A user-controlled slide show with continuous looping audio

[youblokle]

A very simple requirement is becoming an impossible feat. I am trying to do a 30-picture slide show in which each image is advanced only when the user presses a button on the remote control. And the background music is continuous throughout.

I am currently doing it this way:

First of all, the 30 images are 720x540 JPEG files and the audio is a 1-min AC3 file designed for smooth continuous loop. Total combined file size of under 0.025 GB, plenty of room left for the 2-hr main feature.

1. Convert each of the 30 stills into 1-minute movie files.

2. Put the 30 movie files on 4 movie tracks as different video angles (8 angles + 8 angeles + 7 angles + 7 angles = 30)

3. Make buttons in the highlight subtitle for each angle. Have each button set and auto-action its own corresponding video angle. And add a prev and next button to go backwards or forwards to adjacent movies.

4. Duplicate these 4 movie tracks into 30 movies (each movie defaulting to one of the 30 video angles)

5. Author with scripts so that when a movie loops it starts on the current angle and button (instead of always angle 1, button 1) - this is why there are 30 movies instead of 4.

6. Author so that the right-arrow remote control button selects the button which auto-actions the next camera angle, and the left-arrow remote control button selects the button which auto-actions the previous camera angle.

When all the authoring is done, there is an interruption in audio after every 8 or 7 images. And I've used up the entire 4.7GB disk, with no room for the main movie feature!

Is there a more efficient way of doing this?

[TaoTeWingChun]

First of all, the 30 images are 720x540 JPEG files and the audio is a 1-min AC3 file designed for smooth continuous loop. Total combined file size of under 0.025 GB, plenty of room left for the 2-hr main feature.

1. Convert each of the 30 stills into 1-minute movie files.

By my math, if you make these images into 30 1 minute long movies, you've just left yourself with 90 minutes of main movie time.

Start simple and work to the complex. Make your picture slide show no more than a minute long - skip the interaction. Otherwise, find a program that will allow you to create a 'stills gallery' and put it as an option off the main menu.

The music can and will loop effectively and will provide ample viewing time based on a pre-set timed delay per picture.

You are rendering and re-rendering yourself out of viable video time on your DVD. Re-think what you are trying to do and you will have mastered the perfect disc.

Good luck!

Cheers!

TTWC

[youblokle]

The 30 pictures with a 1-minute looping audio track is actually a drama script with each picture being a full-screen line of dialog. Two actors alternately take turns reading their lines (15 lines each). And the 1-minute audio is the music background. So, it can't be a pre-timed slide show. The picture can't change until the current actor finishes reading his line. And the audio can't start new each time the picture changes or it will ruin the flow of the ambience.

The 30 movies are not a total of 1-minute each. They are a total of 1-minute x 8 video angles each. So, you can see it takes up the enitire 4.7GB disk the way it is now authored.

My only solution, so far, is to use a Dual Layer disk. One layer for the game and one layer for the feature.