Of course I'm a Mac user, and all I've ever used for DVD creation has been iDVD.
Now, we obviously know the limitations of this. The inability to create your own themes and just it's customization is limited in general.

Just curious to see if there is anything else out there that is (hopefully) freeware that could give me what I need in regards to the creative process.

Thanks, dudes(ettes)!

For Mac, I'm not sure that there's anything at all in terms of freeware for DVD creation.

For PC, I know I've got a freeware one that works, but it's pretty poor.

There's gotta be some kind of inexpensive medium for Mac. Doesn't Toast allow you to make DVDs? That's not very expensive.

There's a way you can customize themes in iDVD through a hack. My friend's done it.

I'll try to search Google for a link.

-Chris
Studentfilms.com

I was actually surprised at how far iDVD has come. You can do a lot of stuff with it now.

As for hacking it, in the finder if you show package contents on idvd, you have access to add and modify pretty much anything from backgrounds to themes to custom drop zones. I would highly recommend backing up the package first in case you do harm.

I believe creativemac.com has a whole series called something like "hidden tricks of idvd".

Idvd is easily customized if you're willing to put in the time. Buttons can be created through certain methods and the many things can be done in your NLE as a background.

You'll probably need some sort of graphics program to do this. I use Photoshop layers to make my menu backgrounds look snazzy.