Customer Reviews

Apple Pro Training Series: DVD Studio Pro 2

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

At the time of this writing (Dec '03), this Apple Pro Training Series title is the only in-depth, full-on tutorial volume available for DVD Studio Pro 2. If, like me, you've just acquired the package and are anxious to learn all the tools for authoring DVD media, I'd rate this book as an adequate step up from the tutorial that shipped in the box. On the other hand, if you're patient and are keen to keep trying to figure the program out on your own (like I was doing), you might want to wait for a better one.

Chances are, if you bought DVDSP2, you already have Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Express. The tools, interface and overall process of the programs are very similar, and anyone with a working familiarity with Apple's powerful video editing apps (as well as the basic structure of commercial DVD titles) can, with a little time and effort, discover how to work with it on their own. This book, to its credit, offers a rudimentary, 16-chapter course leading the reader through the production of three different video projects, each showcasing different functions of DVD authoring. For the most part accurate, some chapters unfortunately show signs of poor or rushed proofing ..... the sections on compression (a vitally important step in production) and scripting, most notably, are missing steps and contain misleading information, which could be very frustrating to first time users. The chapter on menus contains an erroneous screen shot ("your screen should look like this" ..... HUH?) and files are named differently on the materials provided than represented in the book. This should not be a deterrent, as long as you can figure out what the authors MEANT to write ....

DVDSP2/Apple Pro Training seems to be typical of most first-edition tutorial tomes (Macromedia Training-From-the-Source books are notorious for this), and if you're anxious to get seriously creating DVDs and want to get up and running quick, this title should prove for the most part helpful ...... definitely get it through Amazon as opposed to paying retail. Suggestion: supplement this book with Martin Sitter's DVDSP2 Visual QuickPro Guide, a much better written volume with more insight and expertise than you'll find in most titles currently available ...... that way, once you've stumbled through this flawed tutorial, you'll have an excellent reference to use later on.

I normally expect more from Peachpit. For a book that purports to be "official Apple training", this book is so full of typos, inaccurate instructions and mislabled illustrations, Apple never should have allowed their name to be associated with it. I mean, come on! Did anyone bother to proofread this book? Did a single person ever sit down and try to do the exercises as printed? I was occasionally able to figure out what information was missing, or what the authors meant to say, but sometimes I simply had to give up. When an exercise tells you to open a file with a certain name in a certain path, and neither that path nor the file exist, what is one to do? I was very disappointed, as I have been waiting for this book and there are really no other choices out there for quality book training. I hope this is not indicitive of Peachpit's future attention to quality control.

Although the book takes you step by step through the basics of DVD Studio Pro 2, after the first few lesson typos and missing steps start popping up all over the place. These seemingly minor issues add up to an overall frustrating learning experience. The visuals, such as "Your menu should like this", often include elements added at a later point. Or, for example, it tells you to choose a 2nd audio track when you have yet to input the 2nd audio track. Every few pages you think you've missed a step which can be very agonizing trying to figure what you've done wrong.

If you follow this book exactly to the point, you'll begin to get quite frustrated. However, once you realize it's the book and not you, you'll have a basic grasp of the power of DVD Studio Pro 2. It's just rather annoying reading a book written by people who have seemingly not proofed the course themselves.

In a perfect series on video editing this book, which should have been the icing on the cake, was a severe blow: a startling amount of mistakes in the text and a bad build-up. It was helpfull in getting through the programm but missed the flair of the other volumes. (with advanced editing by digital film tree being the real juwel)

After learning Final Cut Pro 4 and Logic 6 with the other books in the Apple Pro Training Series, I found DVD Studio Pro 2 to be a great dissapointment. Did anyone proof read this book before it went to press? A bad volume in an otherwise great series.

This book should be renamed "DVD Studio Pro 2: Apple Amateur Training Series". Although it's possible to struggle through the book, it is poorly written and full of errors and omissions. It's difficult to imagine how this book ever made it to the printer in its present state. Apple should find another author to write the Pro Training Series book for DVD Studio Pro 3 - or at least insist that the follow-up be proof-read and accurate. Save your money and hope that the next edition is better.

As far as the Apple Pro Training Series is concerned, I usually find their titles to be quite helpful. In fact I own the following titles:
Final Cut Pro 4
Final Cut Pro 4 Advanced
Shake 3
DVD Studio Pro 2
Logic Pro 7
Logic Pro 7 Advanced

Having said that, this book helped me quite a bit to get up and running with DVDSP in a short time, though there were several times when I was required to figure out what the author "meant" versus what was actuallly printed on the page (as other reviewers have mentioned). The only thing is, some reviewers have made it sound a little more difficult than it was to get around these typos. It would generally only take me a couple minutes to figure out the problem and continue with the lesson, and also served to reinforce my understanding of the program itself in most cases.

Overall, it was ok, but by far not the best in the series

If you do any DVD authoring with Studio Pro, you must have this book. As a resource book for using the software, it is infinitly valuable. I love the tutorials. Ramseirer doesn't make any assumptions on the ability or knowledge of the reader (which is great for me, because I can get lost very easily!)
I also like the fact that he doesn't get bogged down in technobabble. The book also doesn't get to bogged down in Final Cut issues. As far as I'm concerned, if I need a book for that...I'll buy it!
Buy this one! It's great.

I found the book to be very helpful. The book was very easy to follow. I had lots of fun learning the power of DVD Studio pro using this book with its illustrations and easy to follow instructions. I give it thumbs up. I am now very proficient in this software, thanks to this book.
Robert
Charleston, SC

I have been using DVD Studio Pro 1.5 for some time now, and after upgrading to 2.0 I was initially intimidated with the new interface and features. I bought this book to help get me through 2.0, and after going through the excercises and creating the projects which cover all the basic and advanced features, the intimidation is gone. This is a great tool and a great book to help easily guide you through it.