Jan has worked in digital video since 1990, joining PC Magazine as a contributing editor in 1996, and EventDV (then CD-ROM Professional) in 1994. Since then, Jan has written 12 books on digital video, translated into 7 languages, including the PC Magazine Guide to Digital Video (John Wiley, 2003), and the upcoming Adobe Digital Video How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques with Adobe Production Studio for Adobe Press (2006). In addition to frequently teaching short courses at seminars and expositions, Jan has instructed two- and three-day video production seminars since 1992, most recently for the University of Wisconsin.
Compression technologies have always been a particular focus for Jan, who got his first taste as VP of Marketing for Iterated Systems, the developer of the Fractal video and still image compression licensed by Microsoft for the original CD-ROM version of Encarta. In 1994, Jan’s company, Doceo Publishing, released the Video Compression Sampler, the first comparison of CD-ROM compression technologies like Cinepak, Indeo and Video 1. Since then, Jan has written many authoritative articles on DVD and streaming technologies for organizations like StreamingMedia.com and Extremetech. In January 2006, Jan released two white papers through StreamingMedia.com that rigorously compared the quality and usability of the Windows Media, Real, Apple’s H.264 and Flash codecs (Proprietary Codecs, 2006: Choosing and Using the Optimal Video Codec) and solely Flash codecs (Flash Codecs, 2006: Choosing and Using the Optimal Flash Codec).
