Making A Pictures VCD. How Do I Do It?

[SteyrAUG]

I know it can be done but for the life of me I can't figure out how to.

I have about 1,000 .jpg pictures and a few .mp3 that I want to use to create a VCD. The end result should be like a screen saver with a soundtrack. I would want each picture to show for about 5 seconds.

I have TMPGEnc and Nero Burning ROM 6.0 so between the two I should be able to do this.

I want this to be in VCD format so that it will play on any DVD player.

Where do I start?

[jakol]

Nero Vision Express can do this (nero vision comes with ur Nero Burning Rom)

I Use Ulead's Picture Show2 , great proggy.

[SteyrAUG]

Nero Vision Express can do this (nero vision comes with ur Nero Burning Rom)

I Use Ulead's Picture Show2 , great proggy.

Tried Nero Express but it limited me to 99 files and didn't use even 10% of the CD space.

Unless I'm doing something wrong.

[jakol]

ur right, so Ulead and other programs too, ur limited to 99 pics per album, u have to split ur pics into multiple albums, in ur case 1000 pics will be 10 -11 albums.

[Sifaga]

I like Ulead Pictureshow 2, memoriesontv, ProShow 2

ProShow 2 is my fav at the moment

[Znooky]

Hi!
You can use VCDEasy and create mpeg still pictures. Read the guide at http://www.vcdeasy.org/modules.php?name=_Guides&id=SimpleStills

This way you'll have a VCD with high quality mpeg stills and you can put all of your 1000 pictures on one CD, but you can't have any background music.

Another way is to use Slide Show Movie Maker to create a slideshow with both pictures, transitions and background music and then use TMPEG Encoder to make the mpg file. However the quality will be very bad if you're making av VCD, since the resolution is only 320*240 (NTSC).

Personally, I would recommend you to make a SVCD if you want background music. With no background music, then a VCD with MPEG stills should be the easiest thing to do.

// Znooky

[SteyrAUG]

Looks like VCD Easy is gonna take a long time to do a 1,000 .jpegs.

Seems I have to convert each one to a Mpeg Still image.

And Slide Show Movie Maker produces a AVI file, I was hoping for a .mpeg final product.

There must be a easier way.

[Znooky]

Hi!

Looks like VCD Easy is gonna take a long time to do a 1,000 .jpegs.

Seems I have to convert each one to a Mpeg Still image.

Yes, that's true, but you can select the folder where you have your jpg pictures and then let VCDEasy convert everyone of them and store the mpeg still images in a different folder. It takes a lot of time, but it's still a very easy way of creating true mpeg still images.

And Slide Show Movie Maker produces a AVI file, I was hoping for a .mpeg final product.

You can also try MemoriesOnTV which will produce a mpg final product without using any other program.

// Znooky

[LDinOR]

Hey y'all,
I have the same project in mind and tried to get Slide Show Movie Maker, but the guys site links to another site for downloads and that site is dead. Okay so I searched and found a German site that had the program, however his readme says to get a plugin file he called "SDK for SSMM" to do the fading effects and I can't find that anywhere.
Does anyone know where to get this file and also where to download his how to videos? Any help would be great.

[Wolf83]

http://ccdtovcd.sourceforge.net/ is free and do this job too.

Last version from January 2004...

I dont know how to install it (windows), give me feed back if try it ....

In other case You have Philips VCD 2 Toolkit very powerfull but as "Abandon Ware" need a lot of time to have the skill.

The problem is that if you expect sound with Mpeg still, it is not possible to have the backgroung sound that continue when you change pictures.

In your case if you expect 5 seconds on each pictures and sound with VCD, better thing is to do a single A/V Mpeg. Making in PAL 352x288, you will be able to fit 3000 pictures, and can used charter to accès directly in it.

Wolf

[SteyrAUG]

OK VCDEasy turned out to be a huge pain in the ass.

The version I DLd was expired and the current trial version only allows for 250 images and projects no larger than 200MB in size.

I'm using Slide Show Movie Maker and it seems to be working so far. Only complaint is it produces a .avi file which I will have to convert to .mpeg prior to creating the final VCD. But I can live with that.

But the main issue is it doesn't seem to have any kind of help manual so I'm sorta lost and having to figure it out.

Also I need to know how to keep it from streching photos. I cannot find a setting anywhere. My horizontal photos are find but all my verticle photos are being streched to the size of the screen.

Can anyone help?

[Nelson37]

Been there, done that.

The problem is to find a program which correctly reformats the picture maintaining correct aspect ratio. DVD PS will do this. It also allows good arrangement control.

Then to maintain the maximum resolution of 720x480 for VCD or SVCD MPG stills. But no transitions allowed, res goes to 352x240 or 480 x480 and you have a standard movie file if transitions are used.

Then to add continous music, with a standard VCD using stills this cannot be done SFAIK.

What I ended up doing was to create an AVI using Ulead Video Studio, resizing to 720x480 - UVS maintains correct aspect ratio. I then added continuous music and made an XSVCD. Standard FF and RW, also slow, pause, etc all work. FF and RW simply advance to next picture with a true still VCD.

The AVI procedure also allowed for unlimited number of pix, with VCD you can make 99 menus with 99 pictures each. BUT I found no software which would allow this AND give me reasonable control over arranging my 1000+ pix.

Drawback is non-standard res, though you could go to 352x240 (or 480x480 with SVCD) and get the other features while maintaining standard compatibility. You will use this res anyway if you use transitions. File size is larger with AVI method but nowhere near filling a CD.

[SteyrAUG]

OK, found a user guide in the Tools section.

Solved all my issues and Slide Show Movie Maker is getting the job done.

Thanks guys.

[dwight55]

There is another alternative if you can live without it being useable on a DVD player. All of your pics will fit into a Power Point presentation. You will need Power Point on your computer, but there is a freebie Power Point end user routine free on MicroSoft's web site. You can time each pic for however long you want it to "play", you can mess around with all the different wipes, etc., and you can add a "narration" soundtrack if you wish to. Again, they won't play on a DVD, but if you are computer sharing, . . . they will work fine.
May God bless,
Dwight

[vitualis]

If you want to put photos on a VCD, then I strongly suggest using VCDEasy. If you don't want to buy the commercial version, then the last unlimited freeware version is v1.1.5.2.

VCDEasy will CORRECTLY resize an image for the change in display aspect ratio for MPEG still images... and MPEG still images are the only way of getting high quality (near/at max. TV resolution) photos on a TV in a compliant way.

If you want to, you can go down the path of making an AVI file and then converting it to MPEG. For that, I would suggest making a high resolution XVCD first... it tends to work reasonably well for a photo slideshow as you only have a limited bitrate requirement.

Best regards.