I would say this DVD is somewhat misnamed. First, you might think from use of the word “Mastering” that it’s for advanced users. However, it is actually very much a beginner resource. And second, it’s really about the use of JavaScript frameworks rather than Ajax specifically (at least if you define Ajax as the combination of JavaScript and XML). Only one of the 9 segments deals with using XML data.
That being said, it is an excellent introduction to the use of JavaScript frameworks. The presenter is an Adobe product evangelist so he uses the Adobe Spry framework but he gives a number of examples of using the jQuery JavaScript library as well. Spry is, not surpisingly, more closely integrated with Dreamweaver and he shows a lot of those features. He does show though that there are user interface widgets available on the Adobe website using both jQuery and YUI (Yahoo User Interface components) that can be integrated somewhat with Dreamweaver although not to the level of Spry.
There are two sections that deal with progressive enhancement: using these techniques in ways that are standards compliant and will degrade gracefully in non-JavaScript-enabled user agents such as mobile devices and screen readers.
One thing that was annoying is that I had playback problems with the DVD on two older but still relatively powerful computers. The video when the presenter was shown was very jumpy and sometimes the audio too. Both audio and video were fine when showing the screen captures. The readme file on the DVD suggested downloading the Adobe Media Player, copying the files to your hard drive and playing them that way. That didn’t help at all.
If you are not too familiar with JavaScript frameworks and/or Dreamweaver’s tools for working with Spry (and you like a video demo format) I would recommend this. I do wish there were files included or available on the web of the code examples.