Chapter 5: Showing Photos Onscreen

I used iPhoto to create my first slideshow and exported it to iDVD. Everything came out beautifully, except that on several of the slides for which I used the Ken Burns effect (but not all), there is a very irritating "shimmering" when I play the DVD on a television set. This seems to be more prevalent with complex patterns. Also, the vertical edges of some images appear to "vibrate."

Is there a way to avoid this problem?

Thank you.

Honestly, I don't know. My best guess is that you should test on other DVD players to see if they show the same artifacts. I've seen varying levels of decoding abilities from different players.

Thanks, Adam.

Actually I just got back from the Apple Store where I had a consultation with one of the geniuses at “the Studio.” He played the DVD on his computer, and saw the same artifacts.

He did not have a solution either. He suggested that I come back with the actual slideshow (xxx.mov, which I believe is QuickTime) created by iPhoto to see if it has the same artifacts. If there are no artifacts in the iPhoto version of the slideshow, then the problem may relate to iDVD.

Other alternatives he articulated:

I used a Memorex DVD. He thinks I may have better results with an Apple DVD or a Sony DVD.

He said that possibly my version of iDVD is corrupted. Somehow I doubt this.

It is frustrating!

I had one other thought, which is not a good one. There's a program called Photo to Movie that claims to do a better Ken Burns Effect, and it's entirely possible that what you're seeing is just Apple not doing as good a job as possible. You might be able to give it a try to see if it can do a better job.

http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php

I am new to making slideshows. Not having any trouble, but would like to put text on a slide to announce a new portion of the show. I have been doing it in PhotoShop and importing the photo into iPhoto, but that is a pain...since each new photo calls itself a new roll, etc.

Is there an easier way to put text on a slide?

Alas, no, there's no built-in way to put text on slides in a slideshow in iPhoto. Your method of adding text in another program will work, but will of course modify every photo for other uses as well.

cheers... -Adam