How much does authoring cost?
Of course prices vary and packages abound, but a good reference price is $5 to 10 per program minute for audio and $25 or so per program minute for video. Authoring costs are generally determined per job since each is somewhat unique. As an example, it may cost only $1-2000 for something very simple requiring only importing of elements and simple navigation, but any degree of sophistication that really takes advantage of the format (like motion graphic menus, web links, multiple camera angles, etc.) can expand the cost to $15 to 25k or more. DVD-Audio authoring is usually more expensive since there are far fewer facilities that have the required equipment. There are now many relatively inexpensive DVD authoring packages on the market, although many lack significant features like a Dolby Digital encoder or multichannel audio (you get stereo only).
