Panoramic jpgs to VCD?

[juniormint]

I usually take my digital images and put them on a vcd (using nero) so I can show them at friend's houses without having to hover around a computer.

Works great and is my primary way of showing off digital pictures.

But with wide panoramic shots (usually 3-5 regular shots that I stitched together) - they don't show very well.

There's a program by MS called Photo Story that's awesome, I've started using it to create mini slideshows that I later convert and burn on vcd - and it's OK for use with the panoramic shots, but still doesn't give me enough control.

- - - - - - - - here's what I'm looking for - - - - - - -

A program that will allow me to create an mpg or avi file out of wide panoramic jpg files. I basically just want it to slowly pan from left to right, or right to left - then switch to the next shot.

I can then take this mini video and put it on a vcd just as described above....

thanks
jr

[FOO]

Avisynth will do that
You make a movie clip with your stills
Then you use Animate and Crop to
scan across the Clip

[j1d10t]

You could also save the file as a .bmp, load the file in to VirDub, then use the Pan filter (and maybe the zoom filter), pan back and forth, then save as an .avi, then convert to .mpg with TMPGEnc.

[juniormint]

This may just be my solution, but can you give me just a little more help?

I first assume that by virdub you mean virtualdub? I did a google search on "virdub" and didn't find anything.

Downloaded and installed virtual dub, and looked through the filters but didn't see a "panfilter" or "zoomfilter." Do these need to be installed, from where?

Do you know if I can load up several bmp's in virtualdub or if I have to create a separate avi for each bmp?

Your help is much appreciated,
john

[Solarjetman]

I can't help with what you are doing. But you can find your pan and zoom filters (along with several other great ones) here:

http://shelob.mordor.net/dgraft/

Just click on "Mine" in the index list on the left to bring you to the filters.

[j1d10t]

Yeah, I meant Virtual Dub. I don't believe that you can load more than one .bmp in to Virtual Dub at one time. I have never used the pan or zoom filter, so I'm not much help there, either (I've used Virtual to create an .avi out of a .bmp file before, but didn't do any panning, or zooming). Sorry. I just thought you might be able to use them to get the desired results, so wanted to throw that suggestion out there. There may be someone out there that has done this before and can offer more advice on it. If you have good (or bad, but hopefully good) results, let us know how it turned out, and the steps you took.

[tregor]

The solution is to use this freeware:
Slide Show Movie Maker (known under thz "SSMM" name)

You can download it here:
http://www.joern-thiemann.de/tools/ssmm/download.htm

Cheers,
Tregor

[tygrus2000]

Your panoramic JPGS arent going to look to good on a TV screen. A panoramic jpg from some of the photo discs I have are of a resolution something like 3400x1200, much wider than tall. You have to fit that to a resolution of 352x240 for VCD or 480x480 for SVCD. You are going to get some squishing of the photos if you are not careful.

You will have to convert them to proper formats somewhere along the way and try to maintain aspect ratio, otherwise, they will look squished and very distant on the TV screen.

I use Vegas Video 4 to do my picture slideshows. You won't find a program with more control than that.

[Cornucopia]

FWIW,
there are plenty of "video" editors that will do what you want with stills, as long as they support non-standard widths. I would probably do this in AfterEffects, but I'm sure that's overkill. Other options include:

• Vegas Video
  Premiere
  Avid XpressDV
  Ulead VideoStudio/MediaStudio Pro
  whatever Pinnacle has as main editor/compositor

There's also a product from Canopus, IIRC, that specifically does that and only that-panning/zooming.

***Remember:
Sounds like up till now you've been happy enough with the quality. Well, once you convert it to a movie, you'll either have to live with lower resolution/quality or make an X(S)VCD to retain the quality, thus possibly hampering your player compatibility. Or you will have to move on up to DVD...

HTH,
Scott