How to Make a DVD Menu with Best DVD Menu Creator for Mac/PC
25.5K
3
“What is the most professional DVD menu creator for Mac? I want to create and burn DVD videos with interactive menus, just like ConvertXtoDVD on Windows.”
“How to make a DVD menu on Mac with custom designs and optional subtitles?”
A DVD menu maker allows you to create customized DVD menus for home disc burning. It can also help organize multiple videos and play them in the desired order.
In this guide, we will show how to make a DVD menu on Mac and Windows, including how to customize DVD menus with templates, backgrounds, and other elements. We will also introduce several DVD menu creator alternatives for different needs.
How to Create a DVD Menu with Templates & Customization
Cisdem DVD Burner is a user-friendly DVD menu creator for Mac and Windows. Not only can it burn any formats of videos to DVD with high quality, but also design a nice menu with various elements inside free menu templates, such as background picture/music, play/pause button, title and thumbnails, etc.
It provides a variety of pre-designed DVD menu templates and gives you full control over menu customization. You can easily adjust different elements to create personalized DVD menus, making it a simple yet effective DVD authoring software with menu creation features.
Free Download macOS 10.15 or later 
Free Download Windows 10 or later
Key features of Cisdem DVD menu creator:
- 50+ ready-made DVD menu templates for different occasions and styles
- Flexible DVD menu customization for backgrounds, text, buttons, frames, thumbnails, and layouts
- Title and chapter menus for organizing multiple videos and chapters
- Custom background music for DVD menus
- Menu preview and navigation before burning
- Burn videos in multiple formats (MP4, 3GP, MKV, AVI, Flash videos, etc.) to DVD discs, folders, or ISO files
- Video editing tools with trimming, cropping, subtitles, effects, and chapters
- Video compression to fit large videos onto DVD discs
- Fast DVD burning
Step 1. Load videos in batch
Launch the Cisdem DVD Burner. Load your video files by clicking the "Add videos" icon under the "Source" panel. Or drag-n-drop all videos to it in one go.
Before creating the menu, you can click 
below video thumbnails to open the editing window, then add subtitles, or create chapters if needed.
Step 2. Choose a ready-made DVD menu template
Switch to the "menu" panel, the DVD menu creator window appears. From the left side, choose your desired templates in the theme of classic, holiday, occasion, travel, and more.
If you don't want the menu, you can enable the "No Menu" button.
Step 3. Make a DVD menu with custom options to match your needs
To do so, click 
in the top-right corner to open the customization panel. From there, you can:
Background - Change the menu background by applying a template, selecting a solid color, or uploading your own image. You can apply the setting to the current menu, all title menus, or all chapter menus.
Element - Customize text, frames, and buttons. Change font and size settings, adjust frame and button transparency, and capture a video frame as the thumbnail image. Use New, Duplicate, and Delete to manage elements.
Layout - Align elements using horizontal/vertical tools or set exact X, Y, Width, Height values.
Audio - Add background music to your DVD menu. Click "Apply to all" to use the same audio across all menu pages.
Optional: Manage title and chapter menus
If your DVD project includes chapters, click the Menu Tree button at the bottom to open the menu structure. Check the box next to a title that contains chapters to display its chapter menu, then customize it and use the bottom buttons to move titles or chapters between menu pages.
Step 4. Preview DVD with DVD menu created before burning
You can click the preview button, and check the DVD menu and video effects.
Step 5. Burn to DVD with your menu design
Insert a blank DVD, pick a playback mode, then click Burn. Once done, the disc plays on any standard DVD player, use the menu to switch between titles and chapters.
Note: In non-loop modes, the menu stays on screen for 15 seconds, then the first title plays automatically.
Free Download macOS 10.15 or later Free Download Windows 10 or later
Other Top 6 DVD Menu Creators for Mac or Windows (Free Included)
1. DVDStyler (Windows, Linux, Mac)
Price: Free
DVDStyler is a cross-platform free DVD authoring application for the creation of professional-looking DVDs with flexible menu designs. It can create and design DVD menus flexibly on the basis of a scalable vector graphic, text, etc. Some users may experience stability issues when working with larger projects. It also allows you to preview the menu-based DVD after it’s created (but before burning to disc).
Advantages:
- Free and open-source
- Flexible DVD menu ctreation tools
Disadvantages:
- May crash down when dealing with a large file
- Require more learning for beginners
2. DVD Flick (Windows)
Price: Free
DVD Flick is a Windows-only DVD burner software, which is able to cope with common video and audio formats and burn a playable DVD on Windows. This free DVD menu creator allows users to create DVD menus with optional audio/subtitles tracks and chapters easily with simple interface. It provides only 6 menu templates without custom option, so it may not suit you if you want to make a specialized DVD menu.
Advantages:
- Totally free
- Support multiple digital file formats
- Easy to use with the intuitive interface covering with prompts
Disadvantages:
- The burning speed is slow
- Only provide 6 simple DVD menu templates to choose
3. Open DVD Producer (Windows, Linux, Mac)
Price: Free
Open DVD Producer is a free DVD menu creator that lets you create a DVD with menus, buttons, chapters, and no watermark. You can create static or animated menus and set chapter marks with frame-by-frame accuracy. Unlike others, it doesn't provide existing DVD menu templates to choose, and people need to create a DVD menu from scratch. Therefore, it will be a bit difficult for novices.
Advantages:
- Allow people to create a desired DVD menu at will
- Free
Disadvantages:
- Offer no preset fancy DVD menu modes
-
A bit hard for newbies
4. Express Burn Disc Burning Software (Mac, Windows)
Price: $49.99 for CD/DVD/Blu-ray authoring license
Express Burn by NCH is a disc burning software that can burn video-DVDs/Blu-rays with 20+ menu templates. After you add video files into the software, you can click “Manage Chapters” to add chapter markers to the title, and click “Edit Menu” button to open its “Disc Menu Creator” window. There you can select a menu template, then edit the DVD title, subtitle, adjust text alignment and select a custom image for the background.
Advantages:
- Easy to use
- Can also burn CDs and Blu-rays
Disadvantages:
- Can’t custom the buttons, video frames and add background music, etc.
- Can’t preview the DVD before burning
5. Aimersoft DVD Creator (Mac, Windows)
Price: $59.95/perpetual license
Aimersoft DVD Creator, a proven super application, is also recommended to help you create DVD menu on Mac and Windows, which compiles 100+ beautiful DVD menu modes based on different purposes or occasions. In addition to making a wonderful DVD menu with free templates available, it’s capable of creating slideshows with background music as well.
Note: Aimersoft is owned by Wondershare, now you can download Wondershare DVD Creator for more menu templates. They work in the same way.
Advantages:
- Offer a straightforward interface with independent sections for people to make according tasks directly
- Provide rich customization features to modify the added videos
- Create main menu and sub menus
Disadvantages:
- The estimated consuming storage is inaccurate
- The free users can only relish with 3 DVD menu templates at will
- The DVD menu interface is a bit complicated for people to get in hand
- Cannot change the label of menu button, text button or title button manually
6. Tipard DVD Creator (Mac, Windows)
Price: $45/lifetime license
Tipard DVD Creator, also a good DVD authoring software for desktop, which prepares 18 DVD menu modes and archives them into different themes for people to choose. Apart from various DVD menu templates, it also offers a fully self-customization features for people to create a unique DVD menu through changing frame, button, text, background music, etc. However, people are required to upgrade to its pro version. Otherwise, the output DVD result is printed with its logo watermark.
Advantages:
- Offer a straightforward interface for people to master it in a short time
- Support converting with popular video formats to DVD
- Offer a built-in media editor to edit the loaded files
- Can also add external audio tracks and subtitles
Disadvantages:
- The free version only limits 3 times within 10 trial days, and the advanced features are only available on the paid version
- Need to edit the files one by one
- Fail to load some video files sometimes because of the incompatibility
FAQs about DVD Menu Maker for Mac/PC
1. Is it possible to make DVD menu online?
There are no DVD menu makers online. The web-based services can only convert videos to a DVD compatible format like mpeg-2. You can't burn videos to DVD discs online (as the actual DVD authoring process doesn't happen), let alone beatifying DVD menu templates.
2. Are paid DVD menu creators better than free ones?
It depends. Most free tools can create basic menus but limit you to a few templates with little customization. Paid software gives you more custom options and ensures successful DVD burning.
3. Can I still make iMovie DVD menu on MacBook?
In the past, Mac users could create iMovie DVD menus with iDVD, which included many built-in DVD menu themes. But Apple discontinued iDVD, and it's no longer supported on modern macOS versions. To make a DVD menu on Mac, you need to use third-party DVD authoring software instead.
4. Can I create a DVD menu with Adobe Premiere?
Yes. Adobe Premiere Elements includes menu templates coming in multiple themes and styles to help you make a menu‑based DVD. All free templates have a Scenes Menu 1 button and a Main Menu 1 button.
5. Can I make a DVD menu in Final Cut Pro?
Not anymore. Final Cut Pro supported DVD and Blu-ray creation with basic menu options until version 10.8 (June 2024), when Apple removed disc burning entirely.
Conclusion
We have compiled the best DVD menu creator for Mac/PC that works smoothly. Cisdem DVD Burner should be the most professional one according to our experiment results. It provides all the features and performance required for DVD burning. Moreover, the developers continually optimize the program based on feedback issues. If you’re using free options like DVDStyler, it's a good idea to save the created DVD to ISO or DVD folder and play it on your computer first, for testing and verification purposes.
Jenny is a technology editor who has been blogging since she was a student. Since joining Cisdem, she focuses on writing articles about video software and how-to guides. She loves exploring new tools and techniques.
JK Tam is the lead developer at Cisdem, bringing over two decades of hands-on experience in cross-platform software development to the editorial team. He is now the lead technical approver for all articles related to Data Recovery and DVD Burner.
Ian Rogers
I thought designing a DVD menu would be harder than this. The guide helped a lot.
lury
I know nothing about software, and just want to look for a DVD burner to burn a DVD with fancy DVD menu for a better looking. Thanks for your detailed step on how to make a DVD menu, it solves my problem nicely and it is really easy to use when I tried it by hands.
avodartRet
I am not sure where you’re getting your info, but good topic. I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more. Thanks for magnificent info I was looking for this info for my mission.