Disappointing quality in exported slideshow

I've made a slide show in iPhoto 8 version 7.1.5. I'm satisfied with the quality, especially surprised to see the quality from the camera in my iPhone 4. Unhappily, when I export the slideshow from iPhoto as a movie or to iDVD, the quality of the images is significantly poorer. Image exposures and focus seem to suffer. Is there any solution? I thought digital meant that copies would be equivalent quality.
Thanks.

Is this slideshow from stills from your iPhone? Did you crop them to the iDVD recommended size of 4:3 ratio? Also iDVD presentations are reduced in size to 720 x 480 for TV presentation and are not as sharp as computer monitor presentation.
I've found that creating the slideshow in iDVD gives me much better image quality in the final product. The options are a little more limited but the final quality, IMO, is worth it. Just my preferences.
When you complete your project in iDVD save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option. Then mount the image and play it with DVD Player. This separates the encoding process from the burn process. If the project looks OK with DVD Player burn it to disk at the slowest speed possible.
OT

Similar Messages

Disappointing quality when exporting to DVD - how do I improve this?

Hi,
I've spent quite a long time producing beautiful slideshows in iPhoto '08 - complete with soundtrack, Ken Burns affects and transitions. I wished to burn this slideshow to DVD, but I was extremely disappointed with the quality of the final result.
Compared to playback on my iMac, the slideshow on the DVD was very grainy and jerky. I have a HD (1080i) plasma at home, with an upscaling DVD player. DVD movies are excellent quality with my home cinema set-up, so I'd like to achieve similar results with the slideshow movie I create from iPhoto.
When exporting from iPhoto, the maximum resolution I seem to be able to specify is 640 x 480 pixels, which to be quite frank is rubbish.
Is there anyway that I can export a higher definition slideshow movie? If I purchase Quicktime Pro, will I be able to do this? I don't want to spend money upgrading to Quicktime Pro, if I can't produce a better quality output from iPhoto (or iDVD for that matter).
Can anyone advise?
Many thanks in anticipation.

iDVD creates presentations that are 640 x 480 in size. That's the standard for TV. I create all of my iDVD slideshow in iDVD and, IMO, get better image quality when played. I don't get to use the KB effect but it's not one of my favorites anyway so it doesn't matter.
You could create the slideshow in iMovie (iMovie 6 is my preferred version) and then after you've got the slideshow as you want quick iMovie, launch iDVD and drag the iMovie project file into iDVD. That will prevent iMovie from encoding the movie before importing into iDVD where it will get encoded a second time. This lets iDVD to the encoding and will give better results.
If you add the movie project to an iDVD slideshow (doesn't have to have any photos in it) the movie will be scaled to the TV safe area and not get affected by the TV overscan issue that movies added to iDVD as movies do. They lose about 10% of the image due to the overscan. It's the nature of the beast. iDVD 7 will not scale them to the safe area if they are added to an iDVD created slideshow and can have be included with photos also.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Very poor quality when exporting slideshow

I am using a Canon 5D, and when I view the images in Full screen. They are gorgeous. I created a slideshow. When I play the slideshow in Aperture - again they are gorgeous and crisp, however when I export these images to a Quicktime movie they look blurry - almost like they were taken with a regular point and shoot.
I have selected Export > HD 720p
I understand that slideshows are generated from previews, so I went to Aperture > Preferences > Previews and selected Photo Preview > Don't limit & for Photo Preview Quality I selected 12 (high).
I kept the 2 selections that were there on default selected (these are: new projects automatically generate previews, and use embedded JPEG from camera whenever possible)
Then I selected all of the images in the slideshow, and when I right clicked and selected "Update Previews" I received the message saying that the previews were already up to date. I exported the slideshow - and the quality was still poor.
I then tried to update the previews from the items in the individual libraries themselves instead of selecting the images in the Slideshow (hoping that would make a difference), and tried to update the previews. But I got the same error.
What am I missing? Why am I seeing excellent quality when I preview the slideshow when I click the Full Screen play button - but when I export it to 720p HD it looks horrendous.
Please help!

FTF you need to hold down the alt key when selecting the images and choose generate preview. The update preview option maintains previous settings. Using alt/option creates a new preview.
Second HD720p is still significantly below the resolution of your display so the images will look softer.
But try the previews first and post back.
M.

Quality of exported slideshow is terrible

Hi all,
Using Lightroom 2.0, windows XP (not sure which version of acrobat, sorry).
I saw this posted way back in the forums but there never was a solid workaround, conclusion. When I create a slideshow to pdf, the quality of my photos look way too sharpened, jagged and well...demented. I am preparing one for my first client and want to really impress them.
Any suggestions why this is happening? Anyone have this happen and figured out why and how to fix? Oh, I am working with DNG files as well.
Kind regards,
Evan

Make sure you select a high enough resolution upon export to pdf. The default is really crappy and unless you present at exactly the same resolution will look jagged.

Poor quality images on Slideshow

Hello all,
I recently downloaded Aperture from the Mac App store - seemed to good a bargain not to and I was already considering upgrading from iPhoto 08.
I imported all my pictures (along with the captions) into Aperture and created a slideshow from an album. I was quite disappointed to see that the image quality was really poor and very grainy. The photos themselves were fine in the album - but not so in the slideshow.
I thought this may have been down to importing from iPhoto, so I experimented by adding other images directly into Aperture. The same slideshow quality issue arose. I also possess a MacBook Pro and decided to re-perform the steps described above. The images and slideshow are absolutely fine on my MacBook pro.
I wish to maintain my photo library on my main iMac and will be very downhearted if Aperture cannot give me the same picture quality on slideshows that I achieved in iPhoto. Can anyone help me figure out why I'm suffering from poor quality images in slideshows on my iMac?
Thanks in advance,
Simon.

Hi Simon,
Aperture uses the image Preview in Slideshows:
_About Displaying Sharp Images in Slideshows_
To display slideshows at the best quality, you should set Aperture to create high-resolution previews. In addition to setting previews to their highest resolution, you should also use full-size previews to prevent upscaling with large displays. If previews are not available, images in the slideshow may not be as sharp as they would be otherwise. For more information about creating high-resolution previews, see Working with Preview Images.
From the [User Manual|http://documentation.apple.com/en/aperture/usermanual/index.html#chapter=21%26se ction=2]
What size Previews do you have?

Best, export slideshow in iMovie, for online viewing

I tried exporting my 5min slideshow in iMovie using this setting:
go to>share
export using quicktime
export as: mpeg4 settings>
file format: mp4
video format: h.264
data rate: 1500 kbits/sec optimized: cd/dvd
image size: 1280x720
key frame: 12
frame rate: 12
video options>
restrict profile to: main
encoding mode: best
~
So far, this is good file size for online uploading, and good quality. Good enough. But there are still color issues, like some color blotching, and color transitioning, and the quality of the photos in the imovie when exported is not as good as when I view the slideshow in imovie. It's very important that the quality of the photos remain top quality as this for fine art photography promotion.
If you have any ideas how to export slideshows from imovie, in top quality, please reply. This is for online viewing, to be uploaded in free-hosted sites like youtube, facebook, multiply, etc. I am aware that youtube and facebook have HD options for video viewing. I need someone's help. Thanks.

Yes, I did. Not so good. The settings I mentioned above is actually the best I've tried so far.

Exported slideshow from Iphoto11 to IDVD 7.12 so I could burn DVD for play on DVD player. Fine but show stops 1/2way through because DVD has 2 chapters. How do I eliminate chapters?

I exported slideshow from Iphoto 11 to IDVD 7.12 so I could burn DVD for play on DVD player. Fine, but then when playing on DVD player show stops about 12 way and starts over. Seems there are 2 chapters in show. I wan t show to play straight through until end. How do I elimiante chapters or solve problem. Thanks. Bob Low

Try this workflow:
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 and launch DVD Player and play it. If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding was 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.
Play the disk image with DVD Player and see if you get the same start over half way thru.
Did you create the slideshow in iPhoto in the slideshow mode?
or were you in an album and then used the Share ➙ iDVD menu option? What I'm trying to find out is if the slideshow in iDVD is a movie file or an iDVD slideshow with the photos from iPhoto? If it's the latter how many photos in the slideshow?
OT

Exporting SlideShows in H.264 Format?

Hi,
I was just trying to export an iPhoto Slideshow to Quicktime H.264. Currently i see only Export -> Large (720 x 480). Is any way to export it has a HD Quality Quicktime film?
Many thanks
Alex
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Hi Alex,
I am not sure if you can export a slideshow to H.264 within iPhoto. I do know that you can open the exported slideshow with Quicktime Pro and export it is H.264. By the way, it does a fantastic reduction of file size and the quality is great.

Trouble exporting slideshow

I have never had this problem before but now after I have created an album and subsequent slideshow, I am unable to export the slideshow. I chose file/export/slideshow, then I chose quality and a location for the file, then the progress bar shows briefly but nothing more happens and the folder is empty. Help!

Folks have fixed this one with a reinstall of iPhoto.
To re-install iPhoto
1. Put the iPhoto.app in the trash (Drag it from your Applications Folder to the trash)
2. Download it from the App Store to reinstall It's on your Purchases List* there.
For older versions that have been installed from Disk you'll need these additional steps:
*Sometimes iPhoto is not visible on the Purchases List. it may be hidden. See this article for details on how to unhide it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4928
One question often asked: Will I lose my Photos if I reinstall?
iPhoto the application and the iPhoto Library are two different parts of the iPhoto programme. So, reinstalling the app should not affect the Library. BUT you should always have a back up before doing this kind of work. Always.

How can I export slideshows created in Aperture v3.3.2 from Mid-2009 MacBook Pro-17 to blank DVDs?

(Fifth futile attempt in two hours, before I learned there was a Post webpage – I’m new to ApSuppCom - and after I learned that I am not allowed to update previous content, so I had to back out, make a few changes, and start over.) How can I export slideshows created in Aperture v3.3.2 (complete with superimposed captions and music tracks) from Mid-2009 MacBook Pro-17 to blank DVDs ? (Some other specs: Mac OS Lion 10.7.5; Capacity 499.5 GB; Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; Memory 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3; Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256MB)
I cannot do a copy (export) without various error messages appearing and the inevitable stoppage occurring. Always with the DVD Video Player final message reading, “Supported disc not available.” Advisors and Mac Geniuses at local Apple Stores have told me to try Roxio Toast. When I visited the Roxio website, and found numerous other company products, the descriptions all seemed to suggest that most of the apps shown can easily export videos to DVDs, but nothing was said about finished digital slide shows being exported. At future events soon, I hope to be handing out these finished DVDs (free) to the people in them. Any help will be greatly appreciated. A.Z.

How can I export slideshows created in Aperture v3.3.2 (complete with superimposed captions and music tracks) from Mid-2009 MacBook Pro-17 to blank DVDs ?
Aperture cannot burn slideshows to a DVD. It only can export a video of your slideshow.
In Aperture 3 you use the "Export" button in Aperture's slideshow project to render a video to a folder on your disk.
Then you use iDVD or another program to burn a video DVD.
I cannot do a copy (export) without various error messages appearing and the inevitable stoppage occurring. Always with the DVD Video Player final message reading, “Supported disc not available.”
Could you please describe the exact steps that are causing these error messages?
How are you exporting your slideshow from Aperture? Which settings are you using? And how are you importing the video to iDVD or Toast to burn a video DVD?
For more suggestions see Karsten Schlüter's user tip: How to create a video-DVD? (Macs without iDVD)

Why does iPhoto 9.5.1 not export slideshows?

Why does iPhoto 9.5.1 stall when I try to export a slideshow, using OS 10.9.3? All steps have been completed, and the preview works fine, but the system hangs up at the "Exporting Slideshow" progress window. The bar never fills. Nada!

Does this only happen for one particular slideshow? Test by creating another, short slideshow using different photos. Can you export this test slideshow? If yes, then probably one of your photos cannot be processed. Duplicate your slideshow and try to find the problematic photo by removing photos from the slideshow and trying again.
If you cannot export any slide at all, create a new iPhoto library for testing. Use iPhoto's "File" menu to create a new library: File > Switch to library > Other/New. Import a few photos and try to export a Slideshow. If exporting from a new library works, try to repair or rebuild your regular iPhoto library.
You rebuild the library by launching either iPhoto while holding down the key combination⌥⌘ (option-command) and double-clicking the iPhoto icon. Keep holding down the keys, until you are seeing the Library First Aid panel. Select to "Repair" the database.
If that does not suffice, try "Rebuild".
Back up your library before rebuilding.

Iphoto 11 9.4.2 won't export slideshow

This is what I get when I try to export a slideshow.
I have a Mac Book Pro 13 running 10.8.2
I have exported several slide shows before with my old white Mac Book.
I tried exporting slideshows with only 2 pictures, and still no luck.
Any ideas? thank you for your help in advance.

Hello,
OT, so I tried to log in with a different account, and when I tried to import pictures to iphoto, I kept getting an error about a problem with the Flip4Mac plugin. I removed the Flip4Mac plugin and now I can export slideshows again. Kind of weird but it works, so now when I need Flip4Mac I just install it and uninstall it as needed.
Thanks for your patience and all the ideas OT, and Jose Luis, if you have Flip4Mac this might solve your problem, or it might be some other external plugin! Good Luck and thanks!

Exporting Slideshows in Different Formats

Ok everyone, I'm having a few problems. I just recently ugraded to iPhoto 5.0.4 and everything is fine and dandy, but I'm wondering if there's any way that I can export slideshows that I create in different formats. Let me explain my situation; I'm a high school student in an Advanced Biology class, and our class has it's own website for the projects we do. My teacher has asked me to try to figure out a way to create slideshows with all the pictures we have for the different projects, then save/export them in a format that we can post on a web page. A friend of mine recommended that we make a page with links so that people could select their connection speed and format that they would like to download the file in, for example QuickTime, Real Player, Windows Media, Flash, etc... I've figured out how to export the files in QuickTime and Real Player compatible formats, but that's it. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
Jarrett

Criag:
Yes, iPhoto doesn't support the 16:9 format for exporting. I suggest you useiMovie HD 6. It's still available to Mac users who have iLife 08 and are not pleased with the new iMovie which has been dumbed down from the V6 version. If you add the 16:9 photos to it you can export to that ratio. Also you'll have much more control over the audio trachs being able to cut out portions, fad in and out, overlap etc.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Poor image quality elements 12 slideshow preview

As I can't find any reference to my original post I thought I'd re-do it. I created a slideshow in elements 12 and found the image quality to fall far short of high definition. The source folder for the images used is contained in Windows Pictures. The pictures were taken with a Canon t4i camera with the image quality being excellent. For whatever reason the quality of the slideshow images are poor. Any help would be appreciated.

Don't purchase a video editing app to work with just still images. They are meant to be used with DV and really don't do a still image any justice.
The final source format should determine the software used. You are suggesting a DVD distribution of your work.
iPhoto is meant to be used on still images (not iMovie, in my opinion).
You don't really want to convert a single frame into multiple frames if you don't need to.
You may want to try the Photo JPEG, Motion JPEG or Animation codecs from iMovie and see if they improve the visual appearance of your work.
Since you want to use a DVD as the distribution method then iDVD may not be the best option either. It is meant for set top boxes using a poor 720X480 dimension in MPEG-2 video format.
You may want to consider a bit different approach and use a "data" DVD and use QuickTime Player as the playback engine. These will only play on a computer but your could use the higher dimensions to your advantage and also the visual quality of computer displays to showcase your work.
Since HD DVD players are not yet ready for mass use it may be a better way to distribute your work.
There is no 720X480 dimension limit (only the limit set by the viewer on the display size when viewed on a computer monitor).
Your "still" images would remain "still" except for transitions.
Heck. You could probably put the whole file onto a CD and save even more in production costs.

Problem with losing quality in exporting FLV

First I should emphasize that I am new to Adobe's products, and am learning it on the fly as part of a intelligent tutoring system design project. So I apologize for my lack of technical knowledge in advance. Rest assured I have put much effort in attempting to solve this problem on my own and by referencing this forum and other web sources, but sadly with no success.
FYI, I am using the CS4 Master collection.
My question pertains to retaining the quality of my video once I export it to .flv format via Media Encoder from Premiere Pro. My main video source is an .flv file that i have imported into my media browser. Initially I ran into a problem with the importing because it did not recognize H264 as having any media, and so I had to convert to Sorenson format to get it to import successfully. But it seems to have imported just fine without any loss of quality in the workspace. So that isn't my main issue but perhaps it is related.
I am having major issues with losing quality upon export back to .flv format - which is the format I am required to use - the video is being imbedded within a larger program and so it needs to have a smallish file size. For the life of me I cannot figure out any combination of settings that works. If I select same as source then I end up with a video that is surrounded by black borders. This may because the workspace is larger than my imported file. I have attempted to enlarge it to fit the safe margins but it hasn't helped. If I resize my output video to 640 x 480 - which is what I want - I get a shrinked video with black borders. If I crop the input to what I want I just lose quality - but I lose quality either way. I really want to accomplish this without increasing the bit rate (and thus the file size). I have tried just about every setting available and I still lose the quality. Is this just inevitable? Is there a plugin that would help? From what I can it seems that Adobe has more problems dealing with .flv than with other video formats, but I haven't found anything that pertains to this issue specifically.
Otherwise does anyone know of any other programs that can edit .flv files and offers multiple video & audio tracks?
Thanks in advance. If anything needs clarification let me know.

Ah yes I left out that detail. My source video is 640 x 480 also so the output is not an increase in size.
This is different from my sequence settings. Which is 1440 x 1080 16:9 ratio. Pixel Aspect Ratio is HD anamorphic 1080 (1.333).
I am assuming that this needs to be changed but I can't figure out how to do that (sequence settings are greyed out). Should I just start a new project?

Disappointing quality in exported slideshow

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