| When you're just starting out with a few video clips and DVD screens, you might not need to think much about exceeding iDVD's capabilities. But at some point you'll probably be curious about how many minutes of video you can fit on a DVD, how many menu screens you can have, and so on. -
Items on a menu = 6 ” When you create a DVD, the buttons on the menu screen can lead to movies, slideshows, or other menus . iDVD enables you to have up to six buttons on each screen. -
Images in a slideshow = 99 ” You can add up to 99 digital pictures to each slideshow that you have on your DVD. -
Movies/slideshows on a DVD = 99 ” You can add a total of 99 movies and or slideshows to a DVD project, assuming that the total amount of video used in the movie portion of your DVD does not exceed 90 minutes. Because digital pictures take up a relatively small amount of space, you don't have to be concerned about how many pictures you add. -
Motion menus in a DVD = 30 ” Because motion menus use short video clips, you're limited to using 30 of them on a DVD project, whether you are using a motion menu from a built-in theme or importing your own. -
Minutes of video in a DVD = 90 ” The total number of minutes of video you can fit on a DVD is 90 minutes, or one and a half hours. -
Encoding for 60 minutes or less = high quality ” If you use less than an hour of video, iDVD encodes your movies at the highest quality setting. Technically speaking, iDVD automatically encodes your video at a particular bit rate , a setting that essentially determines the quality of your video. When computers encode video, the higher the bit rate that's used, the higher quality video you get. And when you have a higher bit rate, the video takes up more space on the disc. So, when you have less than one hour of video in a DVD project, iDVD encodes the video at a bit rate of 8 megabits per second (8 Mbps). -
Encoding for 90 minutes or less = good quality ” When you have between 60 and 90 minutes of video, iDVD uses a lower bit rate so that it can fit more video on the disc. In this situation, iDVD encodes video at 5 megabits per second (5 Mbps).  |
