Slideshow quality in iDVD?

Hi all
I've read most of the posts I can find on the problems with poor quality slideshows after burning with iDVD and I think I'm clear on the reasons why, (quicktime) and the current state of affairs re enhancement (deal with it - thats how it is...).
My question is whether there is other software available that can do this better? Presumably DVD studio pro would make no difference as the slideshow would still have to go through quicktime. And before anyone says anything, doing the slideshow in imovie is equally poor quality, and less versatile. Simply allowing us to export the slideshow as a .mpg not .mov would give a **** of a lot more versatility.
Iphoto slideshows are excellent, but apple has a knack of being classy only if you enjoy it on the machine that it was created. Too often apple media is un-versatile and un-helpful.
(still reeling from having to purchase quicktime pro when it clearly should be bundled anyway - what a waste of money. "Powerhouse media authoring"...!! I don't know how to get across my incredulous, hollow laughter with text..
yours, hoping for a reply
H

Thomas
Thank for the info - its very useful to know.
I'm making a slide show in iPhoto. I don't know what sort of engine iPhoto uses to present its slideshows but it looks great. In order to burn a DVD of the slide show you've created you can either click 'send to iDVD' in iPhoto or you can open iDVD and insert it as you would with any movie or audio. Your only other option if you've created your slideshow in iPhoto is to use the 'export' function which is basically what happens when you click 'send to iDVD' - it saves your slideshow as a quicktime.mov file. which you can then drag and drop in iDVD.
I'm fairly savvy about my computer (i'm only a user but i'm not a total fool) and I certainly have no problems with trying to find other ways round this, downloading software, even spending more cash - I realise that computers can't just do anything we want, that there are incredibly complex things happening etc etc...
I guess my gripe is that the whole process seems to be so perfectly set up; you do the slideshow, you send it to iDVD (all the while thinking what a wonderful machine this is) you burn the DVD, and all of a sudden the results are awful - I mean awful! It seems a bit cheeky - the application almost wants you to burn a DVD of your slideshow and yet the results are like something from 1986.
Am I fighting a losing battle? Was this machine never designed to burn acceptable quality DVDs, just joke, toy ones for kids?
Sorry, getting carried away.. I know iDVD can produce much better quality still image slideshows but no KB effect, no different timings or transitions - its kind of the point.
By the way I'm in england. Not sure what the TV protocols are.

Similar Messages

Slideshow Quality to iDVD

Hello,
could anyone offer any advice on sharing slideshows to iDVD?
The basic question is how to retain optimum quality from original photograph to slideshow to eventual burn on to iDVD.

N H H:
If you use iMovie HD 6 (in my opinion much better than the current version and available to users who have iLife 08) let me suggest the following work flow:
1 - after you're satisfied with the movie slideshow save and quit iMovie.
2 - open iDVD, select your theme and create a slideshow by clicking on the "+" button at the bottom.
3 - open that slideshow and drag your iMovie project file into it.
4 - complete the iDVD project and save as a disk image to preview with DVD Player before burning with Disk Utility at the slowest possible speed.
This lets iDVD do the rendering of the movie thus saving a second compression of the movie, first iMovie's and then iDVDs. This also lets iDVD scale the movie to the TV Safe Area so none of it is lost to TV overscan when played on CRT TV sets as seen here.
As far as burning it's strongly recommended in the iDVD forum to use Verbatim-R disks and burn at the slowest speed possible. This will give you the best possible quality finished product.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) 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 created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), 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. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Not happy with slideshows / Ken Burns effects / lesser quality in iDVD

I am a new iPhoto user, having created my first slideshow of old photos to play at my mother's 80th birthday party this week. The whole process of arranging photos, testing visual effects and adding music went swimmingly! BUT (!!!!) I am hugely disappointed now that I've rendered the show through iDVD.
-- The Ken Burns effects keep changing! Once a slideshow was created and the Burns effects seemed perfect, I sent that show to iDVD. But viewing the project once burned to DVD, I see that the cropping, zooming, etc. are all different. Is there a way to "save" a show and maintain the effects?
-- Moreover, the crystal clear image sharpness and clean edges seen when viewing a slideshow in iPhoto are "dumbed down" once the show is sent to and rendered in iDVD. Even at the "quality" setting, moving effects look raggedy-edged. This really makes me unhappy.
Any thoughts or ideas to share on this? Thanks.....

SixPack:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. As TD pointed out, making a QT movie file of a slideshow involves rendering which is then encoded once again in iDVD. IMO, the best image quality for a slideshow is obtained when you create the slideshow entirely within iDVD. Of course there's no KB effect.
If you create the show in iMovie you can get around the double encoding by closing iMovie once the slideshow is finished. Then open the iMovie project file/package (Option-click on the project file and select Show Package Contents option), find the iDVD folder and drag the .mov file in it into the open iDVD window. This will let iDVD do the rendering of the various transitions and special effects and provide a better final product.
You must remember that iDVD's final resolution is only 640 x 480.
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 (requires Tiger), 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.

Why does my photo slideshow quality deteriorate when exported to iDVD?

I have a client whose photos look great in iPhoto & iMovie, but look all pixelated when exported to iDVD. I've tried making a slideshow directly with iDVD, but the photos still look worse than they did in the iPhoto slideshow.
The size of the photos is pretty large (as big as 5233 x 3546), which I'm guessing might be part of the problem, so I tried exporting them from iPhoto with a limitation of 720 x 540, but they still look bad. I expect a decrease in quality once I burn the DVD, but these look bad even in the DVD preview.
Any ideas?

All DVD slideshows are defaulted to 640 x 480 pixels. That's the standard. As long as the photos are in the 4:3 dimension ratio you can leave them at their fullest size. You can try using the Pro Quailty encoding to get better quality images. IMO the best image quality is obtained by creating the slideshow in iDVD from still photos. You don't get the Ken Burns effect, but in my opinion it's a bit over used too many time.
If you are creating your slideshow in iMovie then try the following.
1 - when your slideshow is how you want it quit iMovie.
2 - open iDVD, create a slideshow and open the slideshow edit mode.
3 - drag the iMovie project file into the slideshow pane on the left. (NOTE: this lets iDVD scale the movie file to the TV safe area when played on CRT TV sets.)
This also lets iDVD do the encoding for the iMovie assets and avoids two compressions, one by iMovie when you export to iDVD and the iDVD encoding.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) 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 created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), 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. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.≤br>
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

IDVD slideshow quality

I've read through several of the posts on slideshow quality and think I understand some of the basic problems with transferring slideshows to DVD for viewing on a TV but hoped someone might have a few additional suggestions...
I have been trying to get a nice slideshow put together with FotoMagico. I like the program features and interface (although their support leaves something to be desired). Like others, I'm just not satisfied with the results. I'm using old scanned b/w photos, scanned at 600-dpi in TIF format. I tried a variety of export settings. The Quicktime (.mov) is always very good but once iDVD does its conversions and burns the final product often its just bad.
My intention was that the slideshow have an 'old photo album' quality so I wanted to zoom up from a smaller image on black background to full screen (or vise versa) over a 10 second span. Many of these are particularly bad - lots of flicker or jitter - as well as murky detail in smaller view. Stripes, steps and bricks have become evil things to me. Even the titles on black background title pages are very murky, even at a reasonably large font - in fact the watermark that shows up on their demo version is really terrible on a DVD burned for TV. On the other hand, full screen shots of the same images that are zoomed in on a little further seem pretty good. My question is this: is there something in the conversion that is screwing up because of all the black background on the smaller view of the images?
Also a random thought... when recording a TV show to a home DVD recorder the images, though not as good as the original broadcast, are really quite good. And even small titles and text scrolling across the screen are easily read, while corresponding font sizes on my slideshows would be completely unreadable... and I do mean completely. Notwithstanding all that has been written on the forums about NTSC and television limitations, what gives?

I did get a small marginal improvement with the
DVCPRO setting. I couldn't find any gamma settings.
No, I had to batch gamma adjust my images with another program (Equlibrium's DeBabelizer although Photoshop could also have been used).
Once again, my biggest problem is with old b/w photo
scans. Certain photos are clearly worse than others.
More recent color photos appear to be much better. My
biggest problem is being fairly new at this and not
having anyone that can look at a DVD I've done and
tell me "yes, that's as good as you'll get" or "no,
something is wrong".
The best way to learn is by experimenting. You need to take a few or your problem images and try adjusting ther contrast to different levels and creating a disk image out of iDVD. Keep notes and see which images look the best.
I'm stuck in neutral trying to
find a (possibly non-existent) solution rather than
giving up and using more full screen shots, less zoom
& pan, stills, etc.
It's possible you expecitations might be too high.
Were you able to set the quality level to 'Best' in the custom settings in FotoMagico after you selected DV/DVCPRO?
Finally, back to my random thought on the TV and home
recorder, as I said television recordings of grainy,
old movies on a cheap home recorder are MUCH superior
to anything I can get with this slide show. Movement
is smooth, titles are quite readable where mine is
flickery, jerky & fuzzy. Is it actually that the big
problem is the conversion to Quicktime/.mov file. And
that although the .mov file looks fine when played
back on a computer, there is already so much loss of
image at that point, that the conversion that iDVD is
doing just is amplifying an already insurmountable
degradation of the images?
What does the quality of the DV QuickTime movie you create look like on your computer screen?
Did your FotoMagico custom setting screen look like this: http://homepage.mac.com/prof_pixel/FotoMagico.jpg

Crappy quality in iDVD...

I tried to make a DVD containing some pics and a movie, all from our holiday. But the quality of the final product, especially the pics, was really bad... The pics didnt scale out on all the tv-screen neighter. Its better to just show them from the PS3...
Why is this? Anyone?

Hi
Yes that's a correct observation and due to many things
• DVD is as standard only - Interlaced SD-Video when at it's best (whatever DVD authoring program used)
• Feeding iDVD - HD or Progressive material will not give a better result - but a worse one as Downscaling is done badly
• Feeding iDVD alient Video-Codecs - also can result in bad DVDs or other strange Errors
• Using iMovie'08 to 11 - will be even more degrading as when material goes from Event's to Project's it drop every second line - resulting in a big quality loss and this can not be repaired on Export (any way chosen)
But by assembling the SlideShow in
• iMovie HD6 - or -
• FinalCut any version
• FotoMagico™
Will keep 100% Interlaced SD-Video quality over to iDVD
And if Higher quality is of need then
• Blu-Ray
• Or as You do - USB-memory ---> PlayStation3 - The way I do too
• OR I use my MacBook and connect this to HD-TV or Projector
Else
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1) and iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST (but not always for short movies e.g. up to 45 minutes in total)
• Best Performances
(movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD (Can be best for short movies)
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6)
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
Menu can take 15 minutes or even more - I use a very simple one with no audio or animation like ”Brushed Metal” in old Themes.
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos and the Ken Burns effect NOT is used. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly e.g. x4 or x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application when burning from a DiskImage.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc). For SD-Video - if HD-material is used I guess that 4 to 5 times more would do.
5. I use Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. I use DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW) - DVD-R play’s on more and older DVD-Players
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
(I use JES_Deinterlacer to keep frame per sec. same from editing to the Video-DVD result.)
8. Don’t burn more than three DVDs at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• DVD is a standard in it self. It is Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
HD-DVD was a short-lived standard and it was only a few Toshiba DVD-players that could playback.
These DVDs could be made in DVD-Studio Pro. But they don’t playback on any other standard DVD-Player.
Blu-Ray / BD can be coded onto DVDs but limited in time to - about 20-30 minutes and then need
_ Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl. BD-component
_ BD disks and burner if full length movies are to be stored
_ BD-Player or PlayStation3 - to be able to playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed IF Mac also have Roxio DVD-player tool. Not on any standard Mac or DVD-player
Full BD-disks needs a BD-player (in Mac) as they need blue-laser to be read. No red-laser can do this.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx. 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• How it was recorded - Tripod vs Handheld Camera. A stable picture will give a much higher quality
• Audio is most often more critical than picture. Bad audio and with dropouts usually results in a non-viewed movie.
• Use of Video-editor. iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not the tools for DVD-production. They discard every second line resulting in a close to VHS-tape quality.
iMovie 1 to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers same quality as Camera record in = 100% to iDVD
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are play-backed by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choice before Pro Quality)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
(x4 by some and may be even better)
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
unclemano wrote
What it turned out to be was the "quality" settings in iDVD. The total clip time was NOT over 2 hours or 4.7GB, yet iDVD created massive visual artifacts on the "professional quality" setting.
I switched the settings to "high quality" which solved the problem. According iDVD help, "high quality" determines the best bit rate for the clips you have.
I have NEVER seen iDVD do this before, especially when I was under the 2 hour and 4.7GB limits.
For anyone else, there seem to be 2 places in iDVD to set quality settings, the first is under "preferences" and the second under "project info." They do NOT seem to be linked (i.e. if you change one, the other is NOT changed). take care, Mario
to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
Try to break the process up into two stages
• Save as a DiskImage (calculating part)
• Burn from this .img file (burning stage)
To isolate where the problem starts.
Another thing is - Playing it onto a Blu-Ray Player. My PlayStation3 can play BD-disks but not all of my home made DVDs so to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround e.g. Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• Move hard disks that are not to be used to Trash - To be disconnected/turned off
• Goto Spotlight and set the rest of them under Integrity (not to be scanned)
• Set screen-saver to a folder without any photo - then make an active corner (up right for me) and set
pointer to this - turns on screen saver - to show that it has nothing to show
• No File Vault on - Important
• NO - TimeMachine - during iMovie/iDVD work either ! IMPORTANT
• Lot's of icons on DeskTop/Finder also slows down the Mac noticeably
• Start a new User-Account and log into this and iMovie get's faster too - if a project is in a hurry
• And let Mac run on Mains - not just on battery
Yours Bengt W

Increasing quality in iDVD?

hello.
is there any way to increase the quality of an iMovie project compression through iDVD? the resulting iDVD projects have a terrible quality! iDVD simply ruins all the crispiness and clarity achieved in iMovie. any solution to this, please?

iDVD does an excellent job in compressing video, using an extremely high bitrate of 8kB/sec (just a few bits under standard's max) for projects <60min.
losing quality means, something went wrong while IMPORT... iDVD expects "dv" files, as from iM using "share"/or simply dropping iM projects onto iDVD. and for pics/stills/slideshows, the rule is, not to let iM do the job of rendering...
any other formats could be used for creating a videoDVD, but are mostly lossy... e.g. importing a nice h264... which is for playback only, not DVDs...
dv is highest possible quality on consumer level, same as on miniDV tapes... ~13GB of data per hour...
iDVD is a consumer product... no manually settings of bitrates, b/i/p-frames, GOPs, ... quality is slightly better with "best performance" (=VBR)
helpful?

Resolution (ppi) impact in quality on iDVD

I am creating slideshows of family photos. I scan the photos into Photoshop at a resolution of 300ppi. However, many of the photos sent to me by family members from their cameras and over the internet come in at a resolution of 72ppi. If I increase the resolution either the file size decreases dramatically or the quality decreases. How much impact does the resolution have in quality on iDVD - i.e. will the pictures at 72ppi look worse, better or the same as those at 300ppi?

Any images get "dumbed-down" in iDVD. And they will probably look bad to you once they are encoded and put on a DVD and viewed on an LCD screen. So you'll need to see what works for you.
From iDVD '08 Help:
*Preparing images for iDVD slideshows*
You can use photos, movies, presentation slides (created in a program such as Keynote), or other image files in a slideshow created in iDVD. iDVD works with any image file that is supported by QuickTime (including PICT, JPEG, TIFF, and PDF.) You can also use photos directly from your iPhoto library.
Images and movies in a slideshow are scaled to fit the standard DVD window size, but the aspect ratio is preserved. For example, a picture taken vertically (also known as “portrait format”) may have black bands on either side of it to fill out the screen. If you want an image to fit the DVD window exactly, use an image-editing application to resize the image before bringing it into iDVD. (It is not possible to resize movies.) Resize to these dimensions:
◼
720 x 540 pixels for standard video in NTSC format
◼
854 x 480 pixels for widescreen in NTSC format
◼
768 x 576 pixels for standard video in PAL format
◼
1024 x 576 pixels for widescreen in PAL format
You can also make sure images in iDVD are always scaled to a size that will fit within the area visible on most TV screens, or the “TV safe area.”
*To fit slides into the TV safe area:*
Choose iDVD > Preferences.
Click Slideshow.
Select the checkbox labeled “Always scale slides to TV Safe Area.

Slideshow Quality - Better to use iMovie first?

Or would it be better to make the slideshow directly in iDVD?
I understand that video quality would/might be better if I use iMovie 6 HD for my DV footage. Does this matter for a slideshow, or are iM 6 and iM 9 the same in this regard.
Just want pretty slides on DVD.

I come from the video end and I feel that it's best to import video into a video application and stills into a stills application. If you import the video into Apeerture you still have to get it into FCP. You then drag the video into FCP to edit it. You're doubling up the file, because FCP will want it in the event folder not the Aperture library. When you drag a still into FCP it will remain linked to the Aperture library. Currently FCP imports the JPEG thumbnail from Aperture not the RAW file BTW. If you want the RAW image you have to export it from Aperture and bring it into FCP.

?Optimal Photoshop settings for slideshow-iMovie then iDVD

I know that there are many posts about file size and pixel size for optimizing photos prior to importing into iMovie or iDVD. I have read many of them, including many of them by Karl Petersen, but have been disappointed by the quality of the photos when viewed on the final DVD on my television. The problem I have it that almost ALL of my photos are portrait style and not landscape. A lot of the discussions center around avoiding pillarboxes, which I cannot avoid with vertical pictures
All of the photos are shot RAW on a Nikon D70 and imported into Photoshop.
Can anyone make recommendations on the optimal photoshop settings for creating the files to import for a slideshow in iDVD.
Specifically, in Photoshop, for vertically oriented pictures, what would be the recommendation for:
1) File size and best way to control that in Photoshop. Should I increase the file size on the original RAW image import? (I currently use the 2000x3008 6MP default)
2) Should each photo be cropped to an exact size or can I keep a specific aspect ratio instead?
3) Should I use a pixel aspect ratio other than normal? (These will all be viewed in the US )
4) Should the photos be imported into iMovie first and go through KB (even with no zooming) or can they go into iDVD?
Many Thanks!!!
Dual 1.42 MHz G4, 2 GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7) iMovieHD 6.0.2, iDVD 6.0.2

Since posting the test I suggested you run, Alesse, I've done some testing of my own, with some interesting results. They aren't going to help you much, I'm afraid, but they might shed some light on the whole process of making slideshows.
I do everything I can to maximize image quality in iMovie slideshows. Then I've wondered what affect iDVD has on the result.
So today I played the same slideshow from three sources. One version from the camera, one version from iDVD and one version from a Digital Video Recorder (DVR).
First I created a slideshow where the same photos were imported four different ways, each as a four 4-second clip. The test used rather simple photos, 1600x1200 jpegs, about 500k each, from an old Nikon Coolpix 950.
The images were delivered to the iMovie four ways:
1) I imported the sequence of images into QuickTime Player, then saved that as two DV streams, one Progressive and one Interlaced. These were dropped into the Media folder as described above. iMovie "adopted" them when I re-opened the project. (They were NOT imported by iMovie.)
2) I imported the same images with Ken Burns ON (but with no animation); and
3) I imported the same images with Ken Burns OFF.
The four clips of each image were arranged side-by-side on the Timeline, so I could easily compare their quality while played on the TV.
(The images were selected to include those that are easy to encode by iDVD and images difficult to encode — having lots of high-contrast lines like roof lines, lap-siding on buildings, telephone lines, the kind of content that tends to acquire the "jaggies". I avoided the bug where iMovie adds jaggies if you grant it permission to render UNrendered images as you export the project to iDVD or to the camera.)
I wanted to compare the quality of three kinds of slideshows:
1) the slideshow played from the camera;
2) the slideshow burned by iDVD and
3) the slideshow burned by a standalone DVR.
To make the three slideshows, I did this:
1) used iDVD to burn a DVD of the iMovie project;
2) exported the iMovie slideshow project back to the camera; and
3) connected the camera to a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) and burned a DVD on the DVR. This was so I could compare the quality of iDVD to a DVR recording.
Then I connected the camera to the TV so I could compare it, in turn, to each of the DVDs. Because each image played for a total of 16 seconds, I was able to play both the DVD and the camera simultaneously and switch the TV back and forth between the two inputs to compare the image quality of the camera to a DVD.
RESULT
• The camera image was superior in all respects to both the DVDs, as one would expect. Considerably better. There were virtually no jaggies. Subtler colors. Less contrast. iMovie 6 was obviously delivering the goods. Great quality, on every clip.
• At first I thought the DVR image was better than the iDVD image, but reconsidered that later. Each had its own positive qualities. There was little difference. Each was slightly better in some respects than the other, worse in others. It was basically a wash. Both had about the same amount of jaggies, sometimes in different places.
• Another interesting result was that all the clips — from all four sources — played basically the same on the camera and on the two DVDs. There was very little difference among the four import methods. (I expected more difference.)
• There WAS an obvious difference among clips played in iMovie, however. The DV stream exported as a DV Progressive movie displayed with better quality in iMovie itself. The difference wasn't huge, but it was sharper, more "life-like".
• It is obvious that encoding an iMovie project to the MPEG-2 format used by a DVD — whether by iDVD or by a DVR — sacrifices quality. You won't notice it much on some images — flowers, faces, landscapes — but you will see jaggies on others.
• When the test was over, I watched a DVD slideshow of the same images I had burned a few weeks ago containing three iMovie widescreen formats: DV Widescreen, 720p, and 1080i. It was a close call, but I think they were all slightly better than the DV slideshow. Some images, especially, were better.
CONCLUSIONS
If you want the best playback quality possible, use the camcorder to play the slideshow on the TV, not a DVD.
To avoid the jaggies, it may be necessary to avoid certain photos. It's hard to tell which those are until you play the DVD on a TV. Plan to burn a DVD, then purge the images that acquire bad jaggies and burn it again.
Softening the TV picture can help. My TV offers a tremendous range of sharpness, a feature common to new TVs.
• My guess is that until we can burn Hi-Def DVDs, our huger and huger TVs are going to make the problem of DVD quality worser and worser. My slideshows would probably all look great on yesterday's "huge" 20" TV.
• I don't have DVD Studio Pro to test. Perhaps someone can compare that too?
Anyway, I hope something here helps.
Karl

How to improve Slideshow quality?

Hi,
I've 'shared' an iPhoto slideshow into iDVD to create the main part of a DVD. But the quality is poor / low res. I've got the DVD set to 'Professional Quality' and also to widescreen, but even on a 13" MacBook it presents quite low res and hence soft.
How do i extract the slideshow from iPhoto into iDVD at the same res / 1080p res?
TIA
Bill

Hi Bill
How do i extract the slideshow from iPhoto into iDVD at the same res / 1080p res?
You don't - and there are several reasons to this. But one can get better result than what You've got now.
a. DVD is as standard only SD-Video - no matter what program used. iDVD, DVD-Studio Pro or Roxio Toast™
b. Share to iDVD - give a less quality than "Share to Media Browser" and as Large (Not HD or other res.)
c. iMovie'08 or 09 or 11 - are not tools of choice. iMovie HD6 or FinalCut or FotoMagico™ are.
(they iM'08-11 - discard every second line = less resolution)
My notes on DVD-Quality
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1)
iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality (movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST
• Best Performances (movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6) (movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly eg x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc).
5. I use Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. I use DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW)
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
8. Don’t burn more than three DVD at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• DVD is a standard in it self. It is Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
HD-DVD was a short-lived standard and it was only a few Toshiba DVD-players that could playback.
These DVDs could be made in DVD-Studio Pro. But they don’t playback on any other standard DVD-layer.
Blu-Ray / BD can be coded onto DVDs but limited in time to - about 20-30 minutes and then need
_ Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl. BD-component
_ BD disks and burner if full length movies are to be stored
_ BD-Player or PlayStation3 - to be able to playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed IF Mac also have Roxio DVD-player tool. Not on any standard Mac or DVD-player
Full BD-disks needs a BD-player (in Mac) as they need blue-laser to be read. No red-laser can do this.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx. 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• How it was recorded - Tripod vs Handheld Camera. A stable picture will give a much higher quality
• Audio is most often more critical than picture. Bad audio and with dropouts usually results in a non-viewed movie.
• Use of Video-editor. iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not the tools for DVD-production. They discard every second line resulting in a close to VHS-tape quality.
iMovie 1 to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers same quality as Camera record in = 100% to iDVD
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are play-backed by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choice before Pro Quality)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
(x4 by some and may be even better)
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
unclemano wrote
What it turned out to be was the "quality" settings in iDVD. The total clip time was NOT over 2 hours or 4.7GB, yet iDVD created massive visual artifacts on the "professional quality" setting.
I switched the settings to "high quality" which solved the problem. According iDVD help, "high quality" determines the best bit rate for the clips you have.
I have NEVER seen iDVD do this before, especially when I was under the 2 hour and 4.7GB limits.
For anyone else, there seem to be 2 places in iDVD to set quality settings, the first is under "preferences" and the second under "project info." They do NOT seem to be linked (i.e. if you change one, the other is NOT changed). take care, Mario
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround eg Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• Move hard disks that are not to be used to Trash - To be disconnected/turned off
• Goto Spotlight and set the rest of them under Integrity (not to be scanned)
• Set screen-saver to a folder without any photo - then make an active corner (up right for me) and set
pointer to this - turns on screen saver - to show that it has nothing to show
Yours Bengt W

How do I save a slideshow made in iDVD to a different video format.

How can I convert a slideshow made in iDVD to one of these video formats: 3g2, 3gp, 3gp2, 3gpp, 3p, asf, avi, divx, dv, dvx, flv, moov, mov, mp4, mpeg4, mpg4, mpe, mpeg, mpg, qt, wmv, xvid so I can download into photobucket.
Thanks!

Did you start your slideshow in iMovie? I do....from there I send it to iDVD, but if I want to do something else with it, before I send it to iDVD, I simply export it from iMovie. That creates a .mov.
If you have the Video TS folder that is on a DVD, Streamclip can extract it. Another option is to use Quicktime Pro to convert your .mov to whatever.....if you want WMV, use the studio version of Flip4Mac.

Poor iMovieHD quality in iDVD

I have an iMovie (iLife 05) composed of still photos and music. When I share it to iDVD and burn the DVD on my LaCie burner the quality is poor when it is played back on a DVD player. When I save the movie to Quality using expert settings, the quality is excellent. Is there any way I can get Quicktime quality using iDVD?

Hello, wmas,
Welcome to the discussions.
How are you getting your iMovie into iDVD? Are you using the 'Create DVD' button from within iMovie?
If so, try closing iMovie, launching iDVD, deleting your movie from iDVD (if you want to use the same theme) or making a new iDVD project. Then, use the 'custom' tab to navigate to 'media' then to 'movies.' You should see your movie in that panel as one of your choices. Just drag and drop it into the iDVD screen and see if the resultant DVD is of better quality.
IMovie does some rendering when it sends the movie to iDVD, and it can render some of the still photos in a way that you do not want.
Try this and see if it helps.
Post back if the images are still poor.

How to get best picture quality using iDVD to burn a movie from iMovie?

I would appreciate any guidance on options to choose and approaches such that I get the best picture quality when I view an iMovie product on a wide screen HD TV using a DVD burned with iDVD. Choose wide screen or standard format in iMovie? Best Performance or Prof. Quality in iDVD? ...

Good Morning,
My computer is using Snow Leopard 10.6.5 and has ilife 09 installed on an imac. I have been reading it is better to use imovie 06. When I tried to do a custom install from the 06 disk imovie and idvd were grayed out but had a checkmark. It would not let me deselect idvd. Not really knowing how to do this I quite the process. Can you or someone please advise me on how and what exactly to do in order to accomplish a custom install of imovie 06? Should I delete imovie 09 first? If so how is this accomplished. Perhaps it would be less complicated to purchase photo to movie? Really do not want to spend unless it is necessary since I only know a little about what I'm doing but enough to be dangerous to my computer
Thanks,
reverseimage

Poor Image quality/Slideshow/iMovie to iDVD

I placed about 150 jpegs as clips in iMovie HD (v.5.0.2). I made them all 3.25 seconds long and gave them all a short overlap transition. I set them to music and exported to iDVD (v.5.0.1). Once the DVD was burned, I viewed it with disappointment. Briefly, during the transitions the images are of great quality. But the actual image clips are very poor quality. I'm new to this and I find all the many options for making quicktime movies a little overwhelming. But, exporting to iDVD doesn't have any options. I thought it was supposed to maintain the quality.
What did I do wrong or what can I do right?

Karl Peterson said,
"If there are unrendered clips in the Timeline when we tell iMovie to Share (Export) a project to iDVD, iMovie will ask permission to render those clips. (Rendering converts the clips to video clips.)
These may include still photos, photos imported with the Ken Burns checkbox turned OFF. Photos imported with the Ken Burns checkbox ON are rendered by Ken Burns; iMovie won't ask to render them again.
If we grant permission to render clips, iMovie will render them with very poor quality, adding lots of "jaggies" to the photos. It's a bug.
To avoid the bug, do NOT grant permission to render when iMovie asks. Then iDVD will render them for us, which it does with good quality.
So, to avoid the bug do any ONE of these:
1. Import all photos with the Ken Burns checkbox ON.
2. If iMovie asks permission to render when exporting the project, do NOT grant permission.
3. Instead of sharing from iMovie to iDVD, drop the iMovie project into the iDVD project window.
Karl"

Slideshow quality in iDVD?

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