Digital Video and HD: Algorithms and Interfaces (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics)


Product Description
Digital Video and HD: Algorithms and Interfaces provides a one-stop shop for the theory and engineering of digital video systems. Equally accessible to video engineers and those working in computer graphics, Charles Poynton’s revision to his classic text covers emergent compression systems, including H.264 and VP8/WebM, and augments detailed information on JPEG, DVC, and MPEG-2 systems. This edition also introduces the technical aspects of file-based workflows and outlines the emerging domain of metadata, placing it in the context of digital video processing.
With the help of hundreds of high quality technical illustrations, this book presents the following topics:
* Basic concepts of digitization, sampling, quantization, gamma, and filtering
* Principles of color science as applied to image capture and display
* Scanning and coding of SDTV and HDTV
* Video color coding: luma, chroma (4:2:2 component video, 4fSC composite video)
* Analog NTSC and PAL
* Studio systems and interfaces
* Compression technology, including M-JPEG and MPEG-2
* Broadcast standards and consumer video equipment</p>
Digital Video and HD: Algorithms and Interfaces (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics) Review
I was interested in this book mainly because of the content dealing with vision and less on the technical aspects. I've been involved in ISO and ANSI vision standards as part of my profession, including color standards. I think a reference book that combines visual and technical aspects of imagery fills an important niche in vision science and optical engineering. With that in mind, I was impressed with how much information was covered in this reference book. I will be using it for my work.Unfortunately, I think the parts of the book that deal with vision are the weakest parts of the book. Clearly the author doesn't have formal training in this area and is not up to date on what takes place in vision science and color science. However he does have a rudimentary understanding and that is perhaps enough for the primary readership he is reaching. As an example, he mentions that researchers in the United States do not use SI units. That is completely false and has been false for well over 30 years. All vision scientists such as myself have been using international units for decades. For someone who is supposedly an expert to make such a blatently untrue statement seems odd to me.
The authors gets some things incorrect about psychophysical testing and makes assumptions that aren't true. He clearly has read some older texts on the subject and thinks these methods are still practiced, when they are not. It is a pity that he didn't invite a co-author who was a vision scientist or a color scientist to help write the book, or at least bring it up to date. Anyone reading the sections on vision and physiological aspects of color should take the information in the book with a grain of salt. It is good as an introduction, but shouldn't be used as a complete or even accurate reference on the subject.
I did notice some errors in some of the figures. Some even gave me a chuckle, but such things do happen when you have one author and apparently no professional editorial assistance to find such errors before printing. The errors I found were not serious, but there are technical portions of the book that are not in my area of expertise and I can't speak for errors in those sections.
One of the most frustrating aspects of the book is that it is so poorly referenced. I took off a star for that alone. This is supposed to be a reference book, but there are very few references and the ones that are there, are thrown in on the margins as kind of an afterthought. There is no citation of these back to the text, plus there are important sections in the text that beg to be cited. The references are also not listed in order at the end of each chapter. This is a shame and I'm sure it happened because the author has no formal scientific training to understand the importance of citing his sources so the reader can research a topic in greater detail from the original source.
Despite the weaknesses of the book, I will keep it and hope to use it occasionally or refer others to it. I think it fills an important void. It would have been a better book if it included input from a vision scientist and if the author had correctly cited his source material.
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