William,
No.
Adobe Photoshop ALBUM includes such a feature, but it is one of the most fickle aspects of that program.
Byron
William,
If you are using a Windows XP computer, you can download the free Windows Movie Maker from Microsoft. If you haven’t done any of this kind of video work before you will have some experimenting to do, but it works quite well. Personally, I like to use Pinnacle Studio. It is primarily a video editing software application, but it works well for producing slide shows as well. It has, built right into it, the capability to produce a DVD or a video CD. DVDs are pretty universal, but it takes a fairly new DVD player to play the video CDs. With Windows Movie Maker I think you would need a third party application to produce your video CD, but I’m not sure.
You can do a slideshow with Movie Maker 2 (2 is the more recent version downloadable via Windows Update). Then yes you do need a third party application to do the actual burn of either the video CD (VCD) or the DVD when you use Windows Movie Maker 2. If you have Roxio or Nero you may already have this capability: I think it depends on which version and which variation of packaging.
If you know your relatives’ DVD player models, the site www.dvdrhelp.com will help you look up whether they can play a VCD as well as what type of recorded DVDs they can play. Click on DVD Players under Lists on the left-hand side and then enter the make and model.
I had originally planned to send VCDs to relatives who do not have a computer but then gave up because their DVD players could not play them. So my project is on hold until I have a DVD burner installed.
Another factor is that the quality of picture is generally not as good on VCD as on DVD.
BarbO
Jim, let me know if you see any deals on the Pinnacle. Been looking at it for over a year. It’s a toss up between that one and the ULEAD.
Oh,… ‘please’. Sorry, meant to say that.
William
The absolutely best program for generating slide shows on the PC is ProShow.
http://www.photodex.com/ It comes in two flavours ProShow and ProShow Gold.
Grant
Hello everyone on the PSE forum.
The topic of photo slideshows is also being discussed on the PS Album forum because many people want more in a slideshow than PS Album currently provides. There is one request from the PSA forum that is slightly different, so I decided to ask here also.
The submitter has Elements, Illustrator, Paint Shop Pro plus bundled software for DVD writing and says
I am trying to do a page layout that I can do once and use the same page for printing and adding to slideshows to save time.
It is the aspect of using the same photo and text page layout as input for a printed scrapbook and a slideshow written to a DVD for TV viewing that has me mystified. And since this is a photo memories task, I decided to ask in the Elements forum rather than Illustrator (at least initially).
Here is the reference to the relevant post on the PS Album forum:
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http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?128@@.3bb4c902/10>
Can you recommend additional software pieces in order to accomplish the objective? Thanks.
BarbO
BarbO,
I really appreciate you for listing my question over here also. I have been helped so much from these forums. It is great that you take the time and I appreciate it.
I have created several slide presentations that I have burned on to video CDs. I don’t have a DVD burner yet, so I have had to be satisfied with VCD presentations. The one problem I have found with them is that they don’t seem to be as universally compatible with DVD players. I have encountered problems with a number of players that indicate that they are VCD compatible, yet they will not play my VCD. So I have become a little gun shy about distributing them. Most of my presentations are only shown at home on my DVD player because I know it will work consistently. If anyone wants a copy of one of the shows, I usually give it to them on videotape. Yes, I know the quality isn’t going to be as good, but at least I know they will be able to view it.
I have used three different software programs to create slide presentations. I will describe them briefly for you. However, you should be aware that there are several other programs available besides the ones that I will mention. Grant says that ProShow is the best program for creating slide presentations. I cannot respond to that comment because I have never used it. But I will tell you what I have used.
Windows Movie Maker
If you are using Windows XP, you can download this program free from Microsoft. It provides the capability to put transitions between each of your slides, control the length of time that each slide will be displayed, and you can add music if you wish. You have a little bit of control over the audio so you can fade the music in and out, etc.. I don’t remember all of the features of Windows Movie Maker because I haven’t used it for quite some time. But if I recall correctly, you cannot create a DVD or a video CD directly. You need another program that will create the disk for you. But it does provide you with some very basic editing capabilities.
Microsoft Plus!
This is a program that you can purchase and download from Microsoft for $19.95. It includes a program that will go on you to create slide presentations. One of the unique features of this program (at least unique in my experience) is that it will allow you to zoom and pan on your images so that you can create a sense of motion. You can add a music track to your presentations, but you don’t have a lot of control. You cannot time the music very well and you cannot fade the music at all. When the slide show ends the program just fades the music, and that’s it.
Pinnacle Studio
This is my personal favorite. It is a video editing software designed primarily for capturing and editing motion video. I suppose it could be considered a very watered down version of Adobe Premiere. But it costs significantly less. If your goal is professional video editing, I don’t recommend this program. But it does everything I want it to do. You can integrate your still images with any video footage that you may want to include. I have done this several times and have been very pleased with the results. Studio includes a number of transitions that can help to create a very smooth presentation. It does include the capability to create VCDs and DVDs without any additional software. Another feature I like about it is that you can have two different soundtracks for music besides the soundtrack from your video. So you can cross fade music, and you can back time music so that it ends at the appropriate time.
Ulead Video Studio
This program and has much of the same capability as Pinnacle Studio. But personally, I like the features in Pinnacle Studio a little better, and feel that I have a little more flexibility and control.
There are some freewre programs available for creating video CDs, but they only create the disk. You have to do all of the preparation and creation of the mpeg file with other software. In my experiences, it’s easy to create the slide presentation, but there are a lot of other factors that have to be considered if you want to be able to freely distribute those slide presentations to others.
I apologize to everyone that this has been such a lengthy answer.
Jim,
I apologize to everyone that this has been such a lengthy answer.
I don’t think you should ever apologize for taking the time to thoroughly answer a question. I’m sure it’s much appreciated.
🙂
Joe
Jim,
But if I recall correctly, you cannot create a DVD or a video CD directly. You need another program that will create the disk for you. But it does provide you with some very basic editing capabilities.
Yes, I agree with the above conclusion that Windows Movie Maker can not write the VCD (or DVD). And since the Windows XP software for writing to CDs does not support VCD format either, it does require other burning software capable of writing VCD format.
I also agree that Movie Maker 2 does provide basic editing capabilities for a slide show of digital photos and it is free if you have Windows XP – do download "2" from Windows Update if you only have Movie Maker 1 on your system and wish to try it.
BarbO
Bee Booz,
Glad that you agree with my posting here: I did have some second thoughts after I cross posted someone else’s entry. However, I do think this is a general interest topic for both forums.
Now we wait to see if anyone can identify ideas for using the same layout as input to both a printed scrapbook and a VCD or DVD format disc to play on a TV.
BarbO
The only problem I see it with the "one size fits all" concept is that the orientation is usually different. MOST books are in the portrait format, whereas television-targeted slideshows are going to be in the landscape format. And if you want the best looking presentation in both, it seems to me that you are going to need separate presentations.
Jim, I was thinking maybe you should copy and keep your thread for the next time this comes up. You supplied alot of info that took alot of effort. ..just a thought. Thanks 🙂
I looked at the site at photodex.com and also found a site at 3d-album.com. Would anyone like to give me their opinion about the 3d-album software which has several different options? Some of the scrapbook album software I have bought does not have much flexibility but I am wondering if the saved pages can be imported into other software and vice versa – I have been experimenting a little with that with my Adobe software and others but not too successfully. (I know the extensions have to be compatible). I also need to experiment with changing from portrait to landscape like it is suggested in one of the messages above. Thanks everyone!
I’ve experimented with several different pieces of software to produce slide shows. Initially my choice of what to use was by reading the technical capabilities – can it do music, dvd etc.
But usually I was put off using them by their poor interface. Suppose you have 250 slides you want to put into a show. It’s of great important that the browser provided by the software gives you as much control as possible over the process of importing the pictures and constructing the initial show. And this is where they all seem to fall down.
Great on technical specs, poor on the human interface. none of the commenrcail spftware has really overcome the problem as to how you view a lot of thumbnails on a small screen.
Now in the old days, I could get over 150 2*2 frames on my home made slide box ! David
Have you tried Video Explosion from Nova Development? That’s the software I used the most in my dark days (a.k.a Windows period.. Haha! Sorry, I just had too..!). It had a media browser in which I’d put all the things I wanted in my project. Your slides would have been easy to find in that software.
Ray
