AT my level-- seems to range from high 1300's to low 1500's-- I've found the Everyman Chess Starting out series as good for opening explinations as anything I've found yet.  They vary according to the author in my opinion, i.e. the sicilian book by Emms is clearer and more helpful then the Lopez book by Shaw.  Given that frame of reference I'm wondering about comparable CD's.  Any recommendations?

If you own fritz or just the fritz interface, you could buy '.cbh' books from the everyman website. I found them a lot easier than physically reading a book. You go through the game using your arrow keys and just read the notes!

I bought a Romans Lab dvd and watched it yesterday.. it was awesome. fun good info and easy to learn