Imported slide shows in Final Cut Express are poor quality

I just bought Final Cut Express (so it's the latest). I know this problem isn't unique to Final Cut, but when I import a slide show created in iPhoto or Fotomagico into Final Cut (or into iMovie HD, for that matter), the quality is poor. What I am trying to do is to create a movie that integrates a slide show with video, and output it to a DVD. The slide show uses "Ken Burns Effect."
I have tried outputting the finished slide show in various formats (m4v, dv) to try to improve quality, to no avail. This is even before the movie is outputted to a DVD- it's just viewing the rendered product on-screen. I'm guessing that the output from the slide show apps is compressed, then recompressed when rendered in Final Cut.
For a small upgrade price, Fotomagico has an HD output option. Would that improve things or is that the wrong tack to take? How do professionals do this sort of thing? How might I do it?

Slides never look as good on TV because you are drastically reducing the original size of probably 1920x1200 to around 720x576 which ruins the quality.
Furthermore, the fine detail is likely to jitter and shimmer due to interlacing artifacts.
You can reduce the jitter with the De-interlace filter but it will do nothing for the sharpness.
The only way you can get high quality is to produce your video in high definition and play it back on an HDTV.
Having said that, I routinely apply the de-interlace filter to all my slides and when played back on my HDTV the standard definition looks remarkably good. (But they look much worse on a CRT TV.)

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