- 1). Plan your project. Before using your DVD creation software, outline how you want your project organized. Determine how many menus will be needed and which videos you want linked to specific menus. For example, if planning a collection of home movies, consider organizing the DVD around different activities. The first menu can offer links to other menus by simply listing the categories of videos: Holidays, Birthdays, and Sports. Use secondary menus to allow DVD viewers to select specific videos for each category.
- 2). Determine how many video files you want included on your DVD. DVDs can store 4.7 to 8.5 gigabytes of information, depending on whether your DVD recording media is single or dual layer. In addition to the size of your video files, you will also need space for images and elements used in your menus.
- 3). Open your DVD creation software and begin a new project based on the general needs you have already determined. Most software allows you to use an image for a menu background. Some allow you to use a short video clip as the background. Choose appropriate images for the menu theme. Your main menu for this collection of family videos might be a picture of the entire family. Add appropriate titles and buttons to each sub-menu. Again, choose appropriate images for the sub-menus and then create buttons to each video file you want to include for the categories outlined in the previous step.
- 4). Use your software to add your video files and link them to their corresponding menu buttons. The buttons can contain thumbnail images from the video. Select a video thumbnail that embodies the content of the clip.
- 5). Add chapter markers to your video clips. DVDs allow you to skip to certain portions, or "chapters" on a video clip. Use your software to place chapter markers at appropriate points in the video so viewers can skip to the most interesting scenes.
- 6). Preview your project. Confirm all buttons work as you intended. Make sure the title fonts are large enough so they can be easily read over the backgrounds you selected, and test the location of your chapter markers using the software's preview features.
- 7). Burn your final DVD by inserting a recordable DVD into your disc burner.
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