Rating: 
Summary: Good subject, poor presentation
Review: This promising-sounding book is very poorly written and edited (or not edited at all) -- it's just loaded with mechanical, grammatical, and syntactical errors, horribly disorganized paragraphs and sections, redundancies, and examples of poor diction. In places, material is obviously drawn directly from manufacturers' and suppliers' data sheets or press releases, marketing puffery and hype intact. Also, the book is quite inconsistent in its approach to technical detail, delving into detail on some subjects while skimming quickly over other subjects equally deserving of attention. At times I wondered whether I could have followed some of the explanations offered without my (modest) prior understanding of computing and networks, and at other times I found the explanations to be belaboring the obvious. Nevertheless, the book does provide a useful, 10,000-foot flyby of interactive TV and set-top box developments. While it won't make you an expert in any one area (which it never intended to do), it will give you the lay of the land, the general sense of where the convergence of television, computing, and the Internet is heading. Those who want a more technical approach or more specifics will have no problem knowing what subjects to look into and where to look. Thanks to O'Driscoll for pulling together an overview of the subject, but shame on Prentice Hall for putting out a book before it was ready.
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly written, but still helpful since it fills a gap
Review: To me, this book reads as if it has been thrown together in a hurry specifically to profiteer on a new industry. Virtually everything I've read seems blatantly cut and pasted from white papers and press releases from industry players (with not enough filtering to remove sales-pitch hyperbole), the diagrams that are supplied seem rushed, and many descriptions of visual topics (such as how a particular interface is laid out) are bizarely missing figures/snapshots. However, in a nascent industry like this, the mere act of collating all the literature knocking around into one volume does the readership a service - so, despite itself, the "Essential Guide ..." is worth getting hold of. Roll on more considered and value-adding books on the subject.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful handbook for the entry-level
Review: Working for a leading set-top-box manufacturer in Taiwan, I found this book useful for entry-level sales/engineers in this field. The book covers most topics of the set-top techniloies. However, the lacking of advanced technical analysis may disappoint people who already had knowledge in this field. To conclude, it's a good book worthy of reading.
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