Chapter 1

Beware of e-mail and ads touting DVD copying software for sale. See
“What’s with Those ‘Copy Any DVD’ E-mails?” below.
What’s with Those “Copy Any DVD” E-mails?
It’s true you can copy any DVD movie. However the people selling DVD
copying software conveniently don’t mention the many free alternatives, nor
do most of them mention that their applications only copy to CD-R/RW in
Video CD format, which means the video quality is crummy and the copies
don’t play in about half the DVD players out there (see “Is CD-R Compatible
with DVD?” and “Is Video CD compatible with DVD?” in Chapter 2).
They also neglect to mention that copying movies from rental stores or from
friends is illegal.
How Do I Get a Job Making DVDs?
Read this book through a few times. For extra credit read my book, DVD
Demystified, and visit some of the DVD information sources listed in “Where
Can I Get More Information About DVD?” in Chapter 6. Then attend a conference
(see “How Do I Get a Job Making DVDs?”) to learn more and to
make contacts in the DVD industry. Take a few training courses (see “How
Do I Get a Job Making DVDs?”). Consider joining the DVDA. If you can, volunteer
to be an intern at a DVD production house (see “Who Can Produce
a DVD for Me?”).
Once you have a little experience, you’ll be in great demand!
Where Can I Get DVD Training?
DVD Production 175
A variety of workshops and seminars on various DVD topics are presented
at conferences such as DVD Pro, DVD Summit (Europe), or DVD Production.
Training companies offer DVD courses and “boot camps”:
• adicomm (www.adicomm.com, Costa Mesa, CA)
• dvd.learn (www.dvdlearn.com, Denver, CO)
• Ex’pression Center for New Media (www.xnewmedia.com, Emeryville,
CA)
• Gnome Digital Media (www.gnomedigital.com, Burbank, CA), maker
of the DVD 101 training/template discs
• I.N.C. Technologies (http://inc-tech.com, Glendale, CA), oriented
towards amateur DVD users
• TFDVD.com (Havertown, PA), DVD Studio Pro training