Tip: Making SVCD slideshow w/ music+transitions w/ freeware

[coenocyte]

Here's one way you can make a SVCD slideshow containing music and transitions using freeware applicatoins:

Tools needed:
-Slide Show Maker 3.5.3
-VCDEasy
-bbMPEG

SSM3.5
-Use the wizard to add pictures
-Select source for background music (it has to be a wav file)
-Encode the video as a divx file at 4000 kps using 1-pass method.
-Select CD-quality audio
-Proceed w/ the encoding process.

bbMPEG
-Select fixed resolution of 480x480.
-Encode as a MPEG-2 file w/ VBR, 30fps

VCDEasy
-Add the files to the que
-Click Encode+Burn


The SVCD slideshows look so much better than the VCD ones. You can fit about 35 minutes on a 700 mb cd.

Another option to make the original slideshow is the use microsoft movie maker. Unfortunately, you won't be able to convert the wmv file to a mpg file.

[coenocyte]

Btw,

I think it'd be great if someone could post a guide for creating a SVCD slideshow from freeware apps. I don't know enough about the process to write up one...but just offered some ideas.

In particular, all the features of SSM3.5 are pretty hard to figure out. I particularly don't like how some transitions take forever to calculate. Selecting random is great, but if the random ones include the slow ones--your computer will hang. Which one should I not select? are there templates for the faster ones? I'd usually just use "cross dissolve" for all since that's among the fastest transitions.

any other freeware mpeg2 encoders besides bbmpeg? the links look broken.