Disappointed in Slideshow Capabilities

[LarryT]

Just got my Toast 8 and see it still requires slideshows to be broken up into not more than 99 photos per 'segment'. Apple's iDVD now supports over 9,000 slides in one 'segment'. Why is Toast behind the times? This is a pain when trying to make a slideshow DVD with a large number of photos

[tsantee]

IDVD 6 indeed has several nice slide show features lacking in Toast. But both iDVD and Toast have the same maximum number of photos per disc because that's part of the video DVD spec: 99 maximum chapters per title plus 99 maximum titles equals maximum 9,801 slides.

 

When I drag a folder with more than 99 images to Toast it automatically creates additional titles of up to 99 images each per title. If I drag multiple folders (or iPhoto albums) to Toast it treats each folder or album as a new title. Makes sense to me. That way I can easily start my slide show at any of these titles which I organized into a different folder or album for some reason.

 

Turning on continuous play automates playback so the end of one title continues playing to the start of the next title. iDVD does the same thing. Apple describes it this way: "When you are playing a slideshow on your DVD player, it will number the slides (which are chapters) from 1 to 99 and then start numbering over again at number 1 (on the one-hundredth slide). This is normal and not something you can control when you author your DVD. It is a specification that applies to all DVD players."

 

Something you might want to check out is a little bonus Toast 8 added when you choose to have the images included as data on the disc. Toast uses its Photo CD feature for the data portion which includes Mac and Windows applications for playing the full resolution images on computers.

 

It does seem, though, that iDVD is meeting your needs better than Toast with regard to DVD slide shows.

[LarryT]

Thanks for the clarification. Sounds like it will do what I want. Does it do the same with audio files so that the audio will play without 'break'. Appreciate the expertise.

[tsantee]

Thanks for the clarification. Sounds like it will do what I want. Does it do the same with audio files so that the audio will play without 'break'. Appreciate the expertise.

A feature iDVD has is the ability to add audio to slide shows. Toast cannot include audio with its slide shows. iDVD will have a short break in the audio when it moves from slide 99 to the next slide 1.

 

Are you familiar with the movie-type slide shows which let you pan and zoom across slides (if you want)? They can have continuous play audio and there is no limit of 99 slides per title. iMovie, Photo to Movie, Fotomagico and the Toast-bundled Motion Pictures can make these. Users, however, are reporting some problems with Motion Pictures since the QuickTime 7.2 update.

 

These movie slide shows are not controllable with the chapter skip button on a player's remote control. Their image quality is less sharp, too, but they give you the ability to crop and pan images which can make a slide show more entertaining. You wouldn't want to put more than 90 minutes of movie slide shows on a DVD or the quality will decline further, whereas the still frame slide shows are limited by only the space on the disc or the 9,081 slide maximum and the quality is the same regardless of how many you add.

[LarryT]

Thanks for the additional info. Am such a beginner at DVDs that I will stick to slideshows for now. Yes, I've noticed the 'pauses' in the iDVD slideshows and wondered what caused them and how to avoid them. That's not to mention the problems sending DVDs to friends that have older DVD players and can't play then at all. These newer multi format players are great but create some confusion with sending out DVDs.