How to troubleshoot a slideshow problem?

Klaus1, thanks, but the problem is not knowing how to create a slideshow (which you link explains).

The problem is, after the slideshow is built - and tested to preview perfectly in iDVD - when burned to disc some slides won't display - black screen, no errors.

Furthermore, whether the JPGs will display or not has nothing to do with the JPGs themselves, but whether or not they follow a movie clip.

Are you able to successfuly burn when you don't mix the videos with the stills?

Old Toad, thanks so much for your reply. Yes, the stills play fine, as long as there is no video in the slideshow.

Actually, the stills play fine even when there are two particular videos in the same slide show, but not if other videos are present. I haven't yet tried the videos, alone, in their own slideshow, but a previous project of just videos, including some of these, would play one or two clips, then freeze.

Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.

Yes, I've been using the Disk Image method for test trials to avoid the extra time and cost of actually burning the DVD. In limited testing, the physical DVD discs and the Disk Images behave identically, so I think I've ruled out the burn - therefore it must be encoding?

Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality. Always use top quality media: Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.

I've been using Taiyo Yuden DVD-R at 4x.

I've just tested the project through complete burn - the JPGs, plus the 2 videos which seem to be OK - works as expected both on the iMac and on my Sony DVD player + TV.

The question is: What's going on when I put the other videos in the project?

Can a video file be "bad" in some mysterious way that does not prevent it from playing normally, but which can affect the JPGs played after it? And not every slide after it, but every other slide?? (That is, the broken slideshow sequence is always: movie>bad jpg>good jpg>bad jpg>good jpg, etc.)

Or is the problem not with the files, but more likely with iDVD or iPhoto?

The "bad" videos may not always be bad. In one test, the sequence went like this:

some jpgs>VideoA>some jpgs (OK)>VideoB>bad sequence of jpgs>VideoC>some jpgs(OK)

When I took out VideoB, the bad sequence was fixed, but then the perviously good jpgs after VideoC went bad. Makes no sense.

thanks,

-gw

...delete the IDVD preference file, com.apple.iDVD.plist...

Previously tried that, no help.

After deleting "...IDVD'S cache file, Cache.db..." and starting a NEW iDVD project (thanks for that advice) - wow! for a minute there, I thought we were really on to something. Suddenly the troublesome video was troublesome-no-more. However, I soon discovered that when I created a new project, iDVD used a default setting of 3 seconds for my slide duration. When I set that back to my preferred "0 sec." (Manual), the old problem was back.

For now I'm going to use that discovery as a work-around, and set the slide duration to 5 seconds for all my slideshows - which means I'll have to use the "Pause" button on the remote (and "Back" when I'm not quick enough) a lot more than I like - irritating, but not something I can't live with. By having an automatic slide show rather than a manual one, my slideshow now plays normally, even when all the previously troublesome videos are included.

I still don't know if not being able to mix video and JPGs in a manual slideshow is a limitation of iDVD in general, or if there is some particular problem with my files, my settings, or my installation. Can anybody else get this to work?

See SDMacUser's post about supported formats in his post in this topic: What input file formats does iDVD...: Apple Support Communities.

Just the kind of info I've been looking for - I'll check out my files in more details, tho at a quick glance, I don't see that my movies have any obvious violations.

One thing I've not been able to check is: Are my movies "Copyrighted or protected" - is that something I can do to my own creations in either iMovie or QuickTime (by accident of some hidden setting)?

Thanks again, Old Toad, for your significant help!!!

Sorry, OT - I didn't make myself clear. I don't want to add copy protection to the movies I've created - I want to avoid it.

According to the link you provided, SDMacUser says one of the things that can cause problems in iDVD is movies which are "Copyrighted or protected". My fear was that there could be some preference setting in iPhoto, iMovie or iDVD that might be automatically adding copy protection to my content behind my back. Probably not, but I want to check all my movies to be sure they are "iDVD legal".

So far I've not found any sort of field in the various Get Info/Inspector windows that would indicate the copyright status of my movies - such as there is when I look at the File Info window of Adobe Elements for my JPGs.

BTW - my fears about the "auto" setting for slide duration proved to be true. The DVD remote at the host location was unfamiliar to me, and did not follow conventional labeling standards. While I'm trying to find the Pause button to stop the slideshow and answer a question about slide #4, slides 5, 6, 7, and 8 go marching by - and then - I can't make the Back button work.

If I can't figure out how to make a mix of JPGs and movies work in a manual iDVD slideshow (Slide duration = 0 sec), then I'm going to need to find some other software that works the way I want.

I was obviously confused (as I often am); thanks for the clarification.

When SDMacUser says "Copyrighted or protected videos" are not supported by iDVD his terminology seems to refer to both, but I'm guessing only copy protection would cause problems in iDVD?

Anyway, now that I understand his meaning better, I'm almost certain my movies have neither, so it's not likely an issue for me.