Customer Reviews

Digital Video and HD: Algorithms and Interfaces (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Charles Poynton is one of the world's leading experts on TV and video technology, and he's a great writer too. Poynton demonstrates good humor and tremendous attention to detail in this book. In fact, the price of the book is both funny and technically relevant-- it's the field rate of NTSC video, 59.94 Hertz!

Poynton details dozens of video standards in this book, which builds on his previous _A Technical Introduction to Digital Video_. That book has held a place of honor in my technical library since it was published, and Poynton's latest work will sit beside it.

_Digital Video and HDTV Algorithms and Interfaces_ is an even more substantial work than its predecessor, with 736 very readable pages covering essentially the whole world of digital video. Poynton starts the book with a comprehensive review of how images are composed, displayed and perceived, and brings in the relevant elements of specific video standards as he goes.

The second and third parts of the book cover all the other fundamental technologies that make digital video possible, including filtering algorithms, color science, and video compression.

Part 4 provides a detailed explanation of the key standards used for studio video production work, both analog and video, with a whole chapter to explain standard-definition test signals. Part 5 is a complementary discussion of broadcast and consumer standards. The book also includes two appendices explaining some important issues related to digital video, and a very thorough glossary.

I've been designing and writing about computer graphics and multimedia products for many years, and this is by far the best overview of digital video that I've seen. I highly recommend this book for everyone who is professionally involved in video engineering.

Peter N. Glaskowsky
Editor in Chief, Microprocessor Report

This is an excellent book especially if you are an engineer like me who is working on Digital TV and HDTV products. It could also serve as an excellent textbook for college courses. I finished reading the book in about 5 days, and now I feel very confident about my HDTV knowledge. Make sure that you read the errata on the author's webpage before you start reading the book.

I spent the weekend with this book and find it as first skimming suggests- a reference of the highest order, packed from front to back with solid information for the video industry. It is unique among all similar books I've seen in that it is completely comprehensive. I'm buying more copies for my staff, and have recommended it to engineers at other PBS stations.

Poynton presents a comprehensive treatise on digital video and HDTV in 50 chapters and two appendices. Although this is a comprehensive work and some topics are presented in complete detail, other equally important topics are discussed in a few pages. The concepts of color, NTSC and PAL encoding, colorimetry, and other topics of image presentation are strongly emphasized. However, the topics of quantization, digital filtering, general signal processing, and methods of compression are treated more briefly. This is a very good resource for anyone interested in digital TV or the computer display of images. It is probably not a good choice for general engineering study by readers without a good background in digital signal processing. The differences between computer displays and commercial television displays are well presented, provided along with some history of both disciplines and how, with the decreasing restriction on bandwidth, these interests are merging.

Part one of the book stresses digital video basics. This is pretty similar to Poynton's previous book on digital video with the exception that he has added some introductory material on HDTV, but that chapter is only a few pages long.

Part two, "Principles", is a very nondescript title for this section. That is probably because it discusses such a large group of diverse topics as filtering, sampling, visual perception, color science for video, NTSC and PAL, videotape recording, 2-3 pulldown, and deinterlacing. This is the section that is the most mathematical, however, it is still not as complex as most signal processing books you'll encounter.

Part three, "Video Compression", consists of three very short chapters on JPEG, motion-JPEG, and MPEG-2. It's a good overview of the concepts, but don't expect to be able to build a codec based on the information in this section.

Part four, "Studio Standards", also has a very specific subject matter. The standards discussed are 480i, 576i, 1280x720 HDTV, and 1920x1080 HDTV. Scanning, timing, sync structure, and picture structures are discussed in each case.

Part five, the final section, discusses broadcast and studio standards. NTSC, PAL, and digital television broadcast standards are discussed.

If you are the type of person who is interested in the algorithms of digital video more than you are the hardware of digital video systems, you'll probably enjoy this book. The author makes frequent use of illustrations and block diagrams to illustrate what is being presented, and I have gotten a great deal of use from it over the years. If you are looking for a book on digital video systems hardware, might I recommend "Video Demystified" by Keith Jack.

This is a technically good book about video engineering, but it has two flaws:

1. The writing is many times not very easy to understand, there are many sentences that don't make too much sense to me. I am not a native English speaker, but I have spent last twenty years reading and writing in English.

2. There are terminologies poped up in one place, and there is no explanation for those, many times the author asks you to read in later chapters, for a reader who is not familiar with the material, it is difficult to read and confusing.

Overall, it is a very good book, but you need an introductory book before you can read this book.

This book is undoubtedly useful for any practicing video engineer and for anyone seeking to familiarize themselves with video standards and technology. It covers a broad range of topics under one cover. Depth is lacking in most parts, but then this book is not intended to be used for theoretical study. It is a handy guide to have at one's desk.

My biggest and only complaint is about the way the material is presented, which, in my opinion, is highly unstructured and makes the book much more difficult to read than it needs to be. In almost every chapter, the author asks the reader to refer to the material in both future as well past chapters for details. As an example, the section on nonlinear image coding, on p.12, refers to the material in different chapters on pages, 197, 198, 203 and 257!

Nonetheless, despite this writing flaw, the book is recommended.

"Digital Video and HDTV Algorithms and Interfaces" is definitely the best book on video and television I have ever hold in my hands.

It really covers all aspects of this field - from the fundamental main topics down to specific, but important details. However, an ambitious beginner will find this book as easy to read as veteran TV engineer, as the entire book is extensively internally referenced, and annotated with plenty of additional and helpful information on the page margins.

Its typography and graphical presentation is a real pleasure, as well as the thematic structuring.

It has to be mentioned for readers outside the U.S. that the book covers both NTSC/525 and PAL/625 systems equally comprehensively, which is by far not the case for most other publications that usually address only one of both worlds and handle the other one rather alongside.

Furthermore, the author provides a great suppport by constantly updating the errata on his website and gladly appreciating contributions of typographical errors etc.

I work for a Great entertainment company, in order to understand the business little better I decided to read books about TV, Cinema, Video and entertainment in general.
This was a book I got with a bundle of other books. I read the book end to end. I must confess that I need to read it couple of more times before I can say I get it. If you are in the business of Television you may find this book either boring or educational, but if you want to read it to learn the jargon so you can mingle with the business folks and pretend you "understand", find another book.

I buy and read a lot of technical books--there are hundreds in my library--and this is one of the best in any field. An adequate technical book has to be accurate, reasonably organized, provide a good selection of material, and be understandable. A good book will engage your interest and impart general knowledge. But a truly great technical book will leave you with deep insights that make you smarter. This is one of those books.

The text is lucid and the illustrations are uniformly excellent. I particularly like the layout, which leaves a column to the left of the main body text for references, notes and comments. The author deeply understands the material and conveys that knowledge beautifully. This is one of about 5 technical books I've ever come across that's hard to put down.

A minor production nitpick is that the paper shear was was a bit dull when they cut my copy, leading to slightly rough edges on the left-side (even-numbered) pages, but it wasn't bad enough to exchange the book. Otherwise the binding and paper color and quality are top notch.

I was new to video and was looking for a good book and a colleague suggested this as comprehensive and easy to read book. Each chapter explains a single concept and is around 10 pages. Complexity of the subject matter gradually increases. I read one or two chapters in each sitting and took a month to complete.

About back and forth references criticism: Author explains further concepts in few sentences whenever they occur. He also suggests the page numbers where more details are available. e.g. He mentions very early what resolution meant, and but refers to complete chapter on resolution. I did not need to back and forth, as the initial explanations were sufficient enough for reading the current chapter. I attempted to read few other books before this. I felt those books assumed few fundamentals and they were good reference manuals than introductory books. I had to google for few words even in the first chapters. On the other hand, this book is both introductory and also a mini reference.

I recommend this book in the following order of importance.
* If you are new computer video engineer, it is a must have book. Without reading it, it takes few months to understand the subject and you may have gaps in learning.
* If you are a digital TV and video electronics engineer, it is good to have. It extends your knowledge and is a good reference to standards and compressions.
* If you are moving from computer imaging background to video engineering, it is good to have. It explains concepts related to both graphics and video with similarities and contrasts and helps in easy migration.
* If you are personal video maker and at the same time tech savvy person, it is good to read at least once. It gives good background picture and also explains every buzzword you hear in frys and online.
* If you are general computer or electronics engineer, it is nice to have in your library.

Missing details for computer video engineers are video file formats and container techniques.