iPhoto to iDVD slideshow

[MrSmith]

I have 268 photos that I want to make into a slideshow. I understand how I can make a new slideshow in iDVD and simply add the folder of photos from iPhoto and let iDVD do its thing.

However, I've read many posts about quality (or lack thereof) so I would like to ask the experts what's the best way to get the highest quality slideshow to DVD to show on my (NTSC) HDTV, as well as my mother's old (PAL) 4:3 CRT dinosaur.

These photos are a mixed bag. Some were taken with a point and shoot and come in at 2 or 3 MBs. Others I shot on my dSLR as RAW and come in at up to 100MB TIFFs!

Should I let iDVD sort it all out? Should I resize the pixel size of the pics? Should I reduce the MB size of the pics? I really am clueless, because I suspect "It just works" doesn't apply in this case...

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Dave Braine]

Whatever the quality of your photos, the finished quality is going to be dependant on the limitations of dvd resolution:

To record moving pictures, DVD-Video uses either MPEG-2 compression at up to 9.8 Mbit/s (9,800 kbit/s) or MPEG-1 compression at up to 1.856 Mbit/s (1,856 kbit/s).
The following formats are allowed for MPEG-2 video:
At 25 frame/s, interlaced (commonly used in regions with 50 Hz image scanning frequency - PAL):
720 × 576 pixels (same resolution as D-1)
704 × 576 pixels
352 × 576 pixels (same as the China Video Disc standard)
At 29.97, interlaced (commonly used in regions with 60 Hz image scanning frequency - NTSC):
720 × 480 pixels (same resolution as D-1)
704 × 480 pixels
352 × 480 pixels (same as the China Video Disc standard)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video

 

[MrSmith]

I understand that, but should I do something to the photo sizes first? BTW I've downloaded Photo to Movie as I understand iDVD has a limit of 99 photos.

 

[Dave Braine]

There's no need to change the photo size as iDVD will take care of it. There may be a limit, but I sent a 135 photo slideshow to iDVD OK.