Q: Making a slideshow in iDVD

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:

https://discussions.apple.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/2-28399847-581055/Sa fari001.jpg

Apologies!

The correct link is:

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH5489?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Klaus1's first link is obsolete and removed by Apple. Here are some steps to following using iDVD and iPhoto:

1 - launch iDVD and create a new project.

2 - select the theme you want to use.

3 - click on the "+" button at the bottom and create a slideshow.

4 - double click on the slideshow to enter the slideshow creation mode.

5 - click on the Media button at the bottom right hand corner and then on the Photos tab.

6 - put the photos you want to use in an iPhoto album.

7 - select that album in the Photos pane in iDVD and drag to the left to fill the slideshow.

8 - select whichever transition you'd like.

9 - under Slice Duration select Manual.

10 - if you would like to add titles and comments click on the Setting button and select Show Titles and comments.  You may want to remove the titles in each slide if they are just the file names.

Follow this workflow to help assure the best qualty video DVD:

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.

 

To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it.  If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.

 

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.

Is it possible to create a slideshow DVD just using images in any folder on the hard drive, but not from iPhoto?

Absolutely.  When you get the slideshow window open just drag the image files from the folder on the HD into the left hand pane.  Just do not move the folder of photos until the project is completed and burned. 

Or you can use the File ➙ Archive Project menu option to copy all of the media files used in the project into the iDVD project package.  The package will then have a title like this: Combo Slideshow Test Archived.dvdproj.  It can be used just like a regular project file.

Then you can remove the folder of image files if so desired.

I would use one of the older themes that are not animated nor have drop zones.  You can add your own background image to the menu if you'd like.

When you drag a video from the Media browser or from the hard drive into the menu it will appear like this:

You can change it to just a text line or other form via the Button pane at the right.