480 Making a DVD
Exploring the iDVD Main Window
Nearly all the work you do when creating an iDVD project happens in the
iDVD main window.
On the window’s right side is a pane that displays various collections available
to you as you build your projects. The first collection shown in this pane is a
list of theme families that you can use as the basis for your project. These are
similar in many ways to the themes that you use in iWeb when you design a
site, or in iPhoto when you create a book, card, or calendar.
DVD Menus
On the window’s left is the main area where you build your project. This area
normally presents a DVD menu.
DVD menus do not look or act like the menus you use in Mac applications.
A DVD menu refers to an entire screen that you see when you view a DVD.
On the other hand, DVD menus do serve a similar function: They provide you
with a way to choose an item in order to cause something to happen, such as
starting a movie playing or showing a slideshow.
Menu Buttons
The items that you interact with on a DVD menu are called buttons, even
though they may not always look like buttons.
Exploring the iDVD Main Window 481
Although they look like text labels,
these are DVD menu buttons
You typically use the DVD player’s remote control to move among the menu
buttons on the DVD menu and to pick one—usually by clicking a real, physi-
cal button on the player’s remote control. (If you use your Mac’s DVD Player
application to view a DVD on your Mac, you can navigate among the menu
buttons on the DVD’s menu with the simulated DVD remote control that
DVD Player provides.)
The appearance of a DVD menu’s buttons is set initially by the theme family
that you choose when you create a DVD project. You can change a button’s
appearance with the Buttons pane, which you access by clicking Buttons below
the pane on the right of the iDVD window. The Buttons pane contains a col-
lection of button styles you can apply to DVD menu buttons.
Aspect Ratios
Many of the theme families you can use in iDVD come in two sizes: the 4:3
aspect ratio used by standard television sets, and the 16:9 widescreen aspect
ratio used by modern HDTVs. You choose the aspect ratio for your project
when you create it from scratch, though you can change it at any time. iDVD
also chooses the appropriate aspect ratio for your project when you create it
by sending a movie to iDVD from another iLife application.
482 Making a DVD
DVD Submenus
In addition to coming in two aspect ratios, many iDVD theme families offer
three menu themes: one for the main menu, one for chapters submenus, and
one for extras submenus.
When a movie on the DVD is marked with chapter markers, such as the movie
you made with iMovie in an earlier lesson, you can add one or more chapters
submenus. You use a chapters submenu to pick the chapter in the movie that
you want to view.
You add an extras submenu when your DVD contains additional material,
such as the behind-the-scenes production videos that many commercial
DVDs offer in addition to the main feature.
Both extras submenus and chapters submenus appear onscreen when you
choose the menu buttons on the main DVD menu that link to those sub-
menus. You establish those links when you construct your iDVD project.
Motion Menus
A number of iDVD themes provide animation, just like many commercial
DVDs. Menus with animation are known as motion menus.
Exploring the iDVD Main Window 483
On a motion menu, a playhead appears in a scrubber bar at the bottom of the
DVD menu in the iDVD window (it doesn’t appear, of course, on the final DVD
that you make).
The scrubber bar and playhead with the intro at the left
You can position the playhead by dragging it left or right to see different parts
of the animation. The shaded areas that may appear at the left and right of
the scrubber bar indicate the presence of intros and outros in the animation.
These are sequences of animation that appear respectively when the menu first
appears onscreen, and when the menu leaves the screen.
Drop Zones
Depending on the theme family, iDVD menus and submenus may also contain
one or more drop zones.
Drop zones are sections of the DVD menu that contain an image, slideshow, or
movie. Drop zones add visual interest to the menu, and frequently show small
scenes taken from the content of the DVD itself. You can change the contents
of a drop zone by dropping your own media into the drop zone as you build
your project.
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