DVD Demystified

`?without doubt the definitive reference book on DVD.*

DVD is the all-in-one storage technology that is altering the landscape of home entertainment, professional video, business communications, and multimedia computing. Now is the time to learn about DVD and how to use it to its best advantage. In DVD Demystified, Second Edition, industry insider Jim Taylor paints a full, up-to-date DVD picture with a friendly technical introduction. You MUST read it if you're a multimedia developer, work with educational technology or industrial training, if you're a filmmaker or musician ? or simply want to understand this fascinating technology with potentially huge worldwide impact.

`This is not merely ?a' good book to help you make sense of DVD, it is ?the' book that you will return to over and over as you explore and come to understand this exciting new optical media format.` -- Geoffrey Tully, Multimedia Technology Consultant; former Senior VP of Production, Divx Entertainment

As one of the DVD industry's leading experts, Jim Taylor covers every aspect of DVD.`-- Ralph LaBarge, Managing Partner, Alpha DVD

DVD contains: Hybrid DVD-Video/DVD-ROM has samples from Broadcast DVD, Dolby, THX, DTS, Joe Kane Productions, Widescreen Review, and others, plus test images, WebDVD HTML files, spreadsheets, and more

User review
DVD inside of book
I bought this on a recommendation from another web site. While the book has alot of information in it I mainly wanted the DVD inside of the book. I have to say I was not disappointed in the book and felt it was a good thing to refer to also.

User review
Don't Use One Word Where 20 Will Do
Don't be fooled by the size of this book. It is 90% irrelevances and padding. For example does it really need a discussion on whether the word `disk` should end with a `c` or a `k`? The diagrams are difficult to follow, mainly due to their mistakes, and I did not find enough technical information for the book to be of any use whatsoever.

User review
awesome achievement but still,,.
Don't get me wrong - there is a huge amount of well-written material in this book and I'm glad I bought it.

Yet,, I wanted a detailed description of how menus and player commands worked so that I'd feel comfortable authoring complex compliations with angles, timed stills, wipes, subtitles, the works. Jim spends a lot of time on this area and talks a lot about the features, but still only managed to hit the high spots. This book won't make you into an authoring expert. Dunno if there is another book that is better, or if you have to buy the specs (ha) or if you can eventually infer what you need from the right authoring software, or,,.

User review
IN THE BATTLE FOR A BOOK VERSUS GOOD OLD GOOGLE,,.
,,this book may not exactly be a shining victor. Don't mean to crash the party, the book indeed does its job remarkably well and for those who prefer their information packed and printed into one huggable volume, this is perhaps the best there is.

But the first question that people like me ask is `What can I find here that I cannot find for FREE on the net?` And the answer to that is, unfortunately, not much because a lot of this info is accessible elsewhere. Even if you search for the words `DVD demystified` it turns up a whole slew of immediately relevant websites (on almost all search engines).

That said, it is a fantastic book that doesn't gloat over the merits of DVD versus older discs, or the engineering nitty gritty of the whole format. If you are looking for practical advice for getting busy with your DVD-R/W, and are lazy (or busy) enough to want a book for it, then this is great bang for your buck. For the rest of us there is always a search engine.

User review
well written comprehensive, detailed
This book is well written, well edited, comprehensive, and as full of details as it can be without being a copy of the specifications. I highly recommend it.