| Review 1: | The
MXF Book Nick Wells (Ed), Bruce Devlin & Jim Wilkinson |
Focal Press |
|
The MXF Book
The Material Exchange Format (MXF) is often "explained" by using the simple tape + post-it metaphor. That satisfies many managers, but anyone who has tried to look a little bit deeper has found the reality of MXF to be far more complicated. So complicated in fact that reading the SMPTE standards (starting with SMPTE 377M) has led many an engineer to run for a dose of anti-headache medicines. One reason for this complexity is the not-always-intuitive vocabulary the MXF-writers have used: Material Package, Source Package, Preface, BodySID, etc. Another reason is the large flexibility of the standard; more options take more pages to explain.
Instead of going for paracetamol, engineers now have a far more pleasing way to learn in-depth about MXF. Just read The MXF Book. The title seems to indicate there is only one book on MXF. And this is not far from the truth; the number of serious books on MXF can be counted on one finger (for engineers this means there are two books). Of "all" of these, The MXF Book is the most detailed. And I would bet that if there were more books devoted to the format, they would have a hard time competing with this extensive reference publication. The reason is simple: the writers of The MXF Book were also the authors of the MXF specifications! How much closer to the fire can you get?
The MXF Book is warmly recommended for all engineers
(and any managers with spare time) who are interested in the details of MXF.
The combination of different authors addressing the same topics from multiple
angles and the extensive reference information given (Chapter 3 is a small encyclopaedia
on MXF) make the book useful for background reading and for use as a quick "look-up"
resource. The many illustrations help the reader to comprehend the relationships
between packages, tracks, IDs etc. The text on design choices helps a lot in
understanding previously abstract and sometimes apparently bizarre aspects,
such as Cheddar cheese vs Blue cheese when it comes to the wrapping of DV in
MXF. There is also a small checklist for writing Application Specifications
(in Chapter 4) and an introduction to the MXFLib Open Source Library. But after
reading The MXF Book you could probably have written the software yourself,
well almost...
The MXF Book - Introduction to the Material eXchange
Format
Nick Wells (Ed), Bruce Devlin & Jim Wilkinson
Hardbound volume of 402 pages
ISBN 0-240-80693-X. Price: £34.99.
Focal Press, 2006
Web
Link
Frans de Jong
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