Customer Reviews

Digital Video: An introduction to MPEG-2 (Digital Multimedia Standards Series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book didn't live up to previous reviews. It's quite expensive at $95. The chapters compartmentalize subjects such as motion compensation modes and video coding which are not independent subjects, and they never tie these subjects together. I haven't found a block diagram of a video encoder anywhere in the book. The entire subject of MPEG2 video encoding is covered in one 25-page chapter (although there is a chapter on motion compensation as I mentioned, and there's a chapter on Video Stream Syntax and Semantics which is little more than a re-hash of the MPEG2 part 2 spec.). I've gotta believe there's something better out there. The "Techniques and Standards for Image Video and Audio Coding" by Rao/Hwang is a bit better.

If you really want to learn MPEG2 or MPEG4, go directly to the standards. The authors try their best to confuse the reader. Even simple concepts cannot be explained clearly.

I have been working on MPEG2 since last year. I read the spec and some other books for MPEG, it's difficult to understand them . The problem is that I need some basic knowledge of compression , audio, video. It was this book that helped me understand what MPEG is and how it works. This book is complete and easy to understand . There are a lot of background introductions to help you understand MPEG2. You can also find some new areas of video, e.g. 3D TV.

I've read many books about MPEG-2 in my project to developer a MPEG-2 player for HDTV and I'm glad to say that this is the best book in my collection. With its clear explanations and easy to understand writing, this book is a must have for anyone who is into MPEG or is planning to delve into MPEG. A definite must buy.

Unfortunately I bought this book after reading the first three reviews. I think the later reviews are closer to the mark.

The book is confusing and overly detailed with no unifying thread. I bought the standard, and reading it after this book was like a breath of fresh air.

With many years of MPEG experience, I still found the book boring. Simple concepts become chaos from author's poor sentences. Almost all graphs are used for confusing the reader. I could hardly finish reading. Frankly, all video gurus in our company dislike the book. If you really want to learn MPEG-2 or MPEG-4, go directly to the standards. They are more clearly written.

This book won't make you understand anything about MPEG if you don't know anything about MPEG.

If you already know something about MPEG, definatelly you don't have to read it.

All graphs in this book are not related with context, and same to the math equations.

This is one of the best technical books I've read. It covers more than MPEG video specs, plus some more background information that's helpful in understanding video systems as well as the core algorithms in the MPEG video standard. This book is well organized, and easy to read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in understanding digital video/MPEG. Read this book before you dive into the official specs, you'll be glad you spend the time with this friendly walkthru of digital video.

Having heard what a great book this was on the internet I was most disappointed and will be returning it the library promptly