brian43053 Loc: Buffalo, NY

I'm turning to fellow hogs to see if anyone can help me out. I'm using a MacBook pro and am looking for some software that I can use to turn pics into a slideshow. I also want to be able to add as many music tracks to the slide show as I want (most only allow for 1 or 2 songs to be added). I would like to be able to fade a song out even if there's time left on it and start another song. I would like the program to initially apply random transitions between the pics but I wanna also be able to change those transitions to whatever I would like. Most of the software that I have found defaults to 3 seconds of the pic being shown and then the transition starts. They all allow you to change the duration but you have to change the duration individually (can be a pain if you have 135 - 150 pics in the slide show). I know I'm asking for a lot but in windows movie maker you can do everything that I'm looking for and more but I bought my mac so I could use it. Idvd is longer available, IMovie does not allow you to add music nor does IPhoto. To finish it all off I would like to burn the slide show to DVD that I can play on my mac, a pc, a tv, xbox, etc.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

There is Fotomagico. It does everything you just said you need. I use it a lot. You can set it to match the music duration if you wish.
http://boinx.com/fotomagico/

I still have iDVD and it still works - just not updated. If you don't have it, I think Toast is the program that will work. Not certain.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

ProShow Gold works well. Lots of options.

http://www.photodex.com/

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Oh does that work on the Mac now? It did not in the past.
I went to the website, but could not tell. I know Windows users love it.

brian43053 Loc: Buffalo, NY

thanx - can you add more than 2 songs? do you use it currently on a mac?

relmet454 Loc: Central Minnesota

Actually all can do all you ask for and a whole lot more in imovie? have you looked at that fully? it does it all, granted its a fairly complex thing to start editing photos and videos and adding music and transitions etc.... but you can create amazing things and then burn to dvd's or post to utube etc...

relmet454 Loc: Central Minnesota

I would search imovie tutorials on youtube - there are hundreds of specific ones and lots of other sites on the net which would help you learn imovie

Rbode Loc: Ft lauderdale, Fla

You can make a slideshow in iPhoto w/music but you can't burn it to cd/dvd. You need to export it, I export it to the desktop and use finder to burn it. I'll grant you that it is not fast but I don't make a lot of them.

When choosing music, select custom and you can choose anything in iTunes.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Good question. Google showed me "ProShow Gold for Mac," so I thought they had a Mac version. They don't. They say you can run it on a Mac using software that lets you run Windows programs on a Mac, like Parallels.

http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/

relmet454 Loc: Central Minnesota

Just to clarify - imovie does it all but iphoto is not imovie

brian43053 Loc: Buffalo, NY

I don't think you can add music to iMovie. if you are of a different opinion please tell me how to do so.

relmet454 Loc: Central Minnesota

Yup you can -its too long to explain fully but here's a little sample (search for any tutorial you want on imovie at youtube) ie "adding music to imovies" for example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT-ce8s3o30

This is a video, slideshow, with many different songs, transitions, slideshows and music near the end, etc... of some goose hunting of mine in SK, canada last fall (disclaimer there are snow geese being hurt in the movie) knock yourself out - imovie is capable of making whole movies and presentations etc... and it should have been free with your Mac! and I am not even very good at this yet, so its a very very capable program

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Yes - iMovei has become much more featured in later versions. I stared using Fotomagico years ago because it could do something (I forget just what) that iMovie could not at the time.

relmet454 Loc: Central Minnesota

Yes imovie is like the light version of Final Cut Pro, which is the industry standard for movie production, kind of like photoshop elements is to photoshop full version.
Can do virtually all the same things as the full blown version and hardly anything that 98% of people need in the full version vs the other version.

relmet454 Loc: Central Minnesota

Here's some more, better tutorial on photos and music and imovie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT9hnpxJlVc

watch this for starters, I found this and 17,800 other entries when I searched for "how to make a slideshow with imovie"

heck I even learned more from this, didn't know about the "markers" you could quickly add to music and then photos - cool check this stuff out its great, either that or you have to find a 12yr old kid to explain it to us.