Sorting order of pictures from Aperture in an iPod slideshow

Question

I've recently got a video iPod and have transferred all my photos to it from Aperture. I found that it was necessary to create an album for every project in my Aperture library in order for the projects to show up on the iPod.
Having got all my projects (as albums) listed on the iPod, I want to be able to view them as slideshows. However, there's been a 'scattering effect' in the sorting of all the pictures in each album: overall, they're broadly in the correct order, but many pictures have been scattered out of the order they're supposed to be in.
For example, in one particular album, which is of a two-day shoot, the pictures are broadly chronological on the iPod but many pictures are out of sequence. Sometimes they're displaced just a few positions from where they should be. Sometimes they're on completely the wrong day (e.g. a handful of day 1 shots are intermingled with the day 2 pictures). It's easy to see that the ordering is wrong by looking at the 5x5 album preview on the iPod, and of course the slideshow reflects that order.
My photos are all dated correctly (in terms of Mac datestamp and EXIF image data), and they're named sequentially (in the form "### image name.jpg", where ### is a three-digit number starting from 001). In Aperture, the pictures are set to be ordered by filename, and they do appear in the right order there, but once they've made it across to the iPod they're out of sequence. I can't see any reason for the new iPod ordering: it seems entirely arbitrary, yet it's the same after every synch, and it doesn't correspond to any setting I can make in Aperture as far as I can see.
My iPod's date setting is correct and the 'shuffle slideshow' option is turned off. (Though I don't think that either fact is relevant - especially not 'shuffle', as the pictures are clearly in the wrong order in the album previews and the slideshow just reflects that ordering.)
I want and need my pictures to be in their correct numerical/chronological sequence. If they're in the wrong order, the slideshow facility is completely useless. I've seen similar questions asked by other users on this forum, but none has yet received a satisfactory answer.
Someone, please put me out of my misery and tell me how to make this work as it should!
PowerMac G5   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   Dual 2.5GHz, Radion X800
PowerMac G5   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   Dual 2.5GHz, Radion X800

Answer 1

Thanks a lot for the answer. But what an absolute pain in the nether regions! The situation as it stands is totally unacceptable, and I really didn't want to have to mess about with iPhoto any more. I bought Aperture to replace iPhoto, not to act as a back-end to it.
I sincerely hope that Apple will address this issue, and soon. The combination of Aperture and iPod is frankly not fit for purpose. And when you consider that the 'free' software equivalent (iPhoto plus iPod) is just fine, you start to feel a little ripped off.
By the way, David, it's a small world! You know that church just across the road from David Brown? My father's been organist there for about 40 years. And my uncle worked in David Brown's in Meltham (though it's been demolished for years, now). I live only about a mile away from where you used to work.
PowerMac G5   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   Dual 2.5GHz, Radion X800