Customer Reviews

DVD Demystified Third Edition

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I needed to learn about creating a DVD, and most of the recommendations that I got steered me towards DVD Demystified by Jim Taylor. The book, and accompanying DVD, do exactly that - it demystifies the DVD media.
I enjoyed the review of the history of DVD, including the interesting machinations that moved the standard along and continues to scare the entertainment producers. The section gave valuable information without diving into the technical details too quickly.
After that, the author gets technical enough so that a novice can learn about the requirements. Everything from information for the home set-top box buyer to material preparation, standards (such as they are), file formats and clear explanations of the terms used in DVD and the programs with which you create them are all there. While the book doesn't give hardware or software recommendations, I actually think this is a plus. The field is changing so rapidly that such a book would be useless in short order.
To me, two of the best chapters of the book are those on DVD myths and the accompanying chapter "What is Wrong with DVD?". It both gives you an idea of what improvements could be coming to this technology in the future, plus if you need to convince your boss to transition to this technology, it breaks down the misconceptions about DVD in easy to understand language that can be easily converted into a presentation that even Dilbert's boss could understand.
The DVD has some program demos and some odds and ends that I couldn't get very excited about. There is also a website associated with the book that is updated monthly and is a terrific resource. Since Amazon throws out reviews with web addresses in them, suffice it to say that you need to type "dvddemystified" into Google and look at the first address listed.
The only real disappointment I had with DVD Demystified is that the scripting language of the media is not explored. Anything that I have learned about scripting has come from the authoring program I am working with, but I would like to have another reference to fall back on.
Thus, if you need to move towards delivery of DVD products, I do recommend you read this book.

Taylor's been the man for DVD sooo many years now and this latest revision is the first I've purchased. The depth of detail and fullness of the technical specification information is fantastic and what one would hope from a classic-staying-fresh.

I was only after a relatively narrow batch of information, and this certainly worked for me on that. Beyond that, it certainly tempts me to learn more about DVD authoring and what the formats are capable of (inc. Blu-Ray/HD DVD).

From a money point of view, "DVD Demystified" has always been a good value and still is.

The 5-stars rating is probably reductive for the third Dvd Demystified edition. It is the most complete work about the amazing dvd technology,
its history, the production processes and its future (or should i say: actual?) developments. For video technicians, dvd authors, graphics designers and for those who love to get a deeper knowledge about dvd world DVD demystified is like the Bible, a must-have opera which the included dvd (with examples of all the contents allowed by dvd specs) has an enormous value by itself. Purchase it with no fear: it really keeps the promises it makes.

I bought this book because it got high ratings along with promising reviews here on Amazon and because of what was "promised" on the back-cover of the book; namely the following two bullet-point statements:

"This book is a MUST read if ...
* You can't afford thousands of dollars for the standards and specifications books
* You read the standards and specifications books but didn't understand them"

My search on the interwebs brought me to this book. I was searching for info on detailed description of file structures present on DVD media (chiefly IFO files but also VOB files). There is some info on these on the web, but it is not complete. There are open source code that read and create these files but they aren't fully documented, and some are not pretty to read.

This book seemed to promise to deliver such info as it specifically claims to clarify and "demystify" the 'expensive' standards and specifications after one has read them and still needs further help understanding them. In this regard this book fails to deliver. The two bullet-point items quoted above are a LIE.

This book does, however, have a good history of video (and audio) media evolution throughout the decades past. It does introduce the key players in each step of the evolution of video media up to the current Blu-ray and HD-DVD (now defunct). In that respect, I would say this book does serve well to give a nice summary.

In my opinion this book is not technical enough, certainly not to the extent it boasts to be.

Bought the 2nd edition about 1 year ago and immediately bought the 3rd edition when it came out. I find everything I need to know about DVD's. The included DVD has some helpful audio and video tests.

Highly recommend this book for anyone who want's to understand the technologies behind DVD's.

This is an excellent book that caters for a wide range of knowledge bases and explains some of the technical issues very clearly. It also gives some very useful background about the development of VHS and DVD, and this also helps to understand the rationale behind the various standards.
Quite technical in places, but certainly answers most questions concerning anything to do with music and video media. Very useful for anyone working in entertainment to know some of this. A good book, I recommend it.

This book is great for anyone... novice to expert.

I'm a total novice DVD chick and found this book fascinating, enlightening and completely amazing.

It's a MUST READ for anyone who uses or wants to make a career that in any way involves DVD's -- from creatives, producers to marketing reps and engineers ... this book tells you what and how it is in no uncertain terms and takes no prisoners in it's demystifying the technology.

Thank you Jim, thank you Mark and thank you Chuck!

Very comprehensive. At times repeatative, but gives a good history of the subject. I would like to see a larger and more interactive DVD supplied with the book.

This book is a bit too wordy.
The material could be put in a book half its thickness. At times I catch myself drifting from the main subject, since the author seems trying to impress the reader with his writing. I really like the material that is presented in the book; it gives the reader a great deal of information about the technology.

DVD Demystified is good book to understand what's the state of the art of optic storage and digital video.