Desktop DVD Authoring

Rating:
Summary: A rehash of software manuals
Review: As a newbie getting acquainted with Apple's DVD Studio Pro, I found this book to be a great suppliment to the manual. It also contains useful user guides to other authoring packages such as iDVD, Sonic DVDit!, Sonic ReelDVD and Sonic Scenarist. An interesting read if you already own or are considering any of these products. The book also covers other DVD related topics, from buying a DVD player, to technical summaries. A great starting point for those ready to take the DVD plunge.

Rating:
Summary: A great starting point
Review: As a newbie getting acquainted with Apple's DVD Studio Pro, I found this book to be a great suppliment to the manual. It also contains useful user guides to other authoring packages such as iDVD, Sonic DVDit!, Sonic ReelDVD and Sonic Scenarist. An interesting read if you already own or are considering any of these products. The book also covers other DVD related topics, from buying a DVD player, to technical summaries. A great starting point for those ready to take the DVD plunge.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Companion for DVD Video Authoring
Review: Dixon and Matey have done an excellent job in putting together a text that will certainly help those who are new to this complex subject. Although there are other well-written and broader books on DVD (most notably as DVD Demystified by Jim Taylor), I'd recommend this book first to anyone looking to specifically get started in creating personal DVD-Videos. In fact, if at all possible, buy this book *before* investing in any hardware or software for the task!!

"Desktop DVD Authoring" really cuts through the complexities of DVD, focuses exclusively on what matters, and provides a remarkably up-to-date breakdown on what is available in the market as of late 2002/early 2003. The authors are also to be commended for taking a very "platform independent" approach to the topic, with equal weight given to both Windows and Mac platforms.

Also impressive is the logical way the material is organized, and the way it scales from "Automated DVD Authoring" for absolute beginners, to "Personal DVD Authoring" for those who crave more customization in their work, to "Professional DVD Authoring" for professional and feature film production. Considering that companies in the digital video and DVD authoring application industry do such a poor job in their marketing and dissemination of this information, "Desktop DVD Authoring" is an invaluable and unique resource for getting through the hype, and understanding exactly what is required to do your own high-quality productions.

Again, I cannot recommend highly enough that you pick up this book *before* heading off to the store to buy anything to make your own DVDs. Doing so will save you a great deal of the time, money and pain currently associated with trying to get your own videos onto DVD. And unlike many technical books, this is an easy and pleasurable read without any hardware or software in front of you.

Kudos to the authors and New Riders Publishing for delivering a fluff-free, timely resource for DVD authoring, and for filling a gap that exists right now.

Rating:
Summary: Weak learning tool good introduction to software choices
Review: Do not purchase this book if your intention is to learn the technicalities of DVD authoring. It is only an introduction to most of the software products out there right now.
Purchase this book if you intend to attain a software product and are unsure which to select among the many choices out there.
It is a good overview of these products and would be a very useful book for this purpose.
There is discussion about DVD authoring but it is weak and vastly incomplete. As a long time author and owner of several products, and all books on the subject I am dissappointed with this book. I would have liked to have seen at least some command sequence examples. There are none. If you wish to learn the intricacies of DVD authoring,do a course.

Rating:
Summary: A rehash of software manuals
Review: The author appears to have done little more than collect a sheaf of manufacturers' literature and then rewrite it for this book. A typical chapter contains a step by step description of the tutorial that comes with Apple's DVD Studio Pro software. You'll get a lot more more from simply working through the tutorial than from reading Dixon's rehash of same, and you won't have to waste money on this book. Some overlap is perhaps inevitable, but 500+ pages of regurgitated material? No thanks! Save your money and wait for David Pogue to cover this topic.

Rating:
Summary: Useful, entertaining and easy to read
Review: The key to any good technology book is its ability to teach the reader something new and complicated in a way that is entertaining. Some tech books read like high school Calculus books, this isn't one of them. Dixon does a solid job of covering the entire complex world of DVD authoring in a very straightforward and easy to understand way. Highly recommended for those just getting started in DVD or for old pros who want to brush up on the latest and greatest.