Slideshow CD/DVD

[Visual Reality]

Who has experience with these? I am going to be compiling a lot of my work onto a DVD to give to friends/family. We will be dealing with standard tube TV sets, nothing fancy.

When it comes to resolution, do I want to match standard NTSC TV resolution? Are there any drawbacks to putting larger images (800x600 and up) onto a DVD? Will they look fine when scaled down to fit a TV? I don't want to see any pixelated images, and if I can get away with my already-edited images that would save loads of time.

Also, what is the best way to make a slideshow? I have Nero and it can make a slideshow CD/DVD but I haven't experimented with it yet.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Honest Gaza]

I use Windows Movie Maker 2 (free from Microsoft) and use it to import the images, add transitions, add audio track and create the final AVI movie. The only real issue you have is changing between Portrait and Landscape shots as they may show as distorted unless you crop first.

I then use TMPGEnc to convert to MPG file and then Nero to burn to DVD.

[Norm in Fujino]

...Digital Photo Slide Show (http://www.digitalphotoslideshow.com/?Aboutbox). Inexpensive, lots of transitions, plays music, etc.

[Visual Reality]

I use Windows Movie Maker 2 (free from Microsoft) and use it to import the images, add transitions, add audio track and create the final AVI movie. The only real issue you have is changing between Portrait and Landscape shots as they may show as distorted unless you crop first.

I then use TMPGEnc to convert to MPG file and then Nero to burn to DVD.
I didn't think about WMM. I may have to play with that.

When you burn with Nero do you just burn the mpeg file straight to disk? I want to make sure this plays in all players and I know not all players can do that. In my experience some older players are going to want the standard format which means .vob and .ifo files in a Video_TS folder.

My other concern would then be quality - I don't want my pictures compromised by encoding to a video format.

In my looking around I found this. I am surprised I haven't heard of it before.

Microsoft Photo Story 3 (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx)

[jcon]

The best I have used so far is Nero Photoshow Deluxe. It has tons of transition effects and you can do alot of manual things to your DVD. The quality is wonderful as I have used this for a few customers already.

http://www.usnero.photoshow.com/home

I have also tried Ulead DVD NovieFactory 6. It also has alot of transitions but I prefer the ease and control options that Nero offers.

http://www.ulead.com/dmf/runme.htm

Both the above will let you put in your own background music and you can set the slideshow to the duration of the songs, if you wish.

EDIT.....I forgot to mention, both the above mentioned software will encode it to a "Real" DVD, that means it will be the .vob, .ifo and the TS files format. I have a VERY old DVD player and have had zero problems. You can select the photo quality, ofcourse I always choose the highest, and the pictures look perfectly fine to me on the TV screen.

[Visual Reality]

Nero is a good option as well. Can it do the smooth pan/zoom that the Microsoft programs can do? Its the same effect used in their slideshows in XP Media Center, if you are famaliar with that. So far it seems like a great program.

[jcon]

Yes, Nero can do those pan/zoom transitions and many, many more. It does come with a free trial. I'd suggest giving it a try. I believe the trial has some crappy restriction of like 50 photos per slideshow, but you can still get an idea what the software is like.

I dont know if youre familiar with them, but get some DVD-RW discs. That way you can play around and burn DVDs and test em out on TV and erase and re-use! BIG money saver!

[Visual Reality]

I just tried Nero PhotoShow. It does indeed have the pan/zoom transitions but they are not as smooth as Microsoft's. They are slightly jerky. Maybe just a quirk with the trial version, not sure. It does have a lot of other creative effects though, seems like a good program.

[jcon]

I dont know if this would make a difference with the quirkyness or not but you can set the transition speed, I think. I would have to double check to verify that though.

I havent tried the Microsoft software so I cant compare.

I am sure you will enjoy whatever you choose. Keep us posted on your decision!

[Honest Gaza]

I didn't think about WMM. I may have to play with that.

When you burn with Nero do you just burn the mpeg file straight to disk? I want to make sure this plays in all players and I know not all players can do that. In my experience some older players are going to want the standard format which means .vob and .ifo files in a Video_TS folder.

My other concern would then be quality - I don't want my pictures compromised by encoding to a video format.

In my looking around I found this. I am surprised I haven't heard of it before.

Microsoft Photo Story 3 (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx)

The DVD creation software I use is part of Nero Vision Express which creates the little menu buttons as well (for if you have multiple files/chapters). It has the ability to use AVI or MPG files, but the limitation usually comes with the size of the AVI file to fit on the DVD (especially when using Digital Video with the Still Shots). As such, I convert the final AVI file to MPG first.

I cannot comment on if/how well the other programs can do this.