My still photos look blurry on burned iDvds

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My still photos look blurry on burned iDvds

I've been trying to make a DVD of still photos. My DVD from iDVD is blurry when viewed. It's blurry wether I look at it on a TV or the computer, so it's not a screen quality issue. My photos are nice and clear on iDVD when making the disc, but the disc quality is horrible. Looking at the forums it seems that I'm not the only one with this issue, but all the suggestions either don't make sense to me or I can't make them work. It seems as though some have had success making an iMovie and then making a .mov file in HD, then dragging it into iDVD. I can't drag the .mov file into iDVD. I also cannot burn the .mov file to disc. I'm starting to hate Apple for telling me how intuitive my computer is. If it was so intuitive a computer dummy like me could figure it out. Very frustrated...

macbook pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jun 9, 2011 10:57 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 10, 2011 12:43 AM in response to macybean

Hi

I think that this have several reasons

• No DVD can do the same quality as Your Mac Screen - NON. DVD is as standard SD-video and can not be any better.

• Assemble SlideShows in iMovie'08 or 09 or 11 then Send to iDVD - will make things even worse

a. iMovie'08 or 09 or 11 - can only deliver every second line to iDVD resulting in 50% loss

b. Share to iDVD - makes iMovie to render and so bad - Better is to Share to Media Browser and from iDVD import from it's Media Browser - iDVD renders so much better

So to get best quality DVD is not the way - Blu-Ray or photos on a memory stick can be so much better or even projected directly from the Mac - will give best quality possibly

To get an as good DVD as possibly

• Use a program that can do SlideShows and export them without any loss eg

◊ iMovie up to HD6 (previous versions)

◊ FinalCut any version

◊ FotoMagico™

are what I use.

I let iDVD do the rendering

I use Verbatim DVD-R disks

I set down burn speed to x4 (less burn errors and DVD works on more Players)

Yours Bengt W

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Answer 2

macybean Author

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Jun 10, 2011 7:41 AM in response to Bengt Wärleby

OK...remember I'm a computer idiot. So, I can make a slideshow in iMovie, but I can't seem to burn it from iMovie.

Also, I can't add music to iMovie. Only a few songs in my playlist are not grayed out when I use iMovie, but in iDVD I can use any song I want.

And, lastly, how do I slow down the burn speed?

Thanks

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Answer 3

macybean Author

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Jun 10, 2011 8:23 AM in response to macybean

Well I got the music thing figured out, but I just can't seem to find a way to burn to disc. Help!!

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Answer 4

macybean Author

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Jun 10, 2011 11:11 AM in response to macybean

I was able to export the iMovie and then burn to disc, but it won't play on anything other than my Mac. If I create my DVD in iDVD, can I export it to another program to burn? If so, how?

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Answer 5

Old Toad

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Jun 10, 2011 4:56 PM in response to macybean

Export the Movie to Media Browser and then in iDVD go to the Media Browser and drag the movie onto the menu being careful to avoid any drop zones.

OT

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Answer 6

macybean Author

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Jun 10, 2011 5:47 PM in response to Old Toad

Ok, so I got the iMovie into iDVD and burned a disc. So 2 new questions:

Can I add music after dropping into iDVD? (I prefer the music options in iDVD as it times the pictures to the music)

And, some of the photos (especially the vertical oriented ones) get cut off, showing only part of the photo (sometimes cutting off crucial parts). Can I fix that somehow?

Please remember I usually need step by step instructions! I wanted to sign up for one on one classes, but was waiting until I really knew what I wanted to learn. Now apparently you can't sign up for one on one unless you've just bought a computer. Not really Apple's finest decision.

Thanks for the help!

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Answer 7

macybean Author

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Jun 10, 2011 5:48 PM in response to macybean

Oh, by the way, making an iMovie and bringing it into iDVD produced by far the best picture. Now I just need to fine tune it.

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Answer 8

Old Toad

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Jun 10, 2011 8:06 PM in response to macybean

I'm not sure if you can add music to a movie but if you put the movie in an iDVD slideshow you might be able to. You would have to make sure the music is the same length of the movie. But you'd have to test it out. Just save the iDVD project as a disk image, File ➙ Save as Disk Image, mount the image and play it with DVD Player. If the music plays OK in the disk image then you're good to burn it to disk with Disk Utility at 4x or slower (for best burn).

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Answer 9

Jun 10, 2011 11:17 PM in response to macybean

HowTo set down burn speed.

• Top menu list --> iDVD and down to Preferences --> Select Advance Tab - bottom - set Burn Speed

I use Verbatim DVD-R

I also use a cleaning DVD from time to other

This makes my DVDs playable in most Players.

Yours Bengt W

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Answer 10

macybean Author

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Jun 10, 2011 11:43 PM in response to Bengt Wärleby

Thanks so much to all of you for the help...I think I am almost there!

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Answer 11

macybean Author

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Jun 12, 2011 9:58 AM in response to macybean

So it finally worked! Making the iMovie first made all the difference. Pictures are clear as can be. I have no idea why, but I'm glad I can make it work. I didn't resize the photos, but I did set the burn speed to the lowest setting.

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Answer 12

Nancynyk

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Jul 10, 2011 3:28 PM in response to macybean

I had the same problem with iDVD on a MacBook Pro 10.5.8: stripey, blurry photos, and definitely not a TV screen resolution issue. I also called Apple, and the guy had me make a fresh slideshow with one of their templates. Their own template would come out blurry, and he couldn't figure out why.

So, the bottom line is: Apple is providing iDVD with templates for making slideshows, but iDVD is incapable of really making slideshows that are even acceptable for viewing, given their blurriness. Is this not an embarrassing problem? I.e. this software is not fully tested and debugged, and was not suitable for release, so why are they releasing it?

Thanks for the iMovie tip. If anyone can tell me if the problem gets solved with OS 10.6, please let me know.

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Answer 13

Jul 11, 2011 12:49 PM in response to macybean

I have had good results by choosing the export using Quicktime option in iMovie. Select the options and choose the jpeg option. You can then create a new project in iDVD and drop in the resulting .mov file created from iMovie.

regards,

oldguyjoe

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Answer 14

elliscs

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May 25, 2015 12:40 PM in response to oldguyjoe

Thank you for sharing this format. I tried all the other options mentioned above but yours on my last try, worked perfectly.

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Answer 15

bpbpbp

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Aug 26, 2015 11:14 PM in response to elliscs

Hi Elliscs,

I have been having this issue (blurry photos in slideshows burnt to DVD) for sometime and have found the solution which gives excellent results.

I am playing back my DVD's on a 4k Bravia 55in screen which can show a lot of blur in excellent detail so I needed a real solution.

I recently upgraded to Yosemite and found the new 'Photo' option (instead of iPhoto) and found a slide show option. Select the photos and export. The results of exporting the video file of the slide show is excellent and I am now a happy man. Just import the video file into the DVD program (I am using iDVD) and it worked - no blur!

The export option in PHOTO asks for a resolution and you need to select 720 HD (as it is widely accepted that DVD players have the problem with resolution above this amount and this is where some of the problems come from).

I have put in big files into this (e.g. 36mb with 300 DPI) and the picture is great.

I'm not sure if Apple made an effort to improve PHOTO because of the dramas everyone seemed to have with slideshows with iPhoto going into iDVD - whatever the reason I'm happy that I have now found a solution.

Give it a try.

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