How to burn a m4v movie to a DVD and have it play on a TV

You burnt a Data DVD, players need a Movie DVD.

Possibly SmallDVD...

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/SmallDVD

Burn...

http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html

Other info...

http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/341022-How-to-make-a-DVD-that-will-play-on-dv d-players

Normally one would use iDVD or Toast Titanium to burn playable DVDs.

You burnt a file to a blank DVD and it's not readable because you didn't use the correct software to do it. That end result is a data DVD rather than a movie DVD.

You need a burn software to correctly author and burn the video to a disk which will be playable in any DVD player. And, if your Mac doesn't already have iDVD, you will need to get some - either free or pay for it.

Best one is iDVD, only available as part of the retail 11 iLife suite disk (online resellers), then there is Roxio Toast ($$$), and then there are free/other softwares such as Burn or google for them. ("burn software for mac")

Well, I'm on Mountain Lion and do not remember what the settings/choices were in Snow Leopard; my iPhoto version is 9.4 ("iPhoto 11") and here is what I found in the iPhoto Help - it is quite clear that their instructions say to burn directly for photos, but you have to export it if it's a slideshow:

(Note the "make sure nou're not attempting to burn a slide show")

I don't know what verson of Mac OS or iPhoto for that matter you are on - details are important, but this is the info regarding the latest version of both.

And, I'm not aware of previously having been able to burn a video directly from iPhoto; iPhoto does not author the footage which is what you need to play it anywhere but the Mac you created it on.

I prefer using iMovie for video clips and Photo to Movie for slideshows (in my humble opinion far superior to anything Mac provides for slideshows, but it is not free) and, after assembling, editing, adding transitions, titles, etc., I export them in a Quicktime format and drop them into iDVD (after customizing the menus/themes). I burn the DVD from there - these are the settings I use in iDVD (my video clips are full HD/widescreen and I assemble the slideshows to match that):

And these are my settings under iMovie > Share > Export to Quicktime (under Options - either 720p or 1080p):

Never experienced that; but then I don't use iPhoto. However, assembling my slideshows in Photo to Movie, I still only add music to slideshows or video clips in iMovie. That has always worked flawlessly for me there. Did you try iMovie in your workflow or not?

If you have any kind of sound software (Garageband?) - I use Sound Studio (not free) - you can import your song and tailor it to your slideshow with fade-in, out, etc. I sometimes choose an excerpt from the middle of a piece of music if I need a short piece of music for my iDVD menu and that part is perfect for a 30 second loop. So, if you have the software, assemble your slideshow, note the exact length, and then adjust/fix the music and add it.

If you're going to do a lot of slideshows, check out the software I use: Photo to Movie; it does well with zoom effects, outputs excellent quality, and you can export it in a variety of ways (same dialog window I showed previously). It is also easier (I think) than iMovie - just export your finished video to your desktop and then drag it into iDVD ("add movie"). And no, that window does not show up in iDVD - I use it before the clips go to iDVD, so they're already how I want them qualitywise.

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

The only difference is that these DVDs were 700MB.

No such DVD. All single-layer DVDs are 4.7GB.

You are using CDs by mistake - they are all 700MB.

You cannot make a playable video DVD on a CD.

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