Who Should Read This Book

Everyone should read this book, of course, even people who use Windows computers. (My accountant made me say that—iDVD is, of course, a Mac-only program.)

All kidding aside, this book is for anyone and everyone who uses iDVD. More specifically , it's for people who want to know more about the program and about making DVDs than they'll find in the iDVD Help system. But most of all, it's for iDVD users who want to learn how to burn better DVDs.

Since iDVD is still a relatively new application, I make very few assumptions in this book, but I do assume that you know the basics of using your Mac, such as how to turn it on, launch a program, insert a disc, click, double-click, use menus , create folders, and so on.

If you're fuzzy on any of those concepts, I recommend you read one of Robin Williams's Peachpit books for beginners — The Little Mac Book, The Little iMac Book, The Little iBook Book , or The Little Mac OS X Book (which is not in any way little)—before you dig into this one.

How to Use This Book

The world of digital video uses specialized terms such as MPEG and bit rate and also uses some ordinary words such as burn and rip in special ways. Rather then stick the definitions in a Glossary at the end of the book where you'll never see it, I've tried to define each term when I first use it. If you forget a term , you can always check the Index to find that definition. I also use several icons to highlight parts of the text.

The Note icon tells you that the accompanying text is not essential, though if I bothered to include it and my editors didn't bother to cut it, it's probably interesting or even useful.

The Tip icon tells you that the accompanying text contains an important time-saving tip or trick that it would be helpful to learn.

The Warning icon is only used when what I'm saying is so important that ignoring it could have disastrous consequences. I don't use warning icons often in this book, so if you see one, read carefully .

All righty, then—let's move along to the fun stuff.

P.S. While I can't promise to answer every email message I receive, I do try to answer as many as I can. If you have a comment about this book, or a question about something I've written in it, please feel free to send me a message; I'll try my best to answer in a timely fashion. My email address is lidvd@boblevitus.com.

Part 1: Basic Training

You have to learn to crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run. So in Part 1 we'll look at all the things you need to know before you start your first DVD project (and the stuff Apple didn't tell you). There's a little bit of background on the whole digital video experience, some tips and hints for planning a project, and ending with an overview of the steps you take when you create a DVD.