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12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 rushed to market Sep 17, 2002
Anybody could have written this book by working their way through the menus. They went out of their way to make this book thick, but there's nothing in it that an experienced Mac user couldn't figure out in an hour or two.
What they DON'T tell you:
-How to write scripts.
-How to use "non-simple" hi-lites and overlays.
-how to do anything except make a pretty straight-forward chapter by chapter DVD
I use the Flash Bible and the Final Cut Pro Bible all the time. They're great, and really go in depth to teach you how to do the complex things professionals typically do with these tools. However, for the DVD Studio Pro Bible, these authors only describe the menus, and then fill up the rest of the book with useless interviews and commentary/promotions from third parties.
Big disappointment. I'd recommend another book, but I blew my money on this one and can't afford another, and feel guilty about selling a useless book to someone else.
My only thought is that DVD Studio Pro 1.5 is so new, that the authors didn't have time to do anything with the software except read the manual.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Not up to par with other Macworld Bibles Sep 12, 2002
By Anthony Torres
I trust the Macworld Brand, based off the Photoshop and Illustrator Bibles that are insightful, indepth, and cover all angles with the software. They are written by dedicated users.This books appears to be written by weekenders with the sole credit of authoring one DVD. They are not heavies or pioneers. They just wrote about the software, and rely too heavily on the existing DVD SP manual. This book is difficult and frustrating. The subtitling section would be great if they didn't jump forward and backward as they do. Plus they never distinguish accurately between 30fps and 29.97 with the quicktime movie for subtitling. This book left me questioning all its answers because of stupid oversights such as this. The scripting section is readable and well thought out, and explains scripting for newbies. I didn't get much from the sidebar folks. It was more "you can't do this..." in tone than "hey! Here's the workaround!" Also they parrot the same line that you can replicate a DVD-R from DVD Studio Pro, but don't go into specifics. Perhaps I expected something inspirational and informative like the Hillman Curtis Flash book, or any of the Macworld Bible series. This is just poor technical writing filled with half thoughts and assumptions. Far from tried and true experience that would warrant the name "bible." So that's my summation. Borrow, don't buy.
19 of 22 found the following review helpful:
 An excellent companion to the program ... Feb 14, 2002
I got this book a couple of days before I recieved my G4 with a SuperDrive and began to study how to burn DVDs. Reading merely the first chapters on how the tutorial works and how you make a project using DVD Studio Pro will be enough to get you started. Within a couple of days after getting my computer I burned a full functioning DVD disc with several video tracks, a couple of complex menus, bonuses and a multitude of chapters...and I had never been exposed to DVD Studio Pro previously. The people slagging this book in their reviews obviously thought this 'Bible' would burn the DVDs for them. You will have to do a great deal of problem solving if you are trying to create complex DVD projects, and refering back to the Apple documentation helps fill in areas this book doesn't cover- for example my first DVD kept bombing while recording saing 'BitRate too high' , the Bible never solves such a problem, but the Apple documentation explains that a maximum bit rate cannot be exceeded and the video must be rerendered at lesser quality. Also, the DVD previewer doesn't synch the audio and video perfectly, but not to worry because when burning the DVD all tracks synch up perfectly. Perhaps this book's tutorial was eroneous, but I never use tutorials if I can produce my own project and learn through actual application, and the information provided was enough to get me through the project and understand most all abilities and limitations of the DVD Studio Pro program. The most apparent limitation of DVD Studio Pro is the ability to make motion menus with highlighted text for menu buttons, instead you can only overlay a color block onto of text presented in the motion video. Also, you cannot loop to a specific marker in a motion menu. I still can't figure out how to put markers on the specific frame of video for chapters, but only every 15 video frames. Hopefully Apple will produce a far more professional version of this program soon. My recommendations for a person wanting to use DVD Stuido Pro are these- get Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, and a couple monitors. You can put DVD Studio pro on one monitor, Final Cut on another and place Photoshop underneath the two applications. With these three programs and the two monitors you will never be confused to where your pieces are, which program you are using, and you can do all the bits of a complex DVD in a production line without having to close and open programs in order to organize your work space. Sure, the authors of this book didn't make a perfect Bible, but what can you expect from a book jumping quickly into an extremely complex program and video format. DVDs aren't VHS tapes- you can't just push REC and enjoy the program you are taping. With a bit of thought and persistance this book can help you burn DVDs using DVD Studio Pro's full capabilities.
24 of 29 found the following review helpful:
 DVD Studio Pro Bible - Essential Reading Dec 21, 2001
By Ned J. Soltz
This latest volume in MacWorld's series of Bibles is indeed a true revelation. Apple's DVD Studio Pro 1.x software brings professional level DVD authoring to the Mac desktop in a moderately-priced application. Yet, like so many first generation products, it lacks extensive documentation. DVD Studio Pro, unlike so many computer "how to" books which merely are rewrites of the developers' manuals, goes beyond Apple's skimpy documentation and provides true hands-on guidance to the use of the program. The authors employ extensive visuals of menus and concise explanations of their functions. Perhaps the most valuable contribution is the step-by-step guide to the creation of DVD Menus in Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop is necessary for the creation of menus and overlays and the Apple manual provides insufficient guidance. The DVD Studio Pro Bible fills that big hole left by Apple. A companion DVD/ROM contains several try-out applications (not really very useful) as well as very-useful tutorials, real-world scenarios and a pdf of the book complete with color illustrations. DVD Studio Pro is essential reading for anyone beginning to use this program and will also provide tips to intermediate and advanced users. Ned Soltz
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
This is a really terrible book. Jan 25, 2002
By B. Adams
"motiondigital"
While this book does contain some accurate information...it is full of inaccurate information about real life use of DVD Studio Pro. There are even some pieces of tutorials that will cause a disc authored in the manner described to be non-functional. This is absolutely the worst technical book I have ever purchased in my entire life. I can't believe that the project manager for DVD Studio Pro from Apple is quoted on the front cover. It appears that this was a back door approach by the author to try to get a record deal for his band. If you don't believe it, check out the included DVD disc. (which at some points must be ejected from the drive and restarted because the author forgot to program it to return to the menu)
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