need urgent help creating a memorial slideshow...

Sorry for your loss!

iMovie might be the way to go. Have you used it before? The idea is to launch it and start a new project, click photos which brings up your iPhoto pics, choose transitions which link the pics with fade ins and outs, and add any text by clicking that button, and then add music if you want. Maybe at a visitation you wouldn't want the music. The other alternative to iMovie is PowerPoint in Office for Mac, if you have that.

Besides the program itself is how you will present it. You could have your laptop running it but only the people right around can see it. Otherwise you will need a video projector hooked to your iBook, in which case you need an adapter for your mini-DVI jack. If you don't already have one you will have to get one at an Apple store, and if you are not near an Apple store, it won't work off your computer. Then you would need to borrow a MacBook Pro which has a full sized DVI jack which will hook directly to a video projector.

Hope this helps!

One more thing - since they are using a DVD player, you will have to take one more step after making your iMovie project. You will then need to burn it as a DVD using iDVD so that their DVD player can read it. For that you will need a Superdrive on your iBook. Hope you have one. iMovie has a button to click for burning to a DVD, but if you don't have a Superdrive it won't work.

mspring77:

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. The easiest and quickest way to create a slideshow is to create it entirely in iDVD as follows:

1 - create an album in iPhoto and assemble and sort the photos in the order you'd like.
2 - open iDVD, select a theme and create a slideshow with the "+" button at the bottom. Also select the option under Advanced to scale photos to the TV Save area. This will avoid losing some of the image to TV Overscan that you will get when you add a Quicktime movie file to iDVD and burn.
3 - double click on the slideshow text button to open the organizational window for the slideshow.
4 - click on the Media button and select Photos.
5 - find the album you created in iPhoto and drag into the left hand window of iDVD's slideshow window.
6 - select the transition you want to use. A simple dissolve works best in my opinion.
7 - in iTunes create a playlist of the music you want played during the slideshow. Can be one or multiple tracks.
8 - back in iDVD select audio in the media pane, locate the playlist and hit the apply button.

(Note: save the project frequently.)

9 - when you have the iDVD project as you'd like use the File->Save as disk image menu option.

This will save the project as a disk image which can be mounted and played with DVD player to check to see that the encoding went as it should and there are no typos (that's my big problem) before you commit the project to disk.

10 - when ready to burn to a DVD-R disk open Disk Utility and, with the disk image mounted, select it in DU and burn to disk. Use the slowest burn speed to insure the best disk.

This method is much quicker to create and, in my opinion, gives the best image quality that going thru iPhoto's slideshow or iMovie.

TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Old Toad,

For the sake of discussion, you say you can create it entirely in iDVD but twice in your instructions you say open 2 other apps and create within them first. In iMovie you really do create within it because it links you to your photos and music within the app. You don't have to create an album or a playlist first. Whether you create both in iMovie or separately in iPhoto and in iTunes, you still have to create. So total time spent I don't really agree it is much faster.

I didn't know iMovie was necessarily lower quality than iDVD. I thought if you start with his res it stays that way, but maybe not. If it really is better quality, then opening the other 2 apps and importing from iDVD is worth it.

You added the step of mounting a disk image to use to view for mistakes, but you can play it right in iDVD when you're done if that's all you want to do. I've never had encoding not go as it should but if it ever did that would save the cost of a disk and be worth it.

Thanks for the info - I am learning.

You have to assemble the photos in iPhoto before you can do anything. That's where they are located initially. Creating an album of them just makes it easy for iDVD to find and bring them over into it's slideshow window. The same goes for the music. It's located in iTunes and must be retrieved from there by either iMovie or iDVD. It's a wash in that respect.

Typos can be found by playing in iDVD (any paying attention - one of my issues) but encoding errors cannot and those can prevent disks from playing in DVD players. If the disk image plays correctly in DVD Player but the burned disk has problems in a DVD player then it's the burn process or the media that's the culprit. That's the bonus of burning to disk image first. It's easy to isolate problems.

Creating it in iMovie requires it to be encoded as a QT movie and then imported into iDVD where it gets encoded a second time. That will reduce the image quality and QT movies cannot be scaled to the TV safe area. Thus, about 10% of the viewable area will be lost when played on a TV set.

When you play it in iDVD that does not play the encoded, ready to burn version. It has to be saved to Disk Image or burned to disk for the encoding to take place. Many users do that to check the quality of the encoding before committing to disk. A lot of time can be wasted if burned directly to disk and it's found that the project hiccuped during encoding. The encoding is the most time consuming part of the process. Once saved to image you can burn multiple copies at different times without having to re-encode.

OT

If by assemble you mean have in the iPhoto Library to begin with, yes, but they don't have to be in an album to do something. From iMovie I can get pictures in the Library that have not yet been put in an album. It's true if they are in an album they are easier to find, but I usually end up wanting more pictures later in the project that aren't in the album and go to the Library anyway.

Yes, it's a wash, not faster; that was my point.

Good to know about TV safe and burning multiple copies from the disk image - thanks.

If you have to go into iMovie to assemble and then into iDVD, going directly into iDVD is faster and easier to add a transition to all of the photos. The downside to doing everything in iDVD is you can have only one transition, one fixed slide time (or fit to music) and less audio editing. But what the OP wanted is the quickest slideshow she could produce. I've done a couple memorial slideshows that way and turned them out in one day.

I think you can add a QT movie to an iDVD slideshow, with or without stills and have it scaled to the TV Safe area. At least that's what it appears when played in iDVD. Haven't burned one to test as yet. But if that is true it a BIG improvement because slideshows created in iPhoto with titles displayed won't lose them if burned in iDVD as part of an iDVD slideshow.

Good deal, thanks!