Digital Video offers comprehensive coverage of the MPEG-2 audio/visual digital compression standard. The treatment includes the specifics needed to implement an MPEG-2 Decoder, including the syntax and semantics of the coded bitstreams. Since the MPEG-2 Encoders are not specified by the standard, and are actually closely held secrets of many vendors, the book only outlines the fundamentals of encoder design and algorithm optimization.

Since the first edition of Digital Pictures in 1988, several international standards have been established for digitization of bilevel images, color pictures, videoconferencing, and television. In Digital Pictures, Second Edition, Arun N. Netravali and Barry G. Haskell address these modern innovations and review recently established international standards for digital imagery. They discuss the current state of the art, including JBIG, JPEG, H.261, CCIR601, CCIR723, MPEG1, MPEG2, and HDTV technology. Their book also thoroughly covers the fundamentals and practical algorithms of image digitization and compression. The text's new chapters feature examples and questions designed to stimulate greater understanding of the topics which describe: basic aspects of the JBIG algorithm and different JPEG operating modes; some methodologies used for video codecs operating at subprimary bit-rates; a generic coding standard that can be used in many digital video implementations; and the main characteristics of HDTV; its current state in Europe, Japan, and the United States; and expected future developments. Digital Pictures, Second Edition, concludes with a review of source encoding limitations and brief descriptions of two approaches to model-based coding of video. Its comprehensive coverage of progress in the field will be valuable for communication systems engineers and researchers working in the areas of image compression, communication, and processing. Advanced undergraduate and graduate students will find it an essential text on image digitization, processing, coding, and compression.