How to export slideshow without losing resolution?

Question

I've used Macs for years, but I'm now having my first experiences with iLife. I've found similar questions to this one discussed here, but not exactly this question, I think.
I have created a slideshow in iPhoto, complete with painstakingly set up Ken Burns effects timed to coincide with transition points in the music that accompanies the slide show.
I would now like to send the slide show to a friend, in some way so that the friend can view it in very high resolution, just like I can, and maintaining the timing of slides to music.
How can I do this? Exporting the slideshow as a .mov was a huge disappointment. Iphoto 6 only offers three resolution settings, and even the highest is much too low. Also, the timing got messed up in the .mov -- the slides advance too fast for the music.
I tried Share->Send to iDVD, to see how that would work, but that failed entirely. I got an error message saying "the export movie file could not be created." Some day I'd like to figure out how to fix that problem, but it's only a high (i.e. pre-Christmas) priority if it's necessary to get my friend the slideshow.
So what should I do? Will I need to re-make the entire slideshow in another application? That would take me a lot of time, and also I'm concerned about the level of editing control that I'd have in applications other than iPhoto. It looks like that would give me more control over exact duration of each picture, but less control over exactly how the Ken Burns effect pans and zooms over each picture, which is important to me. Maybe I'm wrong about that.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
MacBook Pro   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

Answer 1

Medhead:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. The largest you can get any slideshow will be the size sent to iDVD, 720 x 540. If you create it in iMovie and export as Full Quality that will be the same. If you select Expert Settings you can select the H.264 compression with Best Quality compressions and multipass for best quality.
The best quality slideshows, IMO, is to create them in iDVD from imported stills. You are restricted to just one transition for the slideshow, no KB effect but can add titles or subtitles to selected slides.
The slideshows I've created this way and burned play on my plasma HD tv with great sharpness and clarity. Again its my preference to go this route to have the better image quality. Also with this method it's a true slideshow where the viewer can go backward slide by slide with just one click. No rewinding of the movie like with a regular movie file.
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 written an Automator workflow application, 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. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.