Video in the 21st Century [Hardcover]

Scott Janus (Author)

Book Description

Series: Engineer-to-Engineer | Publication Date: February 1, 2001

Filled with useful video information, this book benefits hardware and software designers who create digital multimedia products. In the past few years, video technology has made huge advancements. Since the DVD format was launched, it has gained wide consumer acceptance. HDTV has gone from specification to reality, with broadcasts now occurring daily throughout the U.S. The IEEE1394/Firewire protocol and Digital Video (DV) are putting professional-grade video into the hands of consumers. Video in the 21st Century explores the key technologies that have made all of this possible. Starting with basic video concepts, this book provides an easy-to-read tutorial for novices, and serves as a useful reference for experienced engineers. Inside you'll learn the details about: DVD HDTV MPEG-2 DVI Flat panel displays Video on the PC If you want to understand these evolving technologies and the impact they will have on video in the 21st century, this book is for you.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Scott Janus has ten years of experience in the ever-changing field of digital video. He has been a senior engineer on numerous hardware and software MPEG projects and currently contributes to the development and launch of Intel's graphics chipsets. His varied roles in the field of video have exposed him to a recurring set of technical questions from his fellow engineers—Scott answers these questions in this book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Intel Press (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971288755
• ISBN-13: 978-0971288751
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,022,685 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 Informative, Interesting, Funny, Life Changing!, January 11, 2005

By 

Rajat Ahuja "RAj" (San Jose, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Video in the 21st Century (Hardcover)

This book made me pursue the filed I'm now majoring in. Need I say more? I will, anyways.

I got a chance to read this book for free at a library, and after having read it almost cover to cover, I still feel like buying a copy to keep on my shelf (which I would have done, had the topic not been so fast-evolving).

Scott introduces the concepts of Digital Video with a historical introduction and goes on to explain not only the latest technologies in use today, including DVD, HDTV etc. but also intricate details of the MPEG encoding format, for the more technically-inclined reader.

Barring two intensively mathematical chapters, Scott explains everything in such a light-hearted and often funny way, that it holds your interest even for seemingly dry topics like VHS vs. Betacam.

It is obviously not possible to include extensive technical information on each and every topic in a couple of hundred pages. Also, it is true that most of this information is available online at various websites like HowStuffWorks.com. So if you are just looking for a particular topic, head there; or if you are looking for technical details, grab some technical papers on the relevant subject from IEEE publications. However, if you want an interesting overview of all video technologies around you in one book, this is the book you should read first.

Just one final word of caution: this book could be career-changing. It inspired me to leave my boring IT job and pursue graduate studies in (multimedia) signal processing.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth reading if it was free, June 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Video in the 21st Century (Hardcover)

There are plenty of websites where you can get much better information (which is why you will find many used books- 'like new' for less than half price!) After spending a premium price, I expected something more than compilation of common bits of information. Try searcing for keywords on search engines before buying this book.