Ears On

Book Revised, Self Promoted

Mark Fleischmann  |  Oct 1, 2008

Time for an annual act of self-promotion. Every year, usually around October 1, my book Practical Home Theater: A Guide to Video and Audio Systems goes into a new edition. This year's edition is the eighth, cover date 2009, ISBN 9781932732108, and is easily distinguished by its pale blue cover, which replaces last year's off-white. Annually refreshing the book gives me a chance to review and expand what I know about home theater technology as well as bring readers up to date. This year's big news is the DTV transition, scheduled for February 2009, which is mentioned throughout the book. The most poignant aspect of the update was pruning out a lot of material about HD DVD, leaving only one fat graf of historical summary. HDMI got some attention as I flagged the latest versions and added more material about the distinction between Category 1 and Category 2 HDMI cables. Before long, I'll be taking the page layout I've recently labored over and stripping it down to a pictureless Word file, typing new material into the book over the next year for the following edition. Practical Home Theater is the only book on the subject to get this kind of ongoing attention. If you buy it, I hope it serves you well. Annual act of self-promotion completed.

COMMENTS
Juan Fonseca's picture
Submitted by Juan Fonseca (not verified) on October 1, 2008 - 12:35pm

I just got this book (I think is this version). I think it is great. I wish I had read it before I bought my HT system.Juan

Tom Thompson's picture
Submitted by Tom Thompson (not verified) on October 15, 2008 - 5:45am

Great book and you have shown your non-political background by having a "self promotion" disclaimer in the headliner no less! You are closer to getting my vote than any politician with that one.

Tom's picture
Submitted by Tom (not verified) on January 22, 2009 - 9:41am

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used heavy equipment's picture
Submitted by used heavy equipment (not verified) on March 27, 2009 - 5:42am

nice blogging.do carry on for such stuff.

Phil F.'s picture
Submitted by Phil F. (not verified) on August 29, 2009 - 5:30pm

I loved the book! Learned a lot. I can tell that you aren't big on 7.1 systems for the home, but after listening to the podcasts at Dolby.com and hearing that pliix really helps fill in the gap between the side surrounds, I gave it a shot. It works very well and I even have a smaller room. Also, now movies mixed in 7.1 (although rare), including Dolby EX/ DTS ES, sound even better. I went back and watched the pod race from Star Wars 1 that was mixed for back speakers and it sounded amazing! Definitely different from just in 5.1. I guess their podcasts are more than just self promotion. Just my two cents. Great book. -Phil F.p.s. Even regular stereo music really fills the room with 7.1 and pl2x. I am glad I tried this. Oh yeah - thanks to your book - I realized that my side surrounds have been in the wrong place for all these years!!! I was just doing what all my friends had WRONGLY done. What a major difference it made to have them putting the sound where it should be. Watching everything over again!

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