Interactive TV Standards: A Guide to MHP, OCAP, and JavaTV

Book Description

For any digital TV developer or manager, the maze of standards and specifications related to MHP and OCAP is dauntingyou have to patch together pieces from several standards to gather all the necessary knowledge you need to compete worldwide. The standards themselves can be confusing, and contain many inconsistencies and missing pieces. Interactive TV Standards provides a guide for actually deploying these technologies for a broadcaster or product and application developer.

Understanding what the APIs do is essential for your job, but understanding how the APIs work and how they relate to each other at a deeper level helps you do it better, faster and easier. Learn how to spot when something that looks like a good solution to a problem really isnt. Understand how the many standards that make up MHP fit together, and implement them effectively and quickly. Two DVB insiders teach you which elements of the standards that are needed for digital TV, highlight those elements that are not needed, and explain the special requirements that MHP places on implementations of these standards.

Once youve mastered the basics, you will learn how to develop products for US, European, and Asian markets--saving time and money. By detailing how a team can develop products for both the OCAP and MHP markets, Interactive TV Standards teaches you how to to leverage your experience with one of these standards into the skills and knowledge needed to work with the critical, related standards.

Does the team developing a receiver have all the knowledge they need to succeed, or have they missed important information in an apparently unrelated standard? Does an application developer really know how to write a reliable piece of software that runs on any MHP or OCAP receiver? Does the broadcaster understand the business and technical issues well enough to deploy MHP successfully, or will their project fail? Increase your chances of success the first time with Interactive TV Standards.

* A practical, real-world introduction to the technical elements of the OCAP and MHP standards.
* Get everything you need without wading though thousands of pages of standards many of which don't apply to digital TV!
* Get inside concrete problems that have been found by the authors and other users - issues not generally known outside of the standards committees.

Customer Reviews:

This is THE book to get started in OCAP.......2005-11-16

We started our OCAP project prior to the arrival of this book and had to rely on digging through all of the different, confusingly referenced, standards. Every chapter of this book caused a light bulb to click on with a big "ah ha!" Don't get started without reading a copy of this book. It's a 10 to 1 reduction in pain.

insightful, and well-written.......2005-09-12

The authors give a well-written introduction as well as many insights into the design of interactive tv systems. This is a must-have for anyone new in this field. The book presents much more information than those on the interactive-mhp.org website.

The book you need if you are serious about IDTV.......2005-07-05

This an excellent book! A must have! I strongly recommend it to anyone willing to have a broad and at the same time in-depth view into the numerous concepts and APIs necessary for designing IDTV applications. Several code snippets are provided to illustrate how each API can be used: this can help save a lot of time as the DVB MHP and OCAP specs are a little bit hermetic.

Cable Television Proof-Of-Performance: A Practical Guide to Cable TV Compliance Measurement Using a Specrum Analyzer

Average customer rating:

Everything any CATV tech or eng will need for testing.

Cable Television Proof-Of-Performance: A Practical Guide to Cable TV Compliance Measurement Using a Specrum Analyzer
Jeffrey L. Thomas
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Modern Cable Television Technology, Second Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking)

ASIN: 0133063828

Book Description

Since January of 1993, specific tests have been mandated by the FCC to maintain minimum quality levels. This practical, easy-to-read handbook helps cable television technicians and engineers keep up with system growth and technology advances by explaining how cable operators should make the tests required to comply with the new FCC 76.605 regulations, and by providing a complete introduction to the optimum use of spectrum analyzers. Updated to include the new FCC 76.605 regulations. Covers TV signal and CATV distribution; measurement parameters; test instrumentation; performance measurements with signal analysis; noise measurements with the spectrum analyzer; antennas for radiation measurements; and AC power supplies for field testing. For all engineers and technicians in the Cable Television industry responsible for maintaining and conducting tests of systems. Previously announced in the 9/94 PTR Catalog.

Customer Reviews:

Everything any CATV tech or eng will need for testing........2001-10-21

Thoroughly described and perfectly organized, this book encompasses from the basics power-level measurements to those complex distortion calculations. A must have for the Engineering Department at any cable TV company.

The Essential Guide to Digital Set-Top Boxes and Interactive TV

Average customer rating:

The Essential Guide to Digital Set-Top Boxes and Interative TV
Overhyped title, poor content
A good introduction to a complicated subject
A Disappointing Hodge-Podge of Information
Exciting subject area

The Essential Guide to Digital Set-Top Boxes and Interactive TV
Gerard O'Driscoll
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0130173606

Amazon.com

Don't let the title mislead you: The Essential Guide to Digital Set-Top Boxes and Interactive TV isn't a primer for using WebTV's enhanced services. This book is for software, programming, and TV professionals looking to capitalize on this paradigm shift in the delivery of information and entertainment. With that in mind, Gerard O'Driscoll has done a masterly job of condensing a complex subject.

The book starts off by briefly explaining the roles of the various international standards groups and taking you through the building blocks of digital TV. O'Driscoll is clearly familiar with digital TV's underlying technology, offering detailed information about competing operating systems, development platforms, and broadband networks.

Less clear are the benefits and drawbacks to all of the factors involved. O'Driscoll occasionally touches upon these--such as when he notes Microsoft's difficulties in cracking the digital set-top business--but too often he fails to provide analysis of why a certain method works better than another, or why one technology has been more successful in gathering momentum. For example, he notes that electronic cash as a potential digital TV application must be safe from counterfeiting and other forms of fraud, but he doesn't mention what initiatives are underway to prevent them. It would also be helpful to have an idea of how viable such applications are in the near future.

Nonetheless, this is a useful, if seriously technical, guide to what the future of TV may hold. For software developers and television executives alike, The Essential Guide to Digital Set-Top Boxes and Interactive TV is just that--essential. --John Frederick Moore

Topics covered: Building blocks of a digital TV system, architecture of a set-top OS, middleware standards, set-top application development, choice of broadband intranet applications, and general principles of designing for a TV environment.

Customer Reviews:

The Essential Guide to Digital Set-Top Boxes and Interative TV.......2007-10-03

I received this book two days ago. Unfortunately, all figures and fotos are damaged (smudgy print). I would like to replace it.

Thanks,

Uvermar

Overhyped title, poor content.......2003-09-03

I bought this book about 2 years ago however I never finished it, lately I picked it up again looking for some reference information and then I knew why I never finished it in the first place.
Aside from what other readers have pointed out about bad organization, cut and paste manufacturers' white papers and wishlists, I found the inconsistency in presenting the information in this book to be the prevalent pattern. Within the same section the reader is presented with sub-sections with completely different layouts : one technology is explained with graphs, the other with bullets, another one with a short paragraph etc...
Some information is explained extensively without merit, example : a set-top web browser uses HTML for displaying internet content (duh) and then he goes for about 2+ pages on how HTML works with explanation about HTML tags and the Back and Forward buttons etc...
A major technology like MPEG-2 didn't get the coverage it deserved.
Finally this author took advantage of the fact that not many books cover this specific area about interactive TV and with a misleading title like the "essential" guide he's under delivering big time. I highly don't recommend this book.

A good introduction to a complicated subject.......2002-03-28

A lot of the information contained in THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO SET-TOP BOXES AND INTERACTIVE TV is specialized and arcane. Of course, this shouldn't be that great of a surprise, given the relatively small size of this particular field at the moment. The material covered in this book should give the newcomer to the field a lot of the valuable and fundamental information that they'll need to know. Unfortunately, some of the data is out of date, and there are several new things that have come about since the publication of this book. It's useful for someone who is just getting started, but I'd like to see a new edition written some time soon that takes the material mentioned here and goes farther with it.

There is quite a lot of information that's been packed into this book. In fact, at times it almost appears too compressed and some topics could have used much more elaboration. In particular, the chapter that deals primarily with the possible Internet applications only brushes the surface of what could be discussed. The topics that are touched on include: Digital TV (an overview), enhanced TV, set-top hardware architecture, set-top server architecture, set-top operating systems, set-top middleware, set-top platforms, set-top application development (Intranet, Internet and otherwise), electronic program guides, and set-top smart cards. As you can no doubt tell, this is a staggering amount of material to get through in only about three hundred pages. Obviously the level of detail is not going to be terribly high, but it is worth it to get an introduction to so many different topics.

For the programmers out there, think of this ESSENTIAL GUIDE as a breadth first search. It covers a wide range of areas, but it does so superficially. As something you read once to get a feel for the terminology and the particulars, this book is quite good. But it's not very effective as a resource or a reference, because the in-depth material one would need simply isn't present. A good introduction only.

A Disappointing Hodge-Podge of Information.......2001-03-16

I purchased this book about 6 months ago (I write this review in March 2001). I have, on several occassions since attempted to derive some value from it. Unfortunately, it is a hodge-podge of unordered facts. It was substantially out of date even at the time of my purchase. Several of the companies and products discussed no longer exist. There seems to have been little thought as to the overall organization of information. I agree with the other reviewer who stated it seemed like this was a cut-and paste from information provided from the various manufacturers.

While you can learn somewhat out-dated information about the set-top box industry if you work at it - and believe me you have to work to make sense out of this information - there is very little here that cannot be learned by spending a few hours surfing the net. Even if it wasn't substantially out of date, it would be extremely difficult to recommend this book to anyone other than someone who MUST have access to this specific information and they can't find it anywhere else.

Exciting subject area.......2001-02-07

I read O'Driscoll's guide to home networking and decided to also buy his second book on set-top boxes. Although some of the product specific information is a little dated since 1999, the remaining generic content will stay relevant for many years to come. Excellent source for engineers and technical marketeers who want to take advantage of the many opportunities that are beginning to emerge from digital and interactive television

Average customer rating:

Modern CRT TVs are complex
Certainly not for Beginners
Smart Electronics
Good way to start tv repairs
Lacking in actual substance

TV Repair for Beginners
Homer L. Davidson
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0070158061

Book Description

With a minimum of technical jargon, this best-selling guide shows and tells you how to troubleshoot and repair the most common TV problemsÑand avoid expensive repair bills! Even if your previous technical experience is limited to clicking the remote, this book can show you how to pinpoint your TV's problem and fix itÑusing just a few basic tools. This revised edition features a wealth of timely and practical new material on upgrades, too. You get information on universal remote transmitters, stereo TV, digital controls, new color circuits and picture tube sizes, and installing digital satellite receivers. A new "Symptoms and Causes" chapter makes troubleshooting quicker and easier than ever.

Customer Reviews:

Modern CRT TVs are complex.......2007-07-15

Modern CRT TVs are very complex. Many years of evolution have taken place. Can you be an expert in TV repair after reading this book? No! Does the book provide a background about TV circuits and probable repair causes? Yes!

I have an older CRT TV. With HDTV coming on strong, I was considering scraping the old TV in favor of an LCD/Plasma flat screen. After reading the book, I isolated my problem to several capacitors in the power supply. The repair was simple because the problem was easy to find.

This book is not for everyone, but in this age of throw away electronics, it was refreshing for me to find and solve the problem. Call it luck or a quest for personal achievement, but this book helped me.

Certainly not for Beginners.......2005-08-22

Certainly there are quite a lot of information in this book. But to say it's for beginners is misleading. The book lack organization. Many technical jargon is just put out without explanation. Sentences that need explanation are not explained. If you wanna start from scratch this is not the book for you, you may need to look for another book. However the book may be good as a reference for solving specific problems as done in the later chapters. But frankly I couldn't get any good understanding of TV inners from the first chapters. Also the figures are horrible. Name of ICs in the diagrams do not match the text description. And many diagrams for vital components are just black and white photographs that doesn't show you anything but confuse you.
Again, not recommended for a beginner or as a sole reference.

Smart Electronics.......2002-09-18

I read this book before get my Consumer Electronic Certificate
and I left impressed with the easy ways to explain all subjects

Good way to start tv repairs.......2000-02-25

The book teaches general knowledge on tv repairs its good for a layman not for professionals.

Lacking in actual substance.......1999-10-25

This book unfortunately does not live up to its hype. From reading the back cover, you'd think that you could fire up the ol' soldering iron and actually get some work done. Definitive repair guide? Definitely not.

Information is too general, with circuits as block diagrams only. Considering the complexity of TV circuits, this is a no-no. Included schematics don't tell you what ICs or components do, with general references like IC304 and D101. You'd be hard pressed to make sense of a circuit even if you have electronics as a background. What more if you are a beginner?

Better information, guidelines and help can be found over the net in the form of usegroups, independent and manufacturer's web sites.

Book Description

Newnes Guide to Satellite TV is a practical guide, to the installation and servicing of satellite TV receiving equipment. Derek Stephenson provides all the essential background information without weighing it down with excessive theory or mathematics, and covers the practice of installation and servicing with clear step-by-step guidance. Essential data tables and numerous diagrams are included throughout.

This book meets the practical need between theoretical textbook and simple installation guide. The work includes topics such as digital TV, including MPEG-2, reception requirements, LNB requirements, digital link budget extensions, and a new section on squinting antennas.

The Guide has always been known for the practical nature of the information it contains, such as the control of problems involving 'sparklies', trees, rain and vandals (solved by the now famous 'two drunks high' dish mounting rule). The result is a text which provides the necessary information to specify, install and maintain both fixed and polar mount antenna systems along with small IF distribution systems for small blocks of flats and hotels.

Derek Stephenson is a practising video/satellite TV repair engineer and the author of Satmaster Pro, a leading Windows-based software package for satellite TV.

Practical guide without excessive maths or theory
Written by a practicing video/satellite TV repair engineer
Provides all the necessary info to install and maintain Satellite TV systems

Average customer rating:

Good source of information

The Apple TV Pocket Guide
Jeff Carlson
Manufacturer: Peachpit Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0321510216

Book Description

The new Apple TV is an easy to use and fun way to wirelessly play all your favorite iTunes content from your Mac or PC on your widescreen TV, including movies, TV shows, music, photos, and podcasts. Using Apple TV's stunning new interface, anyone can quickly browse and view their entire collection of digital media from across the room using the simple and intuitive Apple Remote. Apple TV features a 40GB hard drive for holding up to 50 hours of video. It easily connects to almost all modern widescreen televisions, and is slated to ship in February 2007 for $299. New Apple TV users will want to start using their devices as soon as they get their hands on them, and this guide shows them how. The Apple TV Pocket Guide reveals the secrets to using Apple's latest popular invention. This handy guide offers the quickest way to learn the Apple TV features, from syncing your iTunes movie and photo collection wirelessly to Apple TV to connecting Apple TV to your widescreen TV to playing your movies and showing your photos directly on your TV! Readers will also find thorough coverage of using the handy Apple remote. Along the way, the author offers hints for making the most of Apple TV and troubleshooting advice for when the gadget become uncooperative.

Customer Reviews:

Good source of information.......2007-09-26

This book is about the size of a paperback novel (160 pages). The inside pages are in black and white and contain many photos and screenshots to illustrate points. If you have thought about purchasing an Apple TV, then this book would certainly be a handy thing to have on hand. It takes you from explaining what the Apple TV is and what it isn't, to getting it set up and connected and then how to use it.
There is a good Index if you need to hunt for a particular word or phrase.

I do not have an Apple TV and don't plan on buying one anytime soon, but I am interested in what it can do. Who knows? Maybe I will find a reason that I absolutely need one.

Things you can do with an Apple TV include streaming content from your iTunes Library to watch on the television. You can even stream content from a friend's computer to your TV. Obviously, you can show photo slideshows from your computer to the television, and play your own home movies including high-definition content, assuming you have an HDTV also. Actually, you have to have a widescreen HDTV or "enhanced definition" to use Apple TV--that is something I didn't know to begin with.

I didn't see any mention of viewing youtube.com videos through the Apple TV but Apple has said you can do that. This book was published in 2007 but probably just before that news was out.

I am hoping that in the future the Apple TV will let you do a lot more. Currently, I have watched many TV shows online that I missed watching when they were broadcast. It would be great to be able to watch any of those with the Apple TV through my television set while kicked back on the sofa. I could do that if those shows are in the iTunes Store, but then I would have to pay $1.99 for each episode I watch. Of course, I would get to keep them forever, but when it comes to watching TV shows, I usually am satisfied to watch it once.

Average customer rating:

Great for intermediate tv techs...

Troubleshooting & Repair Guide to TV
Sams Technical Publishing
Manufacturer: Prompt (DPI - 8/01)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0790611465

Book Description

Repairing and troubleshooting a television is very simple and economical with help from the information contained in this book. This is the most complete and up-to-date television repair book available with tips on how to troubleshoot the newest circuits in today's TVs.

Customer Reviews:

Great for intermediate tv techs..........2001-10-05

The book gives an overall view of how today's tv's work and how to find most faults. Alot of the troubleshooting tips are a little too general in their explanations and constantly refer you to the tv's Photofact or schematic, which is kind of annoying. But I did find myself learning quite a bit. I've only been into tv repair for a year and I found the book to be fairly chanlleging, but left me wanting more-which I guess is a good thing.
The book is broken down by circuit types- video, power supply, high voltage...etc. Also, there's a section devoted to helping you read and follow the various schematics which is very helpful.
Overall, very good book...just a tad bit too general in detail.

The Howard W. Sams Troubleshooting and Repair Guide to TV

Average customer rating:

The Howard W. Sams Troubleshooting and Repair Guide to TV
Engineering Staff , and Howard W. Sams Engineering Staff
Manufacturer: Prompt Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0790610779

Customer Reviews:

ok.......2005-07-05

It's ok. The shipment was prompt but the product was not as well preserved as I would hope.

Apple Training Series: Apple TV Quick-Reference Guide (Apple Training)

Average customer rating:

Apple Training Series: Apple TV Quick-Reference Guide (Apple Training)
Peachpit Press
Manufacturer: Peachpit Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

With the astounding popularity of iPods and iTunes among Mac and PC users alike, it's easier than ever to access and organize not only music, but movies, trailers, photos, and podcasts. iTunes users have been viewing their content on monitors as small as an iPod screen, or at the most, screens no larger than their computer monitors. The missing link to getting those still and moving pictures from the small screen to widescreen high-definition TVs in our front rooms is now available. This quick-reference guide can take readers through every step of setting up and using Apple TV, while giving insights along the way into how to avoid problems and take full advantage of all the bells and whistles packed into Apple TV. The guide is also designed to let you flip to exactly the section you need rather than having to read through the entire guide. An easy, accessible style paired with full-color illustrations and insider tips guarantee that readers will be sitting on their sofas enjoying their iTunes content on the wide screen in no time. Apple TV will retail for $299 and ships in February 2007.

Newnes Guide to Digital TV, Second Edition

Average customer rating:

Newnes Guide to Digital TV, Second Edition
Richard Brice
Manufacturer: Newnes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0750657219

Book Description

The second edition has been updated with all the key developments of the past three years, and includes new and expanded sections on digital video interfaces, DSP, DVD, video servers, automation systems, HDTV, 8-VSB modulation and the ATSC system.

Richard Brice has worked as a senior design engineer in several of Europe's top broadcast equipment companies and has his own music production company.

* A uniquely concise and readable guide to the technology of digital television
* New edition includes more information on HDTV (high definition) and ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committe) - the body that drew up the standards for Digital Television in the U.S.
* Written by an engineer for engineers, technicians and technical staff

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