# Sticky  Book: Digital Television at Home: Satellite, Cable and Over-the-Air



## Chris Blount

DBSTalk and Y1D books releases "Digital Television: Satellite, Cable and Over-the-Air"

For immediate release

Digital Television: Satellite, Cable and Over-the-Air provides the technical details and big picture on how modern TV and video technologies work and can best be exploited.

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Television-Home-Over-Air/dp/098099151X

What's all the hype about digital TV? What's the difference between satellite and cable TV, and how does each differ from terrestrial digital and analog? In collaboration with DBSTalk.com and AVSForum.com, two of the web's most prominent sites for home entertainment professionals and aficionados, this book answers these questions.

Renowned science author Gregory Dudek tackles these issues in his new book Digital Television at Home: Satellite, Cable and Over-the-Air (312 pp., tpb, $28.95), a guide and handbook to the digital TV revolution. Dudek's book is aimed at those comfortable with high tech and not only explains the basic technologies, but also delves into some of the technical details. In fact, digital television is essentially a computer-based technology and Dudek, as a computer scientist, starts out gently but eventually provides enough hard-core details for even the most avid home entertainment enthusiast.

Using digital television involves selecting, or combining, receivers for either satellite-based transmission, cable TV, or over-the-air terrestrial broadcast. Each of these technologies has specific advantages and sends information in different formats. By selecting appropriate technologies, many viewers can receiver dozens, and perhaps hundreds, of stations for legally and free.

Whether it is a matter of choosing between a dipole antenna and a more expensive compound antenna, or understanding the various data encryption systems used to protect programming, this book provides the information. While the author has the technical background to get into obscure details, he generally avoids this in favor or an approach that starts from the basics.

Many people are confused by the abundance of television options that have appeared with the transition to digital broadcasting, or what digital broadcasting even means. This book tries to explain what those options are, how they work, and what there relative advantages are. Several of the chapters are targeted to people with a very limited awareness of television and video technologies. Once that background is covered, there are a couple of rather technical chapters for the home-hacker type that wants to really understand the technical subtleties and perhaps set up a home computer to allow it to receive programming.

Dr. Ioannis Rekleitis, space scientist from the Canadian Space Agency and image-processing expert, says "Dudek's book gets to the hard-core details and puts the user in control of the transition to digital."

Gregory Dudek is a researcher and chaired professor at McGill University. His research normally deals with robotics, image processing and computer vision. He is also co-author of Computational Principles of Mobile Robotics (Cambridge University Press) and a large number of technical and scientific publications.

More information can be found on the book's web page at http://www.y1d.com/DTVbook and can be ordered also directly from Amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Television-Home-Over-Air/dp/098099151X


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## tfederov

Chris, this is awesome. Who from the team here was involved?


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## JACKIEGAGA

Chris thanks for the heads up! Like tfed said who from here was involved


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## Greg Alsobrook

Very cool! I think I'll order me a copy!


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## Drewg5

I wonder if Santa can make a last minute add to my list


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## David Bott

Hello...

As far as "who was involved", the site was.  More or less Gregory came to me about a year ago with the book in raw form. Some research was taken from this site but written from his vast knowledge of the subject. After reviewing the book, it was something I felt would be great for the readers here and agreed to promote it. 

It is very well written and is both for the techey in us and the for general reader who just wants to understand more about the digital transmissions they receive.

Happy Holidays


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## JACKIEGAGA

David Bott said:


> Hello...
> 
> As far as "who was involved", the site was.  More or less Gregory came to me about a year ago with the book in raw form. Some research was taken from this site but written from his vast knowledge of the subject. After reviewing the book, it was something I felt would be great for the readers here and agreed to promote it.
> 
> It is very well written and is both for the techey in us and the for general reader who just wants to understand more about the digital transmissions they receive.
> 
> Happy Holidays


Thanks I hope I can get it in my stocking


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## FHSPSU67

I just ordered it from Amazon for $21.13 with FREE shipping!


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## Grentz

Looks interesting and like it could be a good read.

The cover is a bit 90s looking though


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## dave29

thats pretty cool, i am going to order one as well.


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## Larry Kenney

Sounds like a great book. I just ordered one through Amazon.com.

Larry
SF


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## runner26

Larry Kenney said:


> Sounds like a great book. I just ordered one through Amazon.com.
> 
> Larry
> SF


Just ordered mine. Can't wiat, what I do not know about the new world of Tv would fill a lot of books. Hope you make a mint!


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## ironwood

Is that a must-have for DBStalkers?


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## ziggy29

Is there a difference between the $28.99 and the $21.13 offerings on Amazon (other than $7.86)?


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## FHSPSU67

ziggy29 said:


> Is there a difference between the $28.99 and the $21.13 offerings on Amazon (other than $7.86)?


No. It's the same paperback version.
[edit] Now I'm beginning to wonder. One was published in April 2008 and the other just published this December 2008. Can anyone else confirm that there are no differences?
[edit 2]See Chris's explanation below.
Thanks Chris! I just switched


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## Chris Blount

Got my book yesterday. Here are a few pics. 

The $28 version of the book contains the DBSTalk brand.


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## Larry Kenney

I received my copy of the book yesterday from Amazon - the $21.13 version without any reference to DBSTalk. I've read about a third of the book already and find it to be very interesting and very informative, but, the typos are killing me. Did anyone proofread the copy before it was printed?

Larry
SF


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## rudeney

Chris Blount said:


> The $28 version of the book contains the DBSTalk brand.


So I hope DBSTalk gets a little "spiff" from that.


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## Mark Lamutt

Just got mine today!


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## satkinsn

I've hacked my way through about a third of it so far, and am much impressed.

It's the perfect book for someone like me, who is not an engineer but is interested in the technical side of things.

Scott A.
Watertown NY


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