Good DVD slideshow program?

The thread on music for DVDs has gotten me wondering about the best software to produce DVD slideshows with music.

I'm getting inquiries from wedding clients who are interested in that format, and I'll probably be offering some nature slideshow DVDs down the road, as well.

I use an older Mac G4, only 500 Mhz processor and 768 Mb of RAM, with a newly-added Pioneer Superdrive DVD/CD burner. OS is version 10.3.9. I got the superdrive because my CD burner was slowly dying, and aside from backing up images more efficiently on DVD instead of the CD I'd been limited to, it frees me to be more creative in my commercial offerings. But my older computer means I'm patient when performing memory-draining tasks. It also means there are limits on which software I can use and potentially which version.

Any experiences here with such software for Mac?

I own ProShow Gold and it seems to do anything I might want it to do. Check out their site, I think they have some demos aimed directly at wedding photogs.

Thanks Todd, but that program specifies a PC/Windows platform, not Mac. I've read that iDVD, which comes bundled with Mac OS, is excellent, but my OS is one version too old (iDVD started with OS 10.4), and my computer won't allow an upgrade to 10.4.

My wife uses a combo of the features in Mac's iLife, Steve. She worked late last night and I'm not about to wake her right now for a more complete answer but iPhoto is quick and dirty, while not allowing you to customize the timing of image changes to match the music. I believe she was forced to use iMovie for that, but as I recall with the limitation that you can only put 50 images in a show and you have to install them one at a time rather than in bulk as with iPhoto. She uses iDVD to produce the final DVD for weddings, with nice features for background images under the title page, along with "chapters" such as dressing the bride, ceremony, reception highlights, guests, etc.

Thanks, Hank. I've got a beefier Mac Powerbook with a faster processor, a lot more RAM and OS 10.4 (which contains iDVD). It has CD/RW and DVD read only, however, so I'll probably end up pricing out a new Apple superdrive so I can use the laptop to make the DVDs.

Unless there's a better option I can use on my older, slower Mac.

Hank, do you know if iDVD produces a DVD that can be run on any home/TV DVD player, or can it only be run on a computer with a specific program?

Her clients run hers all the time on home DVD players as well as computers. I'd be concious of the disc format (R+ or R-) relative to the play system, but beyond that I don't recall any complaints about use on home players.

BTW, STeve-

The desktop I'm on right now sounds much like yours- older G4 with 1.25G RAM, a 933mhz processor, and the original super drive. Basically it burns DVD's so slowly that I don't do it. Instead I sneak onto my wife's fast twin (sorry, Honey!) or use my MacBook Pro. The latter will burn full DVDs about as fast as this G4 burns CDs.

Well, I can tell I'm drastically under-processored and under-RAMmed. I spent a fair amount of time this afternoon experimenting with iMovie in OS 10.3.9, which does what I need to do just fine, but it took a lot of time to compile a slideshow of 30 images with a few effects like slow zooming of images and fade-in and fade-out of images put to a piece of music.

Multiply that by 100 images and a similar amount of music and there's no way the ole smoking computer will do the job. Guess it's over to the laptop.

Wasn't there a bumper sticker saying "The hurrier I go the behinder I get"?

If I can find one, I'm going to stick it on my computer. If I find two, I'll send you the second.

Hank, I'll take the bumper sticker, but what I'd REALLY like is . . . . you know.

A new PC ?? !!