3 replies to this topic

[Walt Atwood]

Here's an unusual project that I've never tried before...

MY SOFTWARE:
Final Cut Pro 4.5
DVD Studio Pro 2
iLife 2006
Toast 7

I have been asked to take digital photos in an iPhoto library and make them into a quickie video DVD.

The photos chronicle a volunteer project that took months to complete. I do not intend to use every picture that was taken, but instead to select a group of photos that tell a story. One thing I'd like to do, if it's not too much trouble, is to include a caption giving the date of each picture.

Is this practical to do, including the date? I've done an iPhoto-to-iDVD slideshow before, and was less than impressed with the results. I'm not sure there's a way to caption the date in that workflow. DVD Studio Pro 2 does not have the photo slideshow feature that subsequent versions have.

Has anyone else done anything like this?

--WA

[tsantee]

I believe your best option is to create a DVD slide show with iDVD. This is not the same as the iPhoto to iDVD slide show. A DVD slide show is not a movie. Each image is a chapter on the DVD and automatically advances after a certain number of seconds. The chapter skip key can be used to advance or go backward. The picture quality is also better than a movie slide show and images can be paused indefinitely.

Here  are the instructions for iDVD 7 that's part of iLife '08. I'm guessing the slide show feature isn't changed much from the iLife '06 version of iDVD except possibly for the option to also include movies with the still-image slide show. You'll see there is a setting to "Show titles and comments." I haven't done this so I don't know what options there are or how they appear.

Toast also creates these still-image DVD slide shows but doesn't have options for adding file info to the image. Also, the Toast slide shows don't provide for a music background track. If you use a photo editing application to add the date as a watermark and then export the photos, you could use those in Toast or iDVD and see the date on each picture.

[Walt Atwood]

Here's a new twist:

I have access to a first-rev MacBook, which of course runs on an Intel Core Duo processor. This laptop has no SuperDrive, so it cannot burn a DVD.

I also have a 1.25 GHz G4 iMac, which does have a SuperDrive.

Each machine has something the other lacks. In the case of the MacBook, speed. In the case of the iMac, the ability to actually burn my project to DVD.

I was thinking about creating this project on the MacBook (which offers superior speed, a necessity when I'm accessing my iPhoto library with 26,000 pictures in it) and then taking the completed project to the iMac to burn it to DVD using Toast.

Are there any technical issues I should be aware of before I try this?

[tsantee]

Here's a new twist:

I have access to a first-rev MacBook, which of course runs on an Intel Core Duo processor. This laptop has no SuperDrive, so it cannot burn a DVD.

I also have a 1.25 GHz G4 iMac, which does have a SuperDrive.

Each machine has something the other lacks. In the case of the MacBook, speed. In the case of the iMac, the ability to actually burn my project to DVD.

I was thinking about creating this project on the MacBook (which offers superior speed, a necessity when I'm accessing my iPhoto library with 26,000 pictures in it) and then taking the completed project to the iMac to burn it to DVD using Toast.

Are there any technical issues I should be aware of before I try this?

Choose Save as Disc Image with Toast in on the MacBook and burn the disc image file using the Image File setting in the Toast Copy window on the iMac. Alternatively check Toast Help about using Toast Anywhere in which you can burn a Toast project on one Mac to a drive on another Mac that's connected via a wired network.