With uncommon skill, Michael Topics excellent guide takes you inside todays essential killer app. More than just an implementation guide--though it certainly is that, packed with needed data on the latest formats and standards--Streaming Media Demystified offers a complete picture of the application that will soon threaten televisions dominance as the primary transmitter of video.

YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK IF--

* You want to be on top of the critical application that brings seamless interactive video and audio to the Internet

* Glitchless, seamless, and almost effortless streaming media over both wire and wireless 3G sounds good to you

* Youre an executive at any firm with a stake in the Web or in broadcasting

* You wish to know everything about the application that will drive the success or failure of broadband

* You want to master the compression techniques and IP trafficking methods that make streaming media go

* You need a ready source of data on formats, technologies, and how to make them work

* Youd like to preview the impact of an application expected to be used by 75% of broadcasting and e-commerce firms by 2003

* You invest money or time in any firm involved with communications, entertainment, or digital technology

* You want a thoughtful, expert analysis of markets, audiences, appliances--who they are, what they will watch, and what theyll watch it on

* Youre ceaselessly curious about hot applications in the digital revolution

In Streaming Media Demystified you find:

* Content delivery techniques

* Interactive multimedia

* Video and audio compression

* MPEG-4

* Metadata and MPEG-7

* Digital rights management and MPEG-21

With future potential bigger than television, streaming video over the Internet is the essential application for broadband and 3G. This book takes you inside a billion-dollar technology.

Contents           

Chapter 1: Introduction   

Chapter 2: The Medium     

Chapter 3: The Audience    

Chapter 4: The Business    

Chapter 5: Upsides - Downsides    

Appendix A: MPEG-4 Profiles      Visual Profiles      Audio Profiles      Graphics Profiles      Scene Graph Profiles     Appendix B: MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 Coding Compared    

Appendix C: Audio and Video Sweetening Techniques      Audio Sweetening      Video Sweetening    

Appendix D: Real World Streaming Media Encoding      Encoding Machines      Software-Based Encoding Tools      Encoding Labs      Precompression Signal Conditioners      Video Capture Cards    

Appendix E: Video and Audio Compression      Introduction      Transform Coding      The JPEG Standard      The MPEG Standard      How MPEG-2 Was Tuned for High Quality of Experience      MPEG-4 Video Compression      Concatenation      Digital Audio Data Compression     

 References     Glossary     Sources     Bibliography     Index