayer games section yet, so it's possible that that part is clear and useful. The physics part is only helpful if you are content to simply copy and paste code into your flash apps. I'd like to really understand the topic at hand and for me this book failed miserably.
1. This book is poorly edited. I know it is difficult to make sure there are no typos when you're reading through code examples, but somehow O'Reilly press gets it done very well. I found several examples in the first few chapters, some of them actually interfering with my comprehension of the text.
2. This book does a very poor job of explaining complicated topics. In some places, the authors suggest readers turn to pdf files on the included cd for further explication. The pdf files I looked at, however, were simply scans of handwritten notes. This would have been acceptable to me, but the notes really didn't explain anything any more than the book or code examples did.
When explaining how to test for collisions between graphic objects, the book attempts to describe a quadratic equation. This appears to be a difficult thing to describe; however, this does not excuse shortcuts such as simply not explaining how/why the authors solve the problem the way that they do. I am particularly frustrated by an example of code in which the variables are named a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j... Yes, the authors need to create a number of temporary variables and perhaps this method was optimized. But for a didactic text? Use variable names that actually mean something, that actually convey what is being done.
Look elsewhere for your flash informationl.
Good Start but lacking details.......2005-09-08
I was hoping that this book would shed some light on how to apply practical mathematics to AS2.0 in order to produce some realistic effects. It provides a good start and even gives good descriptions about the inner workings of some of the concepts.
I took two years of H.S. physics, trig, and calc and I still find the explanations lacking for those of us that require the "why's" to all our questions.
The examples on the CD are extremely helpful IF you understand the code. Sorting through the files to find the code is hard and some of the files seem unfinished.
I would get this used if given the chance to do it all over again.
Great Game Book, Worst ActionScript 2.0 Book.......2005-02-06
I found this book great to learn programming basic game physics but it is certainly one of the worst book to pick if you want to upgrade your ActionScript knowledge from 1.0 to 2.0.
The source codes are ALMOST NO DIFFERENCE from ActionScript 1.0. It is almost as if the arthur thinks that by adding variable declarations, ActionScript 1.0 becomes ActionScript 2.0.
No true Object-Oriented Programming practices (which is the true strength of ActionScript 2.0) at all. The coding style are simply ActionScript 1.0 structure (with variable declarations).
Still, this book is great to pick if you are new to game development. However, be aware that this book is NOT demonstrating how to program in ActionSctip 2.0 properly.
Book Description
This international bestseller and essential reference is the "bible" for digital video engineers and programmers worldwide. This is by far the most informative analog and digital video reference available, includes the hottest new trends and cutting-edge developments in the field.
Video Demystified, Fourth Edition is a "one stop" reference guide for the various digital video technologies. The fourth edition is completely updated with all new chapters on MPEG-4, H.264, SDTV/HDTV, ATSC/DVB, and Streaming Video (Video over DSL, Ethernet, etc.), as well as discussions of the latest standards throughout. The accompanying CD-ROM is updated to include a unique set of video test files in the newest formats.
*This essential reference is the "bible" for digital video engineers and programmers worldwide
*Contains all new chapters on MPEG-4, H.264, SDTV/HDTV, ATSC/DVB, and Streaming Video
*Completely revised with all the latest and most up-to-date industry standards
Download Description
This is by far the most definitive, informative video reference available, made more compelling by the author's inclusion of the hottest new trends and cutting-edge developments in the field. Finding another single-volume source for the huge amount of information in this book is impossible. Professionals in this rapidly changing field will need the new edition of this book to keep up with the latest technology developments and industry standards. With the major worldwide push to switch to digital broadcasting, adoption of new technology standards and protocols take place at a rapid pace and no-one can afford to be left behind. This means that over the next few years, utilization of digital video in broadcast, internet and other medai will skyrocket. This book will serve as an invaluable guide to the designers and engineers who will design, create, and deliver these products and services.
Customer Reviews:
4th edition better.......2007-05-18
I quickly scanned the text. The difference between the fifth edition and the fourth edition is that the 5th is missing the CD with the electronic version of the book.
My Video Bible.......2007-02-03
As a EE specializing in hardware development often related to video processing, I consider this my "Video Bible".
A good reference.......2006-06-30
This book serves as a very good reference for video engineers. However, for a person new to the field of video encoding/decoding, I would not recommend this book.
Video Remystified.......2006-06-28
This is supposed to be the Bible on all things video, but
the book falls short in many areas:
- Each successive edition has compressed old material and
added new material to the point where the coverage in
many areas is extremely superficial. Introductory material
has been hacked out.
- Terms are introduced and either not explained at all, or
explained pages later. A good editor should have read this
thing. It reads like it was pasted together.
- If the author broke the book into multiple volumes, the
book would benefit. I'd suggest one for digital standards,
and one for everything else (interface standards, video
basics, etc.). Then increase the total page count to restore
material trimmed out from previous additions.
- There are way too many useless, redundant pictures. Could have
used one picture along with a table to each resolution.
A good book for video electronics engineers.......2006-06-03
To begin with, the 4th edition of this book was released in autumn 2004, so all reviews earlier than that are referring to previous editions. I think that too many people buy this book and are expecting either "Video Algorithms Demystified" or "Video Processing Demystified". That is entirely understandable since "Video Demystified" could be talking about one or several areas of video and until you purchase the book you don't really know which one. This book should probably be relabeled as "Video Systems Demystified" to cause a minimum of confusion.
This book is most suitable for electrical engineers that are interested in video signals and their diagrams, video interfaces, connectors and their pin-outs, voltage levels, and digital data and video formats. There are many diagrams showing, for example, typical scrambler and descrambler circuits. The chapters on the video standards (MPEG-1,2,4) do a pretty good job of detailing the format of the video data as it is encoded, including all of the possible header fields, but there is virtually no discussion on any of the compression and motion estimation algorithms that do the actual encoding. There is one chapter on video signal processing, and it is very superficial.
The CD-ROM contains a large variety of color test images useful to video engineers trying to determine if their video system has any problems, and if so, produce a diagnosis. The one item in this book of particular interest to people with more of a computer science/algorithm interest in video would be the source code for MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.261, and H.263 video encoders and decoders present on the CD. However, I have not tried out these decoders myself, so I cannot speak to their functionality.
In summary, if you are an electrical/electronics engineer involved in video electronics I highly recommend this book. If you are a programmer or someone interested in the algorithms of video processing, this book will probably be only moderately (3 stars) helpful. Thus, I split the difference for a 4 star rating. I notice that Amazon only shows the content for the 3rd edition, so I show the table of contents for the 4th edition next:
Introduction 1
Introduction to Video 6
Color Spaces 15
Video Signals Overview 35
Analog Video Interfaces 66
Digital Video Interfaces 100
Digital Video Processing 202
NTSC/PAL/SECAM Overview 265
NTSC and PAL Digital Encoding and Decoding 394
H.261 and H.263 472
Consumer DV 519
MPEG-1 Video Compression 543
MPEG-2 Video Compression 581
MPEG-4 and H.264 736
ATSC Digital Television 760
OpenCable Digital Television 778
DVB Digital Television 796
ISDB Digital Television 816
IPTV 831
Glossary 841
Average customer rating:
- Superseded
- This is a technology 'review', not a technology reference.
- Great Book on Fundamentals of DV
- A little dated, but still useful
|
Video Compression Demystified
Peter Symes
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing
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ASIN: 0071363246 |
Book Description
The Complete Guide to Video Compression
Video compression is the magic behind digital TV, videoconferencing, DVDs, and Internet video. In Video Compression Demystified, specialist Peter Symes paints the full video compression picture in a friendly, not-too-big, not-too-technical introduction that explains what happens in compression, why compression works, and what will stop it from working.
You'll explore all the major compression standards--JPEG, MPEG-2, and more--starting with the basics and moving on to compression tools, performance considerations, transmission/storage quality, transport schemes, and audio considerations. You MUST read this guide if you're a Web site or multimedia developer…produce or sell video products, or are thinking of doing so…cover the entertainment, Internet, or technology beat as a reporter or financial analyst - 0r you simply want to be up to speed on this fascinating new technology of key importance to the entertainment and communications industries.
Customer Reviews:
Superseded.......2004-04-26
This book is superseded by my 2003 book "Digital Video Compression", ISBN 0071424873
Peter Symes
Author
This is a technology 'review', not a technology reference........2004-02-07
I am an engineer who purchased this book seeking low level details that described file and data formats such that I could write software which interpreted, analyzed, compressed, or displayed compressed video. This book is written for salesman and marketing people who need a high-level description of the various types of video compression and formats without going into any implementation deails. The front cover highlights on insided content is misleading. A totally useless book for engineers - save your money.
Great Book on Fundamentals of DV.......2003-12-11
I think this book is excellent and so far, the only text I have found that covers the technological fundamentals of digital video without resorting to complex mathematics. The section on the DCT transform is worth the cover price alone as it manages to explain a seriously difficult topic in simple language.
The comment in the previous review about MP3 is a little unfair in that MP3 has nothing to do with MPEG-3 at all and is in fact a subset of the MPEG-2 standard (which is covered in detail in the book). MPEG-3 was abandoned early in its development process and hence it is entirely correct that the reviewer should focus on MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.
A little dated, but still useful.......2003-12-06
This edition appears to be a slightly updated version of an earlier book published in 1998 called "Video Compression". It is reasonably well-written and contains a lot of information that seems still useful, but from the point-of-view of someone who doesn't know the field it leaves me wondering if I don't need a more up-to-date text.
For example, he mentions MPEG-3 in passing only as a failed improvement to MPEG-2 video, but isn't MPEG-3 (MP3) a wildly successful standard for audio? I get the feeling that when he wrote the book 5 years ago this wasn't something that would occur to the average reader to ask, but in 2003 it just leaves me wondering how MPEG-2, MPEG-3, and MPEG-4 are related, if at all.
Another minor nit: for an introductory text he has a bad habit of using terms before he has introduced them. This may be a product of updating an earlier text or simply bad editting, but for example, he uses the term "lossy" on page 5 but doesn't introduce the term until page 8. Even though I think I know what "lossy" means, I got stuck on page 5 for about 5 minutes trying to figure out why I had missed a definition for this term.
Average customer rating:
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Television Technology Demystified: A Non-technical Guide
Aleksandar Louis Todorovic
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How Video Works, Second Edition
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Video Demystified, Fifth Edition: A Handbook for the Digital Engineer (Learning Made Simple) (Learning Made Simple)
ASIN: 0240806840 |
Book Description
"Television Technology Demystified" is written for non-technical television production professionals. Journalists, program producers, camera persons, editors, and other television professionals need to know how equipment works, which performance levels are achievable, how to evaluate the technical quality of picture and sound, and other aspects of production; this book presents these and other essential concepts in a simple and non-mathematical way. Aleksandar-Louis Todorovic, a highly respected and well-known figure in the broadcasting community, has succeeded in making complex technology understandable.
*Learn about complex technical concepts such as interlace scanning and digital compression without complex mathematics, diagrams, and drawings
*Understand the potentials and limitations of the various and changing production tools available
Average customer rating:
- DVD inside of book
- Don't Use One Word Where 20 Will Do
- awesome achievement but still...
- IN THE BATTLE FOR A BOOK VERSUS GOOD OLD GOOGLE...
- well written comprehensive, detailed
|
DVD Demystified
Jim Taylor
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Professional
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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About DVD
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Making DVDs : Creating and Authoring Your Own Discs
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ASIN: 0071350268 |
Book Description
"…without doubt the definitive reference book on DVD.”*
DVD is the all-in-one storage technology that is altering the landscape of home entertainment, professional video, business communications, and multimedia computing. Now is the time to learn about DVD and how to use it to its best advantage. In DVD Demystified, Second Edition, industry insider Jim Taylor paints a full, up-to-date DVD picture with a friendly technical introduction. You MUST read it if you’re a multimedia developer, work with educational technology or industrial training, if you’re a filmmaker or musician – or simply want to understand this fascinating technology with potentially huge worldwide impact.
"This is not merely ‘a’ good book to help you make sense of DVD, it is ‘the’ book that you will return to over and over as you explore and come to understand this exciting new optical media format." -- Geoffrey Tully, Multimedia Technology Consultant; former Senior VP of Production, Divx Entertainment
“As one of the DVD industry’s leading experts, Jim Taylor covers every aspect of DVD."-- Ralph LaBarge, Managing Partner, Alpha DVD
DVD contains: Hybrid DVD-Video/DVD-ROM has samples from Broadcast DVD, Dolby, THX, DTS, Joe Kane Productions, Widescreen Review, and others, plus test images, WebDVD HTML files, spreadsheets, and more
Download Description
In DVD Demystified, Second Edition, industry insider Jim Taylor paints a full, up-to-date DVD picture with a friendly technical introduction. You MUST read it if you?re a multimedia developer, work with educational technology or industrial training, if you?re a filmmaker or musician ? or simply want to understand this fascinating technology with potentially huge worldwide impact.
Customer Reviews:
DVD inside of book.......2007-01-26
I bought this on a recommendation from another web site. While the book has alot of information in it I mainly wanted the DVD inside of the book. I have to say I was not disappointed in the book and felt it was a good thing to refer to also.
Don't Use One Word Where 20 Will Do.......2005-08-08
Don't be fooled by the size of this book. It is 90% irrelevances and padding. For example does it really need a discussion on whether the word "disk" should end with a "c" or a "k"? The diagrams are difficult to follow, mainly due to their mistakes, and I did not find enough technical information for the book to be of any use whatsoever.
awesome achievement but still..........2004-08-26
Don't get me wrong - there is a huge amount of well-written material in this book and I'm glad I bought it.
Yet.. I wanted a detailed description of how menus and player commands worked so that I'd feel comfortable authoring complex compliations with angles, timed stills, wipes, subtitles, the works. Jim spends a lot of time on this area and talks a lot about the features, but still only managed to hit the high spots. This book won't make you into an authoring expert. Dunno if there is another book that is better, or if you have to buy the specs (ha) or if you can eventually infer what you need from the right authoring software, or...
IN THE BATTLE FOR A BOOK VERSUS GOOD OLD GOOGLE..........2003-05-19
..this book may not exactly be a shining victor. Don't mean to crash the party, the book indeed does its job remarkably well and for those who prefer their information packed and printed into one huggable volume, this is perhaps the best there is.
But the first question that people like me ask is "What can I find here that I cannot find for FREE on the net?" And the answer to that is, unfortunately, not much because a lot of this info is accessible elsewhere. Even if you search for the words "DVD demystified" it turns up a whole slew of immediately relevant websites (on almost all search engines).
That said, it is a fantastic book that doesn't gloat over the merits of DVD versus older discs, or the engineering nitty gritty of the whole format. If you are looking for practical advice for getting busy with your DVD-R/W, and are lazy (or busy) enough to want a book for it, then this is great bang for your buck. For the rest of us there is always a search engine.
well written comprehensive, detailed.......2002-10-23
This book is well written, well edited, comprehensive, and as full of details as it can be without being a copy of the specifications. I highly recommend it.
Book Description
Full of expert, effective advice from a producer and professional writer for 15 network television series, this book offers pragmatic techniques for constructing a compelling story and developing rich characters and extraordinary dialogue. In clear and concise language, this lively guide explains that the same methods used in the high-pressure world of writing for television can be applied to fiction storytelling in all its forms, from poetry, short stories, and novels to memoirs, stage plays, and movie scripts. Included is advice on such writing elements as building a story, constructing action sequences, creating memorable characters, developing scene structure, and avoiding cliché dialogue. Also covered are problem-solving strategies for polishing the final product.
Customer Reviews:
What the ....?.......2007-03-05
Of all the books on writing I have read I have to say that I like this one least.
First, there is the writer's tone, which is needlessly confrontational and carried off with an attitude of "I know more than you." His word choices are distracting; substituting "heat" for "action" or "conflict" is an obvious example. I do not know if this is TV-speak, but I found myself constantly needing to translate his idioms into something clearer.
Second, there is a lot of information here. However, hardly any of it is presented in any clear order. Despite all of this stuff I felt that most of the book was fluff and filled with too many superflous examples. It would have been a much better book at 1/2 to 3/4 of its length.
Third, the character chapter begins with such promise and takes up so much of this book. Sawyer starts it with several excellent ideas in its opening, but then meanders through it as he barely touches those wondrous thoughts.
Fourth, the ending of the book is so mixed up and confused that it needs therapy to find its way in life. Yes, art is subjective (this chapter's theme), but so is every single chimeric, bewildering sentence in this portion of the book.
Finally, the part that insulted my intelligence most and had no business being in a book on writing: Sawyer devote two full pages lecturing at us as to why we, as writers, must read the New York Times. Why is this here? Did he really need to have the book be a certain length and then ran out of things to say?
"Fiction Writing Demystified" is not without its merits, though. There are some really good ideas burried within it. My favorite was the subject of adding "texture" to a scene -- this made me rewrite my second draft to include the added tension inspired by this wild idea and my work is stronger for it. I also found the idea of choreographing dialogue scenes a useful concept. My forays into not using "he said, she said" in dialogue have made for several interesting and fruitful writing exercises, and I may incorporate that style into several of my chapters. The idea of big entrances, which I picked up from another writer, is a must for any work of fiction -- it makes characters stick in our minds -- and Sawyer did a good job covering it. I just wish that there was more stuff like this in the book.
On having finished this book, I found it too disjointed and with not enough "there there." To put it another way, "Fiction Writing Demystified" is the fiction writing book equivalent of the McDonalds hamburger: lots of calories, lots of fat, and too little of healthy nutritional value.
Truth-in-adveftising.......2007-01-29
As of 26 January 2007 I completed an on-line class at The Writer's Store taught by the author and using this book as a text.
This book is self-published. You can draw your own conclusions as to what that may or may not mean.
Every review is the result of the reviewer's interaction with a book and this review is no exception. It's as much about the reviewer as it is about the item reviewed. What follows is my opinion. Yours may differ depending on your background and what you hope to gain from the book.
The author of Demystified spent about 12 years as a TV scriptwriter and probably as a TV script supervisor although he does not say so.
The book contains his ideas about writing interspersed with his political opinions (from the sixties) and war stories of his years in TV.
He does have something interesting to say to mystery writers about what he calls "franchise" which he defines as the investigators legal right to intervene in the lives of the people he investigates. Worth pondering.
Whether it's enough to justify the purchase price is up to the purchaser.
I found the material poorly orgaznized and expect the author to publish a 2nd edition in the not too distant future.
Personally, I found nothing here that you cannot find in more detail elsewhere (except for the notion of "franchise which IMO, does not justify the price).
If I had it to do over I neither would have bought the book or paid for the class.
Fiction Writing Demystified.......2006-07-10
Very interesting, straightforward information. Although it offers much of the same information as other books about writing, it is a different because it is direct and objective about the priorities of writing.
Terrific book by a guy who knows writing!.......2005-06-16
Fiction Writing Demystified is a joy to read. Tom Sawyer's writing style is so pleasant and inviting that you'll almost forget you're absorbing time-tested lessons about fiction writing. Buy it!
Best How-To Book on the Market.......2005-06-15
As an unpublished writer trying to break into the writing field, I have read a number of books offering guidance on writing techniques. Some were helpful in varying degrees, but many were too esoteric to be easily understood or little more than monologues on the writing life. Tom Sawyer's book, Fiction Writing Demystified, is clear, concise, and to the point. It contains so much helpful information that one will want to turn to it time and again for review. It is like having a writing coach standing at your shoulder and is, literally, the best book on writing out there.
Average customer rating:
- Enough information to not feel like an complete idiot.
- Thorough technical coverage
- A Useful Overview of Interactive TV
- Don't waste your time
|
Interactive Television Demystified
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Book Description
The first-ever, fact-filled introduction to the new world of interactive TV
Interactive Television Demystified helps you understand why the advent of Interactive Television will alter the broadcast industry more dramatically than even the introduction of color did decades ago. This guide by broadcasting insider Jerry Whitaker is the book to go to for the straight facts on interactive TV: what it actually is, what services are possible, and how it is affecting and will affect the television, cable, and computer industries. Packing plenty of case histories, this look at the hype-and reality of media convergence uses a proven, topic-clarifying format to bring you up to speed on PC-based receivers and other smart appliances, and provides you with:
Coverage of the ATSC and DVB standards
Interactive TV business models
Clear treatment of TV datacasting
More
Customer Reviews:
Enough information to not feel like an complete idiot........2002-04-09
Book could *definitely* do a better job of specifying which of its sections are relevant to Digital TV in general, and which are relevant to Interactive Television in specific. You do need to understand digital tv to understand the technical issues behind Interactive Television, but that should be made clear(er) by the editor.
This said, Whitaker does a good job of putting together enough information so that if you have enough media/technical background, you should be able to discuss iTV issues with some facility.
The book is divided into chapters written by separate authors, with each chapter having its own references and bibliography appended. Chapters include:
-The Promise of Interactive Television
-Video and Audio Compression
-Program and System Information Protocol
-The DVB System
-Standardization Issues
-Metadata Management
-Internet and TV Convergence
-Content Distribution
-PC-Based Receivers
-Interactive Videoconferencing
Honestly, for me the book was a little bit heavy on the digital television technical stuff and a little bit light on the possible business models and applications. Good glossary, however, and the references are also quite valuable.
Thorough technical coverage.......2002-03-13
I bought this book as someone who works in the industry and needed to sort through the various, and sometimes confusing, standards. The book does an excellent job of segmenting and explaining the technical components of interactive TV and its dependencies on digital TV. Though the book is designed to provide a broad coverage of the industry and technology, it also provides technical building-block details necessary to move beyond the books intent.
The author accomplishes his goal of removing the mystery and encourages forward thinking. The book is easy to understand and will always be on my shelf as a reference book.
A Useful Overview of Interactive TV.......2002-03-09
This book covers the technical basics upon which interactive TV is built. It is not a business-oriented look at interactive services, which are still very fluid. What it does cover, quite well, is the fundamental technologies that make interactive TV work. Considerable detail is provided on digital television, the real enabler of this technology, and the standards being developed to make it all work. I found the book a good primer on the technologies involved.
Don't waste your time.......2001-12-11
The chutzpah these guys have. This book has nothing whatsoever to do with interactive TV. It's a technical overview of Digital TV (all the boring technical detail about standards, compression etc that is freely available on the web). They don't even mention a word about middleware providers(Open TV, Liberate etc); they don't deal at all with the business/marketing or media issues related to ITV. If u are looking fo information about interactive TV, look elsewhere. I feel ripped off and (angry).
Average customer rating:
- Swedish Chef
- Meaningless little discussion
- 640 Mb it is !
- The book is GREAT, and CDs DO hold 650 mb Mr. Portland, OR!
- Dorks shouldn't be allowed to review books!
|
Dvd Demystified: The Guidebook for Dvd-Video and Dvd-Rom
Jim Taylor
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill (Tx)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Amazon.com
A sort of protracted Popular Science-style article about digital video disc (DVD) technology and its applications, DVD Demystified provides readers with almost every technical and practical detail about this new means of encoding data on disks.
This book teaches you how data (computer data, sound, video, or a combination of the three) are encoded on DVD and how DVD readers extract it. This guide includes plenty of information about bandwidth, aspect ratios, and the other technical details that go into storing, transmitting, and retrieving video information--media nerds will have a field day. A nifty quiz helps you decide whether DVD equipment is worth buying in your case. Furthermore, DVD Demystified shows you how DVD fits into the historical progression of recording media--it's sort of a shock to be reminded that Thomas Edison made his first wax-cylinder recordings in 1880.
While Taylor's assertion that "DVD is the future" may or may not prove to be true, his thought-provoking responses to various criticisms of DVD make entertaining and informative reading. He also goes into detail about how DVD fits into various environments, including home video, personal computing, and business applications. He even includes a cable-by-cable guide to hooking up a DVD player.
Simply put, this is the best encyclopedia of DVD information on the market, as it helps you understand DVD thoroughly from both technical and consumer perspectives. --David Wall
Book Description
Storage media may have come and gone, but the "killer" technology has finally arrived: DVD (Digital Video Disk). Its 4.7 gigabytes of storage per disk (CD offers 650) make it the imminent successor to audio CD, videocassette, laserdics, and CD-ROM. Here's the first plain-English guide to help professionals cut through the highly technical standards documents and really get to grips with working and designing with DVD, including hardware and software requirements, Internet applications, next generation technology, and much more. Includes a DVD-ROM with product demos.
Customer Reviews:
Swedish Chef.......2000-03-02
This book is great! BUT there is an error in the THX "Tex" trailer, they have flipped the back channels (!), I hope they have fixed it in the new version...
Meaningless little discussion.......2000-02-10
I believe that the gentleperson from Portland was trying to point out, correctly, that the syntax of the sentence re 4.7 GB of DVD space was actually compared with 650 GB of CD-ROM space. Now, all we know-it-alls automatically translated the 650 into MB's, but what was actually printed on the page read 650 GB's. I.E., everyone wins and all must receive prizes. For the know-nothing reader, s/he might, just might, be misled and confused into thinking that a CD-ROM contained 650 GB of space, thus making the sentence and point senseless. Do recognize that everyone who chooses to be in this field must, almost by definition, contains a little flavor of obsessive compulsive personality disorder. The gentleperson from Portland was showing his/her. Those who objected were also placing theirs on display. Why not just forget the whole thing.
640 Mb it is !.......1999-07-07
650Mb or maybe more is just the theoretical space that a CD can provide. Trying to cram too much data can result in unreliable storage on the outer regions of the CD. Drive control mechanisms find it hard to align the lens on the outer tracks of a rotating CD as the linear velocity is at maximum there. Other than that, the outer regions are more likely to get damaged. So here's a tip; don't store bit-critical data beyond 640Mb.
The book is GREAT, and CDs DO hold 650 mb Mr. Portland, OR!.......1999-04-02
Basically what I said in the line above. The book is great, and if you have ever read anything on cd storage, or even looked at a recordable cd case, then you know a cd hold 650MB of data.
Dorks shouldn't be allowed to review books!.......1999-03-19
The guy from Portland, OR who gave this book 1 star is a dork and shouldn't be doing anything other than getting a life.
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