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[quote user="ft-fan"] I'll go ahead and put in my 2 cents worth. It may or may not be worth that much.I have found that most of the DPB DVDs have some good information, especially the normal volumes with tips on different aspects of modeling. There are usually 2 or 3 chapters in any given volume that look very worthwhile and I expect to use them as reference when I get to that point.I think the project videos are outstanding. The operations on David Popp's layout is the best DVD of all of them. It gave me a good idea of how to run an operating session, something that I didn't get by reading Tony Koester's books (I did think those books were good, but seeing it in action helped me a ton.) The DCC video is also good. Even though it is somewhat biased towards Digitrax, I think there is some good information - the nitty-gritty may be different, but the concepts are presented fairly, I thought.I also have four (4) Real Rails Editions, one (1) Industries In Action and one (1) Rails Across America edition. I did not find these to be as good. They are more prototypically oriented, and if that is not something that you are interested in, then the videos are really not that helpful. I don't expect to have a steel mill on my layout, for example, so that whole video, while interesting, doesn't help me at all on my layout. Nor do I play to model the Tehachapi Loop, so, while the video has some railfan interest, it is not one I would get if I saw it in a video store, as it has no useful information for me. The other day I got the newest DVD, a Great American Layouts Edition. It is okay, but I thought this is the least important video I have. It is basically a tour of a very nice layout, with a few minutes of how-to on a couple of aspects of how this layout was made. There is really no discussion of planning, how he came up with the track plan, how he decided what to leave off the railroad, or how the layout was built (benchwork, electrical,etc.). I thought this was Kalmbach's version of Allen Keller's videos (although I have not seen any of them, it is the same concept as I understand it). I think the production values of the DVDs are quite good. The video is clear, the sound is very easy to hear. The graphics between chapters are well done.The presentation is not always great. A lot (not all) of the presenters talk in sort of a monotone, and don't seem to have a lot of enthusiasm for the topic. That makes watching them more of a chore sometimes than it should be. I have been quite disappointed in the timing of these DVDs. They are basically coming about every 4-6 weeks. That is quite an outlay of $$$ for the year. I have not sent any back, mostly due to the comments I have read on this board about people sending one back and not being able to get any more. As I am looking to learn as much as I can, I want the good information. But I wish we could order only those that we thought we wanted, as opposed to the love-it-or-leave-it approach I have read about. If I didn't have so many of these, especially those that don't have much interest to me, then I could use my $$$ for other things that will help my layout come to life, whether that be more lumber or track or locos or Joe Fugate's DVDs. I guess that sums it up for me.FT [/quote] 2 [2c] ?   You wrote a full book page so it is more like $2 dollars worth
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