Toast versus iDVD?

[MarieBoyer]

I am brand new to Mac. I am a longtime Windows user and Pinnacle Studio Plus. I always used Nero on Windows.

I burned a simple slideshow in and with iDVD and was disappointed to see jittery transitions. I posted on apple forums and learned that jittery visuals are not unusual in iLife. Bummer. I am brand new to this so I have not yet made a slideshow in iMovie or Final Cut Express.

I am wondering if I really need Toast or if I will be fine with iDVD. I have looked on line. Still not clear to me.

Can someone give basic advice to a newbie on this? Thanks in advance!

[terryj]

To get Better transitions in your slideshows, you
should make the slideshows in iMovie, or FCE then export
the finalized timeline to a Quicktime .mov file, then QT file to iDVD.

Toast is essential for many other things, such as when
you want to take old footage and just get it to a DVD;
handle odd formats ( to the mac) such as DIVX and
flavors of Mpeg that only by having Quicktime Pro
you could manipulate; and repurpose or combine
existing Video content from DVDs.

Heck, it even makes backing up data a snap too I hear...


I've made slideshows with iMovie, FCP, and Toast.
Both iMovie and FCP make for smoother visuals
as you have to basically build a video FIRST, and FCP alllows
for greater control of transitions between slides.
You would just import the slides and build like you
would a video project; be aware though that your
pictures need to be already sized in PS/PSE3
to the target size output: NTSC @720 x480@72dpi,
PAl @720x526@72dpi BEFORE importing into
iMovie or FCP/FCE.

Toast to me does a better job than iDVD in going from
iPhoto to DVD, but its Motion Pictures add-on, which is
where you make the transitions, is limited to a poor
man's Ken Burns ( pan, zoom, pan and zoom).

So my reccomended workflow is :
iMovie or FCP/FCE, import picts at target size/dpi

Export finalized timeline with transitions to QT Movie

Import QT movie to iDVD, or DVDSP, or to Toast, burn DVD.

[MarieBoyer]

This is one of the most helpful posts I have seen in along time. I have not heard someone recommend the Quicktime .mov step. Thank you, thank you! I am saving this one for sure! Much appreciated.