Slideshow Software but . . .

[Geoff F]

The local history society (of which I am a committee member) are planning to produce some DVD's of memories from older residents with photographs.

I have produced a short sample video using MGI Video Wave 3 software but this is a rather 'old programme' although it works well for me. Using Windows XP

So is there any more up to date software which would be better but just as easy to use. Video Wave can export Mpeg 2 at 720 pixels wide which appears to work OK on my television. Funding for software may be available.


The resulting DVD's should be viewable on both computers and TV.

The potentially difficult bit is that the slideshow stills must be capable of various duration lengths to match the speech. Which I can achieve with VW3.

I have tried Serif Movie Plus 5 but couldn't make much sense of it. Eventually, I managed to upload the stills (as Jpeg) but couldn't add any sound. Finally, in desperation, I burnt the sound files to a CD then 'ripped' it into the project. Straight uploading/dragging of files just weren't accepted. Using wav and mp3 files.

But I still didn't get anywhere as I couldn't appear to find any way of combining images and sound and the whole system appeared very complex. Even though the box said Digital video editing made easy for anyone - no experience required.

Has anybody produced anything similar? The required software should be capable of being used by a number of different people; some of whom have little knowledge of working with photos/video etc. The software should be capable of working on Mac as well as windows. Members of the society have different systems.

ps. One other question.

I took my little sample DVD to a meeting today in order to demonstrate what may be possible, but could be done better. The television/video player provided was set to auto play of DVD's but my production didn't register so wasn't viewable.

And the alternative laptop had a faulty DVD drive. Neither problem was my fault.

So the second question is, how do you get a home produced DVD to autoplay on a DVD player?

[Manfred M]

The last slideshow / DVD combination I made, I actually used just used Adobe Creative Suite software; I recorded the voice over in Adobe Audition, resized the images in Photoshop and put everything together in Premiere Pro. This made it easy to match the images to the sound (old video trick; edit to the music / soundtrack). Images were on one timeline, text / titles on another and I had a separate timeline for music and for sound. No fancy flying around transitions; just the basic ones available in Premiere Pro.

I've authored in Adobe Encore (separate menu items for the video and the slideshow), as well as the usual chapter markings. I've never had a problem autoplaying either an authored disk or a direct video; they've always autoplayed, so I have no idea why you are having problems. I formated to NTSC 720 x 480 size and exported as MPEG-2 using Adobe Media Encoder.

Owning the Adobe Creative Suite makes the choice easy; all the software I need comes as part of the package.

[victor]

Geoff,

I am aware of the following Picturetoexe from wnsoft, which is used by many camera clubs:

http://www.wnsoft.com/picturestoexe/

There is no MAC version, but it covers the above. You can download a trial version for 10 sildes.

Regards

David

[proseak]

I've used Nero 6 - "Make Photo Slideshow - DVD". Easy to use, fast, worked well. Played in a lot of standalone DVD players.

HTH

Peter

[Kris V]

I have been using Sony Vegas for years.
It's not cheap, and I don't believe there's a version for Mac.
The basics are very easy to use, but there's a fairly steep learning curve for the more fancy stuff.

[Carl in Louisiana]

I have been using Sony Vegas for years.
It's not cheap, and I don't believe there's a version for Mac.
The basics are very easy to use, but there's a fairly steep learning curve for the more fancy stuff.

I use the same software and it is great. If the music ends up longer than the photos you just click and drag the end of the song up to the end of the photos and then add a a fader and thats it song ends with last picture and just drifts off, not a drop off.

Then send it over to DVD make and burn a DVD that will play on anything. There are tons of tutorials on how to use it. Like you say fancy stuff like picture in a picture, zoom and pan just to name a few.

[Geoff F]

Thanks for those suggestions. I will do some more research on them then report back to the society committee.

The organisation founder and chairman is a 'Mac man' so everything has to be convertible in some form. Probably, different people will each complete around 15 mins of video then it will all be combined to produce a final product of about 1 hour for each production.

[jcuknz]

I am a novice at this but was told at camera club I need to make an .exe file for it to show by 'any' computer etc.
I have Pro Show Gold which I gather will do it for me if/when I get my A into G I have good reasons for my lack of action

[Geoff F]

I think something like that creates the Autoplay function. But a straight, good make DVD should also show up automatically on most computers or TV. Then it is necessary to select 'run' 'play' or something similar.

The exe file should skip this stage and automatically play; I think.

I will look up the software you suggest.

Have been looking at various video software. I have found Video Wave 4 but although it works OK most of the time, I'm getting the occasional strange glitch with it.

Read some reports on the latest Nero 11. A lot of people are saying it is needlessly complicated and quite a few scores of 3 stars or less (out of 5).

Still researching though.

[Carl in Louisiana]

I don't know if you found this one yet. Please don't be offended by the title. You can also include music with it.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/conten...-your-mac.html

[Benjy]

Hi I use Windows Movie Maker 2.6 for this sort of project, have used it lots it,s a free download easy to use,also used Power Director 10 found this good also free download 30 day trial,hope this is of some help.....

[proseak]

I am a novice at this but was told at camera club I need to make an .exe file for it to show by 'any' computer etc.

I suspect that this won't work on, say, a Mac but if that's what you need, then Irfanview will create a slideshow as an .exe file.

The price is good too

[revi]

DVD's are not .EXE files. And an .EXE would probably not run on a mac (being a program file targetting MS-Windows, nor on a linux machine, without special software installed.
Best bet is creating a DVD, as that is a standard format. Playback difficulties mostly arise from the physical disks, not the material on it (if the DVD is creating according to the rules).

The tricky parts about DVD authoring are the formats, that are rather specific, and the preparation of the menus. Disk layout (directory structures) and file formats should be taken care of by your software, you'll have to decide how you want your menus... That's also where you would decide to create an autoplay DVD, by specifying in the root menu that a given film would have to start playing (either immediately or after a delay).

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the advice.

I'm following up the options and checking as much user feedback as I can find.

Then, in a couple of weeks, I have to report back to the committee with suggestions and examples. And sound as though I understand what I am talking about.

If it wasn't for one member (the chairman) having a Mac it would probably be an easier task.

Anyway, I have produced some sample videos (around 10 mins) using the Video Wave software so I'm beginning to understand what is required.

At the moment, that software will only produce Mpeg or Avi not Mov etc, but what I have made will play on my computer and TV with no problem.

I had similar problems with audio discs. Using a universal disc, I found wav format played on my computer and CD player. But my CD player won't accept MP3.

Then, as a test, I took a wav format CD to my local pub to see how it sounded on their system. But their old CD player wouldn't accept the modern universal CD's.

[Benjy]

Hi again,I find if I convert mp3 to wma I don,t have any problems playing cds or adding music to dvds, have done this lots of times with no problems,

[benm]

It's not too clear if you want to make a slide show using videos or using photos. If you are using only video clips there are a number of software packages specifically made for videos but I am not familiar with them.

For photos I have used Proshow Producer for many years. Proshow also makes a simpler version of their slide show software called Proshow Gold. Both programs can also incorporate videos even though it is primarily for photos. Everything is adjustable so you can synchronize the photos and the music precisely. The programs run on PCs only. For output, you can use DVDs, CDs, HD DVDs, and numerous on-line options such as You Tube.

You can download a trial version to see if you like it.

[Geoff F]

Thanks Ben. I'm gradually working my way through various software details to try to work out which would be best.

The plan is to use photos (taken from old photos of the area) and mix them with a narration plus extracts of memories from older residents, although I'm not far behind myself.

We had considered using video clips but were worried that once you 'stick a video camera in someones face' they tend to clam up and we don't get the material we require. So we are thinking that taking just audio recordings plus a couple of photos of the contributors will work best.

I have a Tascam portable recorder and the organisation will purchase another.

We have hundreds of photos and documents going back to Victorian times.

At least 4 times a year, we give a presentation talk which shows the photos, projected onto a screen, plus a talk and gather as much information as we can from those who attend. Usually between 20 and 50 people.

Putting these talks onto DVD's for sale is another idea to raise funds.

I will probably have to download a few trial products over the next few days so that I can evaluate them and give a full report to the next committee meeting.

This information is most useful.

[Geoff F]

That Photoshow software certainly looks the most promising of those which I have considered so far.

Downloaded a trial and produced a 10 min slideshow plus narration without too much of a problem. My experiments with Videowave certainly helped me to 'acclimatise' to slideshow production.

I tried the Gold version which seems to offer all I need; and a lot more besides. Not sure what is extra in the Pro version - except $200 extra.

So the basic Gold at $50, which will probably be the same in UK pounds should be sufficient.

I see this software automatically adds Exe. files for auto play.