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Adding your own video to a menu background

You can add your own video to the menu background of any iDVD theme. This is an easy way to customize a theme and add visual interest to it. You can add different video to the background of each menu in your DVD.

If your movie includes audio, that audio becomes the soundtrack for the menu. You can replace the movie’s audio or make it fade out at the end of the menu loop. See Related Topics below for more information.

Depending on which theme you start with, replacing its background with your own video can have widely varying effects. In some cases, the look and feel of the theme is largely preserved; in other cases, it is completely replaced with your video. You may want to experiment with adding your own video early in your project so you can see what effect it will have.

To add your own video to a menu background:

Step 1

Make sure the menu to which you want to add the background video is showing in the iDVD window.

Step 2

Click the Media button, then click the Movies button so you have access to your movie folders.

Using any of the methods described in step 3, you can also drag a movie file stored elsewhere on your computer instead of from the Movies pane.

Step 3

Use one of the following methods to add the video to the menu background:

Drag a movie file from the Movies pane to the DVD menu, outside any drop zones. Before you drop the file, press the Command key and choose “Replace background” from the shortcut menu that appears (shown below). Then release the mouse button.

Image of the shortcut menu to add a movie to a menu background

With your pointer over the menu (and with no button or text object selected), press Command-I to open the Menu Info window. Drag a movie file from the Movies pane to the background well (the center well, shown below).

Image of the menu background wells in the Menu Info window

Click the drop zone button (shown below) to open the drop zone editor. Drag a movie file from the Movies pane to the Menu well. An icon that corresponds to the type of movie file you added appears in the well.

Image of the Drop Zone button
Step 4

If the Menu Info window is not already open, press Command-I. Move the Loop Duration slider to set how long the movie plays before it repeats (or “loops”).

The menu can loop up to the length of the longest media you have added to the menu (for example, a movie or a playlist), with a maximum length of 15 minutes.

You can also choose File > Import > Background Video. Locate and select a movie, and then click the Import button.

To remove a movie from the background and revert to the original theme background, open the Menu Info window and drag the movie file out of the background well. Or, if you have not saved your changes yet, select Edit > Undo Set Menu Background. When you add video to a menu background, you can use the entire video or just part of it. Also, you can add a separate soundtrack to the menu and adjust its volume. For more information, see Related Topics below.

Related Topics

Setting where a background movie begins and ends

Editing and viewing the background movie that comes with an iDVD theme

Adding sound to a menu

Making a soundtrack fade out

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