A Practical Guide to Video and Audio Compression: From Sprockets and Rasters to Macro Blocks

Learn all about Codecs--how they work, as well as design and implementation with this comprehensive, easy-to-use guide to compression. After reading this book, you will be able to prepare and distribute professional audio and video on any platform including streamed to the web, broadcast on-air, stored in PVRs, Burned onto CD-ROMs or DVDs, delivered by broadband, or viewed in Kiosk applications, PDA devices, and mobile phones.

* Authoritative: Author is an award-winning technologist for top media company;
* Useful: Entry-level with clear explanations and hundreds of diagrams--no math background needed;
* Audience: Growing audience of professionals in digital braodband, interactive television, digital radio, streaming media, online news, etc.

Cliff Wootton was the technical systems architect in the BBC News Interactive TV group. This team pioneered the "News Loops" service, which was nominated for a BAFTA Technology award and has won a Royal Television Society Award for Technical Innovation. His current research projects are investigating new ways to build interactive content creation tools for the emerging IPTV platforms