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.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).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.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.