# iDVD slideshow resolution question



## motoyen (Aug 15, 2001)

I wish to create a slideshow in iMovie and then burn it to a dvd. My question is what resolution should I make the photos so they look the best on TV? All the photos are shot with my Rebel XT at the max resolution setting (3456x2304). Should I scale them down to 720x480 or is it better to leave them at full resolution?


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## Calgary Guru (Apr 25, 2006)

You may still want to do some zoom, pan and crop work in iMovie (Ken Burns Effect)... Then you'll need decent resolution. You may just want to forego any resolution changes 'cause there may be a wish to zoom way way in onto someone's face in one of the pictures... The final export from iMovie will just be a stream file at 720x480 anyway, not at the resolution of the original images.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Leave the pics at as high a res as you got. Better results, the software will down-res the final export (as already mentioned), and it's a lot easier.

Oh, and if you are in fact doing a slideshow with these pictures *IN iMovie*, recent experiments resulted in my project looking much better at 720p widescreen -- and hi-def. Even though the DVD standard will down-res the 720p (or the even BIGGER 1080i codec) down to mpeg 2, the picture still seemed to be better than a similar project done at standard Dv quality. I know it shouldn't, but it did.

One nasty bug I came across in iMovie when working in hi-def was that, when adding a title on top of images or footage, this resulted in the image or footage becoming slightly pixelated. And when I added dissolves between shots, the transition cause a fuzziness to appear on the pictures. It was kind of subtle, but it was there.  But hey; you could be lucky, me UNlucky, and therefore YMMV.


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## MacMaster (Jan 22, 2006)

*iDVD Slideshow*

I've had way to many problems trying to create a photo slideshow in iMovie. You might get much better results if you create your slideshow in Keynote, and then export to QuickTime.

When you're done - you can simply add the QuickTime Movie to your iDVD Project.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Like what problems, MacMaster?


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## MacMaster (Jan 22, 2006)

*iDVD Slideshow*

*iPhoto Problems:*
iPhoto SlideShows look great on a Mac, however once they are burned to an iDVD SlideShow they don't look nearly as good. During the transistion from photo to photo, the image is displayed as a video still, and then renders through a video transistion, and then on to the next video still. The end result appears to be a series of jagged edges that almost appear to vibrate.

Another problem with iPhoto SlideShows is that occasioinally the iDVD movie will freeze or quit. I believe the problem has something to do with each photo being treated as a chapter. Although an iPhoto slideshow looks great on a Mac, an iDVD project will only support 99 chapters.

By exporting your iPhoto slideshow to QuickTime, the entire project is now one video and the transition from photo to photo is seamless. If you need a quick, good looking slideshow with music on a DVD - this is the way to go.

*iMovie Problems:*
iMovie is much more tedious but does offer more flexibility than an iPhoto SlideShow (ie. various transistions and timing). The biggest issue that I have with iMovie is that the text does not look nearly as good on an iDVD project.

Another problem is that occasionally (totally at random) the first image (photo or transistion) appear to be corrupted. I have not yet found an explanation.

The problems with iPhoto and iMovie have been unresolved from version to version. Saving your project to QuickTime and then adding the .mov file to your iDVD project, seems to fix most of the technical problems.

*Keynote:*
Photos, Music, Text, Transistions - you've got it all. Export the final project to QuickTime and add it to your iDVD project for the best overall results.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

MacMaster said:


> *iPhoto Problems:*
> iPhoto SlideShows look great on a Mac, however once they are burned to an iDVD SlideShow they don't look nearly as good. During the transistion from photo to photo, the image is displayed as a video still, and then renders through a video transistion, and then on to the next video still. The end result appears to be a series of jagged edges that almost appear to vibrate.


That vibration you see is not exclusive to iMovie and would be reduced if you worked in a 720p or higher iMovie project.

I prefer to determine my own Ken Burns settings in iMovie, so I've outputted an iPhoto slideshow as a Quicktime only once, just to see. You can do some cool, multi-dimensional moves over a photo in iMovie using some tricks I figured out.



> *iMovie Problems:*
> iMovie is much more tedious but does offer more flexibility than an iPhoto SlideShow (ie. various transistions and timing). The biggest issue that I have with iMovie is that the text does not look nearly as good on an iDVD project.


Make sure that you view your burned DVD on a REAL TV (tube or plasma, whatever) and NOT just on your computer's display. Everything looks much better on a real TV, because of the different shape of the pixels (or points) between a TV and a computer display.



> *Keynote:*
> Photos, Music, Text, Transistions - you've got it all. Export the final project to QuickTime and add it to your iDVD project for the best overall results.


You can't Ken Burns within Keynote like you can within iMovie. Can you?

Regarding your list of bugs, versus differences in features, yes there are bugs throughout these programs that are uncovered (I listed a few as well).

The nice thing about keynote is that you ca export at a very high quality video setting (could be my Quicktime Pro license, however).


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## MacMaster (Jan 22, 2006)

The vibration issue is with transistions made within iPhoto NOT iMovie. Working in a higher resolution does not have an impact on the still -> video transition.

The poor text quality within iMovie is when viewing a finished DVD Project on a real TV (Sony 24" TV or Panasonic 32" TV). All iMovies projects appear to be soft or fuzzy when viewed on a Mac.

I'm not a big fan of Ken Burns Effects - but you want or need some Ken Burns Effects, you can create them in iMovie -> export to QuickTime -> and then add them to your Keynote (if that is where the bulk of the project is being created).

We both agree that if you use QuickTime you will be able to produce a high quality video. The final project will only look as good as the weakest part of the project. In most cases the poor quality is a result of the limitations of iPhoto and iMovie, not the files that you started with.

Working with max resolution files (3456x2304) is of no benefit in an iPhoto or iMovie project. It will just slow down the whole process due to the file sizes.


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## motoyen (Aug 15, 2001)

Thanks for the info everyone. Has anyone tried this app? http://www.fotomagico.com/


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## bronzejolene (Jun 3, 2005)

I second MacMaster, having had to make a dozen slideshows last year, which had to match up to music at certain points, I was going bonkers using iPhoto/iMovie. Then I got keynote, had it (mostly) done in a weekend. I've also heard good things about TalaPhoto.
As for the Ken Burns, I just LOVE how you turn it off, then have to go into the settings to TURN it off! It's been like that for years, Maddening.


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## JCCanuck (Apr 17, 2005)

*Any more updates or new ideas!*

After finally getting a 20" Intel Mac a few months ago and rediscovering the loaded goodies in OSX Tiger esp. iLife I have gotten into the DVD thing. As of now I am trying to burn a slideshow using a theme on iDVD. So far I'm not happy with the image quality when my movie/slideshow is burned on the DVD esp. when shown on my 42" HD Hitachi TV. Like always I went to ehMac for help when I came upon this thread. From this thread I am trying out the various ways suggested to get an optimum quality photoslide show on a DVD using the many suggestions. Before I waste many more DVDs trying out iPhoto, iMovie HD and Keynote are they any new ideas to toss around from you guys esp. Macaholic and MacMaster at this time?
Thanks!


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## motoyen (Aug 15, 2001)

I used this app to create my slideshow. Boinx Software - FotoMagico I didn't try Keynote but I found this app to be far easier to use than the iLife apps. The youtube quality sucks but I did burn it to a dvd and found the quality decent on my TV. Balkan Break


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## keebler27 (Jan 5, 2007)

motoyen said:


> I used this app to create my slideshow. Boinx Software - FotoMagico I didn't try Keynote but I found this app to be far easier to use than the iLife apps. The youtube quality sucks but I did burn it to a dvd and found the quality decent on my TV. Balkan Break



i 2nd fotomagico! it's dead easy to use and there is ton of control options...including setting for an individual picture which doesn't sound like much, but it's a great factor for leaving that favourite photograph on screen. i upgraded to the pro and it's perfect. their per photo text option is awesome too.

fantastic app. great tech support too. they've been very fast at responding when i've had questions (no performance issues...just questions).

in fact, it's the only slideshow app i use.

Cheers,
keebler


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

In response to MacMaster and bronzejolene, I know that, when I did Ken Burns stuff in iMovie at standard DV resolution, I got a LOT of banding. When I did a project at 720*p* a lot of that was reduced. And, for what I like to do, iMovie is the best solution with Keynote a close second. But 720p in iMovie -- even if I'm ultimately burning as an mpeg 2 via iDVD, seemed to make a big difference.

Works for me!  ymmv.


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## keebler27 (Jan 5, 2007)

JCCanuck said:


> After finally getting a 20" Intel Mac a few months ago and rediscovering the loaded goodies in OSX Tiger esp. iLife I have gotten into the DVD thing. As of now I am trying to burn a slideshow using a theme on iDVD. So far I'm not happy with the image quality when my movie/slideshow is burned on the DVD esp. when shown on my 42" HD Hitachi TV. Like always I went to ehMac for help when I came upon this thread. From this thread I am trying out the various ways suggested to get an optimum quality photoslide show on a DVD using the many suggestions. Before I waste many more DVDs trying out iPhoto, iMovie HD and Keynote are they any new ideas to toss around from you guys esp. Macaholic and MacMaster at this time?
> Thanks!


definitely try fotomogico from boinx software. they claim to be about the best in terms of resolution. they have a free version, which is of course, stripped down a bit, but still worth a shot.

cheers,
keebler


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## googlefish (Jun 21, 2005)

Macaholic said:


> In response to MacMaster and bronzejolene, I know that, when I did Ken Burns stuff in iMovie at standard DV resolution, I got a LOT of banding. When I did a project at 720*p* a lot of that was reduced. And, for what I like to do, iMovie is the best solution with Keynote a close second. But 720p in iMovie -- even if I'm ultimately burning as an mpeg 2 via iDVD, seemed to make a big difference.
> 
> Works for me!  ymmv.


Is there any way to keep the high resolution images after burning via iDVD? The slideshow created via iDVD or iMovie (and exported to burn via iDVD) look terrible on a HDTV. Any other programs perhaps that will not burn to DVD at 480 lines?


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Well, as I understand it, a DVD is a DVD. It's MPEG2 video. BUt if you're putting A LOT of content on the DVD then the software has to further downres the videos in order for it to all fit.

And don't forget that if you have a lot of long, animated menus, well those take up more room (and rendering time).

I'm not a pro video dude, so all I can tell you is what I've experienced, firsthand. I tried a DVD as a standard DV iMovie project, as well as a 720p and 1080i, all using the same digital photos as a resource. For me -- and I watched it on CRTs and big flat-screen TVs, the 720p looked much better. As for the 1080i, I don't recall it being better. Remember that the "i" in 1080i stands for "interleaved" video signal, while the "p" in 720p stands for "progressive". So, even though the 1080i outputted is file is bigger (WAY bigger), I saw no difference between it and a 720p converted and burned within iDVD.

Oh, and under the Projects tab of iDVD's preferences, make sure that it is set for "best quality" and not best performance.


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## JCCanuck (Apr 17, 2005)

*Great info folks!*

Definitely will try Magico since alot of people speak highly of it.
The best quality result on my HDTV so far has been making the slideshow in Keynote and exporting it as a Quicktime movie which is then placed in iDVD. The quality was a heck of a lot better than doing it in iMovie or iPhoto with the proper settings at best quality. I do have to admit it was a lot of work (and this was only a few images). I don't really want the Ken Burns or any other multiude of special effects (maybe just the fading or dissolving into the next image effect though). What I do want to end up with at least is a quality rez, two to three minute slideshow (~50 slides?) with music and an animated beginning used in iDVD or iMovie that I can play on a HDTV or computer.
My wife thinks me going mad with all this DVD burning and running back and forth from the iMac to the HDTV with the DVD player.
Am I???????


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

JCCanuck said:


> My wife thinks me going mad with all this DVD burning and running back and forth from the iMac to the HDTV with the DVD player.
> Am I???????


Brother? I've SO been there...


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