iMovie slideshow (Photo) to DVD quality issue

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Level 1

9 points

iMovie slideshow (Photo) to DVD quality issue

Hi Folks,

I'm hoping that someone out there can help me out with this one. So y brother recently had a 4 week tour across the US and he took a LOT of photos. I saw this as a good opportunity for me to have a good go at iMovie. So I offered to put together a DVD of some of his photos for him. After working my way through all these photos etc and putting a half decent (For a first attempt) slideshow I went to put it onto DVD. That was my first issue, I didn't realise that without iDVD that iMovie could not burn your slideshow to DVD. So to combat this I downloaded MiDVD from the app store and things seem to go well... right up until I played the DVD. The image quality of the photos has degraded on a huge scale! My brother used a rather nice expensive camera on his trip and when we looked at the images on my iMac (27 inch) the picture quality was amazing! and that goes for when we viewed them in the iMovie viewer. So what is with the poor image quality on the DVD?

I'm using the latest version of iMovie (10.0.4) on a 27" iMac running Mavericks.

If anyone is able to help me out with this one it would be greatly appreciated

Cheers,

Mark

@mvdarbs

Posted on Jul 9, 2014 12:38 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Nubz N.

Community Moderator

Jul 11, 2014 1:55 PM in response to MvDarby

Hi MvDarby,

This may be due to the resolution of standard DVDs (vs Blu-ray discs). MiDVD, like iDVD is probably burning standard DVDs with a resolution of 720 X 480.

Archived - iDVD 7.0: Burned DVD has interlacing, pixelation, or image quality issues

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4078

You may discover that a DVD burned in iDVD has poor image quality, pixelation, or interlacing issues when you play it in full-screen mode on your HDTV or Apple monitor. This may occur even if the video looks normal in the iDVD preview window.

This is typical of an image or video that has been expanded from the standard resolution of a DVD (720 X 480) to the high-definition resolution (1920 X 1080) of a computer monitor or HDTV. A standard DVD made by iDVD is made to the standard DVD resolution of 720 X 480, which is smaller than most HDTVs and monitors. When expanded to fit the entire screen or monitor, the image will distort slightly due to upscaling to fit the screen or monitor.

Maybe you can share the pictures another way that supports the full resolution, like a data DVD (with a slideshow), depending on how you can view them.

Best Regards,

Nubz

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Answer 2

MvDarby Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 28, 2014 12:24 PM in response to Nubz N.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, sorry for the delay. I see what you mean about the resolution difference but is there a way to create a DVD that will allow for my iMovie file without image quality loss? I really don't want to have to scrap the iMovie and start all over again with just a standard slideshow from iPhoto etc.

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Answer 3

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Jul 29, 2014 1:55 AM in response to MvDarby

There are many ways to produce slide shows using iPhoto (see this: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2423 ), 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

Preparing images for iDVD slideshows:

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5452

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