Customer Reviews

Streaming Media Bible

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I teach a course on streaming media and this is the book I recommend to all my students. Why? Because it is the most lucid and comprehensive treatment of the topic I have ever found. Like most, I began my education in network broadcasting on the web. I figured that with the evolving nature of streaming players and encoders and codecs, that the internet was all I'd need to stay on top of things. Well, needless to say, I gathered what can best be described as a "neutron cloud" of information, but no structure to organize my knowledge and give it context. Suffice it to say that this book provides the KNOWLEDGE and the STRUCTURE...the HOWs and the WHYs of streaming media. It's deeply informative, yet easy to read and understand. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to establish themselves in the field of streaming media, or anyone who just wants to produce better online audio or video.

An outstanding resource for streaming media. I read Streaming Media Bible cover to cover and learned more about asset preparation than I ever learned in books dedicated to specific media types. As a result of reading this book, I now feel confident to prepare my own streaming assets.

If you want to learn SMIL, this is the book to start with. I have been trying to learn it for some time (and have muddled through two other books on the subject) and no one comes close to explaining it as well as this author does. After reading the SMIL sections, I felt confident enough to author a graduate level distance ed. course.

The CD proved to be a valuable resource for the times when my code looked right - but didn't function as expected.

How often can you say you enjoyed reading a tech book? This book is written in a clear, concise, easy to understand format. You don't have to be a technology guru to understand what is being presented in this book. As a streaming media beginner, I didn't feel overwhelmed by this book. Instead of trying to impress people with his knowledge of technical jargon (as many tech. authors do), this author chose to make the book understandable.

If you are interested in streaming media, definitely check this book out!

Steve Mack's "Streaming Media Bible" is your one-stop resource guide on all things Streaming Media. Whether you are a student or a hobbyist looking to get in on the action or if you are a professional in the field looking for a reference manual, the "Bible" is your one-stop resource guide on all that has to do with Streaming Media.

THE CONTENTS:

Like all other books in the Bible series of books, "Streaming Media Bible" takes you all the way from ground zero/step one assuming no knowledge of the subject to advanced topics, all along building up your skill set. By the end of the book your knowledge and skill of the subject, in this case Streaming Media, is enough to start you off well on your way in the field. Overall, not only is it a great learning tool, but later as you progress in the field it can also be looked back at and referred to as a reference manual.

Here are the topics that Mack addresses:

1. Basics of Audio and Video

2. Tools for Production

3. How to record and edit

4. How to optimize your files

5. How to encode your files for the Internet

6. How to install and administer and maintain a streaming media server

7. Other data formats

8. SMIL

9. Broadcasting Live

THE ANALYSIS:

Overall, this book is your one-stop source for all things dealing with Streaming Media. You get an overview of the basics one video and audio production, an in-depth look at web and streaming media technologies, how to develop your content and how to deliver and maintain your content. The book looks at all aspects of the field. By the time you are done with the book you have a very clear picture on how you can go about developing and delivering your own content. The best thing about the Streaming Media Bible (and most of the books in the Bible series) is that not only is it in-depth, it is STILL very easy to read and follow.

EXTRAS AND GOODIES:

The companion CD contains trial versions and freeware of some cool tools for streaming media including: Video Factory, Batch Converter, Sound Forge, Peak VST, BBEdit, UltraEdit-32 and Adobe Premiere. All in all, not a bad bag of goodies.

THE VERDICT:

Overall, Mack does a fine job of covering the various technologies and issues that deal with streaming media. This book was used as a text for an e-commerce streaming media course I took during the Fall of 2002. Whether you are studying this subject independently, an instructor looking to use this book for your course, a novice looking into the field or even a weathered professional, Mack's "Streaming Media Bible" is a fine choice for your library.

Highest Recommendation

Steve Mack's Streaming Media Bible is a must-buy addition to any Web developers book shelf. Demand for high-quality audio and video on the Internet is growing and the author explains how to make it happen clearly and concisely. Even though he comes from a RealNetworks background, he treats the three major formats fairly and completely. I've been a streaming media specialist for six years and I've already learned from this book. My only complaint is a lack of deep detail on javascript controls, which I know go farther than the book indicates. I'm looking forward the correction in the next edition!

It's rare that any technical book covers a subject really well from beginning to end, in an easy to read manner with real-world examples, but this is exactly what the Streaming Media Bible does.

This no-nonsense approach allows the Streaming Media Bible to make even the most complex digital media technologies easy to understand, and more importantly simple to implement.

Not only does the Streaming Media Bible teach you how to implement technology, but more importantly it gives you some in-sight as to various options you have and what you should think about to find a solution that works best for your needs.

... I highly recommend the Streaming Media Bible for the digital media technical person looking to learn real-world techniques.

While this book is huge (over 800 pages) it is an easy read and you may find that much of the information can be skipped over. As I have been in the business of producing videos for 20+ years I really didn't need all the information on how to shoot, light, etc. - but this would certainly be useful for a beginner.

The heart of the book for me is the information on converting to formats and sizes for internet streaming and this book covered it well. The accompanying disk may have some useful software and demos, but I haven't tried them yet.

I am an audiovisual professional, and I have been tapped by my company to be the 'streaming media guy', and this book has been a great place to start. My use for this book is as an introduction to streaming media so that I can understand how some of the products that we sell can integrate onto a prospective clients network.

So even though I don't need to create media, it has been invaluable to learn the whole process, from beginning to end. With this book you don't have to have much prerequisite knowledge, and by the end, you can be doing some really cool stuff. The high end capabilities, an important focus of the book, require dedicated servers proprietary software, but even that still falls well within the realm of reasonable DIY.

I chose this book because there seemed to be some consensus that this is the place to start. After having read it, I agree.

At this point in time (2008), the only good things about this book are the chapters on producing and capturing video. The chapters on RealPix and SMIL are useless since most video streaming is done either with Flash Media Server (FMS), Windows Media Server (WMS) or Apple's Quicktime Streaming Server.

Steve Mack is an excelent communicator. Not only is he comprehensive in his technical knowledge but he has the real world experience makes this the most practical resource I have found.

The book is detailed and well explained, but I hoped in somewhat more tecnical. There are examples but only descriptions (how to place the mic). It is very good to understand the principles but not tecnical solutions