algorithms

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.

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