IDVD 6 vs. Toast 7

I have both Toast 7.1 and iDVD 6 installed on my Intel MacBook. I've been using iDVD happily for a year or two (on another computer) but am noticing some quality issues and compression artifacts when I play my created DVDs on the MacBook. This is even when using iDVD's "Best Quality" setting with just 1 hour of video.
So my question is this: can I get better results with Toast 7.1 Universal Binary? Can I still burn widescreen DVDs preserving Final Cut Express HD chapter markers? How do the menus compare to iDVD?
Is anyone familiar with both products to tell me the advantages/disadvantages either way?

iDVD's themes are a lot better, for sure. But one thing I wondered about is that I heard that Toast allows one to compress the audio in Dolby Digital format so as to save space, allowing for more video at full quality. I don't think iDVD does that. So it seems that Toast would still be better for movies between 60 and 90 minutes. Or is iDVD's compressor still just that much better.
I'm also wondering about Final Cut Express projects. Last I knew, Toast had trouble importing chapter markers.
Black MacBook 2 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.7) 2 GB RAM

Similar Messages

Best quality iDVD or iDVD Pro or Toast?

I dragged a FCE .mov, which was 1 hr 45 minutes in length, into iDVD and produced a single layered Disk that played good until the last three minutes of the program where I had six layers of video. At that point I got about 30 seconds of wormy looking transitions. I then rendered a new iDVD with a double layered disk and it played perfectly, indicating that added space and more thorough rendering can produce a clean DVD. My question is does iDVD pro or Toast offer a better algorithm that would have made the single layered disk play smoothly?
Thank you in advance,
Art

Hi Alex,
no conversion needed:
iM works with dv, a dvd has finally mpeg2 - any "inbetween conversion" means loss of quality!
in case, you have many stills in your project, many recommend here NOT to use the export button in iM, but simply drag'n drop the project (that file with a star) onto an open iDVD project, so rendering is done by iDVD......

IDVD project to toast

Is their anyway to burn a complete iDVD project in Toast?

Less errors? That's great, because while I was using iDVD, I got a lot of errors... so I bought Toast 10 lately.
What do you think makes more sense: To let iDVD to do encoding (and one can have a nice menu..not like the ones in Toast), or distrust iDVD all together, and to do the encoding and burning in Toast alone to avoid the iDVD's potential errors? - this is 1st question,
The 2nd: since I'm still inexperience with using Toast to burn DVDs, so I do not have a "feel" yet for the burning quality settings... and looking for the best burning settings for 2hrs of Standard Definition DV home movie (in full quality Quick Time DV file).
I noticed that the material burned using "Automatic" settings is looking less desirably than while using manual with higher "MAXIMUM" and higher "AVERAGE" values, like 8 or 9, but then I also learned that setting those too high may cause the reading errors in people's DVD players.
Thus the question for you - experienced Toast's burners:
- at what maximum value should one set the"MAXIMUM" and the"AVERAGE" values for 1-hr and/or (if different) 2-hrs of the Standard Definition material, so it will fit on just one regular single layer DVD, and will look possibly the best, with an error-free playback on people's DVD players?
(I will set the audio at compressed 320 kbps in order to gain some extra room for the video's quality... but at what settings?)
Please help, if your burning and then playing back experiences are positive, or PLEASE - let me know about some pitfalls that I might be not aware of. Thank you.

IDVD 6 or Toast 8 - ADVICE PLEASE!

I have some old video that I want to transfer to DVD. They are in all sorts of formats: MOV, AVI, WMV, ASF, MPG. If that weren't enough, I also want to transfer some video from VHS. I am planning to buy eyeTV to do the conversion, but also to capture some video from TV that I'd like to burn.
I know that they recommend using Toast with eyeTV, but is it that much better than iDVD for the other formats? Right now I have iDVD 5, which is pretty good (except I really don't like the themes).
I'd appreciate any advice!

Toast 8 would be a great way to transfer those files linerally. That is to say that if you just wanted to burn DVDs of those files it shouldn't discriminate between file types. It would give you a great DVD every time as long as you set burn speed relatively low (2X or 4X).
I have had problems with iDVD in the past. In iDVD 5 the files that I edited would not burn with audio attached. That problem seems to have been fixed in later iDVD packages. If you want to set up menus for your DVDs then iDVD would be a great way to do it.
I would suggest that if you're going to view the DVD or use it as a backup to stick with Toast 8. That way you don't have to use the themes from iDVD and will have a working DVD without wasting a handfull.

Using idvd themes in toast

Hi I had a problem with jumping discs in idvd and i had a copy of Toast 7 in my office so loaded it up on mac and burnt a copy of the dvd in question and it worked perfectly.
I read somewhere that you can use the themed menus from idvd and use them in Toast just wandering if this is possible and how to do it so that the menus can be functional..
Many thanks Tim

I know your passionate about not using imovie 8 9 11 because its loss of quality ( discarding every second line ) but do you think it would effect the actuall burning of the disc?
My DVDs from iM'08 to 11 are noticable less quality - else I'd not make a fuzz about it
Aslo can i get hold of this imovie 6 you so strongly recommend?
Only as second-handed - try e-bay and to a rather high price. Still I like it.
But if You are migrating over to FCE/P then You got a much more powerfull tool.
Thanks for advise about having nothing on in the background I am always doing other things!
I don't - I even turn on screen saver and a 100% black photo. Got a feeling
that this did not take longer but ev. slightly faster.
What about if I buy another external dvd burner do you think that will be better?
Mine are not (ForMac) - But brand of DVD is very important.
Also with my pc I use adobe prem ele 7 and i used to edit exactly the same stuff on it, it burns way quicker than mac and I never had a problem with my dvds. . .
Out of range Error - Does this PC-DVD look as good as iDVD done ones ? or even better ?
I am still learning final cut express 4 so maybe my life will change when I have that mastered.
GOOD Luck ! - I love it. - To me the need of an external FW hard disk (Mac OS Extended - formatted)
and the way to set up a project - and collect all scratch hard disk and material to this project
folder (on the external hard disk) was the largest "re-learning step" to me.
Yours Bengt W

IDVD 8 versus Toast 8

I was confortable with iDVD 4 but can't make much sense of iDVD 8. Is Toast 8 easier to use ?
I edit my pictures in FotoMagico and the audio in GarageBand. I put chapter markers in GarageBand and transfer the lot back to FotoMagico, which I then export to iDVD 8.
Apparently there is a bug in iDVD 8 which means that my FotoMagico project will not open iDVD 8 automatically upon exporting it; I have to bring my relevant .mov project to iDVD manually. But that is a different subject.
I just can't work out how to bring the chapters to show in the Theme window of iDVD before the Burn.
Is someone out there doing the same sort of thing who could enlighten me ? (FotoMagico / GarageBand / FotoMagico / iDVD 8)
The main question is ... is Toast 8 easier to use than iDVD 8 ?
Tks in advance
jcr

Is Toast 8 easier to use?
Yes.

IMovie audio stutter+ iDvD audio encoding = Toast ?

In the 8 days since I finally got into iMovie, then iDvD, I've encountered both the skittery / unstable audio Playback of iMovie audio & now iDvd's audio encoding issues . [ app "not responding" while still chuggin' away, etc\etc. ]
It was good to hear from an iApp specialist that these are known issues being 'addressed'.
But it's quite disheartening when a GoOgle ( or Forum ) Search shows woes & hope from 2005 & before.
Will iLife 7 iron out much ? [ or introduce a whole new set for us to spend months grappling with ? ]
My real question here, well the head-of-the-line question ! . . . is > after reading a Macobserver post from 2/06 on Toast 7, I have to wonder if it fills in many gaps and opens the pallette while solving some problems.
It doesn't have slide transitions , but it's work could go to iMovie/iDvd ??
( too many toys in the toybox !! -- pardon my overwhelment )
One hard-fact question that's more answerable is > After my 1st "hung in audio // not responding" Disk Image burn , a Wec-Chat Agent considered it 'dead' & I cancelled it. Is there a headless body in a folder somewhere ?, and is that what "delete encoded assets" is for ??
_TIA_
~~~=Dave

So !...I'm a' confused w/ all the ways to 'archive'
an iMovie project. i created an .img, a
Data-Disc...which could burn a DvD of the project,
but not open in iMovie...yes ?
Warning: we're going to jump a bit from topic to topic.
• An archive is a backup copy of something. The purpose of the archive is to preserve the thing as it exists today. An archive of an iMovie project "captures" it as it exists today. If necessary, months from now you can use the archive to re-create the project as it exists today.
• The archive can take many forms. It can be stored as a disk image — a file stored on your computer that uses a .dmg suffix and looks and acts like a hard disk. Or it can be a ".zip" file created in the Finder. Or it can be a simple duplicate of the project stored on a hard disk or DVD. (A disk image file or zip file does not save significant hard disk space. An iMovie project can't be compressed to any significant extent.)
• iMovie's menu command File > Burn Project to Disc is there for the convenience of iMovie users wanting to copy the project to a DVD — as a computer file. But iMovie can burn a DVD only if the entire iMovie project fits on one disc. Technically, it doesn't create an standalone archive, it simply copies the project — with all the files and folders the project contains — onto the DVD, then burns the DVD.
• The Finder lets us create an standalone archive of a file or folder, using the File > Create Archive Of command. The command copies everything to a file that has a ".zip" suffix. If we want, we can tell the Finder to burn the zip file onto a DVD. The zip file has to fit on one DVD.
• Backup applications like Retrospect can create archives too. Retrospect can store the archive on a variety of media. The backup is stored in a format only Retrospect understands.
• Most of us also have another backup solution available to use with iMovie. Exporting the iMovie project back to tape is a good backup. For most projects, the clips return as clips when the tape is re-imported to a new project. Clips like titles and transitions are no longer editable, of course. Note you must re-import the material to access it.
IS there a way to save a 29 GB project to one DvD
• Regrettably, no. An iMovie (or iDVD) project cannot be larger than will fit on one DVD. Most iMovie projects are larger, of course. For them, the File > Burn project to disk command cannot be used.
• Software exists, however, that lets us back up an iMovie (or iDVD) project across multiple DVDs. These include Toast and Retrospect, the pre-eminent Mac backup software.
• iMovie projects stored on DVDs have one huge disadvantage, however. We must copy the project back to the hard drive to open it in iMovie. iMovie doesn't let us open a project stored on a DVD, for Movie can't write to the disc. (The DVD is, by definition, a locked medium.)
Note too that if the backup DVD is created by Retrospect, Retrospect is required to copy it back to the hard disk. (Sorry, I'm not familiar with Toast.)
• The Finder's File > New Burn Folder lets us burn computer files to a DVD as files. It can copy disk images, zip files and any other kind of computer files and folders to the DVD. Used in this way, the DVD functions like a small hard disk. It can't burn across multiple DVDs.
• A DVD containing data files is different from the DVD iDVD normally creates for us. DVD Normally creates TV-playable DVDs, not data-file DVDs. For these, iDVD encodes the video of our iMovie projects as MEPG-2 video, the language a DVD player understands. No computer data files are involved, at least not files a computer normally understands.
• The iDVD command File > Archive Project serves a different purpose than the archive of an iMovie project. Yes, it backs up the iDVD project too, but we usually make it for a different reason.
The iDVD project has no video or audio of its own, just a link to the reference movie iMovie stores inside the iMovie project. If we want to be able to burn a DVD of the current iMovie project some time later, or burn a DVD after the iMovie project has been discarded, we will have a problem. The source material may be gone. The iDVD archive solves this problem by storing a copy of the source material inside its archive.
So If you want to preserve an iDVD project as it exists today you can tell iDVD to create an archive the includes all the necessary source material from the iMovie project. Now the source material will be "static". We can open the archive sometime later, edit the DVD menus if we want, and burn another DVD.
• iDVD also offers the File > Save As Disk image. This command is not associated with archiving. This command is almost the same as burning a DVD, but it "burns" the encoded material as a disk image file instead of a physical DVD.
The disk image can be played in DVD Player on our Macs, and we can use Disk Utility to burn a DVD of the disk image.
"Burning" a disk image from iDVD is a good way to check the encoding by iDVD. If the disk image "burns" okay, the physical DVD we burn with Disk Utility will probably be okay too.
• As you suggested, the best solution may be an external hard drive. It's not only the easiest to use, it lets us access the iMovie project whenever we want.
• Much of what I've said is associated with routine backups, so I want to say a word about those. We always need backups of our important projects. At the very least, we need to keep a copy on a separate drive. Drives fail.
Experts say that we need to back up our computers daily, and maintain three backup copies, called backup sets. We need two backup sets that we alternate every day or so, both stored on site. And a third backup set stored off-site. (Off-site because our beach house may burn down and the high tides caused by global warming may carry the ashes out to sea.)
Retrospect does an incremental backup for me each night, backing up all the Macs in the house. The on-site backup not being used by Retrospect is stored in a fireproof data safe — a fireproof paper safe isn't cool enough. The third backup set is stored in a safe deposit box at a bank. I rotate the bank set every month or so with one of the two in-house backup sets. The two in-house backup sets are rotated every few days.
For backup media I use "bare" drives connected to a Firewire "dock", like this ComboDock. The drives snap on/off in seconds.
http://www.wiebetech.com/products/ComboDock.php
• Some on-line retailers include Retrospect with the drives they sell.
Hope something here is useful.
Karl

How to burn dual layer iDVD image with Toast?

OK so I'm a bit of a Mac newbie, but I've bought some DVD+R DLs and tried to burn this project that's filled to the rim (7.7GB, 99 titles). OK, so there's encoding, right? But after that process (which you know takes FOREVER in my case), the MacBook pops the DVD out everytime without doing anything. It did not even burn a thing. So, I initially know about the "Save into DVD Image" option in the file menu and it's currently encoding. And as you may also know, there will definitely be a prompt stating that dual layered images aren't guaranteed to work. But I'm hopeless because I need this by Sunday March 9 (American time). Will anyone suggest a method of burning so that the image, when I dismount it, will work? Or rather, after burning with Toast which I have, make it work on a DVD player? I set the ratio to 4:3 just to fit all those titles and the brand of DVD+R DL I bought is, IMHO, a not-so popular brand in the US, nor in the Philippines, called Universal. But I don't think that this is a matter of brand choice by the MacBook's drive, though. Because it is read as a blank DVD disc, and that I have the various options dialog box thingy displayed.

I didn't have much luck in Roxio. Sigh. I guess this is gonna be a hit or miss situation.
But here's another question: If I put more "assets" into the other project I'm doing (because I'm gonna make the project encode in the background for the entirety of the day tomorrow since I'm out), will the encoding repeat?

IDVD and Toast . . .

I've finished an iDVD project, shot in HD. I want to burn it to a Blu-ray disk using Toast and a LaCie burner. Is that possible, and where do I start?

Roxio Toast is even easier to use than iDvd IMO. Toast 10 has ok menus but not nearly as nice as iDvd's motion menus. If you want to add Blu-ray functionality to your current version then you'll need to purchase the blu-ray plug in available from Roxio's web site for under $20. That's why I recommend the Pro version. However, the best place for questions and answers is via Roxio Forums.
http://forums.support.roxio.com/
Nevertheless I can say this and I quote from the link /web site below ... Toast 10 Titanium has the ability to copy and burn information to Blu-ray discs, while Toast 10 Titanium Pro adds the ability to burn HD video to Blu-ray via the High-Def/Blu-ray Disc plug-in ($19.99, included free with Toast 10 Titanium Pro).
http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/appletell-reviews-toast-10-titanium-stand ard-and-pro/
Hope this helps but if not just come on back. Here's another link you may want to review if you haven't already:
http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/pro/overview.html
Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software / products that may be mentioned in this topic. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information above at your own discretion.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

IDVD 5 & Toast Titanium 7

When I drag my iDVD file which ends with, ".dvdproj" into Toast, it tells me that this file is "an unsupported file format and cannot be imported."
How can I burn my iDVD projects with Toast?
It's faster to use Toast than it is to use anything else right?
I just burned a 7 minute DVD using iDVD and it took almost 2 hours. Does it take that long with Toast as well?
Thanks everyone.
Jameson

When I drag my iDVD file which ends with, ".dvdproj"
into Toast, it tells me that this file is "an
unsupported file format and cannot be imported."
A .dvdproj file is just that - a file that contains your iDVD project. It is NOT the final DVD with mpg-2 encoding. You must select File>Create disk image (or something like that)
How can I burn my iDVD projects with Toast?
You need to create a disk image (as above).
It's faster to use Toast than it is to use anything else right?
No
I just burned a 7 minute DVD using iDVD and it took
almost 2 hours. Does it take that long with Toast as
well?
When you create a DVD there are two processes involved. The first is encoding - and THIS is the really slow process. When you create a disk image file iDVD will do this encoding. The second is the actual burning to writable media. This is usually much faster than encoding.
Once you have created a disk image file, if you need multiple copies, you only need to go through through the burning process.
Apple's Disk Utility (free) and Roxio's Toast Titanium will BOTH allow you to burn a disk image to writable media. And both allow you to select a slow burn speed (like 4x or lower) - this is VERY important for best DVD compatability with players.
Roxio's Toast Titanium 6, 7 and 8 all use slightly different approaches to burning a disk image to writable media, so be sure to read the manual if you use Toast.
F Shippey

IDVD & Roxio Toast not working after APPLE-SA-2009-02-12 Security Update

After installing APPLE-SA-2009-02-12 Security Update 2009-001, iDVD and Roxio Toast will not work.
iDVD will launch, and I can create a project. It starts to render the video, but crashes before it starts to burn the disc.
Roxio Toast will not even launch.
Both applications were working perfectly and reliably before this update.
Anyone else found this problem?
Greg.

I re-installed the apps, and they're working now.
Greg.

How do I create a place for my family to log in and download the DVD I created in IDVD? Can this be done?

I have created a memorial DVD for my Mom who passed this year and would like to share it with family members. Can I somehow allow them to copy the IDVD I made--maybe in mobile me? If so, how do I set it up? Or could I email it to them? If so, how do I attach the DVD to the email? Thanks for all help.

There are many ways to produce slide shows using iPhoto, 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 6 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

How can I create an iDVD to play in a blue ray

I'm searching for the way to create a slide show on a disc that will play on both DVD and Blue-Ray players.

There are many ways to produce slide shows using iPhoto, 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

Idvd wont let me write dural layer dvd's?? Plz help

Im just finished my project from idvd it is a big slide show/ videos of my Great uncle that has recently passed away. The Project is 7 gig's I have a entry level macbook with out a super drive. I bought a lacie dvd burner and when i attach it to my computer it gives me the option for dural layer dvd burning but when i hit the burn button a message comes up saying it does not have enough space and it reverts back to 4.7 gigs. Even tho the project is 7 gig's it wont let me burn it.
Also is there anyway i can just throw the project i made on idvd to titanium toast because i have no problem burning dural layer dvds (dvd dl).
Any help would be greatly appreciated
-Nick

It sounds like you don't have enough free space on your hard drive. How much free space do you have on you internal hard drive? You need to have at least something like 15 GB - do you?
I just looked at your screen shot 'up close'. It appears you have about 36 minutes of content in your menus!!!
Rather than dropping an entire movie file in a menu button drop zone, edit the clip to about 30 seconds in iMovie and use the short clip!
Message was edited by: F Shippey

Photo Quality in iDVD

I work with still photos only. Want a slideshow that maintains photo image quality. iMovie coverts to video file & degrades the quality. Changed to FotoMagico. Maintains photo quality in slideshow & offers transitions, KB effect & title slides. It exports to iDVD or Roxio Toast to burn DVD. After the burn in iDVD, the images are distorted and the transition movements are very choppy. Is iDVD coverting this to video images, thereby degrading the photo quality? Is there a way to use iDVD and maintain quality? Would Toast be better? My goal is to produce a photographic quality "still photo" slideshow using transitions, KB, etc. I am selecting NTSC 4:3, best quality in both programs. Getting very frustrated trying to output the quality I can see on my display in a DVD...any suggestion?

Hi,
I feel like I am back at school...
1. I have the BETA version because when I tried to export or burn a DVD neither worked. They knew that was a problem & sent me the BETA fix. Now I can burn or export.
2. My problem is whatever I do with the burn results in loss of image quality. I have been corresponding with Werner at FotoMagico who has been very helpful. He says image quality from still photos which have been authored & burned can not maintain image quality the technology just doesn't exist unless I go to a pro DVD lab and have them work with compressions per frame. He specifically said it is due to limitations with the MPEG-2 stream, which is standard in DVD playback. The little I have read on this is over my head.
3. Right now I will forgo the idea of playback on a TV. Let's just deal with computer. When I burn to DVD as my option and it opens in iDVD it results in degraded images. I don't know what to select in iDVD and or FotoMagico to change this result or if it is even possible. I run a G5 with a 23" monitor, most current software on ALL prgrams. Picture files are digital froma Nikon D200 and a mix of negative and slides scanned in with a Nikon CoolScan 5000 and moved into iPhoto via the scanner or a transfer from Adobe. I am having the problem with all these types. What do you mean by resolution in iPhoto?
4. I transfer from FotoMagico to iDVD by selecting 'Burn DVD' and it opens to 'iDVD'. I have left all settings on FotoMagico and iDVD at default settings and Werner said that should be okay. FYI - I have tried changing slideshow setting from display reolution to 23" monitor to NTSC. Nothing seems to change image quality.
5. I would like at this point to be able to maintain image quality for transer in Quick time, upload to .MAC web account, etc. Help me there I am lost.
6. Someone on this discussion also suggested burning to iDVD using the data portion only of the DVD using disk utility. I need help there. Also will that reproduce sound or only the photos. I understand that TV's and DVD players will not accept this mode and that is okay until someone figures out a way to maintain image quality for TV w/o an expensive lab.
7. Werner said this is possible but they suggest copying the entire package (document as well as images and audio) and move it to iDVD or Toast. On the target devise install a FOtoMagico demo version & run it there. or if the target machine is not a Mac & FotoMagico can 't be nstalled there, you can export manually to a QuickTime movie by selecting 'export' frpm the File menu. Use 'HD preset or 'QuicltTime' & burn the resulting file to a DVD. My husband & I will work on this (with a tech if nec) and maybe you have some thoughts as well.
At the end of this I think I will know more about video and FPS and MPEg's than I ever intended. Oh well, a little knowledge never hurt anyone!
One last thing, what is a BETA for NTSC. I hate to bug Werner again without knowing what this is!

Why does iDVD '11 image quality suck so bad with a slideshow?

First of all, I have spent the last few days trolling forum after forum trying to understand the problem. It seems that for years and years people have been complaining about this issue and nobody ever gives a satisfactory answer.
Ok, I understand the difference between an HD 720p movie and a lower resolution DVD movie at 720/702x480 resolution. I get that. It means that the DVD version has to recalculate the lines using some interpolation algorithm. I can think of good and bad ways to do that myself - I am a software developer and an electrical engineer. I realize that a TV monitor is much bigger than a computer monitor and the lower resolution on a larger monitor won't look as good. What I am seeing goes well beyond that. I am seeing splotchy blacks, awful pixelation, moire effects in water and around just about any two parallel lines, and the occasional odd red-then-green-then-freeze frame.
Here is what I don't get: When I watch a commercial DVD on my TV, it does not look like crap. Sure, a Blu-Ray looks better, but a DVD is quite acceptable. When I watch the slideshow that I made in Aperture, assembled in iMovie, and wrote out as 720p, it looks terrific on my monitor. If I do it as 720 (Large) it also looks terrific. When I downgrade to 480p (the same resolution as a DVD), it looks fine as a .mov file. However, when I take any of these .mov files and go through iDVD to produce a DVD file, I get horrible results - it looks like I used old VHS footage that I had accidentally left in my microwave. Even changes in resolution of the input file seem to make no difference. Why is this?
I have tried using "Best Performance", "High Quality", and "Professional Quality". I would rather label them as "Lousy", "Lousy", and "Lousy". To my eye, they all look equally poor.
Is there file file format that I should be using rather than the default .mov format? .dv or .m4p? Is there some other setting I should be setting? Does the DVD media itself make a difference? I am using Kodak DVD+R media. I read somewhere that Verbatim DVD-R was the way to go. Is this true?
Finally, is there perhaps another route I should be exploring? I looked at DVD Studio Pro, but that is not affordable. I considered writing a Blu-Ray instead, but buying a burner and software is not worth it at this point. What about another app? Even on the PC, I am flexible.

There are many ways to produce slide shows using iPhoto, 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 6 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 8 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

IDVD 6 vs. Toast 7

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