Is Ulead DVD Picture Show 2 what I want??

[tsnyder41]

I have a Panasonic DVD player, DVD-RP62S, and want to make a burn a cd, in a format that will work. I want to create a slide show cd. I would like to create a main menu where I could select which show I want to watch. I am thinking about 7 different slide shows. I would like the main screen to have it's own background song that repeats. I would like each slide show to have a variety of transitions between the pictures. It would also be nice if each slide show had its own background music. Text for each picture would be nice but not required.

Is Ulead DVD Picture Show 2 what I want?? I want to keep as much quality with having transitions as possible. Is there a better program?

Where could I find a guide on using on the program recommend?

Thanks,
Thomas

[caresrg]

I think PictureShow will do what you want--the version I have also came with ULead Photo Explorer, with which you can add text in bulk to your photos very easily. You can download the PictureShow brochure at http://www.ulead.com/dps/DVD%20PS%20FB.pdf.

I did not end up using PictureShow for my project for one reason, however. It either isn't capable of using more than one song (i.e., .wav file) for a slideshow, or I couldn't figure out how to get it to do it. I needed to use 3 different songs AND align them properly with the video created from my stills. For that I used ArcSoft's ShowBiz, though you need additional software to get the movie it creates to VCD or DVD.

[mkelley]

You can also download a trial version of the program -- it will work but is limited to three slideshows and a handful of slides. But it will give you a feel for what the program does.

In the absence of other tools (such as Premiere) Picture Show 2 is about as easy at it gets to do what you want. Note, however, you will need to create a DVD and not a CD in order to get good quality stills if you want transitions. The other alternative is to create an SVCD, but this will not be playable on as many DVD players.

[tsnyder41]

Thanks guys, I thinking about going with Vegas 4.0 and burn to dvd. Is vegas the best? I hear the transitions with vegas are more professional. But how easy is it to work with. I know how to use photoshop 4-7. Would learning vegas 4.0 be like learning photoshop?

Thanks

[tumbar]

I have vegas video 3.0 and can vouch for its ability to do just about anything you want....but the learning curve is rather steep.

I have another program which will do what you originally posted

Menu with music
6 seperate slide show, no problem

Name is picture2TV, its 45 and I really like it.

Load pics, set transitions, add text if you want, load music files and it generates a cue file which can be burned.

pretty cool, check it out www.picturetotv.com

[mkelley]

If you are very comfortable with Photoshop I'd recommend going Premiere rather than Vegas Video. Both are extremely capable programs and can do anything you need to do, but both have different approaches. Adobe products are somewhat more integrated but (more to the point) take a common approach in terms of tools and palettes which you might find easier to adapt to.

But neither Premiere nor VV are entry level programs, and both require a greater committment than a hand holding product like PictureShow (or perhaps the product the previous poster mentioned). If you do not intend to do anything other than slide shows they are probably overkill, but they certainly are more than capable of doing them (that's what I use, although I have Picture Show and use it for quick and dirty VCDs without transitions).

Premiere is not a DVD authoring program, however (to my knowledge, neither is Vegas Video, but I could be wrong). Premiere comes with a DVD authoring tool, but if you want to make more sophisticated DVDs, particularly if you want to use AC3 audio, I would strongly recommend DVDLab (free full functioning beta right now -- final product should be $79 or so).

[Quigonsean]

I would go the Premeir route if you can afford it. You'll get all you need in your post plus lots more for other future projects you might endevor to do. One thing that rules is since it integrates with Photoshop you can do Rotoscoping, that is pull individual frames from your movie clips into photoshop edit them and import them back into premeir. I've used it a little a buddy has it, I can't wait to get the bucks to buy it. I wanna use rotoscoping to do a lightsaber battle with my buddies though it would take forever and a day plus a month of sundays and be harder than chineese arithmatic it would be awesome and can be done.

Sean

[tsnyder41]

Not to sound stupid but I guess I am when it come to this. If I do go with Premeir, what file format does it produce. And how do I put it on a DVD?

[MachineMan]

I use Ulead DVD Picture Show 2 to make my picture VCD's. The program is extremely simple and you can add background audio and make menus. The JPEG quality is preserved unless you add transitions. You can add only one audio file per each slideshow. If your individual slideshow is longer then the audio file the music will repeat. Or you can use a seperate program like MP3 Workshop to merge 2 audio files to one and then add to the slideshow as one file. Each slide show can be played seperately from the menu. You can also add video clips as menu options.

Note: If you add transitions then the program will have to render the JPEG's to VCD format (352x240..)which will reduce the origonal JPEG resolution and quality. I believe this is true for all picture to VCD softwares. If you burn to DVD then the quality with transitions will be much better.

I also have Vegas. It very powerful but will take some time to learn how to use it. It has the most options but definatly not simple. I've never used it for pictures.

[mkelley]

Not to sound stupid but I guess I am when it come to this. If I do go with Premeir, what file format does it produce. And how do I put it on a DVD?

It will produce output in just about any format you want, but if you are burning onto a DVD you'll want to use the built-in MPEG encoder. Then you can use the DVD authoring program that comes with it (indeed, the encoder will even launch it if you so desire). Or, as I suggest, you can use any other authoring program such as DVDLab.

It's pretty easy to create a slideshow with Premiere -- you just select the files you want to import, check the "preserve aspect ratio" button (so you don't have to worry about what size they were scanned at) and then you can select all the images and a default transition and length and dump them into the timeline. That will take you all of a minute or so -- obviously if you want to have images that have a greater or less length you'll need to adjust this.

Once again, a program like PictureShow 2 will automate this process even more, and if that's all you need do (produce slideshows) I'm not sure I'd bother with anything more complicated. Don't take anyone's word for it -- download the demo and try it out and see if it's what you want.

[Specialist]

Here's the Ulead DVD PictureShow 2 trial download link:

http://www.ulead.com/dps/trial.htm

Jerry Jones
http://www.jonesgroup.net