How does a video codec work?
One thing that I wish more folks did with DSP/media tech was to start with concepts instead of diving into details first.<p>Like, "how does a video codec work?" should start with: what is the problem? (reducing the bits per second required for a video stream, since it's big) and how? (don't send superfluous detail, since it's either redundant or imperceptible).<p>Than dive into the details of how color is represented, how images are structured, how 2d signal transforms work, the principle behind the DCT as a method of representing the same data with better energy compaction by decorrelating different components, and how that can be used advantageously to reduce the number of bits for a still image, then talk about shared data between images, etc etc.<p>I've noticed as a DSP guy that when I talk about things without concepts first that everyone's eyes glaze over. Although it is nice that everyone thinks it's black magic, good job security.