multimedia

Digital Multimedia
$43.56
Poorly written by an Ivory Tower Intellectual with a Silicon Chip on his Shoulder. My personal guess is that he was assigned this text, and thinks himself wasted on a mere introductory course, so he has deliberately made this tome as dense and incomprehensible as possible.

My first time in college I was an English Major, and since became a computer technician with fourteen years of field experience under my belt. The Author's technology is dated, but as the new edition is slated to come out in a couple of months, I think I can give him a pass on that one. What I cannot forgive is the obviously deliberate way in which he sought out the most obscure and rarely seen verbiage to describe his common non-technical analogies. My professor dismisses this with the comment that the Authors are British, but I fear it goes deeper then that.

However, in the final analysis, it does not matter. This is not a text that anyone will choose for fun. It will be assigned to you, and you will be stuck with it. You have my sympathies.

An Introduction to Digital Multimedia
$84.95
Digital multimedia is a new form of literacy and a powerful tool of creative expression available to nearly everyone. Introduction to Digital Multimedia presents the concepts needed to fully understand multimedia as well as create it. Throughout the text, the authors encourage readers to think critically about the nature of the tools and media they use in order to be more effective, efficient, and creative in their own project development. The text also provides a clear introduction to all the basic concepts and tools of digital multimedia, including the fundamentals of digital data and computer hardware and software, making it appropriate for a first course in computing as well as courses in specific multimedia topics. A multimedia timeline as well as a historical overview of the evolution of multimedia thought and technologies provide background on early visions and possible future innovations. Introduction to Digital Multimedia is the ideal text for those interested in delving into the vast world of multimedia computing.

Iomega ScreenPlay Plus HD Multimedia Player 1 TB - 34499
$169.99
This is an extremely easy to use, plug-and-play media player. It almost can't be simpler than this. But I'm going to have to dissent with the other reviews here and mention that there are limitations here in media playback.

GOOD POINTS
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+ Set up is very easy. Just connect the media player to your computer via a USB cable and connect its AC power adapter and you're ready to move photos, videos, and music from your computer. No installation CD is needed on your computer. The media player appears on your desktop like an external harddrive/ flash key. You can literally just drag and drop files onto it. It's that simple.

+ The package says it's Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2000 compatible. I'm guessing that this is only in reference to the free backup software that you can download from Iomega's website. I've connected this media player to a Mac (running OS X 10.5) and it works fine for dragging and dropping files. There's no reason why it wouldn't work with Windows 7 either.

+ The exterior is a stylish, black brushed aluminum shell. It also includes a plastic stand in case you want to stand up the media player vertically.

+ The remote control is decent. It has soft, rubber buttons. Batteries for the remote are included too.

+ To connect this to your TV, just use the included component cables or RCA cables to connect to your TV. This means it will work with any TV made in the last 15+ years. If you can connect a DVD player to it, your TV is compatible. If you have a newer TV, you may have a higher resolution HDMI port. This media player can connect via HDMI but there is no HDMI cable included in the package. You can buy a cheap HDMI cable on Amazon for under $10.

+ 1TB Storage size (Though in reality, only 930GB is available for storage. I wonder what happened to the remaining 70GB).

BAD POINTS
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This media player is more good than bad, which is why I've rated it 3/5 stars in this review. What's wrong with it?

- Minimal instructions. The instruction book is in dozens of languages. The English instructions is about 1 single page. It only covers connecting the media player to your computer and dragging and dropping files. It also covers connecting it the media player to your TV. But if you want to know more about operating the media player when it's connected to your TV, you're out of luck. You'll need to visit the Iomega website to download the rest of the instructions.

- I was disappointed with the media playback. A good portion of my photos looked horribly oversaturated. The photos look fine on my computer and also fine when accessed from my Playstation 3 which is also hooked up to my TV. It was also not able to play back MP4 (Mpeg-4) files even though the box said it would be able to. My PS3 can play back MP4 videos, but this media player can't. MP4 is the video format that my HD Sony camera uses to capture video. All I get is an "invalid file" error message.

- The remote control's buttons aren't great. If you are in a sub-menu/sub-folder and want to return back to the main menu so you can switch to a different media category (such as video, photos, music) then the MENU Button on the remote should take you there. After all, the MENU Button on a DVD remote does this. But that's not the case here. You need to press the unintuitive RETURN Button.

SUMMARY
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At $150, this is a decent media player provided your photos don't show up as oversaturated or if don't run into any video compatibility issues. You may also consider the media players made by Seagate. For an additional $150, you can get a Playstation 3 which has vastly superior media playback, faster access to your photos/videos/music, and the ability to play Blu-ray movies and PS3 games.

Multimedia: Making it Work, Seventh Edition
$44.82
I am a prospective educator that has been assigned to read this text for a graduate level course. This book is centered around Macs and has a definite bias towards them. Although I do not own a Mac I have used them a lot and think that they are certainly a good system, especially for multimedia purposes. What I have against this book is that Mac's are glorified and many of the programs and software that are available for PC's are not mentioned or are a side-note. Even according to the book itself, over 95% of the people that have operating system on their computer as of 2006 have a Windows platform. Therefore, you would think this book would have a lot more references to PC's and tools that you could correspondingly use with them. It doesn't. Every screen shot in the book is of a Mac and like another reviewer has noted a lot of the information is outdated (including the screen shots of ancient Mac's). This book needs a serious refresher and a balance in the slant that it has. This book does have some valuable lessons, but honestly, save yourself the cash and do your own research on the web. There is nothing in the book that you could not find elsewhere and it is my belief that if you went elsewhere you would most likely get much better information.