Best DVD Slideshow Software?

[wenospeak]

I want to make a DVD that will play a still image slideshow on both a home DVD player and a PC. For the PC, I would like viewers to be able to use it as a screensaver.

I’m using original artwork still images in .jpg, .gif, .psd, .bmp formats and I want to add multiple soundtracks from original music that’s’ been archived to Cdr’s (In Stereo).

I’ve been doing some research and getting very confused by what I find mainly because I won’t be using any motion video or capturing options. Plus it’s not clear what programs have built in burning software, and if not, whether it will export an image (or other) file that Nero 7 (Nero Vision 4) can import and burn and VERY HIGH audio and video quality.

The main features I’m interested in are:

1) Being able to sync the audio and video to matched length while still having control over individual transitions and individual durations
2) Making sure the audio stays at the same volume throughout the project
3) Being able to fade in/out and cross fade audio clips in one long slideshow
4) Viewers have the choice of watching the whole slideshow or select chapters
5) Having a full featured opening menu with “Setup” options for the viewer and sub menus for Dolby, LPCM, choice of soundtracks, subtitles etc.
6) Having a looped soundtrack for the main menu and sub menus
7) A very good anti-flicker feature
8 ) Ability to zoom in OR out from and to any spot in an image
9) Ability to play just the soundtrack (and on a Cd player if possible)
10) Ability to fully control the disc using standard option buttons on a DVD remote, such as, skip, return, main menu, etc.
11) Being able to burn a very high quality disc that will play on most DVD players.

Most likely I’ll be burning the project onto Printable DVD-R discs and creating my own labels for the disc, box, and insert.

I’ve looked at the Vegas and Ulead programs but don’t know how to narrow it down to what I need, any suggestions?

Many thanks,

Rick Calic

P.S. I have a Sony 510A and Plextor 740A burner – are they good enough or should I upgrade to a better burner?

[hech54]

That's a pretty tall order..

[wenospeak]

Just as I feared...

Well, without spending 2,000.00 and trying to stay under 500.00 (including whatever plugins are required), what would you recommend?

I tried buring this project with Nero Vison 4, and was totally disappointed. There was a limit to the number of images that could go into each chapter. There was no ability to fade in or out audio clips - so if a song ran longer than the chapter, it just cut off abruptly. Plus, it had no anti-flickering. However, the images that didn't flicker looked superb.

I also tried ACDsee v8 w/media pack and it could sync audio and apply anti flickering, but had several other shortcomings.

I was hoping someone would know of something that wasn't a Full Professional Software Package and made for consumers, but had "Pretty close" to what I'm looking for.

What about Sony's Movie Studio + DVD, vs. Ulead's Video Studio 9?

What will I be sacrificing using either of those programs and which would be the more reliable?

Gee, I sure do ask a lot, eh?

Sorry, but I really am totally new to Video creation.

Thanks for your help.

Rick

[TerryG]

People like ProShow Gold:

http://www.photodex.com/products/proshowgold/

I use MemoriesOnTv for the slideshow and Ulead VideoStudio for the background music and burning.

http://www.codejam.com/motv.htm

[wenospeak]

thanks very much. I have looked at those and it's fuzzy what you get and don't get.

Is there a comprehensive comparison somewhere. Man, that sure is lazy, sorry, I can just download and print the specs myself.

Any real clue as to which is more reliable? I read somewhere that Photodex had some problems that made me not go back and look again. Maybe I closed the door too soon.

Thanks,

Rick

[byteguy]

I read somewhere that Photodex had some problems that made me not go back and look again. Maybe I closed the door too soon..

I've used Proshow Gold for years and the only time I ran into a problem they had already released a fix. Been very happy with the quality of the video it produces; excellent anti-flicker setting.

You're going to end up with a stack of programs to do what you want. I produce slide shows in ProShow, load them into my NLE (EditStudio) for complex titles and audio work, then use DVD-Lab Studio for DVD motion menus and chapter selection. You can probably skip the NLE step, but you'll need better DVD creation because Proshow is pretty limited on menu structure

Not a clue on some of the other stuff. I don't think there is any way to make a DVD that plays music on a CD player. Sure, the disks look the same, but the formats are radically different.

[Rudyard]

I have used Ulead videstudio 9 to create a similar project.

It is able to fade out the audio and fade in the new track and it easy to trim the end of the audio in the timeline as you can see where your last photo ends. You simply drag the audio track to meet the end of the video track and then select fade out.

It also contains an anti flickering folter that when I did mine worked great and there was no flicker.

I found though the DVD authoring part to be limited compared to sony dvd architect or Adobe encore DVD, so I burnt using encore but created my slideshow in ULEAD video studio 9. I just outputed the final slideshow to DVD comliant MPEG2 and dropped it into Encore where I created my chapters, menus etc and burnt the disc.

There may be a trial version you could test to see if your other needs are met.

hope it helps.

[ozymango]

thanks very much. I have looked at those and it's fuzzy what you get and don't get.

Did you say you looked at ProShow Gold? As I use it and to me it does exactly what you're asking for and the image quality has been excellent. But you can set the bitrate/resolution for playback, maybe the settings were off? On my digital camera images, the pictures on playback (DVD or .exe/scr file) were indistinguishable from the source material. That was on maximum file size. So I'd definitely check if those settings were off or not.

[kisrum]

I use Memories on TV and then take the mpg to mpg video wizard for soundtrack. Fade in- fade out is a little rough on video wizard. I then export final mpg to TDA for authoring. Crossfading would need to be done on higher end editing software or maybe separately in goldwave or audacity. Really sounds like you might want to skip the slideshow software and go straight to dropping still shots into your video editing software, but then you might not get the Ken Burns effect cheaply.

Proshow and Motv both have free trials which leave a watermark on your product, but you can see what they do anyway. Good luck

[wenospeak]

thanks very much for your input everyone.

It sounds lilke I need at least two programs (which is what I didn't know)

It's starting to sound like I should be looking at Vegas 6+DVD or Ulead Media Studio Pro.

Anyone had experience with these?

[Mossy]

I have been using Vegas extensively for a large (300 photos, 16 music tracks, one hour long voice narration) project, and have found it to be extremely flexible--you should have no problem controlling fade in/out, transitions, pans, zooms, etc. with your images and audio.

I still consider myself a novice at this business, so I might be wrong about this, but I think ProShow gives you optimum quality when viewing on a PC because it is not converting your hi-res still images to video. However, Vegas and other video-based programs must convert still images to video, which results in a little or a lot of reduction in resolution.

I'm finding the most confusing part of this process to be all of the variables involved in rendering the finished product in order to optimize quality when viewed on a DVD-player.

But, in a nutshell, Vegas is very powerful and flexible, and I recommend it.

[wenospeak]

Thanks Mossy,

A lot of good info there. I just went to http://www.photodex.com/products/producer/compare.html and was looking at their Pro Show Producer and wondering how that stacks up next to Vegas+DVD? The only thing that I can see for sure is that Photodex's program clearly has anti-flickering, and burn options for PC and DVD.

I may have to write to each company and find out exactly what their programs can do. I really don't want to be installing audio/video program demos that might mess with my system. Maybe they could point me to a link for the product manual. Even then, it would take a week to read through them and determine what the program can actully do and it's limitations.

What a pain! If it was a $69.00 product that I was looking for, I'd just do it. On the other hand, this is turning out to be at least a $400.00 or more investment. (Sony's Vegas6+DVD is cheap at New Egg).

Thanks again for your input.

BTW - the slideshow I'm making will probably have around 400 stills.

Rick

[pchan]

You can use DVDLab to create a slide show. There is no transition and some players have playback problem.

[wenospeak]

the DVDLabPro looks pretty interesting, however I can see a few things that make me wonder about the product. There are so many typos in their website, it doesn't promote confidence it the product.

On the other hand, it looks like if it worked well without any bugs, it would be a nice program.

Thanks,

Rick

[tin2tin]

A combination of GUI for dvdauthor and DVD slideshow GUI will get you a long way... but not playing the DVD in a cd-player.

1) Render a slideshow in DSG to:
- m2v(mpg image)
- ac3(music(render more of these if you want to have different sound options))
- smpte-chapters.

2) There are several free subtitles editors look under the Tools section.

3) Import the main move with the different soundtracks, subtitles and chapterpoints.

4) Setup a menu in GFD to choose between playing the slideshow as video or to sub menus(different soundtrack ect.) or sub menus to select different single tumbnail images.

5) The tumbnail menus can be rendered/setup automatically with the chapterpoints from DSG - and links from each image to the chapterpoints on the main move.

6) Export a ready to burn file from DFG.

8 ) Ability to zoom in OR out from and to any spot in an image
9) Ability to play just the soundtrack (and on a Cd player if possible)

These to things won't be possible I think... because of the DVD format limitations.

Well the other things can be done with freeware I believe.

Good luck,
Tin2tin

[wenospeak]

thanks tin2tin,

I'm probably going to go full board and end up with Vegas6+DVD. Mainly because I would prefer to have a single program with all the necessary stages of compilation, production and burning fully integrated. Unless someone can tell me why it's better to use different programs from different companies that will actually work BETTER than one integrated program, I'll probably stick with this line of thinking.

Regarding playing a DVD in a Cd player, I think I must have been drunk or something when I wrote that - I realize it's not possible.

I've been using Nero Vision 4 for burning and I'm not happy with the results. Many people that I make DVD's for complain that it doesn't play in their home or PC DVD player. This part is critical and I need to be fully comfortable that the DVD's I burn will play in any DVD player equally similar to any purchased DVD (such as any typical movie disc available for rent or sale). Especially since, I plan to sell the final product.

Thanks for your insight and help,

Rick