Is this possible? - SVCD Slideshows

[dng]

Can anyone say for sure whether or not it's techincally possible to have all these at once:

1) SVCD Photo Slide Show based on 720x480 MPEG Stills (not video)
2) Transitions
3) Background music
4) Pause, previous/next slide using the DVD remote
5) Compatibility with most newer DVD players

I've heard some people say it's possible, and some say it's not.

If it's not, is it because there is no software to do it, or because it is definitely impossible given the SVCD spec?

Thanks,
DNG

[Vejita-sama]

It's possible, and in fact quite easy to do with VCDEasy. Look the left under Author, scroll down some and there are several guides on "How to make a VCD/SVCD Photo-Album/Slide-Show"

The only part that gets tricky is the audio. IIRC VCDeasy just makes a slide show (no audio). However, Ulead DVD Picture Show can easily author VCD/SVCD/DVD with still shots, transitions, audio (background or transition), etc. etc.

[dng]

>Ulead DVD Picture Show can easily author VCD/SVCD/DVD with still >shots, transitions, audio (background or transition), etc. etc.

Thank you for your reply. However I have read on this forum that Ulead DVD Picture Show downgrades photo stills to lower resolution video, when transitions are applied.

I have not seen a single product in the world that clearly states that all these capabilities can be active at once.

I hope you are right and I have just not found it yet.

[secretagent]

Picturetotv
proshowgold
tmpgenc
iphotodvd
and many, many others

[dng]

secretagent, sorry you are wrong.

I have contacted picturetoTv and they confirmed they only support lower resolution video, *not* high resolution 720x480 MPEG stills.

vejita-sama, sorry you are also wrong. you may contact ulead to verify this.

I don't mean to be rude, but since many people seem to be interested in these features in would be nice to know if it really is impossible to have all of them at once.

Is there anyone who can say the answer?

thank you.

--------------------------------------
Can anyone say for sure whether or not it's techincally possible to have all these at once:

1) SVCD Photo Slide Show based on 720x480 MPEG Stills (not video)
2) Transitions
3) Background music
4) Pause, previous/next slide using the DVD remote
5) Compatibility with most newer DVD players

[Supreme2k]

One thing that's impossible is to have transitions with still pictures. By their very nature, transitions are motion pictures, meaning that they will need to be video. Basically, you cannot have transitions without converting the stills to video.

Picture2TV can do SVCD, which is MORE than adequate for viewing pictures on TV. You can get a sample of it in action here: http://www.picturetotv.com/svcd.htm?a=8765

Ulead DVD PuctureShow does NOT downgrade the quality of the pics.

Also, saying "I don't mean to be rude" or "thank you" dopesn't make you any less of a jerk. people here are trying to help. Just use a little trial-and-error with their suggestions, since CDs are about a nickel these days. Take some time so that you don't become one of these "I NEED IT NOW/EASY" internet jackasses.

[Vejita-sama]

I think the problem is that you're looking for ONE intergrated package that can do all the above. The above programs can do the job, but your might have to process the images some first.

Stills are normaly 704x480, so you're right not all programs can do 720x480. I'm not sure where/why you think Ulead 'downgrades the quaility' because it does not. You heard/read this or your KNOW this?

Anyway, here's the bottom line. Take your pictures convert them to MPEG stills (704x480 or 720x480). Take a mic and a recording program and record all the commentary tracks you want. Convert any background music you want to wav or ac3.

You can then author your pictureshow/DVD with a lot of programs (see messages above). IF you're looking for a single program that you can open, load all pictures, hit record to add new audio, drag/drop background music, etc. etc. Then yeah, that might not exist.

But your question was can it be done. And it can as lots of people have done similar projects. Luck...

[Tommyknocker]

Supreme2k posted:

Also, saying "I don't mean to be rude" or "thank you" dopesn't make you any less of a jerk.

If people learn nothing else today, I hope they keep that pearl of wisdom. I see so much of it these days, I really start to wonder where they learn their manners from. Anyone feel differently, please PM me or start a new thread. I do not want to be accused of hijacking this one.

[dng]

Supreme my friend, you may not find my post appealing, but I am not calling people jerks and suggesting they will become a jackasses. Even if my post was offensive, please, two wrongs don't make a right....

I think it's great if people say, "Here's a suggestion this might work...", "I'm pretty sure this works...". But the answers posted were stated as fact and I identified them as wrong so the thread could continue, simple as that.

Furthermore I don't know why you think I'm not "taking time" and "using trial and error". I didn't say I was in any kind of hurry, and did my best to search the forums for an answer, read the guides, burn CDs etc. If you think trial and error based on one of the incorrect posts would give a solution that works, by all means please point it out.


>-------------------------------------------------------
Also, saying "I don't mean to be rude" or "thank you" dopesn't make you any less of a jerk. people here are trying to help. Just use a little trial-and-error with their suggestions, since CDs are about a nickel these days. Take some time so that you don't become one of these "I NEED IT NOW/EASY" internet jackasses.

[secretagent]

Thanks for letting me know I was wrong. I will no longer watch my svcd photo slideshows with music and transitions made by pictureto tv anymore.

[dng]

Agent that's great that you're doing what you describe (sarchasm aside), but that's not what the question was.

It was about "VCD MPEG Stills" which are roughly 50% higher resolution than the video slideshows you are creating and watching.

Yes, your pictures are not moving in between transitions, but they are still lower resolution *video*.

I can post the explanation from the picturetotv people if you like.

Secret agent writes: ======================
Thanks for letting me know I was wrong. I will no longer watch my svcd photo slideshows with music and transitions made by pictureto tv anymore.

[Allan55]

Another approach might be to convert each still to n-seconds of video (I can't remember which, but I've seen something that does this). You could then create a mini-DVD on a CD. This will keep the full res of the pictures.

https://www.videohelp.com/minidvd.htm

[Rond66]

Other questions are:

Since the pictures with music are not moving, and only the transitions are a little.

Can the frame rate or IPB setting be set to save CD / Mbits?

In other words can I get more time on the CD, but still get very good quality and be able to play it on most DVD players?

What settings work the best?

[Timoleon]

The thing that you will notice most if you do a slideshow with transitions is not so much that the resolution of the picture on the TV will look all that much different, but that you will inevitably get some nasty little video artifacts, like "flickering" or "shimmering" on some of your photos. Believe me, I know --- I did 7,500 slides to slideshow this past winter, and tried just about everything I could find...

[Rond66]

Video artifacts, like "flickering" or "shimmering"

How is that if there is no motion in the pictures?

I was thinking the frame rate can stepped down to 15fps or lower for stills.
Also VBR can be set very low.
Anybody?[/quote]

[Specialist]

You can test the trial version here:

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

'Lower resolution video' does not necessarily follow conversion.

If one selects DVD as the output, then the video will maintain NTSC DVD resolution of 720 x 480 - the same resolution as the still image sizes you mentioned at the outset.

However, if you choose the Super-VideoCD option, then the video will conform to 480 x 480 (NTSC) Super-VideoCD *video* specifications:

http://www.uwasa.fi/~f76998/video/svcd/overview/#technical_features

It *is* possible, in theory, for *still images* to conform to Super-VideoCD standards at a higher resolution:

"Additionally, SVCD standard supports HTML style hyperlinks, still images (480x576 or 704x576 for PAL, 480x480 or 704x480 for NTSC), playlists/slideshows, multi-level hierarchical menus and chapters (indexing)."

But I've not seen an application that supports this when transitions are added in the manner you describe.

Jerry Jones
http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Nelson37]

SFAIK, what you want is not possible, but you can get close.

Transitions are moving video and as such cannot be over 352x240 for VCD and 480x480 for SVCD. It appears to be within spec to alternate hi-res stills with individual lo-res transitions, but I have found no software which allows for this. Also, for a large slideshow this would be a lot of work.

An additional problem is that FF and RW apparently become non-functional for slideshows.

The best alternative I have found is to create the slideshow as a 704x480 mpeg and then author this as an out-of-spec V or S -VCD. I ended up abandoning transitions as I was making an over 1000 image slideshow and transitions simply required too much time during playback.

[Cornucopia]

The SVCD spec says that ALL those things can't be done simultaneously. With that in mind, you are left with 1 of 3 choices:

1. Make an SVCD with 480x480/576 VIDEO (whether it looks moving or not). This can include all the things you want, but not necessarily the way you want it.

2. Make an SVCD with 704x480/576 MPEG STILLS (720 won't work). This can't include transitions and probably won't include music, but everything else should work and look nice.

3. Make an XSVCD (non-standard) 8) with 704x480/576 STILLS and/or VIDEO. The video portion would include the transitions, possibly the music.

These could all be done with VCDEasy, although the transitions would have to be previously created in a video editor and then compressed to MPEG video.

I have an interesting question for you (and others on this board):
When you say pictures with music, do you mean multiple pictures over the same piece of contiguous music? If so, do you also expect to be able to do User-Advanceable pictures? If the answer to both of these questions is YES, then there is only 1 current consumer format that supports that--DVD-Audio with their "Audio-Still-Video mode. That's right, even DVD-Video can't do that.
If the answer to one of those questions is NO, then VCD 2.0, SVCD and DVD-Video can all do what you want. You may just have to use a little ingenuity in the layout.

Example VCD 2.0:

[ Pic 1 ]-[ Pic 2 ]-[Nonstd Video Transition]-[ Pic 3 ] <---Visual
[Music1]-[Music2]-[_______Silence_______]-[Music3] <---Audio

See some of Mikk's guides for help there, or look at some of my previous posts.

HTH,
Scott