iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual 112
iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual | |
author | David Pogue |
pages | 456 |
publisher | Pogue Press/O'Reilly |
rating | 7 - Good book, some flaws |
reviewer | Tony Williams |
ISBN | 0596005075 |
summary | A quality introduction to two closely tied products. |
I have previously reviewed iPhoto2: The Missing Manual and said "The target audience for this book would probably be a little less technical than myself or the average Slashdot reader, however when I find myself in a field I don't understand well I don't mind a little stuff for the absolute newbie" -- and once again this is true. iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual finds me in an area where I am technically inferior. Once again I truly appreciated this book and its style.
The book is broken up into four sections, one devoted to video cameras and shooting a movie, a large one on editing in iMovie 3, and smaller sections on exporting out of iMovie 3 and on using iDVD. At the end are two useful appendices: the first is a menu-by-menu look at iMovie 3, and the second is an iMovie 3 troubleshooting guide. The latter is often needed and always useful -- iMovie 3 still has more than one bug.
The first section gives a great deal of incredibly useful information about video cameras and how to use them, including hints on various types of shooting such as sporting events, interviews and weddings. The technical information on cameras is perfect if you have yet to buy a camera, including a guide to which features are essential and which unnecessary as you can do the same thing (only better) in iMovie 3. When it goes on to the 'how to shoot' section, you get pretty much the same advice you'll get anywhere, but since we didn't really read all of from the last book on video we read (and forgot half the bits we did read) it's nice to have it there again.
The second section does a good job of explaining the details of iMovie 3, even down to some of its shortcomings and bugs. I also appreciated the way it spent as much time on improving the quality of the finished film as it did telling me how to use the various parts of the software. It follows a logical sequence through the movie-making process, giving good details on how iMovie does the job, how to get the best result and what sort of things to avoid -- particularly useful for things like transitions and effects when less is best.
The third section, titled "Finding Your Audience," is a bit more of a problem. It really has nothing to do with finding an audience and a lot more to do with QuickTime. The section first spends ten pages telling us how to get our edited film back onto the camcorder or onto a VCR, then it spends a lot of time dealing with exporting to QuickTime, including posting movies to the web and some info on using the QuickTime player, including some "tricks" with QuickTime Player Pro.
The attention to the finished product in the second section carries through to the fourth section on iDVD, though the writing here is not quite as good. It is incredibly informative, however. I learned a great deal about putting together all sorts of iDVD projects, including ways of customizing almost every aspect of the finished product.
O'Reilly have the usual marketing stuff while Pogue Press have the handy little Missing CD section with links to all the free and shareware software mentioned in the book. Neither has a sample chapter or the table of contents, you can't even get either at Amazon.
One of the drawbacks of getting free software is that we don't get good free documentation. One of the benefits of free software is that we can choose which 'documentation' to buy. Some people might prefer the style of the 'Dummies' books, others the style of Peachpit's Visual Quickstart Guide. I've had a look at all three and like the balance of depth and explanation that Pogue has in his 'Missing Manual' series. I once again find myself recommending a 'Missing Manual' to everyone. While catering to the beginner, this book goes deep enough that all but the most long-term user of these two pieces of software will find something to learn in this volume.
You can purchase iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Re:Apple == American greatness (Score:1, Funny)
We'll just stick with your most relevant statement.
I hope you immediately boycott everything American - starting with Slashdot! ;-)
Re:Apple Gouging its customers (Score:3, Informative)
Have you ever tried the software? (Score:2, Interesting)
If you want to figure out how to do neat and nifty things with iMovie, buy the Missing Manual book, but you certainly don't need it to use the software.
Re:Um say what? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Um say what? (Score:3, Interesting)
Thats the problem, crippled manuals only get you so far. There are too many "Gotchas" on iDvd/iMovie that mess up the whole process. Step outside the "Basic" process of making a video, and you find out quick the need for some extend help files.
Re:Um say what? (Score:2)
I don't know if the original post meant it in this way, but buying a 3rd party book to replace a so-called "missing manual" usually happens as a euphemism for "I pirated the software and don't already know how to use it".
In this case, I don't think he meant that, but at the very least the book's author presumeably knew t
Re:Um say what? (Score:2)
Which has what exactly to do with my statement?
And, I'll have you know that I do have a Mac - A PPC7100 running Linux, but a Mac none-the-less.
So... Pbpbpbpbpbpbtttttttt.
Re:Um say what? (Score:2)
Re:Um say what? (Score:5, Insightful)
They'd only be stupid if they tried to get their money back. You, however, would be stupid for commenting on something you know nothing about.
Re:Um say what? (Score:1)
Really? This is
Re:ummm, just a point (Score:1, Offtopic)
Have you seen the stats? 90% of slashdot users use windows or mac's
Not saying that nobody here is a tech, but honestly, the majority are actually not really techs.
Your assumption seems to be that someone who uses a Windows or Mac machine is not technical. Care to back that up?
Re:ummm, just a point (Score:2)
joeldg wrote:
Have you seen the stats? 90% of slashdot users use windows or mac's
Then in his next post wrote:
on a linux-centric site... I shouldn't have to.
Genious!
Re:ummm, just a point (Score:2)
a lot of the "readers" are non-techs, you cannot blanket say that there is some magic average of "techiness" on this site when I know for a fact that a lot of middle-mngt (who know how to use ms-word and that excel.. and know a few options in outlook) read here to see what is "hot" etc..
This *is* (or was) the center to get linux news and events. As a user who works 100% on linux system and runs it at home and has not run windows in years (I don't have time to play games much these day) dealing wi
Re:ummm, just a point (Score:2, Insightful)
But I've seen this linux-centric nonsense far too many times over the years to just let it go anymore. This site is, was, and will probably remain "News for Nerds" -- just look at the topics on any given day: Space travel, physics, electronics, games, books, current events, political debate, legal issues, coverage of all computer platform
Re:ummm, just a point (Score:3, Insightful)
Not saying that nobody here is a tech, but honestly, the majority are actually not really techs.
I'm not sure I see the connection. You're infering that because the majority of the slashdot readers use the most widely used operating systems to read this site, that they're not technically adept?
As much as I might enjoy working with *nix systems at work; the fact that my workstation and home machine are Windows and Mac respectively
Re:ummm, just a point (Score:2, Interesting)
This is the truth, even though many people tend to brush it off as nonsense. /. at least 3 times a day. These are regular users who aren't really computer savvy outside of Windows or Macs. Slashdot is great when you set your threshold to +5 and read the articles with comments. That way you know most
I have lots of non-techie friends who visit
Re:ummm, just a point (Score:2, Interesting)
Many
I use windows and mac and I am every bit as technically proficient as you "average" linux user.
(posted using opera on linux from a dual boot machine behind a linux firewall)
Cockroaches... (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously, rather than buying a digital video camera you might consider finding a nicer place to live. Or at least call Orkin for cryin' out loud.
Re:Cockroaches... (Score:1, Funny)
Perhaps when he gets his dictionary he can teach you to spell "sentence".
Re:Cockroaches... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Cockroaches... (Score:1)
Translation of above (Score:4, Funny)
Get it from just $17.47! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Get it from just $17.47! (Score:3, Informative)
Good book (Score:4, Informative)
I especially appreciated the admonition to buy DVD Studio Pro if you need anything more than the toy apps that are part of Apple's iLife suite. iDVD is nice, but it is limited, and not meant for serious work. Same w/iMovie, etc. Great starter apps...lousy production tools
Re:Good book (Score:2)
I think I just said that...I think I just said that
Re: iDVD, etc. (Score:5, Informative)
I recently used the iMovie and iDVD combo to create some training videos (introduction to using and troubleshooting computers and our software builds on them, for daycare/childcare centers), and while it wasn't perfect - it worked out pretty well.
I considered delving into DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro, but the learning curve was more than I wanted to tackle for this project.
The biggest annoyance I find with iDVD is the way it throws the stock intro movies "in your face", and practically begs you to use them with every movie disc you make. They're nice templates for home movies (kid's birthday or what-have-you), but you certainly want to skip them if you're doing anything more professional.
There are some very nice add-on packs for iMovie though (Slick Transitions and EZEdia plug-in packs, for example), quite reasonably priced ($49 or so per volume, typically), that will greatly enhance the usability of the app.
The EZedia ones, in particular, allow filming in front of a blue screen and adding background movies behind the subject in the original film, overlaying logos on your movie, and much more. This isn't really "toy" stuff - and it's much cheaper than buying Final Cut Pro.
Re: iDVD, etc. (Score:2)
Re: iDVD, etc. (Score:3, Insightful)
While I would never attempt to catagorize one person's efforts, the line between hobby and serious is clear when the limits of the fr
The iLife suite isn't marketed at pros, period (Score:3, Interesting)
Thing is, did anybody think that? Did someone seriously think they were getting professional-level video editing software, in iMovie, with the free suite? Does anyone mistake iPhoto for Photoshop?
Personally I thought I was getting some really handy organizat
Re:Good book (Score:3, Interesting)
Example: Here's a short movie I put together (10 secs, 5.9 MB) [cirrocco.com] I was trying to find a way to add lightsaber effects to my videos without having to purchase Adobe products. So here's what I did:
I shot the video and imported it into iMovie. (BTW, I'm using iMovie 2.03 on Mac OS 9.1) I exported it with the Sorenson codec after turning it into B&W (I thought it would be cool to have B&W video but a nice green-glowi
Re:Good book (Score:2)
I'm in the middle of a 15 minute (iDVD) wedding DVD/video for some friends. They tell me these things go for $500.00. One job at that rate, would pay for DVD Studio Pro
Re:Good book (Score:1)
Keep in mind that iMovie (well, iMovie 2.0.3, anyway) can import only mp3's as sound files. BUT! There is the lame encoder and bladeenc. Lame is insanely fast on the command line (well, under Linux anyway) turning
So import your wav's to where your lame encoder is THEN import them into iMovie as mp3's.
Say...I don't suppose you could point me in the direction of
The real missing manual (Score:5, Funny)
The "i"'s have it. (Score:1, Offtopic)
when my dad tried in vain to teach me to program.
100 for i=1 to 10
110 print i
120 i=i+1
130 if i11 goto 100
140 end
yup, fun stuff.
Your dad failed (Score:1, Offtopic)
(I'm assuming that you forgot or HTML ate your less-than sign in line 130. Even so, it still won't work.)
You never closed your "for" loop with a "next." Instead, you cobbled together two ways of doing the same thing, repeatedly sending the program from line 130 to 100, where i gets re-set to 1 every time. You needed to either:
100 for i=1 to 10; print i; next; end
or:
100 i=1
110 print i; i=i+1
120 if i=11 then end
130 goto 110
The sec
Re:Your dad failed (Score:2)
That was over 20 years ago, so it's basically the equivelant of my grandma stating that all she got out of algebra was x=1 cow.
Fortunately I got a lot more out of it than that.
I lump my coding skills in with the same learning disability that seems to prevent me from really learning other languages. I can pick up a litle vocabulary, a little grammer, pronunciation is not problem at all, but there's no way that it all comes together i
Incomplete (Score:2, Funny)
Or does he know his audience?
Re:Incomplete (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Incomplete (Score:2)
Wow! (Score:2)
Anyone ever read Hard Drive [bestwebbuys.com] by Pogue?
Re:Wow! (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, after he stopped writing for the back page of MacWorld he just kind of disappeared, huh? If only the New York Times [nytimes.com] were as prestigious a publication.
Re:Wow! (Score:2)
a virus, written in 68k assembler, which was translated by something much like apple's macintosh application environment into something that automagically runs on ANY unix system!
IMovie (Score:5, Interesting)
I've had a hell of a time, trying to figure out why 16:9 DV video wouldnt work correctly in iMovie. Seems 16:9 isnt supported even thou sony handycams support it, and seem to be a very popular brand. So now I'm stuck with 16:9 video I cant use on my expensive mac. Being told I need to buy $1000 dollars worth of software to use the video.
Also, why You cant just export into Mpeg2 and have some good utiltiies to cut/chop the video.
Many things I can do under linux and windows, just seem impossible to do with standard tools, or the "Trick" to get something done isnt known to a new mac user.
Why did I buy a mac? Wanted to test out all the features, and ease of use, and play with OSX. There is alot of power there, but there are many missing features, or alternative methods to get a task done. You can dumb down help guids too much, and Apples help file is on par with "Idiots howto Guides". This book is on my must buy list.
Re 16:9 video, etc. (Score:3, Informative)
It seems to me they said something about iMovie not supporting 16:9 aspect ratio itself, but it would still allow you to import the 16:9 video and would export it again, unaltered, when told to export the movie. This isn't great, but at least it's not butchering your video when it imports it. You just can't preview it prope
Re:IMovie (Score:1)
Re:IMovie (Score:2)
Re:IMovie (Score:5, Informative)
You can get around your issue in iMovie by using a 16:9 effect for your transitions, titles, and effects. Available from both GeeThree [geethree.com] or Stupendous [stupendous-software.com] software, as iMovie will not alter the original DV you pulled off tape.
MPEG is a touchy subject for Apple and I am sure it has to do something with the licensing. You will get one of the best MPEG encoder is you buy either Final Cut Pro or DVD Studio Pro. It is called Compressor [apple.com]. Quicktime will crop your video anyway you want just not output to MPEG-2 without the MPEG-2 codec.
I think once you start figuring your Mac out you will be much happier and if you actually pay for professional results you will get them. If you are tenacious enough the are PLENTY of free MPEG encoder available on VersionTracker [versiontracker.com]. Here are the instructions [sjoki.uta.fi].
--
Daniel C. Slagle
Keeper of the "Unofficial" iMovie FAQ [danslagle.com] [apple.com]
Tell Apple how you feel about iMovie
Re:IMovie (Score:2)
First Link [kenstone.net]
Second Link [lafcpug.org]
ffmpegX and FCExpress (Score:2)
w/r/t needing to spend an extra grand - you're referring to Fin
Re:IMovie (Score:2)
I just ended up installing Linux--it gives me far more video software, more powerful video software, and you can't beat the price.
iMov
Re:IMovie (Score:1, Interesting)
1) The only Sony Handycam that supports "True" 16:9 is the DCR-PC330 and has yet to ship, check it out [image-acquire.com] so if you actually have this camera it would be interesting to find out how you acquired it. The other camera Sony sells that is in the palm camera format and does true 16:9 (not shoulder mounted) is the PDX10 which is ~US$3000.
2) If you have a camera that does true 16:9 (which is a multi-thousand dollar camera) why are you
Re:IMovie (Score:2)
Re:IMovie (Score:1)
O'Reilly Annoyances (Score:1, Interesting)
Now it's worthless Missing Manuals for Dummies in 21 Days. Can anyone pin-point the O'Reilly title that marked the beginning of the end?
Re:O'Reilly Annoyances (Score:2)
I think it was around the time Java came out. Certainly, 'Java in a nutshell' was a mountain of mediocrity. And that was about the time O'R started mixing in 'friendly' books, like the nutshell ones, with their classic books.
Also, they strayed from their classic subjects -- Perl! Linux! Sockets! to make books about excel and
iMovie3 is crap (Score:2)
My goal was to edit in iMovie (because our A/V equipment is hooked up to a Mac) and encode using MJPEGtools, but the output from iMovie was so broken it just didn't work.
Re:iMovie3 is crap (Score:2)
There is a reason it doesnt have a manual (Score:1)
Don't be a dildo, of course it does. (Score:1)
Apple section of /.? (Score:1)
So many books like this (Score:1)
Bonus stuff is up now (Score:1)
Just wanted to point out, though, that the sample chapter, table of contents, index, etc., are now posted at missingmanuals.com. I was just a little behind getting around to it.
--Pogue