Importing Images into IDVD for Slidshow

Question

I am at a loss as to what is the best image size, resolution size, etc. when it comes to importing images into IDVD. I usually size my prints
4 x 6 @ 300 dpi.. This looks fine in the slideshow preview. After I burn the dvd and view it, the images lose quality, etc..
Any help would be appreciated

Answer 1

What you're creating in iPhoto is a movie file that will get cut off in iDVD because of the TV over scan issue. Only stills imported and assembled into a slideshow in iDVD can be scaled to avoid the over scan.
So to get what you want you'll have to import the stills into iDVD from iPhoto and create the slideshow there.
If you have Quicktime Pro you can mask the QT movie with a black mask and cause the iPhoto QT movie to be scaled to the TV safe area. The steps are below. You'll have to experiment with the final sizes to get it exact:
Masking Movies to the TV Safe Area for iDVD
The mask should be 640 x 480 pixels and the movie at approx. 580 x 386 (I arrived at this figure by making a snapshot of the TV save area of an iDVD project with Snapz). You can set this size after you’ve joined it with the mask movie with Quicktime Player Pro.
Import the black mask jpg file into iMovie and and export it as a .mov file at the same length as your movie (there may be a way to not have to create a specific length mask for each movie but I haven't found it. If the times do not match the movie file will be synced to the length of the mask movie).
Open the mask movie in QT Player Pro and then open your regular movie and make it the front window of the two. Now you'll need to run a QT Player AppleScript titled "Merge Movie 1 into Movie 2". You can get it from this Apple site: Quicktime Player Scripts.
Then run the script. You can then run the merged movie to check it out. Your movie will be located in the upper lefthand corner of the window when played.
When you open the Movie Properties window from the Window menu for the combined file you’ll see the following:
Video Track 1: the black mask
Video Track 2 : you movie file
Tween track: Have no idea what this is.
Sound track: self explanaotry
Black mask.
To set the size of your movie to the correct size select it in the Properties window and click on Visual Settings pane. Then enter 580 in the first field and hit enter. With the Preserve Aspect Ration box checked the other size will automatically be set.
To center the video track in the center of the mask select the Video Track 2 item and plug in a offset of about: 70 & 45. You'll probably have to play with that to fine tune the centering. Doing the math and subtracting the movie dimensions from the mask dimensions and dividing by two just didn't get it perfectly centered bit with a little eyeballing and trial and error it got there.
Now save as a new self contained movie after checking the High Quality box at the bottom right.
You can now import it into iDVD for preview and burning. One drawback is that you can't invoke the TV save area for a movie in iDVD to check it out. But you can mark it on the monitor screen while viewing a menu or slideshow and then play the movie to see how close you came. I found that the size was still a little under the TV safe area when burned and played on my TV. It may be the difference in normal CRT screens and flat screens, etc.