Thank you guys for simply confirming what I figured: that stock Windows DVD
authoring is really lame.  

I had very little issue with splicing home movies with movie maker and
imported my vids perfectly, but to get my vids into a nice DVD with good
menus have been a pain.  

I have done a little research into Abobe Premiere Elements 3.0 (just became
Vista-ized) and like what they claim.  I've looked into others, but I am
familiar with Adobe and use their other products.  Do you know of any
community forums that deal with 3.0?

Thank you for your help.

Same one I always recommend:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/product.asp?PID=446&PageID=73

You would want the version that comes with DVD burning support. I've
seen three different versions in stores and on the web.

While it is hard to see in the below image DVD authoring in Sony
products is easy and professional at the same time. Basically you have
three windows in the work space. You drag and drop files into the
middle window, which would be an already edited and FINISHED ready to
go DVD compliant MPEG-2 file for example. You then work on linkage and
desired features in the right window selecting what parameters you
want to add/control. The left window just builds a project tree as you
go along. Comes with a built-in on screen remote control so you can
play as you edit to see the results of your progress in real time.

You can use included templates or design from scratch making the
thumbnails any size or position or arrangement you want them.

My own personal preference is I typically have between three and eight
separate vids with thumbnails of each on a single main menu page with
each thumbnail animated playing some menu background song that plays
in an endless loop until a thumbnail is clicked. You can if you want
arrange in a series of sub menu pages. You can also add text which
itself can become a "hot" clickable area that leads to something else.

Another nice feature is a size to fit option so if you get carried
away and end up with too much to fit on a single DVD it will
recompress selected files part of your project or the entire project
so it does fit on a single DVD. While it looks a bit geeky, with a lot
of controls it really is easy to learn.

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/images/image.asp?img=/images/ss/lg/DVDArchit
ect4_Full.jpg

I would suggest you download and play with the sample to see if it
meets your needs. Usual cautions, I'm speaking from using the full
version that comes with the Vegas suite, I haven't actually played
with the studio version or some features may be different so try
before you buy.