Customer Reviews

DVD Studio Pro 1.5 for Macintosh: Visual QuickPro Guide

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been using Macs for over 15 years and have always wanted to be an amateur filmmaker. I started to build my studio a few years back and now I have all the pieces in place: PowerBook G4, Final Cut Pro 3, Panasonic AG-DV1000 deck, DVD Studio 1.5.1, and a FireWire DVD-R. I can now create and edit my video and then use DVD Studio to make professional DVDs for my friends and family. I was able to make a DVD after going through Apple's DVDSP manual and tutorial, but the DVD lacked professional functionality. This book bridges the gap from a functional DVD to a professional DVD.

I recommend this book to any FCP user who wants to make the jump to DVD.

Thanks..

I am not a professional, just a keen home movie producer and DVD enthusiast and I moved on from iDVD to DVD Studio Pro and bought this book at the same time. It is an excellent book, up to date and helped me master DVDSP in a couple of days. I use iMovie to edit my family movies (it is so easy and yet has tremendous features), and I have just started to input my finished iMovie from DV tape to Final Cut Pro 3.0.2 to insert Chapter Markers for use in DVDSP, which is the one feature I could not achieve with iDVD. I recommend the book to anybody moving to DVD Studio Pro.

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I've been using DVD Studio Pro since Apple released it in early 2001 and I've seen few books from an authoring and designing perspective. Even more interesting was that I learnt things that I didn't know DSP could do... What about rewriting a DVD-RW right on your SuperDrive?

This QuickPro guide is a snap to read as it's written in a very light style, but more than "Quick" it gets really "Pro". The author has a sense of design and style and seems to be experienced in multimedia production as I can relate to most of his comments and tips.

DVD Studio Pro is not as difficult to use as other Windows applications but the included manual has some abysmal gaps, specially in the advanced topics like scripting. Good news is that this book gets some out of this world tips and tricks that I've never seen before. Although it does not come with a CD or DVD the publisher's site has some killer examples that I've used in a few of my own projects. A nice time saver.

FS

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This really is DVD Studio Pro - the Missing Manual. Apple's doc is accurate, but terse in the extreme, with some important concepts being covered in one hard-to-find sentence. Especially compared with the library of documentation that comes with FCP 3.

I would recommend that every DSP customer buy this book.

Having said that, I found it a bit lacking in ready-to-use creative ideas for DVD designs, and in scripting examples.

A good book, but there is scope for more literature about this powerful program.

If you own and use DVD Studio Pro you will benefit
(greatly) from the information contained in this book.

It is clear, thorough and easy to follow.

I have been using Macs for over 15 years and have always wanted to be an amateur filmmaker. I started to build my studio a few years back and now I have all the pieces in place: PowerBook G4, Final Cut Pro 3, Panasonic AG-DV1000 deck, DVD Studio 1.5.1, and a FireWire DVD-R. I can now create and edit my video and then use DVD Studio to make professional DVDs for my friends and family. I was able to make a DVD after going through Apple's DVDSP manual and tutorial, but the DVD lacked professional functionality. This book bridges the gap from a functional DVD to a professional DVD.

I recommend this book to any FCP user who wants to make the jump to DVD.

Thanks..

If you're doing DVD authoring with DVDSP and you've already worn out your "DVD Demystified" and "DVD Authoring and Production", then do yourself a great big favor and do the following:

1) Breath a well earned sigh of relief,
2) Scroll up, click the button, and slam dunk this book in your cart.
3) (optional) Be bold and pay extra for expedited shipping.

Yes, this book is that good. Trust me.

Face it, Apple's Macintosh offers the most seamless integration of hardware and software for video editors. It's two pillars of nonlinear editing, Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere, are the choice of the digital video community, offering features hitherto available only to megabuck professional editing systems. Windows fans, give us our due! This is where the Mac really shines. As the Mac is to editing, so it is to output, and it applicattion DVD Studio Pro fits these editors like a hand to a glove. While Apple's and Adobe's manuals for these complex programs are good, something more practical is needed for we knuckleheads that have to have it step-by-step. To the rescue is the QuickPro guied with a no-nonsense approach, and clear instructions on how to go from resources to a finished DVD. I like all of their manuals, and this new one is no exception. It is particularly good att integrating the editor of choice with DVD Studio Pro, and pays homage to other important software to streamline the output process, such as Toast Titanium. It works as well with OS 9 as it does with OS X. The descriptions of workflow and MPEG compression are helpful to novice and intermediate user alike. Like Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro is a big, complex program, and some aid to us video novices is pretty much a necessity. This Visual QuickPro guide fills the bill admirably. Buy it with the companion guide to your favorite editor.

These "visual" books are great. It's simple, you want to learn something, these books show you. This book isn't filled with a bunch of nonsense, it gets right down to business and shows you how to use the application. Want to make a DVD with DVD Studio Pro? Then, buy this book!

This book is not very well layed out for people making more professional DVDs. I have used these visual quick pro guides before and have been able to find answers but this book is pretty messy. It is especially frustrating if you are using it with Final Cut Pro. The book will begin to tell you how to perform a task such as exporting encoded video with chapter markers from FCP and then it will never follow through with how to see these markers in DVD SP or connect chapters to menus or tracks. I was able to lay my DVD out fairly easily but it had a lot to do with the fact that DVD SP has a pretty logical layout system. The book is very vague and leaves out a lot of pertinent details that may have you searching for answers somewhere else. It's not all bad but it has left me in the dust enough to convince me to get a better book that, at least, gives the impression that the author has actually used the program. I would advise getting a different book for this software.