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Rating: 
Summary: A must have for DVD professionals
Review: "DVD Authoring & Production" is a must have book for DVD professionals, or for those aspiring to join the DVD authoring business. While the first few chapters cover some of the same ground as Jim Taylor's "DVD Demystified" there is enough new material to justify having both books. "DVD Authoring & Production" is much more of a how-to guide for developing DVD titles. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on advanced authoring techniques, WebDVD development, and the business of DVD.If this book was available when I started working on DVD titles it would have saved me several weeks of learning through trial and error. The end of the advanced authoring chapter includes an extensive list of known DVD player compatibility problems. This detailed list was worth the purchase price all by itself!
Rating: 
Summary: Creatively limited. More catalogue than text
Review: I bought this book in the expectation that I would learn about theories of DVD authoring focusing on techniques and user interface design. DVD authoring is of interest to groups as diverse as wedding videographers and instructional designers. There is a lot of technical detail in the book of the type found in product catalogues. The description of DVD layers, and so forth, is very informative. There is also a chapter listing available DVD software vendors. In fact, the book has a lot to say about DVD as a format and a technology, but rather less to say about DVD authoring. The chapter on navigation is barely above interesting. One section discusses 'advanced' navigation and introduces program control constructs (IF-THEN, FOR, etc.). Potentially very interesting but the examples of the uses of the constructs are limited to one or two lines of code; and one never gets to understand the 'features in action' in a project. The title of the book is misleading. Production issues are addressed but very little of interest is available on authoring. If you need to learn about authoring in depth, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: A book for the local DVD authorer - NOT movie studio
Review: I ordered this book a few months ago but publication of it was delayed. When it finally I arrived, I was disappointed. This book is primarily aimed at people wanting to open a DVD authoring business and spends much more time on business models, work orders and project work flow than on the technical details of creating DVDs. The included DVD is a planetarium-style slide show of astronomical information. While it is interesting, it does not illustrate the full flexibility of a DVD or even many of the options commonly used in feature film DVDs. Jim Taylor's DVD Demystified is far more useful to me.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the wait
Review: I ordered this book a few months ago but publication of it was delayed. When it finally I arrived, I was disappointed. This book is primarily aimed at people wanting to open a DVD authoring business and spends much more time on business models, work orders and project work flow than on the technical details of creating DVDs. The included DVD is a planetarium-style slide show of astronomical information. While it is interesting, it does not illustrate the full flexibility of a DVD or even many of the options commonly used in feature film DVDs. Jim Taylor's DVD Demystified is far more useful to me.
Rating:
Summary: A book for the local DVD authorer - NOT movie studio
Review: I think both negative reviews are off base. One of them obviously sounds like they are from the direct competitor of this book - DVD Demystified. This book to me touches on the aspects of producing a DVD as a independent producer, not a Movie Studio. The reviewer that said that it doesnt delve into the items a major studio does in DVD, needs to realize the person buying this book isnt a movie studio, but most likely a new business or producer delving into DVD for the first time. DVD Demystified is too heavy on content vs how-to in this book. The accompanying disc is nice because it is along the lines of a title someone would produce. Not a major motion picture. The book DVD Authoring & Production" is much more of a how-to guide for developing DVD titles and touches on a lot of technical aspects that DVD Demystified does not touch on. Also, Mr.LaBarge is a well known and wanted speaker around the globe on DVD. That merit alone makes the book a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Very dissappointing
Review: I was eagerly looking forward to reading this book. I was dissappointed by it's contents. Despite the title there is very little information about how to actually produce a DVD. It concentrates more on the business aspect.
A shame considering the authors experience. His reluctance to delve deeper into an authoring program of choice (obviously Scenarist) results in a shallow example of how you produce a DVD. As of this writing, still no book exists that actually teaches you the production process. Amazing considering it's rapidly growing popularity.
Rating:
Summary: very good if you are going to setup your own authoring house
Review: this book has a lot of information on dvd production process. it is targeted to people who want to get into dvd production so the details on process (story board) and software application are very helpful. a good companion if you already own dvd demystified
Rating:
Summary: If you want to do advanced DVD authoring - buy this book!
Review: This book shows you in an easy to read format the true capabilities of the DVD format and what is required to do it. It helped me in being able to ask intelligent questions when purchasing equipment.
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