iDVD Slideshow Tips

Look to other sources for full instructions on how to use iDVD, such as Jeff Carlson's iMovie HD 6 & iDVD 6 for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide or Jim Heid's The Macintosh iLife '06, also from Peachpit Press. That said, these tips should help you use iDVD more effectively.

Tips for using iDVD:

• iPhoto sends saved slideshows to iDVD as QuickTime movies, which you can't edit inside iDVD. Remember to choose the 4:3 format for your slideshow!

• The 99-photo per slideshow limitation in previous versions of iDVD is now gone.

• Save your iDVD project with a good name; it's the disc name in the Finder.

• Turn on Show TV Safe Area in the View menu to verify that everything you're doing will fit on a TV screen.

• iDVD also lets you choose multiple songs without selecting an entire playlist.

• If you select Always Add Original Photos to DVD-ROM Contents in iDVD's Slideshow preferences tab, iDVD also makes the photos available as files on the DVD for use with computers. These are stored as normal files and not in an iPhoto Library folder.

• Quit all unnecessary applications when burning; if anything interrupts the burn process, it can ruin your DVD-R disc.

• DVD-R discs hold 4.7 GB, so you probably won't be able to fill one with slideshows. To use all the space, add video.

Making Good DVD Slideshows

It's fairly easy to work with iPhoto and iDVD, but you must still expend some effort when creating a DVD-based slideshow if you want good results. Keep in mind that TV quality will always be lower than the computer screen quality.

• Use iDVD's Preview heavily, and run through all your slideshows from start to end before burning.

• Landscape photos work better than portrait photos, which have large black borders.

• Make sure Always Scale Slides to TV Safe Area is set in iDVD's Slideshow preferences tab (choose Preferences from the iDVD menu and click the Slideshow tab).

• Resist the temptation to put as many photos in each slideshow as possible; instead, whittle down the slideshow to the most relevant photos. Very similar photos are boring when seen one after another.

• You can choose the duration between slides, but it's generally best to fit the slideshow length to the audio length. But don't pick so much music that individual slides appear for too long.

• Be forewarned; it can be hard to find good music for slideshows. Think about the subject and the mood of the photos, and then browse through your iTunes collection to see what songs might fit. It's easier to browse quickly in iTunes than in iDVD.

• Click the Motion button (the walking person) to turn off the theme's motion while you work.