Apple Pro Training Series: DVD Studio Pro 2 (Paperback)

by all4DVD Inc. (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The perfect companion to Apple's popular Final Cut Pro video editing software, DVD Studio Pro finally makes it possible for you to create professional, interactive DVDs from the comfort of your own Mac.

Apple Pro Training Series: DVD Studio Pro 2 uses detailed step-by-step instructions illustrated with screenshots and reinforced with end-of-chapter review questions to teach you how to create professional-looking DVDs from start to finish. Topics covered include storyboarding, bit-budgeting, encoding audio and video, creating still and motion menus, interactivity and navigation, chapter markers, stories, Web links, slideshows, scripts, juggling multiple audio tracks and camera angles, and building, formatting, and burning the DVD. A companion DVD-ROM includes high-quality content consisting of project files, graphics, and media used in the book so that you can start creating DVDs immediately. In short, Apple Pro Training Series: DVD Studio Pro 2 offers everything you need to get up and running with this powerful DVD authoring software.

From the Back Cover
The perfect companion to Apple's popular Final Cut Pro video editing software, DVD Studio Pro finally makes it possible for you to create professional, interactive DVDs from the comfort of your own Mac.

Apple PRO Training Series: DVD Studio Pro uses detailed step-by-step instructions illustrated with screenshots and reinforced with end-of-chapter review questions to teach you how to create professional-looking DVDs from start to finish. Topics covered include storyboarding, bit-budgeting, encoding audio and video, creating still and motion menus, interactivity and navigation, chapter markers, stories, Web links, slideshows, scripts, juggling multiple audio tracks and camera angles, and building, formatting, and burning the DVD. A companion DVD-ROM includes high-quality content consisting of project files, graphics, and media used in the book so that you can start creating DVDs immediately. In short, Apple PRO Training Series: DVD Studio Pro offers everything you need to get up and running with this powerful DVD authoring software.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; Pap/Dvdr edition (December 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321186524
• ISBN-13: 978-0321186522
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,162,673 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars One Step Up From the Packaged Tutorial, December 24, 2003

By	Solo Goodspeed (Granada Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Obviously rushed to market, January 11, 2004

By	S. Ullman "moviecutter" (Marin, CA) - See all my reviews

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.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Should have been proofed!!!!, February 24, 2004

By A Customer

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.