Frequently Asked Questions

To use Photo to Movie with iDVD, you will create your movie in Photo to Movie. Then you will click on the Make Movie button or choose File > Make Movie... Once the Make Movie dialog opens, choose the iDVD icon at the top of the window. Next, for best compatibility, manually launch iDVD from the Finder (see below). Then return to the Make Movie dialog in Photo to Movie and choose whether to add the movie to a new iDVD project or the existing one. Next choose a project name and a place to save the movie file. It is recommended to save both within your Movies folder. Then click the Make Movie button. Photo to Movie will render the movie and then send it directly to iDVD.

Some recent versions of iDVD (iLife '06) take too much time to launch and Photo to Movie versions prior to Photo to Movie 4.0.3 may not correctly add the movie to the iDVD document. For this reason, you should launch iDVD manually yourself if you're using Photo to Movie 4.0.2 or earlier. Photo to Movie 4.0.3 or later fixes this problem.

There are two ways to use a DVD -- one is for computer files (think: backup my files) and the other is for DVD video (think: DVD's that you buy in the store).

Photo to Movie produces a computer file that can be compressed into a DVD-Video using iDVD or Toast. To do this, you need to tell iDVD or Toast to burn a DVD-Video and use the movie made by Photo to Movie as the video. It will recompress everything into the DVD-Video format (called MPEG-2) and make a DVD that can be played in your home DVD player.

There are three possibilities to play your Photo to Movie movie through a projector. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages.

1. Burn to DVD. Play DVD through projector.
2. Burn to a QuickTime movie. Play QuickTime movie through projector.
3. Play movie through Photo to Movie full screen preview.

DVD

Burning your movie to DVD and playing the DVD through the projector is the most reliable way to do things. The advantage is that the DVD format is well supported on various computers and even on standalone DVD players.

The disadvantage is that the resolution of the DVD is limited to DVD resolution, which is 720x480 pixels displayed in a 4:3 aspect ratio. This is an intrinsic limitation of all DVDs.

We do not presently recommend using HD-DVD since neither standalone players nor computer software players are yet widely available.

QuickTime Movie

Rendering your movie to a high performance video format such as QuickTime H.264 allows you to achieve higher resolution. In fact, you can match the movie to the resolution of your video projector, such as 1024x768. You can also play the movie at full screen using QuickTime Player Pro or another video player.

Unfortunately, playing H.264 movies (or any other movie file format) at resolutions higher than 640x480 on a computer takes a lot of computing power. So this technique may not work on older computers and it may not even work on recent laptops, which typically feature slower processors than their desktop counterparts.

We recommend that you test your movie and playback software and computer until you have satisfactory results.

Full Screen Preview

Photo to Movie includes a full screen preview. This is generally the least desirable option since the performance of the full screen preview is affected by many factors such as photo sizes, transitions, computer speed, available memory, and video card memory.

If you're going to use this option, try to make all of the original photos a uniformly small size such as 2048x1536 or smaller. Also try to limit your transitions to simple ones such as cross dissolves and wipes. Use .mp3's for audio. And finally, quit all other applications so that Photo to Movie can make full use of the computer.

To use Photo to Movie with iMovie:

1. Create your photo movie in Photo to Movie.
2. Render your movie to an appropriate file format. Save it in your Movies folder.
3. For iMovie '08, choose File > Import Movies... and select your rendered movie to import it into iMovie.
4. For iMovie '06 and earlier, drag your movie from the Finder to the iMovie shelf.

It is important to choose your Photo to Movie export format to match the iMovie video format. If you choose the wrong format, iMovie may transcode your video (i.e. change its format).

By choosing the right video format, you avoid the following:

• Changing the video resolution, resulting in lower quality
• Stretching or squishing your movie, resulting in distorted video
• Applying additional color correction, resulting in incorrect colors

So what video format should you use?

If you are using an iMovie project with the format 'DV', you should export your movie from Photo to Movie using the 'DV Stream' file format and a Standard (4:3) aspect ratio.

If you are using an iMovie project with the format 'DV Widescreen', you should export your movie from Photo to Movie using the 'DV Stream' file format and a Widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio.

If you are using an iMovie project with the format 'HDV 1080i', you should export your movie from Photo to Movie using the 'HD-1080i-30' file format and a Widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio. The 'HD-1080i-30' file format will not be available unless you select Widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio.

If you are using an iMovie project with the format 'HDV 720p', you should export your movie from Photo to Movie using the 'HD-720p-30' file format and a Widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio. The 'HD-720p-30' file format will not be available unless you select Widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio.

For versions of iMovie before iMovie '05, you should export your movie from Photo to Movie using the 'DV Stream' file format and a Standard (4:3) aspect ratio.

The table below summarizes this information.

There are many factors that can contribute to the quality of the video. Some of them are:

• Video format
• Playback quality settings
• Export quality

The video format can have a direct effect on the quality of the video. Some video formats, particularly DV Stream, are not intended for end-user viewing. Instead they are intermediate video formats used for burning to DVD or for further video editing in applications such as iMovie or Final Cut. If you view DV Stream files using QuickTime Player, the video will be stretched and played at low quality. This is normal. When you actually edit or burn the video using iMovie or iDVD, the resulting movie or DVD will contain high quality video. Of course, if you use iMovie to produce another DV Stream, it will have the same playback issues.

If you want to use QuickTime Player to view the full quality version of a DV Stream, you must have a QuickTime Pro key. Then you must set the playback settings on the video track to use High Quality Playback. Furthermore, you must set the video size to 640x480 for Standard (4:3) video and 853x480 for Widescreen (16:9) video.

Photo to Movie also attempts to reduce aliasing effects that are produced when photos are in motion in a video. To reduce the aliasing effects, Photo to Movie blurs the photos minimally. This blurring may be visible when viewing the movie on a computer screen; it is much less noticeable when the videos are played via DVD on a television. You can disable the blurring by changing the Photo to Movie export rendering option to be Faster Export instead of Higher Quality. We strongly recommend keeping the export rendering option as Higher Quality.

To use Photo to Movie with Final Cut, create your movie in Photo to Movie. Then press the Make Movie button or choose File > Make Movie... When the Make Movie dialog appears, choose the QuickTime panel.

Next you need to match the format of the Photo to Movie export to your Final Cut movie. You will probably be using either DV, DV Widescreen, HDV 1080i, or HDV 720p. The widescreen formats (HDV included) will only appear if your Photo to Movie document has been configured as widescreen. Once you have chosen your format, click the Make Movie button.

Once your movie is rendered, drag or import your movie into Final Cut.

You may also choose other formats such as Uncompressed 4:2:2 for top-quality video. The disadvantage of this format is that it will take a lot of hard disk space. You may also find yourself using MPEG-4 occasionally, although this will result in signicantly lower quality.

You can put your Photo to Movie movies on the web in one of several formats. Each format has advantages and disadvantages. The three main web formats are:

1. Flash Movie
2. QuickTime Movie
3. Windows Media Movie

Flash Movie

Perhaps the best option for putting video on the web is to make it a Flash 8 movie. Using a Flash movie makes your movie accessible to most users since most web users have Flash Player installed. Major video sites such as Google Video and YouTube use Flash as their video format too.

To make a movie with Flash, you can either create it directly from Photo to Movie if you have a Flash encoder plug-in installed, or you can create a high quality movie from Photo to Movie and then re-encode that movie to Flash using a 3rd party tool.

You'll produce the highest quality movie If you encode with a QuickTime Flash plug-in. In that case, you can produce your Flash movie (.flv) directly from Photo to Movie.

To make a Flash movie with a Flash encoder plug-in installed on Mac OS:

1. Create your movie in Photo to Movie and save the document.
2. Click 'Make Movie'.
3. Choose the 'QuickTime' rendering panel.
4. Select 'Custom' from the 'Movie Format' menu.
5. Click 'Video...' and select your Flash Video codec and options.
6. Click 'Audio...' and select your Flash Audio codec (mp3) and options.
7. Set the video size to your desired video size. Be sure to use the correct aspect ratio.
8. Click 'Make Movie' to render your movie.

To make a Flash movie with a Flash encoder plug-in installed on Windows:

1. Create your movie in Photo to Movie and save the document.
2. Click 'Properties...'.
3. Choose 'QuickTime' from the 'Format' menu.
4. Choose 'Custom' from the 'Format Type' menu.
5. Click 'Video...' and select your Flash Video codec and options.
6. Click 'Audio...' and select your Flash Audio codec (mp3) and options.
7. Set the video size to your desired video size. Be sure to use the correct aspect ratio.
8. Click 'Make Movie' to render your movie.

If you're going to use an external application to encode your Flash movie, then you should produce a high quality movie from Photo to Movie to use as input to the external encoder. Generally, a higher quality movie from Photo to Movie will produce a higher quality Flash movie. So it is important to use a good quality format such as 'H.264' or even a lossless format such as 'Animation'. The examples below describe how to make a high quality 'H.264' movie for further encoding with an external Flash encoder.

To make a high quality 'H.264' movie from Photo to Movie on Mac OS:

1. Create your movie in Photo to Movie and save the document.
2. Click 'Make Movie'.
3. Choose the 'QuickTime' rendering panel.
4. Select 'Custom' from the 'Movie Format' menu.
5. Click 'Video...'.
6. Select 'H.264' from the 'Compression Type' menu.
7. Set quality to 'Best'. Click 'OK'.
8. Click 'Audio...'.
9. Select 'None' from the 'Compressor' menu. Click 'OK'.
10. Set the video size to 640x480 (standard) or 853x480 (widescreen).
11. Click 'Make Movie' to render your movie.
12. Use the resulting movie as input to the external Flash encoding application.

To make a high quality 'H.264' movie from Photo to Movie on Windows:

1. Create your movie in Photo to Movie and save the document.
2. Click 'Properties...'.
3. Choose 'QuickTime' from the 'Format' menu.
4. Choose 'Custom' from the 'Format Type' menu.
5. Click 'Video...'.
6. Select 'H.264' from the 'Compression Type' menu.
7. Set quality to 'Best'. Click 'OK'.
8. Click 'Audio...'.
9. Select 'None' from the 'Compressor' menu. Click 'OK'.
10. Set the video size to 640x480 (standard) or 853x480 (widescreen).
11. Click 'Make Movie' to render your movie.
12. Use the resulting movie as input to the external Flash encoding application.

When you use the external encoder, your particular Flash encoding settings in that application (not Photo to Movie) will depend on your specific bandwidth and quality requirements. We have found that limiting video to 200K/s and audio to 80K/s stereo with a video size of 320x240 works nicely.

Also, always be sure to match your Flash video size to the aspect ratio of your movie. For instance, if your movie is widescreen, use 320x180 instead of 320x240 in the external compressor.

Including a Flash movie in a web page

Once you have generated your Flash 8 movie (.flv) you must embed it into a Flash script file (.swf) and add a Flash player to your web page using Javascript. This is not as hard as it sounds.

Here is a web page that gives some good Flash advice and also specific instructions for including your Flash movie on your website:

FLV Video Compression

Flash Tools

Some 3rd party Flash encoding tools are:

• Macromedia Flash Video Encoder (Encoder Application)
• On2 Technologies (Encoder Application and Plug-in)
• Sorenson Media (Encoder Application and Plug-in)

QuickTime Option

You can also put your movie on the web as a QuickTime movie. Using QuickTime has the advantage that you do not need to have an external encoding application (such as a Flash encoder) and it works on both Mac OS and Windows for free. QuickTime includes several suitable encoders such as H.263, MPEG-4, and H.264.

The disadvantage to use QuickTime is that the user will have to have QuickTime installed in order to view the video. With the popularity of iTunes, however, this may not be much of a problem.

We currently recommend using MPEG-4 video on Mac OS and H.263 on Windows.

To render a movie as MPEG-4 on Mac OS X:

1. Create your movie in Photo to Movie and save the document.
2. Click 'Make Movie'.
3. Choose the 'QuickTime' rendering panel.
4. Select 'Custom' from the 'Movie Format' menu.
5. Click 'Video...'.
6. Select 'MPEG-4' from the 'Compression Type' menu.
7. Click 'Audio...'.
8. Select 'MPEG-4 Audio' from the 'Compressor' menu. Click 'OK'.
9. Set the video size to your desired video size (such as 320x240 for standard video).
10. Click 'Make Movie' to render your movie.

To render a movie as H.263 on Windows XP:

1. Create your movie in Photo to Movie and save the document.
2. Click 'Properties...'.
3. Choose 'QuickTime' from the 'Format' menu.
4. Choose 'Custom' from the 'Format Type' menu.
5. Click 'Video...'.
6. Select 'H.263' from the 'Compression Type' menu.
7. Click 'Audio...'.
8. Select 'QDesign Music 2' from the 'Compressor' menu. Click 'OK'.
9. Set the video size to your desired video size (such as 320x240 for standard video).
10. Click 'Make Movie' to render your movie.

Please note that Apple does not enable 'MPEG-4 Audio' encoding for 3rd party applications such as Photo to Movie on Windows. So we recommend using the 'QDesign Music 2' audio encoder instead.

Including a QuickTime movie in a web page

Apple supplies instructions for including QuickTime movies on a web page:

Including QuickTime In A Web Page

Windows Media Option

You can also put your movie on the web as a Windows Media movie. Windows Media playback is widely supported on Windows, but not as well on Mac OS. You cannot easily produce Windows Media files on Mac OS.

The big disadvantage is that your users will have to have Windows Media Player installed to view your movies.

You can also put your movie on the web as a QuickTime movie. Using QuickTime has the advantage that you do not need to have an external encoding application (such as a Flash encoder) and it works on both Mac OS and Windows for free. QuickTime includes several suitable encoders such as H.263, MPEG-4, and H.264.

The disadvantage to use QuickTime is that the user will have to have QuickTime installed in order to view the video. With the popularity of iTunes, however, this may not be much of a problem.

To render a movie as Windows Media on Windows XP:

1. Create your movie in Photo to Movie and save the document.
2. Click 'Properties...'.
3. Choose 'Windows Media' from the 'Format' menu.
4. Choose either 'Web Movie' (240x180) or 'CD-ROM Movie' (320x240) from the 'Format Type' menu.
5. Click 'Make Movie' to render your movie.

Including a Windows Media movie in a web page

You can read about embedding Windows Media content in a web page at this Microsoft web page:

HTML Code for Embedding Windows Media Content

Simply put: DVD.

If you want to allow any user on any platform to view your movie, the best format is to burn a DVD for them. And if you're going to burn a DVD, you will want to export your movie from Photo to Movie to the DV Stream file format.

You might ask, can I just give them a movie file for them to play? The general answer to that question is a resounding NO. When you export your movie to a particular file format, such as MPEG-4 or H.264, you run into problems such as the following:

• Can the users read the file format? Does it require QuickTime to be installed?
• Is their computer fast enough to play back the movie? Do they have enough memory?
• How large should the movie be? Scaling the movie can be difficult on slow computers and different users may have different screen sizes.
• How big will the file be? How will I distribute it to them?

The DVD format solves and answers all of these questions. Nearly all modern operating systems and computers can play DVDs. In addition, the user can play the movie on their television with a standard DVD player.

The great thing about Photo to Movie is that you do not need to do any preparation on your photos. Photo to Movie can use any size photo, any resolution, any format (as long as it is readable using Mac OS X). You do not need to crop, rotate, or otherwise prepare your photos.

You can slightly reduce the memory requirements if you use smaller photos. If you are scanning photos and you want to calculate what resolution to scan, choose a resolution such that the smallest key frame on your photo is at least as large as the export format. For instance, if your smallest key frame is 80% of the photo and your export format is DV (640x480), then you would want your original photo to have a resolution of at least 640 divided by 0.80 (80%) which would be 800x600.

You can also prepare your photos before hand by making any color, red-eye correction, or other edits to your photos. Be careful when sharpening the photos, however, as that may lead to anti-aliasing and flickering when making your movie.

If you're using Photo to Movie 3.5 (Windows XP), you have several options for burning your movies to DVD. Each will have tradeoffs in the ease of use, movie quality, and customization.

All movies on a DVD are encoding in MPEG-2 video format and one of several audio formats. So each of the solutions presented here ultimately produce MPEG-2 video and appropriate audio and burn those files to DVD in a special format specified by the DVD specification. Making the MPEG-2 and associated audio is called encoding.

Photo to Movie can do encoding and it can even produce a computer file representing an entire DVD. But it will not burn the DVD itself to a physical disk. You will need a 3rd party application such as Nero to burn to disk.

3rd Party Solution

The first solution is to produce the movie in Photo to Movie and render it to a AVI or QuickTime .dv file. Then take the .dv file and use a 3rd party application to encode it to MPEG-2 and audio and burn it to DVD.

The 3rd party DVD burning applications vary widely in the quality of video that they produce, however. So while Photo to Movie almost always produces top-notch video, the 3rd party application may encode it in such a way that makes it look bad.

If you're going to use a 3rd party application to produce the video, use a high quality application such as SONY Vegas Movie Studio + DVD (typically available for less than $100).

The advantage of this solution is that it is easy. Most 3rd party DVD burning applications can burn any movie file to a DVD.

The disadvantage of this solution is that if you don't pay careful attention to the burning process, you can end up with low quality video output on the DVD.

DVD ISO from Photo to Movie

Photo to Movie can produce a file that represents an entire DVD called an ISO file. An ISO is the file the represents an entire DVD.

This is a nice easy solution that gives you high quality video. You will still need a 3rd party application to burn the ISO to a physical DVD. However, almost all DVD burners come with software to accomplish this. Since the encoding is done in Photo to Movie, it is always produced at the highest quality possible.

The advantage of this solution is that it produces high quality video with minimum effort.

The disadvantage of this solution is that you will not have control over the menus and layout of your DVD. The DVD ISO files that Photo to Movie produces play automatically when inserted into your DVD player and do not have a menu system.

MPEG-2 from Photo to Movie

If you need Photo to Movie to produce the highest quality video but you want to put that video on a DVD with menus and other features, you can use Photo to Movie to produce the MPEG-2 and audio file. You can then take the resulting MPEG-2 file and use it in your favorite NLE (Non-Linear Movie Editor).

The advantage of this solution is that you get the high quality MPEG-2 encoding from Photo to Movie. In addition, you can add the resulting MPEG-2 to a DVD with your own custom menus and other features.

The disadvantage of this solution is that it is more time consuming and complex than the other solutions.

Photo to Movie uses special processing to reduce or eliminate flicker inherent to the Ken Burns effect. However, some flicker will still occur on individual photos. In some rare cases, Photo to Movie processing may increase the flicker as compared to the unprocessed video.

The flicker occurs primarily when there is minimal zooming or panning motion frame frame to frame of the video and occurs on an area of the photo with a lot of detail such as water, trees from a distance, or patterns on clothing.

If you find yourself with a photo that is showing unacceptable flickering, use the following techniques to reduce it.

• Add more motion. Make one of your key frames larger and one smaller to add zooming or move the frames further apart.
• Eliminate motion. Make your key frames closer in size and/or position.
• Shift one or both of your key frames by a few pixels.
• Reduce the resolution of the photo using another application and replace it in the timeline.

Photo to Movie anti-flicker processing will result in a slight softening of the photos. You can disable the processing by selecting Faster Export in the custom rendering options.

You can keep the vertically oriented (portrait) photos from being cut off by making the key frames on the photo larger than the photo itself, so that the height of the key frame matches the height of the photo.

Photo to Movie can do this automatically for you using motion templates. In the motion template setup, uncheck the box that says 'Keep Motion Within Photo.' For new photos that you drag into the document, change this setting in the Preferences dialog. For existing photos in the timeline, select the photos in the timeline and then click the 'Motion Templates...' button in the inspector and change the setting there.

The performance of the real time and full screen preview within Photo to Movie is dependent on many factors. Some suggestions for improving performance follow.

It is important to note that exporting the movie from Photo to Movie will produce a perfect movie every time, independent of the factors below. When you burn your movie to DVD it should play without any jerkiness or stuttering. Previews are only a preview of how your final movie will look.

Use smaller original photos. JPEG photos will perform better than TIFF photos. Your photos only need to be large enough such that the smallest key frame on that photo is at least as large as your export format frame size. For instance, if your export format is CD-ROM (see making your movie) then your export size is 320x240. If your smallest key frame is 80% the size of your photo then your photo size can be as small as 320x240 / 0.80 = 400x300. For optimimum quality your photo should be large enough that the smallest key frame is twice the size of the output resolution. In the example it would require an original photo of 800x600.

Make the editing window smaller. Using a smaller window will produce faster real time playback. Full screen preview, if available, will give the worst performance.

Edit your photo track first, without titles and without audio. Add the audio and titles after you're happy with the photo motion. Real time audio and title rendering can slow down the preview.

Quit other applications. Quitting other applications will stop them from using the processor and also free up additional memory.

Install more memory or use a faster computer. Photo to Movie can be a demanding application and more memory improves performance considerably.

To improve playback performance (Summary)

1. Use smaller photos
2. Decrease size of editing window
3. Edit photo track without audio and titles first
4. Quit other applications
5. Use more memory or a faster computer

A rendered movie from Photo to Movie may also play poorly in a movie player such as QuickTime Player. A rendered movie should not be confused with a movie preview within Photo to Movie. A rendered movie is one that has been "exported" from Photo to Movie to a specific movie format such as QuickTime or Windows Media.

Photo to Movie always produces a very precise, consistent, smooth rendered movie. However, if the computer on which you are playing it is not fast enough to render the movie, it may skip frames during playback such that the movie looks jerky, stuttering, or choppy. Audio playback may also be affected.

If you are producing a movie for DVD and using the DV (.dv) file format, you can safely ignore this choppiness. Once you fully process your movie through DVD burning software and burn it to DVD, the final result will be a perfectly smooth movie that is playable on almost any DVD player.

However, if you are producing a movie for computer playback, you need to make sure that you are choosing a file format suitable for computer playback. You also need to make sure that the overall data rate of the movie is suitable for the intended users. For instance, if your intended users are mobile phone users, you will choose a data rate that is much lower. If your intended users are high end computer users, you may get away with a higher data rate.

You can affect your rendered movie data rate for non-DVD movies in many ways. The primary factors include:

• File format. Choose H.264 instead of DV, for instance. DV should only be used for making DVDs.
• Movie size. Choose smaller movie sizes. Larger movies (more than 480 pixels high) are difficult to play back in real time on older computers.
• Frame rate. Choose smaller frame rates to reduce the data rate.
• Audio format and rate. Choose lower bitrates.

You can set the background color of your document using the Document Info dialog. You can open the Document Info dialog by clicking on the big blue 'i' in the document window.

To use other transitions you will have to select one of the transitions in the sequence or timeline at the bottom of the window. The transitions are the orange lines. Select them by clicking on them. Then choose your desired transition type in the inspector at the top right of the window.

Update May 2007: Apple has announced that unrestricted iTunes music will be available for a slight additional cost. Users can upgrade their current songs to the unrestricted songs for a small fee using the iTunes store. The unrestricted music is able to be used directly in Photo to Movie.

Apple restricts third-party products (such as Photo to Movie) from directly using music purchased on the iTunes music store. To work around this restriction, you need to burn a CD of the music you want to use. After you have burned your CD, you then need to use iTunes to "rip" it to the AIFF format using iTunes. You can use the re-ripped music in Photo to Movie without any quality loss.

To use iTunes to rip the burned CD to AIFF, choose Preferences in iTunes and select the Advanced tab. Within the Advanced tab, select the Importing tab. Under the Import Using menu, choose AIFF Encoder. Then insert the burned CD and have iTunes rip the music. The files saved on your disk will now be .aiff files of your music. Once this is finished, be sure to reselect your previous encoder (most likely AAC Encoder) so that future CDs that you capture will be encoded properly.

There is no built-in limit to the number of photos in Photo to Movie. You can add anywhere from one photo to 1000 photos. There is a practical limit based on the amount of editing space in the timeline and the amount of RAM installed on your computer. When using 1000 photos, you will have to be patient while the thumbnails are rendered and during editing which will be slower.

You also might consider splitting your slide show into groups of 100-200 photos for ease of editing.

Photo to Movie stores references to your files, not copies. So if you move the document or photos or music, Photo to Movie can have trouble finding the original photos and music.

The best way to handle things is to store your photos and music in the same folder as your Photo to Movie document. Then when you move the document/photos/music, Photo to Movie will be able to find your photos easily.

Also, Photo to Movie 4.0.4 (Mac OS X) or later does a much better job of tracking your photos. It is not perfect, however, and you may still find yourself with missing photos if you move your document to another machine.

But sometimes, Photo to Movie may report one or more of your photos or songs as missing when you open the document at a later date.

If this happens, you can manually tell Photo to Movie where one of the photos is located. To do this, select one of the missing photos in the timeline. Then choose the menu item Photo > Replace Missing Photo... and then locate the photo by hand. Many times, Photo to Movie will be able to find the rest of the photos automatically. If it can't, you may have to manually locate more photos in order for Photo to Movie to find them.

Yes, Photo to Movie does run on Windows 2000.

As long as you export your movie from Photo to Movie using DV Stream, you will see no loss in image quality by using iMovie first.

Upgrade to QuickTime version 6.5.2 or later. Version 3.5 of Photo to Movie is incompatible with version 6.3 and earlier of QuickTime, and although we plan to implement a workaround so Photo to Movie 3.5.1 won't crash when older versions of QuickTime are installed, we really don't support versions of QuickTime before 6.5.2.

Both Photo to Movie (Mac OS X) and Photo to Movie (Windows XP) can produce HD quality video.

On both versions, your aspect ratio must be widescreen 16:9 to take advantage of HD quality video. All HD video is widescren.

HD content comes in several formats: 720p, 1080i, or 1080p. These refer to the number of scanlines in the content and whether the content is progressive (p), which means that each line is shown in every frame, or interlaced (i), which means that every other line is shown in alternating frames. Progressive content typically looks sharper and is used for movies with less motion effects; while interlaced typically looks less sharp but handles rapid motion better.

In addition, HD content comes in several common frame rates: 24 frames per second (fps), 25fps, and 30fps. 24fps is typically used for motion pictures, 25fps is typically used in countries that utilize the PAL video standard, and 30fps is typically used in countries that utilize the NTSC video standard.

On Mac OS X, you can make your movie using several techniques.

If you want to produce HD content for use within iMovie, choose the iMovie option in the Make Movie dialog. Then select the desired HD format, either HD 720p or HD 1080i. This will produce video at 30fps using the Apple Intermediate codec. While this is a capable codec, the HD 1080i version of it will only produce video that is 1440x1080 pixels -- and those pixels will be stretched to 1920x1080 (the full resolution) at playback time.

If you want to produce HD content that is 24fps or 25fps, you will need to use the QuickTime rendering option and choose 'Custom' for the movie format. Then you will have to configure your compressor using the 'Video...' button. For iMovie compatible video, choose 'Apple Intermediate Codec' and set the desired frame rate and video format.

If you want to produce HD content suitable for Final Cut or other applications, consider using the H.264 compressor. Choose the Quicktime rendering option and choose 'Custom' for the movie format. Then select H.264 and the desired frame rate. Finally, set your video size to either 1920x1080 or 1280x720, depending on whether you want 1080p or 720p. All video is progressive; there is no way to produce interlaced H.264 video using Photo to Movie 4.0 (Mac OS X). We expect to add this feature in a future version.

On Windows XP, you can make your movie using a few techniques also.

You can either produce your movie with QuickTime or Windows Media.

Select the video format using the 'Properties...' button. Select either QuickTime or Windows Media as the major format.

Using QuickTime, choose 'Custom' for the movie format. Then select H.264 and the desired frame rate. Finally, set your video size to either 1920x1080 or 1280x720, depending on whether you want 1080p or 720p. All video is progressive; there is no way to produce interlaced video using Photo to Movie 3.5 (Windows XP).

Using Windows Media, you can choose your quality level and then make sure that the video size is 1920x1080 or 1280x720, depending on whether you want 1080p or 720p. Again, all video is progressive. There is no way to produce interlaced video using Photo to Movie 3.5 (Windows XP).

To make the duration of your photos match the duration of your music, first adjust the timeline so that the full music track is visible (i.e. drag the timeline zoom slider to the far left).

Next, select one of your photos.

Then, choose Edit > Select All (or press Cmd-A) to select all of your photos in the timeline.

Next grab the right-most point on the right-most photo and drag to stretch the overall duration of the photos. Drag it to match the duration of the audio.

When there are many photos (150+), it can be difficult to grab the right-most photo. You might have to zoom the timeline in that case.

All of the durations (motion duration, hold durations, transitions durations) get stretched proportionally.

Versions of Photo to Movie earlier than Photo to Movie 3.2.3 would display titles upside down under Mac OS X 10.4. The solution is to upgrade to Photo to Movie 3.2.3 or later.

If you are using Photo to Movie on a computer with multiple users or in a networked environment, you only need to enter the license key a single time if you follow these instructions.

1. Quit Photo to Movie if it is already launched.
2. Delete your existing preferences located at
   ~/Library/Preferences/com.lqgraphics.phototomovie.plist.
3. Launch Photo to Movie again.
4. Choose File > Enter License Key... and enter your name, email, and license key.
5. Click OK.
6. If Photo to Movie asks you to register online, do so now.
7. Quit Photo to Movie again. Your Preferences file now contains your license key.
8. Move the Preferences file at
   ~/Library/Preferences/com.lqgraphics.phototomovie.plist
   to a system-wide location such as
   /Library/Preferences/com.lqgraphics.phototomovie.plist.

You can also move the Preferences file to a Network location.

Now when individual users launch Photo to Movie, it will find the licensing information in the system-wide location, but allow the individual user to customize other aspects of Photo to Movie in their local location.

Photo to Movie is able to render movies with a transparent background. To do this, you need to set your background color to clear:

1. Choose Document Info...
2. Click Background...
3. Choose the Color Wheel color tab.
4. Slide the Opacity slider at the bottom to 0%.
5. Close window. Click OK.

Next, render your movie to a format that supports transparency. There are many QuickTime formats that do, but many that don't. If you have lots of disk space, we recommend using the 'Animation' codec. Any codec that supports 'Millions of Colors+' supports transparency.

1. Click Make Movie.
2. Click the QuickTime tab.
3. Select Custom for the Movie Format.
4. Click on Video...
5. Select Animation as the Compression Type.
6. Select Millions of Colors+ as the Depth.
7. Click Ok.
8. Set your movie size as desired (640x480 for DVD, or better 1280x960).
9. Click Make Movie.

Note that the Animation codec will produce gigantic files. You can delete it once you have imported it to FCP and resaved it. The Animation codec is essentially the same as Uncompressed 4:2:2.

There is an option in iDVD to play a movie as a loop. Consult the iDVD documentation for the exact way to do it. Roughly, select your movie in iDVD and then choose the menu item Advanced > Loop Movie.

QuickTime Player also provides a menu item to play the movie in a loop: View > Loop, or Cmd-L.

You can use motion templates to create a movie without motion.

To do this, drop your photos into a Photo to Movie document and put them into the desired order.

Next, click on one of the photos in the timeline. Then Edit > Select All to select all of the photos.

Then click the 'Motion Templates' button. In that dialog, choose 'No Motion' in the top-most menu.

Next, set zoom to 100%, rotation to 0.0, and uncheck both random zoom and random rotation.

If your photos are not exactly the shape of your movie (either 4:3 or 16:9) then you can choose to make the photo appear with a boundary outside the photo or inside the photo. To make the boundary outside the photo, uncheck 'Keep Motion Within Photo.' To make the boundary inside the photo, check 'Keep Motion Within Photo.' Finally, uncheck 'Use Title Safe Photo Boundaries.'

Finally click OK. You're done!

You can insert a blank image at the beginning or end of a movie. You can choose the color for the blank image and also add titles to the movie on top of the blank image to do opening or closing credits.

To do this, add your photos to your document. Then select the first photo in the timeline. Then choose the menu item Photo > Insert Blank Image. You can also select the last photo in the timeline and then choose the menu item Photo > Add Blank Image.

Next, click on the blank image in the timeline. Then in the inspector, set it's color by clicking on the color patch.

Set the timing of the blank image to the desired duration. Also be sure to choose a transition from the blank to the first photo (or the last photo to the blank if you're doing ending credits).

Finally, position the scrubber at the beginning of the movie or at the beginning of the blank at the end of the movie, and click the Add Title button.

Adjust the positioning, color, and text of the title. You're done!

Photo to Movie does not directly support custom chapter markers. However, you can use QuickTime Pro to add chapter markers to your movie if it is a QuickTime movie.

See http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/chaptertracks.html for more information.