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optodata's right about the subtlety of shadows & lack of adjustment options. Shadows are more noticeable in lighter areas of the video or when lighting changes occur.
My preference for subtitles is typically to use white text with black borders, & usually with the font bolded (or a naturally bold font style).
In the attached (100% view) image, the top example has no shadow (only border) and the bottom two have a shadow added.
That "DoesNOTworkinPD.mov" file works fine in PDR18, here.
Do you have Quicktime or Quicktime Lite installed? The video is made using QT RLE codec.
I took your .mov file & re-rendered it in After Efffects to see whether that would make any difference for you. You can check by downloading this packed project. It includes some other alpha videos made with QT & PNG codecs. The video rendered in Ae is named "DoesNOTworkinPD_1.mov".
Yes - it's just a matter of keyframing position and scale.
Here are a couple of examples on DirectorZone: Concertina Open & Concertina Close (and yes - I realise it's an accordion, not a concertina)
If you download them & open in PiP Designer, you'll see how the keyframes have been set. If your image is 16:9, you'll be able to simply copy & paste keyframe attributes from the template to your image.
Sorry - I can't replicate that either using optodata's project or other media & different effects.
My first guess about this being another 365/perpetual "issue" was completely wrong. Here in both versions, selecting the media or the FX makes no difference (as shown in optodata's screen cap)... and that occurs using PDR18 [perpetual - 2028] or the 365 [2204] version.
What you're trying to do is completely doable. For variety (if you wish), you can include:
Slideshow templates
Theme Designer templates
Video Collage Designer
Express Projects
and combine them in a longer presentation.
Using Slideshow Designer, if you haven't selected any background music it's normal for the "Fit Music" & "Fit Photos" options to be greyed out.
The only time I've seen SS Designer repeat photos is when one of those background music options is checked. With no music selected, it should present the selected photos in the order you've chosen.
I've been using PowerDirector since PD7, and I've only just come to realise this.
PowerDirector has NO ABILITY to "Match photos to Music" in the way most users would interpret that option.
Most users, including me, would take that to mean something like ajusting image durations so that:
► Each image is shown once, with no repeats & no photos missed,
so that the:
► Total duration of the slideshow matches the total duration of the background music.
During a recent time-wasting activity, I mistakenly clicked on the info button beside "Background Music" in Slideshow Designer. EEK! It's taken me 10 years to work out what PDR means by "Match Photos to Music".
Before that, I wasted a lot of time trying to work out what PDR was doing in Slideshow Designer. I started with 60 photos and applied different pieces of background music, ranging from 3 - 7 minutes.
So, the only way to match a group of photos to the duration of the music is to build the thing manually. In fact, for Motion slideshow, that's more efficient than trying to wrestle with individual timings of photos. It's made much easier by:
selecting multiple photos and applying the same motion via Tools > Pan & Zoom, and
copying & pasting keyframe attributes.
So Mark!! In answer to your question:
Am I wrong believing that the slideshow function would spread all of the photos out evenly to match the audio length?
First time I've taken a good look at Slideshow Designer in PDR18, but I spent ridiculous amounts of time on it in easrlier versions.
I can say that the features & performance of SS Designer in PDR18 is not the same as PDR13! e.g. In PDR13, selecting "Fit photos to music" would usually result in photos being repeated or left out, where in PDR18 timings are adjusted to match music duration.
In my test just now, for whatever reason, PDR18 ignored the 2nd piece of music I selected when trying to replicate your scenario.
Are you aware that in PDR18 (not 13!) in SS Designer, if you click Customize in Motion SS, you can adjust the timings of every photo manually?
If you open the ones with lines in Transition Designer, you'll see they have the "Border" option checked. Uncheck it & the line disappears.
The ones with "Ease" in the name just have a central keyframe added to shift the progression speed of the transition.
About your "missing" transitions: I have no idea why they're not present in your PDR, nor can I find where they're actually installed so I can't offer any problem solving tips.
I've just checked about a dozen .mp3 files from various sources, & PDR18 (perpetual) shows their durations accurately. There have been similar issues reported with MP3s from time to time but I can't recall whether there was a common cause.
My first thought was whether the MP3s had constant or variable bitrate, but my checks (above) included both.
Could you share/post one of the MP3s with the issue? Also include a screenshot showing how your PDR18 displays the duration.
Now I see what you mean. I rarely use the +/- magnifier buttons & never use the Ctrl+scroll wheel option, but when I started throwing it around in PiP Designer:
the object appeared to shift vertically beyond its bounding handles, &
also appeared to become distorted (i.e. circle > oval)
I understand you are not currently at your PC with PDR18/365, but you've attached a screenshot of PiP Designer in PDR13.
Does the issue happen only in PDR18? & not PDR13? or what? or not?
Whatever the case, here, in PDR18 or PDR13 changing the view using the +/- buttons or the % indicator has NO EFFECT on the object staying within its bounding frame.
I'm mucking around trying to replicate your issue... just at the preliminary stage.
BUT - before we go any further, is it you intention for the circle to become oval in shape? i.e. did you mean to uncheck "Maintain Aspect Ratio"? or are you wanting to simply expand the circle???
What prompted the detective work was that I hadn't had any issues with QT RLE clips previously, so I'm glad your particular issue is resolved after that QT update/fix (whatever it was).
Partially related to your apha video question, there are inconsistencies in PDR18 with PNG & JPEG based videos. Still scratching around with that one.
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OOPS! As Jeff stated above 
