Help! How to Slideshow on dvd? cd? for tv use, not putr

[PoohJen]

The short version: If I transfer a bunch of pictures onto a dvd, when I hit play on the dvd player, will it just run the pictures in order like a slideshow? Can it be set to run continuously?

Long version: Hi Everyone!

So, I need to put together a slideshow for TONIGHT for a benefit dinner. Nothing fancy, don't even need to add music; it will just run continuously in the background on tvs. I've already collected all the pics into a file, need to tweak a little.

(whine on the side: it's last minute b/c i've been sick - you know how it is, work work work, then spend you free moments in bed trying to rest up enough to go back to work! ...

Anyway, I just realized this will be played on a dvd player. The good news is, my putr does have a dvd burner (of course, in the 4 years i've owned it, i've never tried it!)

The bad news is...so what?! I don't know how this will work. will i just transfer my jumble of pictures onto the dvd and then tonight hit "play"? Can it be that simple? If i transfer 2 files, one with music, the other with none, can i just choose which to run from the dvd menu?

So far i've just asked from the context of putting a pile of pictures together - not really a slide show per se where you might have effects or transitioning from one pic to the next. Not sure if I have software for that, or even if I did, would it "operate" on a simple dvd player.

Sorry if these questions are ridiculously basic or "making something out of nothing". Figure I'd post for advice whilst I go make some trial runs.

Thanks!

 

[Groucho]

Nearly any DVD player made in the past few years will play JPG files straight off the DVD without you needing to do anything special. (Same with MP3 files.)

However, they do it with varying levels of quality and functionality. Most will let you go into the setup and change how long they hold on each photo. Some will let you pause, some won't; some will let you zoom, some won't; some are pretty fast, some are pretty slow. Some will also only not have some photos fill the screen to the top or sides , leaving a "windowbox" around it. This is probably due to their only being able to display certain resolutions.

A slideshow created in DVD format is probably better, but of course involves more work. Some DVD authoring programs will also let you create a proper DVD video gallery like you see on commercial DVDs, like when they have a "stills gallery" or "storyboard gallery". This can work pretty well if you want to be able to move through the pictures at your own pace.

 

[PoohJen]

Thanks Groucho. I talked to the fellow running the event, and he said just put them on cd, that the dvd player will run it. Not sure 'what' dvd player, may be just a portable one for the car. hmmm, maybe i'll bring my laptop, if that can be hooked up somehow.

I know, it sounds like i'm making alot out of nothing. It's the result of being in the 11th hour, when I should've had it done last week...

 

[Groucho]

Many (most?) laptops have some sort of TV output, usually an S-Video connection. If you don't care about sound, it can be hooked up as easily as the DVD player and probably look better, too.

Good luck!

 

[jann1033]

Jen, don't you have photoshop e 5...if so just make a slideshow( basicallly you just add the photos in the order you want and it will burn it on a cd that plays in any dvd...start to finish it might take an hr to do it espc with no music, first one i made took all day but that was including editing the photos someone else took and they were pretty bad the slide show itself doesn't take long

 

[PoohJen]

Thanks y'all; it turned out fine. I just burned the file of pics onto a cd, and then the portable dvd player did run it continuously all night. btw, this was for a baseball fundraiser dinner, it was so much fun to assemble all the pics I took last season and get to put them "on display"!

Of course, when it came time to burn, my putr wouldn't read my e: drive...then the cd was corrupted (whatever)...THEN when it finally did copy, I played it back to find it copied the pics in alphabetical/numerical order, not the order I so carefully labored over for the slide show! y'know, so the first five pics were of Andrew, the next five of Ben...doh! So I had to go and manually rename the 75 pics into numerical order - tedious, but it worked!

Thanks again! Next time I'll get fancier and add sound.

p.s., no Jan, don't have PE5; 30 day trial expired.

 

[Groucho]

Glad to hear that you got it working OK!

Irfanview's batch rename feature probably would have helped when you didn't get the order you wanted. The DVD player will probably only play things in alphabetical order, and your DVD burning software will burn it that way too. You can open the batch dialog box and drag the photos in any order you want, and give it a naming style, and it'll automatically rename them all for you, including putting sequential numbers anywhere in the filename. Very slick.

Just something to keep in the back of your mind if you ever are in that situation again.