slideshow to bvb burn

There are many ways to produce slide shows using iPhoto, iMovie or iDVD and some limit the number of photos you can use (iDVD has a 99 chapter (slide) limitation).

If what you want is what I want, namely to be able to use high resolution photos (even 300 dpi tiff files), to pan and zoom individual photos, use a variety of transitions, to add and edit music or commentary, place text exactly where you want it, and to end up with a DVD that looks good on both your Mac and a TV - in other words end up with and end result that does not look like an old fashioned slide show from a projector - you may be interested in how I do it. You don't have to do it my way, but the following may be food for thought!

Firstly you need proper software to assemble the photos, decide on the duration of each, the transitions you want to use, and how to pan and zoom individual photos where required, and add proper titles. For this I use Photo to Movie. You can read about what it can do on their website:

http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php

(Other users here use the alternative FotoMagico: http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/homevspro/ which you may prefer - I have no experience with it.)

Neither of these are freeware, but are worth the investment if you are going to do a lot of slide shows. Read about them in detail, then decide which one you feel is best suited to your needs.

Once you have timed and arranged and manipulated the photos to your liking in Photo to Movie, it exports the file to iMovie as a DV stream. You can add music in Photo to Movie, but I prefer doing this in iMovie where it is easier to edit. You can now further edit the slide show in iMovie just as you would a movie, including adding other video clips, then send it to iDVD 7, or Toast, for burning.

You will be pleasantly surprised at how professional the results can be!

To simply create a slide show in iDVD 7 onwards from images in iPhoto or stored in other places on your hard disk or a connected server, look here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1089

Its unbelievable that after spending almost 2 grand on a computer system that you can't burn a slide show to DVD. I tried the burn program suggested but get a Authoring Error.

I assume this is just another Apple Roadblock.

BTW my daughter in law has renamed our IMAC to ICANT because you can't make it do anything you want it to do.

Did you have a question? Thrilling and all as your daughter-in-law's insights are, there really is no information in your post that would allow anyone to help you.

Yes Terence I do have a qurstion. With the IMAC how do you burn a slideshow to the Apple external DVD that can be read by other other DVD's. Apple suggested using a app. I got the Burn app and it stops with the error message Authoring Error.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I assume my previous post is invisible to you.

All you need is iDVD (if you don't already have it) and an external DVD burner (If you don't have an internal superdrive).

And of course the ability to read and apply simple instructions.

Burn App is a 3rd party app that hasn't been updated in more than 2 years. I did google

'Burn Authoring Error'

and if you do the same you'll see a number of possible fixes depending on the specifics.

Klaus, IDVD is not available on the IMAC. I have the Apple external drive.

Terence, I will checked it out but after spending countless hours trying

to make this work Apple has about worn me down.

Thx

Why is there no iDVD on my new Mac? How do I get it and how do I install it?

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3673

Thx Klaus,

Interesting read.

Apparently Apple is way ahead of real world reality. The reason my daughter in law was making the slide show in the first place is because she uses slide shows as teaching tool. Now she needs to make the slideshows on a 7 year windows computer. Apple didn't make a converts in our family and the teachers in my daughter in laws school over this.

Don't get why you're blaming Apple. You have a problem with a 3rd party app that hasn't been updated in 2 years, but somehow it's Apple's fault? There are other DVD burning apps...

Terrence, This was a application that Apple previously support and was widely used in the real world. If Apple wanted to get away from DVD's why are they still selling a external DVD drive? At least allow for the basic functionality for the DVD. I am not going to keep trying Apps until I have reasonable assurance that it will fix the problem.

Apple don't "want to get away from DVD". They know how much this gadget is actually used "in the real world" - I can tall you in mine, it hasn't been used in 3 or 4 years. They sell a drive. You can burn a data DVD from the Finder. That's the basic functionality for the DVD and that's what they support.

I'm not sure that Klaus (who is enormously knowledgeable on the subject) is entirely correct when he says that Apple's reasons for getting away from DVD are because they believe streaming is the coming thing. (Although it is.) I think it also has something to do with the ever growing number of cameras - inexpensive point and shoot cameras and Phones - that shoot HD, plus the rapid growth in HD screens - TVs and so on. Just like it's difficult to buy a Standard Definition TV these days, it's almost impossible to buy an SD camera. More and more material is being shot on HD and watched on HD, and DVD isn't HD.

Try use a burning app that will have support rather than an Open Source one, and one that is updated often. I'm sure many have a free trial.

You'll have to purchase an iLife disc in order to obtain the iDVD application but be aware that the iLife 11 disc only provides themes from iDVD 5-7. The Software Update no longer installs the earlier themes when starting from the iLIfe 11 disk nor do any of the iDVD 7 updaters available from the Apple Downloads website contain them.

Currently the only sure fire way to get all themes is to start with the iLife 09 disc:

This shows the iDVD contents in the iLife 09 disc via Pacifist:

You then can upgrade from iDVD 7.0.3 to iDVD 7.1.2 via the updaters at the Apple Downloads webpage.

OT

I finally cracked creating and burning a slideshow to DVD that plays quite well on my HDTV. I suspect I invested about 100 hours experimenting with all the various options - call me mad but I was determined not to be beaten by Apple! I have taken the precaution of writing down each step so that I never have to go through this tortuous process ever again. As a reminder if anyone is interested, I have a two year old 27inch iMac with OS 5.6.8 and iLife 11 (which has iDVD). My task was to generate a slideshow in iPhoto and burn it to a DVD that would play on my Sony 42 inch HDTV via a Sony DVD/BR player. The end result is acceptable even though some resolution of the original slides has been lost. If anyone wants a copy of my notes then I can send a pdf to you.

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