MP3: The Definitive Guide

Rating:
Summary: IT HAS A VERY REASONABLE PRICE
Review: "MP3: The Definitive Guide" comes at a reasonable price. It is a good text, which provides a complete coverage of MP3 using four major platforms: Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and BeOS.
Users, particularly those who understood the basic mechanics of MP3, will benefit from the near-limitless information jam-packed in this 400-paged text. Right from the scratch, this book took care of every aspect of: obtaining, recording, and optimizing MP3 files using either commercial or open source methods, or both.
Whether you are having a hard time evaluating playbacks or burning CDs, this book will reveal a lot to you. It also has sections that were dedicated to equipment testing, control and co-ordination, as well as file sharing with enthusiasts on the Internet. The main blemish I found on this book is that most MP3 novices may find some chapters difficult. The author, Scot Hacker, assumed that his audience are already familiar with the MP3 basics.

Rating:
Summary: IT HAS A VERY REASONABLE PRICE
Review: "MP3: The Definitive Guide" comes at a reasonable price. It is a good text, which provides a complete coverage of MP3 using four major platforms: Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and BeOS.
Users, particularly those who understood the basic mechanics of MP3, will benefit from the near-limitless information jam-packed in this 400-paged text. Right from the scratch, this book took care of every aspect of: obtaining, recording, and optimizing MP3 files using either commercial or open source methods, or both.
Whether you are having a hard time evaluating playbacks or burning CDs, this book will reveal a lot to you. It also has sections that were dedicated to equipment testing, control and co-ordination, as well as file sharing with enthusiasts on the Internet. The main blemish I found on this book is that most MP3 novices may find some chapters difficult. The author, Scot Hacker, assumed that his audience are already familiar with the MP3 basics.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book -- Technical and Readable
Review: For the price -- high technical density and readability.

The reference section was also very good.

I used the book as a general overview of mp3 issues for testing an mp3 player. I've got five other books on mp3 and the specs -- this is the first reference I pick up.

Rating:
Summary: Not Definitive, barely even edited.
Review: I bought this book with the hopes that it would give me some detailed insight into how mp3 works, instead it spends most of its pages talking about the differences between encoders and how to use them, as well as a detailed description of how to click on the play button in winamp.

The chapter on the insides of mp3 was what I was really looking for, and this book is, as other reviwers have noted, not really for programmers. Most of the "Mp3" books out there are for "How to go get music off the internet and play it", and I was really hoping that this one would be different. Nope, it wasn't. It did offer a bit of insight (which was available from many other sources) into the workings, but not much.

The language in this book is pretty bad, it feels like they rushed this to market - some of the sentences feature misconjugated verbs, and improper uses of the past perfect tense. While this is only moderately annoying, it really detracts from the usability of the book.

Overall, I'd say that my hopes have been shattered, and what has been generated here is just another book on how to use mp3, not anything different, other than the Oriley name.

Rating:
Summary: The MP3 World
Review: O'Reilly's habit of using the word "definitive" in their titles is very irritating - this book is excellent, but it isn't totally definitive. There are chapters on how MP3 works, how to get and play MP3 files and creating your own MP3s (including dealing with playlists and tags), various kinds of software and hardware players, webcasting and servers, and legal stuff. I will focus here on what I see as omissions, but there is much that is good about this book.

The part of this book that is bettered elsewhere is the legal stuff - the approach of Bruce Fries in "The MP3 and Internet Audio Handbook" (using case studies) is a more practical approach to what you may and may not do. However, the explanation of SDMI beginning on p.278 is lucid, and well worth a read by the denizens of the mp3.com board, where there is a debate currently raging about exactly how SDMI works.

The book is cross-platform, so the author treats Win95/98/NT (but not 2K), Linux, and the Mac and BeOS's in all chapters. In the players chapter you get pictures and descriptions of the most popular models (Sonique has an "incredibly trippy" UI) and a following chapter deals with more advanced topics like equalization, digital conversion, ID3 tags and playlists with descriptions of editors, playing MP3 streams, and skins and plug-ins.

Chapter 5 begins with encoding issues including sample rates. Once again Fries' "The MP3 and Internet Audio Handbook" does it better, with a table instead of a verbose explanation. Bit-rates are handled in several places in this book, and only mentioned in passing in this chapter, where the explanation really belongs. Fries' book has several tables on bit-rate, sound quality, and file size. The (very) brief discussion on recording streaming audio doesn't mention either TotalRecorder or Voquette - however, there is an excellent discussion of encoders in this chapter.

Chapter 6 has a cursory description of four portable players: the Rio, Nomad, Lyra and I-Jam, but a decent discussion of the different technologies used in these players. Home and car stereo players are also described, and once again the coverage is patchy - coverage of AudioRequest and the Lyndstrom Songbank, but where's the Lansonic? And where is the Raite - arguably the most talked about home player on the internet? Not a mention.

Chapter 8, on webcasting and servers, is outstanding. The author treats both the commercial sites and DIY, with the emphasis on DIY. A great resource for anyone thinking of running their own ftp, web server, or internet "radio", and working with SHOUTcast or icecast. Awesome!

So to repeat - an excellent but not definitive book - it has its faults but on the whole is a very worthwhile purchase. If you read this and then get the very latest from a message board at a site like mp3.com, you won't go far wrong.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book -- Technical and Readable
Review: This book will not teach you how to write applications to create mp3 files. If you want to write an encoder or decoder you should get the specification from the ISO standards site.

It does give information on how to use other peoples software and it also gives you information about the law. If you want to start sharing mp3 files or broadcast music using third party software then this book is not too bad.

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended, definitive, "user friendly" guide.
Review: This definitive guide goes into much more technical computer detail than more casual coverages for lay readers, introducing users to all aspects of the technology and covering the basics of how to use, optimize and maintain MP3 files using both commercial and Open Source methods for four basic operating system platforms. A highly recommended pick for musicians and computer users alike, this tells how to get the most out of equipment and MP3 music formats. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: The author is informed, and writes clearly.
Review: This is the only mp3 book I've read. The reason I decided to buy it was that it was from O'Reilly & I've read Scot Hacker's other book (The Be Bible) and he describes subjects clearly.

The book covers Windows, Linux and Be (I run all three). It even has MacOS mp3 coverage.

The topic of legal issues surrounding mp3 is also brought up. Hacker was very smart to put this in because everyone, who uses mp3's, should know about what's going on with our law system.

This book is worth your time reading, not just for how to play mp3's on your OS of choice but also to be informed about a serious legal question.