Slide Shows iDVD 6 And the winner is ?

Question

Ok, I'm still tryin'. Here's what I want to do with my Mac. I want to make a DVD to view on a standard Sony TV played with a Sony DVD player. I want it to look GOOD. No image flicker AND NO SOFT Images !
I've been asked in the past, "are your expectations to high" ? My answer to that is, the software makers are saying that their slide making software is great BUT in fact, they just can't get the job done. Some one needs to tell the truth about making slide shows with computers...
Ok, what do the "big boys" use when they take a OLD black & white OR color image and use it in a TV special ? Most likely NOT iPhoto, iMovie, OR iDVD. Bow to the Ken Burns effect ? I've used it and my shows do NOT ever look as good as a Ken Burns TV special. What's his secret ? Once again, WHAT DO THE PRO's USE ?
I've been told by "the Mac pro's" to soften my problem images in photoshop first. That totally defeats the purpose. If you can't make your images look sharp and without flicker as a slide show, why bother with it in the first
place ?

Answer 1

Ok, what do the "big boys" use when they take a OLD black & white OR color image and use it in a TV special ? Most likely NOT iPhoto, iMovie, OR iDVD. Bow to the Ken Burns effect ? I've used it and my shows do NOT ever look as good as a Ken Burns TV special. What's his secret ? Once again, WHAT DO THE PRO's USE ?
They use expensive, multi-pass hardware encoders (which includes the necessary low-pass filters to eliminate interlace flicker effects).
I've been told by "the Mac pro's" to soften my problem images in photoshop first. That totally defeats the purpose.
Here we go again. Sharpness that causes interlacing flicker problems is not useful sharpness.
All digital images have high-frequency information removed before capture. Take a look at the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist–Shannonsamplingtheorem. To include such sharpness information in the capture process would cause severe artifacts in the resultant digital image.
First and foremost, NTSC/PAL TV are NOT a 'sharp' systems by today's computer display standards - remember NTSC has less than 640x480 pixel resolution and is interlaced. Sharpness information that causes a difference in the odd field and even field that make up a complete interlaced frame image will cause flicker as the two fields switch back and forth. The ONLY way to eliminate the flicker is to eliminate the 'problem' sharpness. PERIOD
If you can't make your images look sharp and without flicker as a slide show, why bother with it in the first place ?
I think you are dealing with the issue on a 'gut' level - 'loss of sharpness is bad'. But with digital images, this isn't realy true. Image sharpness is only useful of it can be accurately reproduced in the final digital image.
I don't know what else to tell you. There isn't any 'magic bullet'. As I told you earlier, I liked the results I achieved with some slideshows put together with FotoMagico better than some slideshows I put together with iMovie or iDVD. Other people like Photo to Movie. However, still image slideshows put together with either of these two non-Apple applications will still exhibit interlace flicker. There is no free lunch when we are dealing with an interlaced system!
Things will only get better when we no longer have to deal with interlaced video images. Sorry.
F Shippey