If you're making video and sharing it online or on iPhones / iPads / iPods then you need Jan Ozer's new book, Video Compression for Flash, Apple Devices and HTML5.
Ozer is best known for his profusion of articles for magazines including PC Mag, Event DV, and Streaming Media, as well as his popular seminars at the Streaming Media Conference and other events (see earlier post).
His expertise comes not only from shooting and producing video, but also from working with manufacturers for product evaluations and with application developers for in-depth reviews and comparisons, plus his ongoing surveys and analysis of how major sites are using video for streaming and download.
And now Ozer has packaged up his experience and advice in his new book, chock full of detailed information and practical advice for getting the best video for today's most important distribution mediums: Apple iOS portable devices and H.264 Web streaming (just in time for the new HTML5 browsers).
The book starts with an introduction to streaming production and encoding parameters. The next set of chapters focuses on H.264 encoding and production, with specifics for preparing material for Apple QuickTime, Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and HTML5. The section on producing for iDevices and other mobile platforms then covers both video for download delivery via iTunes and for steaming over Wi-Fi or cellular.
Next Ozer digs further into related issues for producing videos, including adaptive streaming (adjusting quality to the download bitrate without requiring a dedicated streaming server), choosing an encoding tool (for Mac and Windows), producing for related formats (Google WebM and VP6, and Microsoft Windows Media / WMV), and accelerating encoding on dedicated workstations.
Finally, Ozer provides specific guidance on actually distributing your productions, both online through video hosting sites, and via live streaming. And there's a nice concluding chapter on useful video file analysis tools.
Throughout the book, Ozer provides his trademark depth of information:
- Discussions of encoding options are made concrete with screenshots from a variety of encoding tools, side-by-side comparisons of video encoded with different parameters, and tables with details of options for different compression targets.
- Specific advice is grounded in the results of his encoding and playback testing, showing the real-word performance of different encoding resolutions and options on different platforms.
- Detailed recommendations are complemented with the results of his analysis of a variety of popular sites, showing how each has chosen to prepare video for different types of audiences.
Video Compression for Flash, Apple Devices and HTML5 is available now for $29.95. Ozer is great about sharing his expertise and experience in his articles and seminars, and the book goes further to organize and expand what you need to know to make great-looking and efficiently-compressed video. It's a must-have for people concerned with sharing video to where the audience is, on iDevices and over the Web.
You can find more about the book and Jan Ozer's writings online at his StreamingLearingCenter.com site, along with video tutorials, sample comparison images and videos, and information on his webinars, seminars, and consulting.
Order from Amazon.com