iDVD Icon

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

Many iDVD themes have “motion menus” that include animations or video that loop, or play repeatedly, until the viewer clicks a menu button. Themes with motion menus have a motion icon in the lower-right corner.

In addition to background video, iDVD motion menus may also feature an intro, or short animation, that plays once before the part that loops. Other motion menus also include an “outro” that plays after the viewer clicks a button, serving as a transition between the menu and the selected content.

An example of an iDVD 6.0 theme with an intro and an outro is Reflection White Main. In this theme, the first drop zones appear in the intro, and the buttons and title appear just before the looping part of the background video. In the outro, everything flies offscreen after the viewer clicks a button.

iDVD provides tools for viewing these motion menus without going into preview mode, which is especially helpful when you are filling drop zones, and for turning the intro or outro off. You can also turn the motion off completely, so the menu has no movement at all.

Here are ways to view and edit the background movie:

To view the background movie, drag the diamond-shaped motion playhead along the scrubber bar (shown below), stopping wherever you like.

(If you don’t see the motion playhead in iDVD, choose View > Show Motion Playhead.)

Image of the motion playhead

If you don’t want to use the intro and outro in your DVD menu, deselect the checkboxes at the left and right end of the scrubber bar.

The scrubber bar shows the intro and outro as shaded areas at the beginning and end.

You can also control the intro and outro from the Menu Info window. With your pointer over the menu (and with no buttons or text objects selected), press Command-I to open that window. Select or deselect the Intro and Outro checkboxes in the Background section of the window.

To turn off menu motion completely, open the Menu Info window and move the Loop Duration slider all the way to the left, so the duration is zero seconds.

If you simply want to shorten the loop duration, move the slider to the left until it shows the number of seconds you want the loop to last. The entire loop will play in the timeframe you set.

Note: If you drag your own movie to a motion menu background, the outro is automatically removed. To customize the background and keep the outro, use a still image in the menu background instead of a movie.

Related Topics

Adding your own video to a menu background

Changing the background image of a DVD menu

Stopping the movement on a motion menu

Was this page helpful? Send feedback.