Reviews and customer comments at Amazon.com, including an amusing mirror in miniature of the Internet's feedback cycle: comments posted largely to flame a clueless comment! :-)
"Jim Taylor's DVD Demystified is without doubt the definitive reference
book on DVD."
-- Book review
by Bob Starret for One-to-One magazine.
"If you are in the information business and making hardware
purchases, you need this book..."
--Library Journal
"DVD Demystified is one of the few commercial publications about DVD
available so far. I don't see what anybody else can possibly write. The author,
Jim Taylor, appears to have thought of everything. He packed so much information
into this one book that I'm sure your brain would explode if you read it in one
sitting."
--Bob at TEAM DVD
"Offering something for the casual user as well as the hard-core geek, DVD
Demystified ranks as the single best collection of information on what
may be the next big thing in data storage. Author Jim Taylor covers
consumer-electronics applications (DVD-Video) as well as computing uses
(DVD-ROM) of digital video disc (DVD) technology and explains the big picture as
well as the technical details."
--David Wall, Amazon.com review
"The book looks good when you flip through the pages, but when it comes
down to finding usefull [sic] information, it lacks. The book is typical of many
of the 'technical' books we see nowdays [sic] that are composed by techie
writers who are more interested in the number of words that they write rather
than the content and usefullness [sic] of the book (in my opinion). There ae
[sic] 100+ pages of glossary and "Companies and Resources". The
section "Copyright Protection & CSS Licensing" is particularly
bad, it describes the flow of information, but leaves out any description of
what is done with the information. The reader encounters the term "bus
obfuscation", but is never told exactly what this means. In conclusion, I
feel that the book could have been quite usefull, [sic] but instead (in my opinion)
the author spent too much time on including tables and graphs without providing
enough detailed explanations."
--D. Downing, Fatbrain.com review
Jim's response: Indeed, the CSS section is vague because most of the process is secret. (Well, it once was.)
A Model 'For the Millions' Book About DVD and HDTV
"This book is excellent for both techies writing for DVD applications and
people like me who just like to follow new communications/digital technologies.
It is written in a relaxed, lucid, coherent style which trusts the intelligence
of the reader while not overwhelming the neophyte with tech-talk. The
discussions of how DVD differs from CD ROM, Screen Aspect Ratios, red and blue
lasers, and storage capacity are all first rate."
-- Louis Massano, Barnes&Noble.com review
"In DVD Demystified, Jim Taylor combines the technical expertise
of an engineer with the imagination of a visionary. This book is a must read for
those who require factual information about the great potential of DVD
technology for delivering digital video content."
--Dana Parker,
contributing Editor for E-Media Professional & coauthor of the CD
Recordable Handbook.
"DVD Demystified should be read by everyone who is considering into the
DVD format. After reading Jim Taylor's definitive work on DVD, you will be
prepared to enter the DVD market without losing your shirt in the process."
--Ralph LaBarge, President and Chief Technology Officer, NB Digital
Solutions.
"DVD Demystified is the clearest source of real information about
DVD."
--Mike Schmit, Software Manager, Zoran.
"This book will make you more knowledgeable--and more dangerous--than the DVD
salesman's worst nightmare."
--Chad Fogg, Digital Video Architect,
Chromatic Research
"An excellent and (as it turns out) insightful work! In light of the
recent DeCSS situation, I consulted your book and found it to do a great job of
covering the topic of copy protection, including predictions as to the fate of
CSS."
-- Martin Lindsay, Dolby Labs
from page 297: "The CSS algorithm and keys are supposed to be a "very big secret," but anyone who thinks it will remain a secret for long is delusional. It's inevitable that the algorithm will be broken, the keys will be compromised, and the entire system will be laid out in detail on the Internet, perhaps next to the instructions on how to build nuclear weapons." (written in 1997)