Slideshow movie...any advice??

[DISFAM3]

Hi,
I am new to this forum, so forgive me if this is repetitive!

I recently went digital (and love it!).
For Christmas I paid quite a bit of money for someone to make me a slideshow set to music. I provided him with the slideshow of pictures on a disc - and then a separate disc of the music I wanted. He married the two, and it came out great!

I know this is something I could do at home. I have an itunes library set up and all of my pics on file. Can anyone recommend software and/or instructions on how to make these slideshows w/audio?? I've tried Windows Media Player - with no success...

Thanks in advance!

 

[DueyDooDah]

Check this out. I use it and love it. It's very easy, does exactly what I want and it's free.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

 

[jann1033]

Hi,
I am new to this forum, so forgive me if this is repetitive!

I recently went digital (and love it!).
For Christmas I paid quite a bit of money for someone to make me a slideshow set to music. I provided him with the slideshow of pictures on a disc - and then a separate disc of the music I wanted. He married the two, and it came out great!

I know this is something I could do at home. I have an itunes library set up and all of my pics on file. Can anyone recommend software and/or instructions on how to make these slideshows w/audio?? I've tried Windows Media Player - with no success...


Thanks in advance!

it's very easy in photoshop elements 5 but if you see the rest of these threads on pse5 of mine... so while it's a good program if it works, mine doesn't..but it makes easy slideshows with music or narration..there is a free download if you want to try it on adobe.com but if you get it i'd buy the actual software somewhere as i wonder if the download from the site is messed up( where i have gotta mine, original and the mutliple times i have had to un/re install

 

[MarkBarbieri]

The first thing that you need to do is decide what type of slideshow you want to do. There are two very different types. The first is a video slideshow, usually distributed on DVD. The second is a computer slideshow playable only on computers. Each has its advantages.

With a DVD based slideshow, you can send them to just about anyone with confidence that they have a DVD player and that your show will work on their player. You can also do very complex pans and zooms. These take a while for a computer to generate, but that is part of the creation process, not the viewing process. The downside with DVD slideshows is that the resolution is low (720x480) and the color isn't the best.

You'll get much better image quality building a slideshow designed to be viewed on a computer. Another strength to this approach is that you can more easily post the slideshow on the Internet and let others download it. The two main problems with this approach are that your slideshow might not work on everyone's computer and you are more limited with what you can do. If you do a pan across a picture, the computer has to do a lot of work while the pan is actually happening. Some computers can't handle that and so the pan doesn't work right.

At the core, the difference is that the DVD slideshows are really video that the computer generates. The computer based slideshows are just pictures along with instructions on how to display them. They an be much smaller because only the pictures and the instructions are stored rather than 30 frames per second of video. They can do less fancy things because the instructions have to be done while the slideshow is playing. With the video slideshow, the hard work is done when the video is created rather than when it is watched.

There isn't a right or wrong choice, they are just different. I suspect that as high definition distribution channels improve, we'll all switch to generated video slideshows, but for now both choices have their strengths and weaknesses.

The market is definitely moving in the direction of video slideshows distributed on DVD. There are a lot of packages that will do this. I think that the best are the video editing packages designed to work with camcorder footage, like Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere. These have steep learning curves, but they can do a lot more than simple slideshows. If you want something simple, there are still a lot of options like Microsoft's PhotoStory or MemoriesOnTV.

If you want to do a high resolution computer executable slideshow, my favorite package is Pictures2Exe at www.wnsoft.com. There are many others, but it is the one I'm most familiar and comfortable with. If you look in my sig file, you'll see a slideshow I generated with this program. It took less than an hour to pick the pictures, put them in order, add the music, set the options that I wanted, and build it.

 

[DISFAM3]

Thank you all for the advice!

After reading DDD's post, I immediatly downloaded Photo Story 3 (for free!) and made a quick slide show w/ music & I love it!

The only drawback was a point that Mark had brought up: I could not burn the slideshow to a DVD+R (the computer wouldn't let me??) So I burned it to a CD which can be played beautifully on my PC, but not on my DVD player.
Any reason this is so? I am currently using Philips DVD+R. Should I try another brand or is it the software that does not recognize this format? I would love to have it in DVD form to (snail) mail to family members to play on their DVD players.

Thanks!


PS
Mark your pics are fantastic!!

 

[DueyDooDah]

Yes, unfortuneatley Photostory in it's current version does not support DVD formats. There is a add-on that does add this functionality, but it costs $20.00 USD. Here's the link:

http://www.estore.sonic.com/enu/photostory/default.asp

Oh, and I forgot one thing. Windows XP comes with Movie Maker (you'll find it in Start | All Programs.) I find it much more difficult to work with but it allows more flexibility in what can be included.

 

[Groucho]

There are a few different formats we're talking about here...

If you're burning a CD to play in a DVD player, there's three possibilities.

1. Just burn the JPGs to a CD. Most DVD players made in the past few years can read these and play them on your TV, with varying quality and user-friendliness - but no music.

2. Create a Video CD (VCD) - the resolution is very low (352x240) and most DVD players can't play them.

3. Create a Super Video CD (SVCD) - higher resolution (480x480) and more sophisticated compression (mpeg2 vs mpeg1) but even fewer DVD players can play them. Ironically, the low-buck no-name players are more likely to play them than the big-name, more expensive players, as the cheap ones are more likely to be "world" players that only have minor software changes to work anywhere in the world, and some other countries value VCD/SVCD playback much more than the USA does. For the same reason, these cheapie players are more likely to play back PAL video on NTSC TVs and to be easily set to multi-region, to play DVDs from anywhere in the world. But that's a whole different topic.

For DVDs, the software you're using may not allow you to make DVDs. You often need paid software for such a task (I'm sure there are exceptions.) I assume that you do have a DVD burner and can burn DVDs at other times, since you had DVD+Rs at the ready.

There are many software packages out there that do photo slideshows on DVD. If I were doing it, I'd look at Nero first since it's already on my PC; after that, I'd start looking at the specialized programs (leaning towards freeware first if they exist.)

For playback in a DVD player, only pretty old players won't read a DVD+R, the vast majority will. DVD-R is a tiny bit more compatible and stores a tiny bit more data, so I usually use -R, but the difference in minimal - buy whichever you can get cheaper.

One other thing to keep in mind is that if you're using iTunes for music and are buying music from Apple, the music is DRMed so you are limited in what you can do with it. (Don't get me started on the evils of DRM!) I'm going to guess that most slideshow creators will want music in MP3 format primarily, probably also WMA and CD audio. If you need to, I think you can burn a CD of your DRMed music and then use that as the source. Burn it to a rewritable CD if you have one, so you're not wasting a CD just for this process.

 

[jann1033]

the photoshop e 5 one is a vcd, the color is great , the picture is way better than on my computer and so far it's played on every tv/dvd player i have tried ( 5 so far) and mine ( dvd player) was an cheapo freebie i got 10 or so yrs ago with earthlink...so it ought to play on anything if it plays on that i am guessing there have been recent improvements as it asks what kind of dvd player you have etc when you go to burn the disk . i put in the usa version for all and so far it's played on my parents giant $$$$ one as well as my, shall we say less $$$ one

the music i got ( some comes with the program but i added others) i got from limewire via my itunes...you save it first in itunes then you just go to the add audio in the pse5 slide show creator, and you can add it very easily, fade it, adjust volume etc from the creator...

the thing i like about it is i've given it to some older people who aren't that great at tech. stuff esp. computers and they just have to put it in their dvd and it plays, no messing around.

 

[shirleyb]

I use a project called Magix Movie Edit Pro 11. I make digital slideshows all the time, and am currently working on one with video, still photos, and music.

 

[allyn]

i use proshow gold.

 

[DISFAM3]

Thanks again for all of your advice!

Can't wait to start creating!!

 

[EpcotKilterFan]

i use proshow gold.

So do I and really love it! I have created several shows and burned them to a DVD to share with everyone.

Debbie

 

[boBQuincy]

ProShow Gold is good for video shows, but the size and quality of the video is not as good as an exe that displays the images at a high resolution.

I use ProShow for it's wide variety of effects, mostly zooms, pans, and fades.

Here is one I recently completed (about 7 MB):
http://www.mindspring.com/~image-ination/wdw/mk_1b7d_2m.wmv

 

[mabas9395]

Here is one I recently completed (about 7 MB):
http://www.mindspring.com/~image-ination/wdw/mk_1b7d_2m.wmv

Very impressive. I especially like what you did with the fireworks.

 

[Spinning]

I use Nero. I love it! I was using photo show by simplestar (you also get a free version if you have comcast cable) but I hated adding music to it. I have had all kinds of problems. From You add music and change music by clicking on a different picture and then add it. But depending on the speed of your pc and burning etc... I know there is a word for all of this....but at times the music would start or stop at the wrong time.
With nero you make a directory and can add as many songs as you like and click on fit music to pictures. Works great! Plus i like the directory part.
Plus it burns fast. Photo show could take several hours!