PSIP: Program & System Information Protocol [Hardcover]

Mark Eyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0071389997 | ISBN-13: 978-0071389990 | Edition: 1

Making digital and interactive television work depends up on the ATSC’s new PSIP standard. This book, written by one of the standard’s primary architects, annotates and explains the complex standard document, breaking it down into practical, usable checklists and methods for broadcast, cable, satellite, and product design.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

WEAPONS FOR THOSE ON DTV’s FRONTLINES
* Decoding key to the mysteries of PSIP
* Helpful guidelines for the design of set-top boxes, DTV receivers, video recorders, and cable-ready devices

PSIP ANNOTATED

You can ease the intense time-to-market pressure in DTV product design and development with this unique, helpful guide. Written by a principal author of the protocol—himself a senior engineer working in DTV device creation—PSIP annotates and explains the complexities of the standard. The only technical guide that offers comprehensive coverage of the standard that you must implement successfully to make digital and interactive TV devices work, this book helps you:
* Understand PSIP information, with clear run-throughs on complexities in data representation, tables, and descriptors
* Save design time with guidelines, considerations, requirements, and checklists
* Design cable-ready devices and use navigation data delivered on the out-of-band channel
* Answer questions on PSIP expandability, from reserved fields to private data and collision avoidance
* Understand how the “V-chip” system works in digital television
* Comply with emergency alert system standards and meet EAS requirements
* Get a better grasp on PSIP with information on the standard’s background and an insider’s history of reasons technical choices were made
* Look up needed facts in the complete ATSC A/65 standard

The Broadcast Industry’s Official Technical Guide to DTV and Interactive Television

About the Author

Mark K. Eyer is currently Director of Systems at the Technology Standards Office of Sony Electronics. He graduated Cum Laude with a B.S. degree from the University of Washington in 1973 and received an MSEE degree in 1978 from the same institution. For the past twenty years, Mr. Eyer has been involved with the development of technologies and products related to secure and digital television and he holds twelve US patents in these areas.

After joining General Instrument (now Motorola) in 1982, he was responsible for design of decoder firmware and system control software. Beginning in 1988, Mr. Eyer designed firmware for products employing digital video compression technology. In 1990, he was given responsibility for the development and maintenance of the protocols used to deliver data across the satellite link to individual decoders. This work formed a contribution to ATSC that led to the A/56 System Information for Digital Television standard in 1994.

Since 1994, Mr. Eyer has made contributions to various digital television standards including ATSC A/65 Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) for Terrestrial Broadcast and Cable, part of which was derived from the earlier A/56 work. He became involved in digital interconnection standards in 1997, and co-chaired the committees in EIA/CEA that created the EIA-775-A DTV 1394 Interface Specification, EIA-775.2 Service Selection Information for Storage Media Interoperability and EIA-848 Application Profiles for EIA-775-A Compliant DTVs. Mr. Eyer was a primary contributor to various SCTE Digital Video Subcommittee (DVS) standards including ANSI/SCTE 26 Home Digital Network Interface, DVS 216 POD Extended Channel Specification, and SCTE 65 Service Information Delivered Out-of-Band for Digital Cable Television and he led the team that developed EIA-814/SCTE 18 Emergency Alert Message for Cable.

Currently, Mr. Eyer chairs the ATSC T3/S38 Transport Specialists group, works with various SCTE, ATSC, and EIA/CEA standards committees, and contributes systems engineering expertise to the development of Sony's digital television and cable set-top box products.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 451 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 1 edition (September 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071389997
• ISBN-13: 978-0071389990
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,091,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PSIP for the rest of us, February 28, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: PSIP: Program & System Information Protocol (Hardcover)

A few people usually participate in the development of complicated systems standards. A few more learn directly from the standard. Most of us rely on books to understand what's really behind a standard like PSIP. Mark Eyer does a fantastic job explaining what PSIP is about and what it means for the digital television industry. PSIP is critical to making digital broadcast television work for consumers, and Mark's book wraps it up in a highly readable, complete package.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive and readable reference work, February 7, 2003

By 

Adam Goldberg (Fairfax, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PSIP: Program & System Information Protocol (Hardcover)

This book, written by one of the primary authors of PSIP, is a comprehensive look at what PSIP is, what the information carred by PSIP is, and how to use it.

There are very few books available that explain in detail the standards and specifications for the ATSC digital television system. This is one of the best, taking on one of the most complicated and confusing topics.

Anyone involved in digital television, including broadcasters, programmers, PC and receiver designers, technology journalists, etc., should have a copy of this book on his/her shelf.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent piece of work, November 1, 2005

By 

AZ (Somerville, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PSIP: Program & System Information Protocol (Hardcover)

The 13818 and the accompanying ATSC and DVB specs are powerful, flexible, inclusive, and incomprehensible. Mr. Eyer does a fantastic job of deciphering the important information and even provides sample streams which are more useful than any diagrams when you're sitting in front of a scope. Highly recommended if you are working with ATSC SI information -- engineers and technical managers alike.