Are any Chess DVD's actually worth watching?

I have only experience of half a dozen Chessbase DVD's and although the 3 Powerplay ones by Dan King are entertaining, the others I have are just 'watching somebody make moves with a mouse for £40' fodder. Karsten Muller is particularly irritating in this regard, I realise he is wanting the viewer to solve the particular endgame before viewing the solution but he then rattles the moves off in such a fashion that you barely keep up with what he's doing. I also don't think, that for all of his undoubted expertise Dr Muller actually gets across core concepts very well. Many of his selected positions involve knowing when to trade off into pawn endings or 'entering the race' as he always puts it, but once the pieces are gone the pawn ending becomes just a blur of moves with the interjection 'bodycheck' every now and then. Victor Bologan's DVD on the Catalan opening may be the least interesting 4 hours I have ever spent in front of a computer, especially as many lines seem to be 'waiting for improvements for white' - I thought access to new information was the whole point of buying the DVD in the first place! Anyway, if anyone has come across a chess DVD that was actually instructive could they reply here?

I own a couple of Kasparov's DVDs on the Najdorf and the QGD, and they are a joy to watch. You can tell the guy knows the historical development of an opening inside out, why such line used to be popular then but not now, etc. Still, nothing beats learning through playing!

I have found the ChessBase intro to Opennings Series to be helpful (I think 1-4 are out now.)  I also have found the "ABC's of" and "First Steps In" to be very helpful.  I think it is par for the course that these guys rattle off moves so fast you can't keep up.  That is the value of being able to step back through them on the CB software. 

I've only used "1.d4 - a classical repertoire for White by Lubomir Ftacnik", and I find it agreeable.

I'll watch a video accepting that he'll talk too fast for me to follow. Then I go play based on what I managed to pick up, after which I find I'm following it better.

Thanks all, I accept that you can play through the moves at your own speed without the accompanying commentary but then why bother having a presenter? You may as well just get Chessbase magazine for that.

Also I have to rant at the 'My Greatest Games' videos - Vishy Anand's in particular, he just drones out a sequential order of 'here I beat my first GM' 'This tournament I got my first GM norm' 'here i won the World Junior Championship' then plays through the 'critical' games  without ANY analysis or commentary 'As you can see its not a very interesting game' or 'Theres nothing special about this' - SO WHY ARE YOU WASTING TEN MINUTES MAKING ME WATCH IT? Fortunately I only watched the samplers of his, Kramnik's and Nigel Short's DVD's so I know to avoid buying them. (Korchnoi however, is a different matter - very entertaining and lots of stories about old school players).

I think it partly comes down to personal taste as well. I really like the Karsten Muller ones and I've watched them all more than once.  They're right up there with my favourites alongside Gustafsson's 1.e4 e5 DVD's.

I definitely get what you are saying about Bologan though, he doesn't have the on screen charisma to hold the viewers interest like some presenters do. The Catalan DVD was disappointing.

 The material in Karsten Mullers DVD's is exemplary, and I actually like his fantastically accented English and eccentric mannerisms. He probably doesn't realise he's going so quickly, the producer should have a word with him.

One player I would like to see do a DVD is Peter Svidler, for a genius level chessplayer he's extremely normal and down to earth, with a tremendous sense of humour and ability to laugh at himself. A bit like Gustafsson but 100 ELO higher!

I agree, Anands was particularly poor, a lot of anecdotes about nothing but himself, and he whizzed through the games at rocket-speed with barely a "White is better here" to explain what was going on.

To be fair to him though, he did seem very ill during the filming, but in that case they should have re-scheduled.

I have to disagree on Nigel Shorts DVD's though.  Lots of great funny stories, and he actually takes the time to talk through the games, often pointing out lots of tactics and ideas which are easy to follow even for beginner level.

And, I actually quite liked Kramniks (after having warmed much to him during the LCC) though its a LOT of endgame, don't think he shows any openings at all, just jumping into the game at a later stage, though it gave me a far greater understanding of the "looks like a draw" positions he likes and why he picks them. And though he does talk a lot about the positions, they are often more suited to more advanced players, and nowhere near as well talked through as Nigels.

Anands was by far the worst of the lot. Shame.

@poet666

I maybe was harsh on Nigel, he does have a good sense of humour and I always remember him saying that anybody could be as good at chess as him 'If all you do from the age of 6 to 16 is spend 10 hours a day studying and playing chess' he really doesn't consider himself anything special.

There is definitely good and bad out there, but the quality of many of them leaves me wishing for a better production value. I realize that these aren't professional actors, but they could have much better direction and post-shoot work. I've yet to see one that didn't feel like it was done by first year students at the local community college. 

Utube has tons of stuff on openings, games and GMs. Check it out.

 Absolutely, I find Tryfon Gavriel (Kingscrusher) really irritating though, unlike the rest of the chess playing world it seems. Andrew Martin on the other hand has been coaching for 30 years and his stuff is not only entertaining but very instructive.

I like muellers endgame dvd's . especially the rook one. Make sure and cutoff that king.

How.much do the GMs earn per.dvd

Are the vendors earning a lot when he sells it for $50

I have found the dvd's by Andrew Martin worthwhile, EXCEPT his one on the scandi which is poor.