iPhoto slideshow in iDVD project

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Level 1

4 points

iPhoto slideshow in iDVD project

I have some questions on problems creating a iDVD project of an iPhoto slideshow:
1. Is it possible (how ?) to create buttons for scene selections, as in iMovie ?
My project contains one continuous slideshow (942 still pictures) which I want to divide in
chapters relating to the varuous trips I made during one travel.
If not in iDVD: has this breaking up of a single iPhoto slideshow be done in iMovie or iPhoto itself,
or by way of creating a 'Magic iDVD' ?
2. Can audio be imported with different sound clips ?
As for now my audio clip (3 min) repeats itself endlessly till the end of the project (48 min), and I
want to use various songs out of my iTunes library.
3. For a slideshow with its speed matched to the lenght of an audio clip, 10 seconds seems to be
the longest duration for one single picture. Can this be lengthened ?.
In my actual project, 10 seconds for each picture in combination with a cross dissolve seems
to work too fast in my slideshow.
I expected this transition to be added to their duration; instead it seems to take seconds away
from the linked stills.

If all these problems can't be adressed in iDVD 6: is iDVD 8 the better option ?

iMac (PowerMac4,5), Mac OS X (10.4.11), PowerMac4,5 PowerPC G4 (2.1) 800 MHz, 768 MB Sdram

Posted on Feb 7, 2008 3:28 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Rich839

Level 8

47,256 points

Feb 7, 2008 10:25 AM in response to pdrcourious

To get the versatility that you want, and because this is a complex project for iPhoto, I suggest that you bring iMovie into the work flow.

I would create a separate iPhoto slideshow for each segment of your trip (eg. Italy, France, etc.)
Then export each slideshow to your desktop as a High Quality Quicktime movie. There will be no loss of quality. Then create an iMovie project, and drag each Quicktime movie into the project. You can add your audio in iMovie, as well as chapter markers. Then save and close, and drag the iMovie icon (the one with the star on it) into an iDVD project. Just drag it to the edge of the iDVD display menu so it doesn't fall into a drop zone. Then save your iDVD project as a Disk Image (an option from the File menu). This will take awhile because all the encoding will be done as if you were burning a disk. To play the disk image, double click on its icon, and then open the DVD Player app on your Mac. Make sure it plays O.K. Then close it, and open the Utilities/Disk Utility app on your Mac. If it's not already in there, drag your disk image icon into the left side display panel in the Disk Utility Window. Then insert a DVD-R disk into your drive and hit Burn. The burning process will be fairly quick because all the encoding already was done when you created the disk image.

As far as I am aware, you cannot extend the length of a photo in an iPhoto slideshow beyond what the settings will allow you to do. If you want to go beyond that, I would suggest creating your slideshow in iMovie where you can display the photos for as long a duration as you want. In my opinion, 10 seconds duration for a photo is way too long, particularly when you have 942 still pictures. Whew! I would keep it to 5 seconds at most. You can always use the remote pause button of your DVD player if you want to display to your viewers a particular photo for a longer time.

In an iPhoto slide show you can import different audio with different sound clips. Go to iTunes and make up an album of the songs that you want to play in your slide show. Then, when you select your music from the media pane in your iPhoto slide show, select the album that you created, and the slide show will play those songs in succession as your slide show runs.

The cross dissolve transition will shorten the display duration of the photo on each side of it, and thus shorten the overall display time of the slideshow. The overlap transition will not shorten the overall time display.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your project/.

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Answer 2

lynnie61

Level 1

54 points

Feb 7, 2008 6:15 PM in response to pdrcourious

942 photos in one slideshow is probably too many (not only for iphoto to handle, but also for your viewers!). I actually make up my slideshows in FotoMagico (you can download a trial version for free). In this application you can have multiple sound tracks. The biggest project Ive done (ie. one slideshow) has held around 300 photos and had 4 tracks. The quality of slideshows created in iMovie is not the best, so you may want to look at the alternative. My advice would be to break your 942 photos into 3 or 4 separate slideshows. Then drop each of the finished projects into iDVD (in the order you want them viewed) add your theme and voila! You can time your slides perfectly to fit the size of the slideshow so there will be no repeats of the music.

Message was edited by: lynnie61

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Answer 3

pdrcourious Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 8, 2008 7:11 AM in response to pdrcourious

Thanks a lot for your swift answer which certainly is helpful. I'll try your method in the next days to see if the problem has been solved. Also the by lynnie61 suggested method (second answer) was helpful and will be given a try.

Actually these are (picture by picture) my latest results for the iDVD slideshow on the basis of 942 stills (in hq), one repeating song (4:49) and a cross dissolve effect:
1. either 3 sec: = 78:28 - projectinfo 85:43 - DVD capacity: 2,56 GB of 4,2 GB
2. or 5 sec: = 109:52 - projectinfo 117:07 - DVD capacity: 2,9 GB
3. or 'fit to audio' (slide duration pop-up menu): 48:13 - projectinfo 55:29 - DVD cap: 2,2 GB
A slide duration of 3 sec seems to be the best choice, since the option 'fit to audio' results in a slide duration of only 1 sec.

Since creating chapter markers and scene selection buttons (as in iMovie and apparently FotoMagico) seems impossible -alternative separate slideshows seems to be an ennoying bypass technique- I am surprised to find out that I got one single slideshow of 942 pictures.
From the help files, different information sites and manuals (for ex. Bob LeVitus) I understood that each slideshow can ONLY put up to 99 slides; otherwise the iDVD system itself breaks the whole show (of 942 stills) up.
Any idea why this has not been the case ?

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Answer 4

J Keller

Level 4

2,750 points

Feb 8, 2008 9:12 AM in response to pdrcourious

+From the help files, different information sites and manuals (for ex. Bob LeVitus) I understood that each slideshow can ONLY put up to 99 slides...+

iDVD has its' own capability for creating slideshows, and that's the limitation of 99 photos that you've read about. When you're creating the slideshows in iPhoto or iMovie, the file comes into iDVD as a Quicktime video file, and your limitation is the total length (in time) of your productions, not the number of photos.
John

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