Missing or unavailable slideshow themes in iPhoto '09

Some people who have upgraded to iPhoto '09 may find the slideshow options to be limited in comparison with what is advertised on Apple's Web site.

Apple Discussion user "R. Sperber":

"I have the new iPhoto09 running on my old G4 mac mini. When creating a new slideshow, the app just offers me 'classic' and 'Ken Burns' Theme - that is it, even though there should be 4 other new themes for slideshows:"

This problem is more than likely because you not having a computer that's fast enough to handle the new slideshow themes and other enhanced features. According to Apple's iLife system requirements Web page, the latest iPhoto requires the following system configurations:

• Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor
• 512MB of RAM; 1GB recommended.
• Approximately 4GB of available disk space

Even though some computers such as the Mac Mini G4 (with at least 1.25GHz) appears to meets the minimum requirements, the processor (and in some cases the video card) actually do not support the capabilities required for some of the slideshow themes. Unfortunately, Apple does not mention this in the system requirements.

However, in a recently released knowledgebase article Apple clarified the system requirements for iPhoto and claim both the processor type and available video RAM may restrict certain slideshow themes. Regardless of processor type, if you are using a video card that has less than 64MB of video RAM you will not be able to see certain slideshows, and on any PowerPC G4 machine, you will be limited to the Classic and Ken Burns slide shows only.

All PowerPC G5 computers Apple shipped should be able to run the slideshows perfectly, unless you have a PowerMac G5 and have replaced the video card with one that has less than 64MB vRAM.

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