BMP/JPG slideshow to MPEG2

[willy_annand]

I need a good program to convert picutres (BMP or JPG) to MPEG2 for authoring onto DVD.

Please do NOT say Ulead DVD Picture Show, it's menuing so so limited it is criminal and it produces a strange VOB that will not unpack properly.

I want the power of DVD-Lab's menuing system, also I want to mix Slides with vid clips.

Ulead Picture Show would be good if it had an output to MPEG2 option.

[funkguy4]

TMPGEnc to make it into MPEG2, then use DVD-Lab to insert chapters at a certain interval? If TMPGenc will not eat the slideshow directly, frameserve it.

------------EDIT------------
OMFg I was being an idiot. Use VCDEasy to make still MPEG2, then load them all up into DVD-Lab! (duh!)

[willy_annand]

VCDEasy won't cut it either, it does NOT support DVD resolutions.

I know if I convert from SVCD to Full-D1 I will lose too much quality.

[funkguy4]

Are you sure you can't just import the images raw into DVD-Lab?

[MOVIEGEEK]

Ulead MovieFactory 2 and Sonic MyDVD 4 supports slideshows and videos.If you have Photoshop you can make your own buttons for MyDVD.

[funkguy4]

MyDVD blows.

[racer-x]

Why don't you use your video editor? I use Premiere to make slideoshow with video for dvd. Most video editors will do want you want and wil give you many options on your slideshow. Just output the podject to MPEG-2.

[willy_annand]

MyDVD blows.

100% agreement here.

I have tried all the lowend DVD Authoring programs. Only DVD-LAb has the flexibility I need. I want to end up with a switched menu so that when a button is selected, the central picture changes to reflect the new chapter. That way, to the customer, it appears that there is only ONE chapter menu.

I just want a good program that takes BMP or JPG files and makes an MPEG2 slideshow.

[willy_annand]

Why don't you use your video editor? I use Premiere to make slideoshow with video for dvd. Most video editors will do want you want and wil give you many options on your slideshow. Just output the podject to MPEG-2.

I have tried Premiere, but run into 2 factors:

1. I have 845 pictures and 7 AVI clips (with pics on a 5 second viewing, it comes to 93 minutes).

2. It looks bland without transitions and everytime I attempt to put a simple disolve transition between each of the pics, the resultant MPEG stuuters during the transition. Also putting in 845 transitions manually is too time consuming.

I really want a program like Ulead DVD Picture Show, but one that does it correctl so you can use the resultant VOB file.

[racer-x]

If you got Premiere 6.5, Click File > New > Storyboard. Drag the folder with the BMPs and avi clips in there. It will let you move them around in the order you want. When you export to timeline it will add the default transition automaticly for you. I always use crossfade transition as default. Personaly I think multiple transitions makes it look like an amature job to me.

Since you've got XP, just download Movie Maker 2. You can find a link in the tools section. It will give you lots of transitions. But you'll have to output to AVI and then convert to MPG-2 with an encoder like TMPGenc.

[funkguy4]

With premiere there's the Ligos MPEG2 export plugin, but I would personally just frameserve using AVISynth for Premiere. Yeah, so, anyways I would use DVd-Lab for everything, except I wish it did multiple VTS. So, with my multiple movie DVDs, I'm stuck with TMPGEnc DVD Author's crappy menus.

[willy_annand]

If you got Premiere 6.5, Click File > New > Storyboard. Drag the folder with the BMPs and avi clips in there. It will let you move them around in the order you want. When you export to timeline it will add the default transition automaticly for you. I always use crossfade transition as default. Personaly I think multiple transitions makes it look like an amature job to me.

Since you've got XP, just download Movie Maker 2. You can find a link in the tools section. It will give you lots of transitions. But you'll have to output to AVI and then convert to MPG-2 with an encoder like TMPGenc.

Never knew about the "Storyboard" option in Premiere....

Crossfade is what I want anyway, the others look very amateurish.

Guess I should read more about it eh?

I have downloaded a series of 12 tutorials, but so far have not had time to read them.

Thanks for the help.

[willy_annand]

With premiere there's the Ligos MPEG2 export plugin, but I would personally just frameserve using AVISynth for Premiere. Yeah, so, anyways I would use DVd-Lab for everything, except I wish it did multiple VTS. So, with my multiple movie DVDs, I'm stuck with TMPGEnc DVD Author's crappy menus.

For multiple movies, I just combine the MPEGs using MPEG2VCR (no reencoding) and then in DVD-Lab at most I have 2 movies, a "Play First" short intro and the main "Movie", in the menus I sort out via chaptering each individual movie. And of course on the DVD case, you list what is on the DVD.

[arrosen]

I know it gets a lot of bad press, but I have used Pinnacle Studio to make a slide show and put it on DVD. After you get all of your clips on the timeline there is an option that allows you to put a transition between each clip. Then you can write it out to DVD.

Just my 2 cents.

[willy_annand]

If you got Premiere 6.5, Click File > New > Storyboard. Drag the folder with the BMPs and avi clips in there. It will let you move them around in the order you want. When you export to timeline it will add the default transition automaticly for you. I always use crossfade transition as default. Personaly I think multiple transitions makes it look like an amature job to me.

Since you've got XP, just download Movie Maker 2. You can find a link in the tools section. It will give you lots of transitions. But you'll have to output to AVI and then convert to MPG-2 with an encoder like TMPGenc.

I tried Premiere's Storyboard option today, excellent functionality.
I got the slides in, each group was done automatically, saved me a lot of time.

Still have the same problem though, when played on a TV, the stills "shimmer", some one in the DVD-Lab forum said that it was because of the television's alternate scanning and the stills should be processed with a 1 pixel vertical motion blur so that they come out perfect on the TV.

The fellow who gave the suggestion uses the Speed Razor and Matrox Digisuite and knows nothing about Premiere. Any idea how to get the above mentioned effect?

[twinches]

I use ProShow Gold http://www.photodex.com/products/proshow/
it is one of the few programs that I have found that you can put music to the slideshow AND it will sync the length of the slide show the length of the music. Other programs will play the music , but will not sync the two.

But anyway, I don't make my whole DVD with this. What I do is use ProShow Gold just to make a slide show with music and output it to a MPEG2 file. Then you can import that MPEG2 file into DVD-LAB and create your DVD with menus. So if you want to have multipule slideshows on the dvd, you just creat multipule MPEG2 files with Proshow gold and make them different Titles in DVD-LAB , along with any other video that you want to include in the DVD too.

[racer-x]

willy_annand wrote:

Still have the same problem though, when played on a TV, the stills "shimmer", some one in the DVD-Lab forum said that it was because of the television's alternate scanning and the stills should be processed with a 1 pixel vertical motion blur so that they come out perfect on the TV.

If the stills flicker it's because you have some horizontal lines in ti picture that are less than 1 pixel thick. The interlacing has a hard time finding the line and creates a flickering effect. I would get the pictures that flicker and run a gusian blur filter on them in your photo editor. Also convert to NTSC safe colors.

This is what I do before I import the pix into Premiere. I resize the clips to 720 x 534 (you can also use 720 x 540), but for some reason Premiere recomends 720 x 534. Usualy when you resize, the picture will have some blur aplied too them. I use PhotoShop, so I add NTSC colors filter just before I save.

Go here for tutorials:
http://www.wrigleyvideo.com/videotutorial/tutorials.htm

These tutorials are videos that you watch. They are excellent for learning Premiere.

[funkguy4]

For multiple movies, I just combine the MPEGs using MPEG2VCR (no reencoding) and then in DVD-Lab at most I have 2 movies, a "Play First" short intro and the main "Movie", in the menus I sort out via chaptering each individual movie. And of course on the DVD case, you list what is on the DVD.

That would work if I was doing two movies with the same aspect. But, if this was the case, I would load the two seprately anyway!

[willy_annand]

If the stills flicker it's because you have some horizontal lines in ti picture that are less than 1 pixel thick. The interlacing has a hard time finding the line and creates a flickering effect. I would get the pictures that flicker and run a gusian blur filter on them in your photo editor. Also convert to NTSC safe colors.

This is what I do before I import the pix into Premiere. I resize the clips to 720 x 534 (you can also use 720 x 540), but for some reason Premiere recomends 720 x 534. Usualy when you resize, the picture will have some blur aplied too them. I use PhotoShop, so I add NTSC colors filter just before I save.

Go here for tutorials:
http://www.wrigleyvideo.com/videotutorial/tutorials.htm

These tutorials are videos that you watch. They are excellent for learning Premiere.

Thanks racer. one question though:

Is there a photo utility that handles the resizing and blur in batch format?

I have WinXP and only Corel PhotoPaint for photo editing. Loading 845+ pics one at a time and resizing/bluring would take up too much time and run my profit way down.... (www.muskokacomputes.com)

I will give the tutorials a look, thanks.

[racer-x]

willy_annand wrote:

Is there a photo utility that handles the resizing and blur in batch format?

I have WinXP and only Corel PhotoPaint for photo editing. Loading 845+ pics one at a time and resizing/bluring would take up too much time and run my profit way down...

Yes and it's free. I use Irfanview, it will let you batch process images. You can resize, change format, it's a really cool litle program. Get it here:
http://www.irfanview.com/

[funkguy4]

My, now isn't racer-x the photo-editting expert!

[willy_annand]

My, now isn't racer-x the photo-editting expert!

He certainly is and I thank him for it.

Thanks to all.

[funkguy4]

He certainly is and I thank him for it.

Thanks to all.

Well then, thank you racer-x! Altough, I wasn't here looking for, rather trying to give it.....

[willy_annand]

I have solved the problem, between Irfan and Premiere, it now works.

Thanks to all

even you Mr. Funk You sure know how to "give it" <kidding>

[racer-x]

funkguy4 wrote:

My, now isn't racer-x the photo-editting expert!

No, I'm no expert. I just like playing with video and images. I learned a lot from this site, so I try to help others when I can.

[funkguy4]

funkguy4 wrote:

My, now isn't racer-x the photo-editting expert!

No, I'm no expert. I just like playing with video and images. I learned a lot from this site, so I try to help others when I can.

My, and humble too! I'm just bugging you, dude.