There has been a long standing debates regarding whether there should be multimedia included in ebooks are not! What exactly would be multimedia in eooks? Audio, well then why not have the entire book as a narrative and as an audio book. Video, then why not make a movie out of it or put in on popular video streaming sites.
The very idea of multimedia eBooks poses a lot of unanswered questions
File size?
What happens the file size of the eBook? including audio an video in the ebook will always have an inherent boom in the file size. How much would one want to compress the file? Compression means loss of quality. A quality failure means the eBook will not be sold. Another aspect is that now most of the eBooks are being created with hand held devices in mind. All of these hand held devices will be mostly connected through WiFi, meaning less download speed. Increase in file size will only slow down the process, irritating the readers?
Reading Experience?
Once multimedia is included the reading experience will go for a toss. There will be no reading sequence, or it will be listening and seeing sequence.
Multimedia eBooks are good for the academic and education sector, but it’s a small market. There are already people creating multimedia education systems, hence books run out of the race.
Device Size?
Multimedia requires crystal clear sharpness in Audio as well as Video. Are we looking at 17” hand held devices now? Like holding a monitor, I think it is going that way. Most of us don’t like small screens hence we have 42” LCD or LED televisions, don’t we? But we do want to have multimedia in books. Wow a library of heavy duty books in a big and compact HDD attached to a large hand held screen, I see it coming :)
Why is everyone running in for multimedia eBooks? It’s a long way down. I see people getting back to chisel and hammer to carve out on rocks. Because that is what remains. A good book is the one with an excellent reading experience, and NOT listening or seeing experience. For that Audio books DTBs are there,and for Video movies (created from books) are there.
Content is very important, however different media and mediums have different purposes. Let them be used with the purpose they are meant to be used. Leave the books to be read rather than heard or seen :). There are many other ways of including multimedia with the book rather than within the book. Sometime later I might lose my laziness and express my views on that :)
This is completely my opinion you can very well disagree with it!
The very idea of multimedia eBooks poses a lot of unanswered questions
File size?
What happens the file size of the eBook? including audio an video in the ebook will always have an inherent boom in the file size. How much would one want to compress the file? Compression means loss of quality. A quality failure means the eBook will not be sold. Another aspect is that now most of the eBooks are being created with hand held devices in mind. All of these hand held devices will be mostly connected through WiFi, meaning less download speed. Increase in file size will only slow down the process, irritating the readers?
Reading Experience?
Once multimedia is included the reading experience will go for a toss. There will be no reading sequence, or it will be listening and seeing sequence.
Multimedia eBooks are good for the academic and education sector, but it’s a small market. There are already people creating multimedia education systems, hence books run out of the race.
Device Size?
Multimedia requires crystal clear sharpness in Audio as well as Video. Are we looking at 17” hand held devices now? Like holding a monitor, I think it is going that way. Most of us don’t like small screens hence we have 42” LCD or LED televisions, don’t we? But we do want to have multimedia in books. Wow a library of heavy duty books in a big and compact HDD attached to a large hand held screen, I see it coming :)
Why is everyone running in for multimedia eBooks? It’s a long way down. I see people getting back to chisel and hammer to carve out on rocks. Because that is what remains. A good book is the one with an excellent reading experience, and NOT listening or seeing experience. For that Audio books DTBs are there,and for Video movies (created from books) are there.
Content is very important, however different media and mediums have different purposes. Let them be used with the purpose they are meant to be used. Leave the books to be read rather than heard or seen :). There are many other ways of including multimedia with the book rather than within the book. Sometime later I might lose my laziness and express my views on that :)
This is completely my opinion you can very well disagree with it!
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