Authoring "Hollywood-style" DVD menus

[MJPollard]

I'm looking for an authoring solution that will allow me to create a DVD with "Hollywood-style" menus, i.e. a main menu with selections like "Play Feature", "Chapter Selection", and "Bonus Features", and submenus with other links to clips and/or chapter selections with thumbnails for the main video clip. Unfortunately, it seems like a difficult proposition for many of the lower-end packages out there.

I currently have the following products:

Ulead VideoStudio 6
Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2
Pinnacle Studio 8

The menuing options in VS6 and DVDMF2 are good for rudimentary menus but not much else (due to their lack of customization), and while S8 fulfills all of my editing needs, there are enough "issues" with its menuing options that it's not much more usable than VS6 and DVDMF2 (despite its greater flexibility).

I did download the trial version of Ulead DVD Workshop 1.2, but it kept crashing on me. Ironically, the crashes occurred in the part of the program I was most interested in: the menu authoring!

So, can anyone recommend software (under $500, please!) that will do what I need? I'd even be willing to look at DVDW again, if it will do what I want (perhaps the 1.3 upgrade will fix the problem I was having with the menu authoring?). Alternately, if the software I already have will do the trick, I'd appreciate any suggestions on how to accomplish it.

Thanks in advance!

[BJ_M]

ReelDVD is about as cheap as you can get for what you want to do i believe ..

you can find it for about $700-1000


here is one link (buy it with a firewire card for 700$) but search around , im sure there is other pricing .. http://www.videoguys.com/reelDVD.html

[BJ_M]

buy a MATROX DigiSuite also -- pretty good deal , you could always sell the card later on ebay

Sonic ReelDVD ($1500) will now be included in every MATROX DigiSuite kit. All DigiSuite LE/MAX, LX/MAX, and DTV/MAX kits will ship with ReelDVD at no extra cost!

[chaseru]

Sounds like Dazzle's DVD Complete will do the job for you for $100.

The templates produce "Hollywood Style" DVD's. There is some customization available within the program. If further customization is needed Dazzle just released DVD Complete's script language manual.