slide show slide duration discrepancy

You're right, David. I have the same problem. 1 second with the fastest dissolve transition equals about 1 second, but maybe that's the only one that actually works. But then translate that same slide show into QuickTime, and that 1 second turns into a millisecond and the music timing doesn't work at ALL.

I think the solution is to do your slide show in some other program, like iMovie, where the timing is much more controllable.

Or, you could do it like I did, and spend HOURS (actually DAYS) fiddling with the slide transitions and timing so it would be perfect.

Problem with this is that when the conditions are differnt on the mac, let's say, when you created it, you had five other programs running and the internet turned on. Well, that slows things down just enough to mess with the music timing of the slides, so if you want to show the slide show with nothing else running, you have to CREATE it with nothing else running.

One more thing I've discovered: if you want to show the slide show using a projector, you'll need to create it with the projector on, if you're like me and the music timing is critical.

I don't like the picture quality you get in iMovie, so I'd rather deal with the iPhoto frustrations. But I sure do wish they'd fix it so you could have more control over transitions and music timing.

David, how are you transferring the data to the other computer? I need to do that too.

Hope this helped some. Maybe somebody else has some better ideas for you.
--Julie

I STARTED my slide show in my iPhoto I had on my work Mac (G5 tower). And my favorite tech guy simply transferred my library to my new home machine, an iMac G5. The slide show was perfect. I didn't have to recreate it!

On my slide show, the music timing is critical because the image that comes on screen, in a lot of places, "goes with" whatever the lyrics are, and so even a half second off, and all the thought that I put into ordering and timing the photos the way I did won't make a bit of sense.

I had to duplicate my slide shows and change the timing based on various Mac conditions. So when I show it sans projector, it's called "Directory Slideshow" and when it will be projected, (and the timing significantly changed) it's called "Projected Directory slideshow."

I found the music so hard to control in iPhoto, that I turn the music on separately in iTunes, then start the slide show, because, for example, the crossfades between songs DON'T WORK in regular iPhoto settings, but they do if you set the iTunes preferences that way. (I didn't want 3 second gaps between songs, and some songs would have gaps no matter what I did in iPhoto. I think the solution to that one is to combine CD tracks, but I haven't been able to master that one yet.)

I should be getting my new external 100GB drive tomorrow. I'll let you know if the copying of my Library from my home Mac, onto the external, and then uploaded on my work Mac WORKS, meaning the slide shows would not have to be recreated. (I'm doing that for backup purposes. My main slide show has 387 slides in it. I don't want to recreate that.)

20" iMac G5 2.1 GHz PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.4)

20" iMac G5 2.1 GHz PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hi David,
The transfer was perfect! (That is, after it took me three hours to figure out how to format the new external drive for the mac.) I transferred my entire 6.5 GB iPhoto Library to the external drive, went to work, and then renamed the old Library on my work mac "iPhoto Library x" (just to give it a different name). I then copied the Library from home into the Pictures folder of my G5 tower at work, launched iPhoto, and the new Library came up with my slide shows and books I created at home all there. Transitions work just fine, and run at the same speed as they do on my iMac G5.

I'm so glad to have now TWO backups of my slide show, should anything happen to my iMac. Whew. Hope you are as successful!

Next project: surmounting those music editing problems I have! Thanks for the tips!
--Julie

20" iMac G5 2.1 GHz PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Oh, forgot to mention: all of my photos average in the 2 to 3 mb range, which is smaller than yours. I am getting the exact same transition times that you are talking about, so I'm thinking maybe file size doesn't have that much to do with it. I think, too, that when music is playing on the mac, iPhoto is somehow smart enough to attempt to transition the slide "on the beat" or as near to it as it can discern because WHOA, I tried playing my slide show music on a cd on a COMPLETELY separate system the other day, and my transitions were totally messed up. I've noticed that on my fast tunes (with the music running through the mac), the transitions move roughly as fast as they should, while transitions linger on those slow songs.

Maybe it's my imagination though. Any thoughts?

Do you have the projector yet? Because getting the "right" projector for your mac is the key, I think. More later... I'm going right now to check all my projector equipment and do a 4-hour test of everything with a small "focus group" audience before the big event next month.

David,
I do believe you and I are on the same wavelength as concerns music timing. What you said about adjusting one slide in one place not causing another slide later to have moved is exaclty the same experience I've had.

By the way, my test audience loved the slide show. It went better than I had even expected. The projector mirroring the screen was flawless, or nearly flawless. I projected the slide show on a big screen in a big dark room, attached external speakers, and wow, the show blew everyone away.

I am so pleased, and so relieved. I'm still afraid to upgrade to iPhoto 6 though. Even though I have two backups of my iPhoto 5 library (with slide shows intact), I'm afraid to mess with my system until AFTER the big event.

On the other hand, I'm DYING to make some calendars!!! Ugh! Call me chicken.

20" iMac G5 2.1 GHz PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.4)

By the way, I started my slide show today with 8 or 9 other apps running, and the transition of slides was MUCH slower. By the 4th slide, I'd say the program was already off by 10 seconds. So it DOES have something to do with drawing available power from the system. I rebooted the mac and started the slide show with no other apps running, and the transitions were back to normal. Whew.

Good luck!

By the way, I put my pictures through Photoshop before bringing them into iPhoto, and I name them there, based on the content of the photo. Then when I put the library into the other mac, everything worked just fine. No need to reorder or re-do anything. Slide show ran as smoothly as it did on the creating mac. All I did was click "play."

Sounds like a really nice surprise! Wish I could see it.
Knock em dead!
--Julie

Hi David,
Glad to hear it went well! Congratulations!

I had a problem with my projector's settings at first too. The whites, especially, were so blown out that my pictures looked horrible. In fact, it took me several days to figure out the problem, but now that it's all worked out, the pictures look ALMOST as good as they do on my 20" flat panel iMac screen. When I say "almost as good," the differences seem to show up mostly in the reds now. There is a touch too much red, which is not noticeable until a picture comes up that has a bright blue sky and a few puffy white clouds. The clouds will have a tinge of red to them that isn't visible on the mac screen. That's the only place I can tell any difference in color and saturation whatsoever. If I turn down the red, other problems creep in, so I guess I'll have to live with bleeding clouds. It's really not so bad. It's actually growing on me, that bleeding cloud thing.

Again, glad to hear the transfer to the other mac went reasonably smoothly.
--Julie

20" iMac G5 2.1 GHz PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.4)

20" iMac G5 2.1 GHz PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.4)