How do I make a 'browseable' picture gallery?

[billybob2007]

Just wondered if anyone can help me with this.

Basically I want to make a catalogue of pictures on a dvd where people can browse through them (either using the chapter buttons or preferably, the arrow buttons on the remote).
At the moment all I can do is:

A simple slideshow (where there's a short delay of a few secs between each pic) - which isn't any good for what I need.
Or a large delay of say 15mins between pics so it gives the illusion of browsing - this works, but isn't really what I want & also worried this will fill up the disc quicker (as a quick test of about 25 pics filled up a quarter of the dvd!
If anyone has any ideas on what program to use (for the PC only) then please let me know as I've tried a few, but so far can't find a simple way of doing it.
I could do it using a menu for each picture, but that takes time (especially when I'm going to have 500+ images) so really want something that's quick to use that can basically make a slideshow with browse buttons.

Thanks.

[AlanHK]

Many DVD players will give you a slideshow if you simply make a data disk of images in formats it understands (JPEGs at least).

[billybob2007]

Very true, but unfortunately I also have other parts on the disc as well (company info / contact info / services we provide etc) so really need the slideshow as a seperate part within the whole dvd.
And really needs to be proper browsing (using the arrow buttons) rather than the chapter thing I'm currently using.

[jagabo]

And really needs to be proper browsing (using the arrow buttons) rather than the chapter thing I'm currently using.

Ain't gonna happen. That's not part of the DVD spec.

[billybob2007]

And really needs to be proper browsing (using the arrow buttons) rather than the chapter thing I'm currently using.

Ain't gonna happen. That's not part of the DVD spec.

Must be possible as I have several dvds with picture galleries on them.
Plus a prog on the Mac can do it : idvd - or so I read on a review.
I just need a pc equivelant.
At the moment, it can be done using a background pic on a menu with buttons on each side linking to other menus, but that's so long winded & with 500+ pictures, I can't do it that way.
I'm guessing that mac prog must do all that in the background to get it compliant.

[guns1inger]

There are two or three ways to do it, but none of them are quick, and I don't know of any program that simply automates the process.

Your options are

1. menu pages, which already know about
2. video with chapter stops at each image, and a hold type statement on each chapter that requires user action to proceed
3. Encode each video as a short title, and again hold at the end of the title until the user performs some action or a time limit is reached.

All of these have various limitations to the number of images you can put in a single show.

1. No single menu can exceed 1000 MB (essentially 1 VOB files) in size
2. No more than 99 chapter stops per single title
3. Limits on the number of titles per titleset

FWIW, professional discs are hand authored and don't use packages that just bundle a pile of images into a slideshow.

[AlanHK]

https://www.videohelp.com/tools?toolsearch=slideshow
DVD slideshow GUI looks promising, though I've never used it.

[billybob2007]

There are two or three ways to do it, but none of them are quick, and I don't know of any program that simply automates the process.

Your options are

1. menu pages, which already know about
2. video with chapter stops at each image, and a hold type statement on each chapter that requires user action to proceed
3. Encode each video as a short title, and again hold at the end of the title until the user performs some action or a time limit is reached.

All of these have various limitations to the number of images you can put in a single show.

FWIW, professional discs are hand authored and don't use packages that just bundle a pile of images into a slideshow.

I'm guessing the menu option would be the quickest out of those 3 if it does come down to that (which I hope it doesn't).
If there's a prog on the mac that does it (i-dvd) then there must be an equivelent on the pc - just gotta find it.

https://www.videohelp.com/tools?toolsearch=slideshow

Thanks - will have a browse through those.

[guns1inger]

Reading the iDVD 09 page at the Apple site, it appears to just create standard video type slideshows. Of course, a previous version may have had better capabilities, however as Apple change the product every year, often removing genuinely useful functions and replacing them with frivolous eye-candy toys, it is hard to say.

Of course, if you don't have a Mac then iDVD is a waste of money, or a very expensive program.

[billybob2007]

Reading the iDVD 09 page at the Apple site, it appears to just create standard video type slideshows. Of course, a previous version may have had better capabilities, however as Apple change the product every year, often removing genuinely useful functions and replacing them with frivolous eye-candy toys, it is hard to say.

Of course, if you don't have a Mac then iDVD is a waste of money, or a very expensive program.

If I can find the review, I'll paste up a link - but it did seem to do exactly what I wanted - typical though that it was mac only...

[tin2tin]

It can be done with DVD slideshow GUI in combination with GUI for dvdauthor:
Check out the 2. tutorial here: http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/tutorials.html
There is a flash video tutorial on the process here: http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/GFDexport.html
In the player on the mainpage you can see an example of the result called 'Export - to .gfd and rendered in Gui for dvdauthor'

[billybob2007]

It can be done with DVD slideshow GUI in combination with GUI for dvdauthor:
Check out the 2. tutorial here: http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/tutorials.html
There is a flash video tutorial on the process here: http://download.videohelp.com/tin2tin/GFDexport.html
In the player on the mainpage you can see an example of the result called 'Export - to .gfd and rendered in Gui for dvdauthor'

I've have a little read through all that. Cheers