Need step by step to turn stills into svcd (not using slides

[dsatchell]

I want to take my wedding pics and turn them into a SVCD. I have adobe Photoshop and other image editing software, Nero with the MPEG option, Ulead Media Studio Pro 6.0, Premiere 6.0 with the Ligos plug-in, and the stand alone Ligos.

I don’t want to do a slide show because you are limited to 99 stills because each still is a track and SVCD is limited to 99 tracks.

Beyond this, I can’t get anything to work and now I’m just confusing myself. I have all of the pics in high-res and low-res.

I want to import all of the pics with a 5 second duration and make them into a MPEG and then make that into a SVCD.

Thanx, Dave.
dsatchell@capitolservices.com

[vitualis]

If you MPEG still images, you can place up to 1980 images on a S/VCD. There is no particular advantage in using SVCD as both VCD and SVCD can use high resolution stills (704x480/576 ).

You can either author these yourself (ouch) or use WinOnCD3.8 or VCD Toolkit.

BTW, don't be disheartened by Nero's poor effort. That "99" figure is a limitation of Nero, not VCD. Each still is not encoded as a separate track.

If you encode them as stills, you can have 1980 stills.

If you encode a number of stills as a single MPEG track, you can have thousands of pictures on one S/VCD.

Regards.

[mrbass]

I just bought the $30 Ulead DVD Picture Show. I love it and it's worth every penny. You can have 99 slideshows consiting up to 99 photos in a slideshow. Max # of stills is 1900. I maxed out a cd (1900 photos) and it was only about 500MB with an mp3 soundtrack for each slideshow. VCD 2.0 and SVCD have the same resolution capabilities for stills. So it's pointless to do SVCD.

Can't recommend it highly enough. I couldn't wait for it to hit the stores. Now many in my family wants to buy digital cameras and do the same thing cuz they think it's way cool. I'm gonna post a small html page about it with a few tips soon.

[mrbass]

ok here's my tips for anyone who bought Ulead DVD PictureShow
http://geocities.com/mrfragger/video.html

[Lamont Cranston]

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On 2001-11-06 14:07:54, mrbass wrote:
ok here's my tips for anyone who bought Ulead DVD PictureShow
http://geocities.com/mrfragger/video.html
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

I also give it a A. BTW in your tips you may want to consider changing the max number of characters per line. The limit is not fixed but depends on the character width (i<m) you use. Also, you might want to add you can't choose the font or color. If you choose your own background you are limited to the menu layouts that give a contrasting character color. Isnet tech support a note requesting a patch to add color choice for text.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Lamont Cranston on 2001-11-06 17:30:28 ]</font>

[mrbass]

thanks a bunch....your right it is ABOUT 14 characters depending on the width of the characters used.

Yes I can't think of many improvements except for for menu templates and the ones you mentioned. Changing font and color of text. Ok I've added those points. Perfect thanks again.

[Lamont Cranston]

mrbass, here is another thought: If you are happy with the thumbnail size and you can find a thumbnail layout that meets your requirements but the titling is too restrictive you can do all your titling in the background using a photo editor like PaintShop Pro or one of your choice. First create a mask layer with rectangles to mark the size and location of the thumbnails and the controls. It may take a few iterations to get the rectangles aligned and sized to the UDPS thumbnails. When the mask layer is done pull in the background of choice, add the mask layer, and title the thumbnails etc. using the mask as a guide. Remove the mask layer and save it. In UDFM replace the default background with the new one.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Lamont Cranston on 2001-11-07 07:05:27 ]</font>

[mrbass]

true...good point. That's kinda advanced for the audience using this. That is a huge improvement that could do by allowing us to change the color of the buttons. So if they tripled the the # of project template menus from 5 to 20 then I think it'll take care of most needs. I'm pretty sure (hoping at least) they'll after a free pack of template upgrades.

[frogster]

Does this software also store the original image?

[randallc]

If you already have Nero, just upgrade to the newest version from their website. There was a bug with v5.5.5.1 that only let it use 99 picture, it is now fixed and you can use up to 1980 now.

Here's a guide: www.labdv.com/en/manuals/vcd_photo.php

Randy

[mrbass]

Yeah, will Nero still sucks for their lack of compliancy. Their menus don't work on my pioneer 434. I'm glad to hear they're improving it but it's versatility is nowhere close to PictureShow, not even close.
As for retaining original picture..no it does not. I believe Nero does though.

[Lamont Cranston]

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As for retaining original picture..no it does not. I believe Nero does though.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
Be patient.

[brlase12]

mrbass - I have been looking for Ulead DVD Picture Show in my local stores and can not find it. I would rather not buy it off the internet so I was wondering where you purchased yours. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[HackaShaq]

You can edit the templates using ulead's photoimpact7.
There's a full 30day trial at http://www.ulead.com
You must not change the names of any of the objects you edit in PI7. For example, to edit a button, right click it, copy the name, delete it, create a new button, paste the old name in the properties. Repeat for any other objects. Keep the dimensions the same to be safe.

Also, you can use the DVDmoviefactory or dvdplugin templates. The dvdmoviefactory has a free trial as well.
Install it, copy its templates to an existing folder in the DVDpictureshow templates and voila!, like 30 more templates.

[WRCoach]

There is a much simpler technique I use all the time which is much more flexible and will make an mpeg file, VCD or SVCD that you can make for any duration and add music to after.

Go to:

http://www.capturix.com

and download their sample of Video Capturix. the demo will do what you want but the program is SO GOOD I registered my copy to get the full version.

It has a feature called AVI BUILDER (in the menu on the right hand side). It lets you string any number of stills (BMP files) together at ANY framerate. Just make your images all the size (or make an individual AVI file for each still).

Let's say you have 5 bitmaps at 704x480 for size, and you want each image to appear for five seconds. Load in each image FIVE times in the order you want, using the ADD button. Next, set the FRAME RATE to ONE (1) frame per second. Next, CLICK Build AVI and chose the codec you wish to use (it has several good ones). The avi it makes may be a bit large, but you can reconvert it to VCD or SVCD using TMPGEnc which will correct the framerate yet keep the same length of time for your frames (i.e. 5 frames at 1 frame per second will still be five seconds long when changed to 29.97 fps). Use TMPGEnc later to add your music.

This technique works perfectly and I have used it for making loads of title cards and animations.

Not bad for a shareware program...worth buying.

Let me know how this works for you.

WRCoach

[Lamont Cranston]

WRCoach: You really should download the trial version of UDPS. Let me point out a couple of key features of UDPS. The photos are DVD quality with resolutions 704 x 480 NTSC and 704 x 574 PAL on both both DVDs and VCDs. By mpeg encoding the gifs for use with Capturix you are limited at 320 x 408 with VCDs and 408 x 480 SVCDs unless you go to XSVCDs. Next is the mpeg encoding time. No mpeg encoding with UDPS. In you explanation you mention bmp files not jpeg. Since digital cameras capture images in jpeg you will have to convert them to bmps. Ease of editing and the list goes on. But this is only my opinion.

[mrbass]

@brlase12 me2 I wanted to buy it at compusa or something but I just couldn't wait with Thanksgiving coming up and all. I plan on making 4 cds and handing all 4 out to relatives, family and friends. So I paid with my credit card and $32 with tax. Then they have you redownload it 11MB and it has your serial # embedded in the .exe file. It's totally worth it though. Try waiting another week for it to show up at retail stores (just a guess).

@HackaShaq
thanks for the tip I'll try that tonight or perhaps at work for those templates. (I don't want to spend the time fiddling around). I already downloaded DVD moviefactory just haven't installed it yet.

good points lamont...I agree VCD 2.0 stills and SVCD stills are the highest resolution your going to get from these formats. I guess if you didn't resize 480x480 on SVCD you could possibly do it risking non-compliancy. Then perhaps some vcd dvd standalones would play them while others, wouldn't.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: mrbass on 2001-11-09 15:23:17 ]</font>

[Lamont Cranston]

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I guess if you didn't resize 480x480 on SVCD you could possibly do it risking non-compliancy. Then perhaps some vcd dvd standalones would play them while others, wouldn't.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

They will encode fine but you have to resize the photo to match the aspect ratio of your VCD or SVCD otherwise it will look squished. No resizing wiht UDPS 'except' for backgounds for menus. Those you have to resize.

[mikk]

http://www.geocities.com/mikk999/VCDStills.htm

[mrbass]

I did get the movie factory and used some of the templates. Works great unless it has "My Title". I might have been blind but I think they just added 10MB download of templates. So it's pretty cool now. However, two that I miss are Cool05.ufo and Cool06.ufo so I manually added those.
I sure wish they put total # of photos so we know when we are reaching the 1900 limit. Currently you have to save your project then say open and it show the total # in the info screen.
Biggest is though to calculate the duration and display it in minutes seconds so we can easily locate an mp3 equal to it or exceeding that duration to prevent looping.

[WRCoach]

Lamont...thanks for the advice, but using Video Capturix works really well for me, especially when making title cards. The MPEG encoding time is only a couple minutes since the files are small.