DVD Studio Pro 3: In the Studio

Layered Versus Standard Menus

Now that you've seen all the possibilities for both layered and standard menus, we thought we'd recap their features. Table 4-3 contains a few pros and cons to keep in mind when you're planning your project.

Table 4-3. Pros and cons of the menu types in DVDSP

Layered Menus	Â	Standard Menus	Â
Pros	Cons	Pros	Cons
Fine-grained control over background and buttons.	Requires extra planning; "new" buttons mean editing original graphic elements.	Buttons and menu structure are very dynamic; "new" buttons can be created on-the-fly, often without penalty.	Static background (even if it's video). All information required for the menu must be present in that one background element.
Completely custom buttons with control over normal, selected, and activated states.	Slower response to user input.	Buttons are overlays which are managed by the player hardware—very good button response times.	Limited to (effectively) three colors per button.
Great integration of dynamic graphic elements.	No video or audio elements.	Allows video and audio elements.	Takes up more space on the disc.
Works great with Photoshop.	Requires Photoshop.	Works with Photoshop as well as other graphics editing programs.	Did you read that three-color limit on buttons?