Still no good way to do basic slideshow

[Fuzzplug Jones]

Is there really no one like me?

I need to make a DVD out of about 3,100 still images (my parents' slide collection) and all they want to do is go through them manually. They don't want motion, music, cheeky themes, the Ken Burns effect, animated menus, sound effects, goofy transitions... they want to see one picture and they want it to stay on the screen until they press the chapter-forward button. THAT'S ALL. And there are NO programs that allow you to do this.

I understand that I can make 3,100 "menus" in DVDLab Pro with hidden buttons linked to functions on the remote... but I'd like to have this done before five years from now.

Why aren't there ANY programs that allow me to do this? I've been pulling my hair out. I'm going to have to either quit my job to make 3,100 menus by hand or I'm going to have to make something only a soccer mom could love. If I could program I would write something, but I can't. Why is it (apparently) easier for programmers to write these million-feature A&E-Biography-ripoff things and there's not ONE program out there that will just let me manually advance the slides?

Eventually I would like my parents to record a "commentary" about the slides and I envisioned it still in a manual-advance sort of format; i.e. when they stop talking about slide #1, it stops and allows you to continue looking at slide #1 until you're ready, then you press chapter forward to go to slide #2, you hear the audio about slide #2, and it waits for you to press chapter forward again. I dread even bringing that up because if we can't do it WITHOUT the commentary, I have a feeling the world will end before we have a program that can do it WITH the commentary.

I am not a professional DVD author... not a programmer... can ANYONE help me out here? I need to be able to turn off AUTOMATIC transitions and hopefully, eventually be able to "auto-pause" (if that's the right term) a slideshow with audio between frames. I'm starting to think for all this technology I ought to just go back to the slide projector... and that's kind of sad.

[laspis59]

I dont think you can have that amount of chapters on a DVD for each pic,it's way too many.Why not just use the pause button on the remote control and then continue playing to the next pic.

[Fuzzplug Jones]

Because my parents can barely figure out the REFRIGERATOR much less their DVD player. If all these tools with all these goofy transitions and music are supposed to make technology less daunting for people, then the LAST thing I want to do is have to teach them more than is absolutely necessary.

[Sifaga]

how about buying a dvd player that handles JPG's.

you could just create a DVD with the JPG's on as data and view tham that way.

[Fuzzplug Jones]

Because I had hoped to make some nice menus and (as i said) eventually wanted to do a little more with the photos than a hardware viewer of questionable quality would allow me.

So I guess what you're all saying is there's no way to do this one simple thing, but if I want whiz-bang rendered video slideshows with zooms and music and wipes and all that, there's a billion programs downloadable with a simple Google search.

That's embarassing.

[dipstick]

It's very simple. The DVD specs don't allow for what you want to do. A DVD player is a simple device that goes by the DVD specs. The closest you can come is by creating a whole bunch of still menus with the comentary as backgroud audio.

You could write a program that will do what you want, but the dvd will only play in a computer.

[Fuzzplug Jones]

That's fine.

I looked at DVD-Lab Pro and it seems that I can create slideshows there with ridiculously long per-picture delays, however DVD-Lab Pro refuses to create chapter stops. If it would do that, I would have what I need. I'm not unwilling to compromise... I think a five (or ten) minute delay per picture would be fine, and from what i can tell it doesn't negatively impact the size of the media... so I guess now, the question becomes, what programs allow you to turn off the goofy effects, set a really huge per-picture delay, and automatically throw chapter stops in at each picture? (Remember, you wouldn't want to do 3,100 images by hand in an NLE, besides, aren't computers supposed to work FOR us instead of the other way around?)

[Sifaga]

you wont get 3000 images at 5mins each

if you had 5 secs each thats just over 4 hours


a dvd player plays video, if you want to to play stills then it has to create a video of the stills.

[dipstick]

I don't know what NLE you have, but it's pretty easy with Premire Pro. You can import the folder of images. Set the image duration to the length you want in frames. Select "Export to Timeline" and all images will be placed in the timeline with default transition(cross-fade). You can encode it as Progressive w/24fps. That will give best quality at smallest file size.

You'll have to manually insert chapter points within DVD-Lab.

[Fuzzplug Jones]

you wont get 3000 images at 5mins each

if you had 5 secs each thats just over 4 hours

Yeah, except that MPEG is a VBR protocol, which means if it's done right that four hour movie (at basically one frame every 5 minutes) it'll only be a couple hundred MB.

I know this already because the test slideshows I did in DVD-Lab Pro are very small.

So, we know that it has to be an MPEG...
We know it's going to be small because it only has to record one change every (in the case of what I want to do) 5 or 10 minutes
We know these will be broken up into smaller slideshows (how could anyone use ONE slideshow with 3100 images in it??)
We know if I didn't have a job and a family to take care of that I could do this by hand in an NLE and it would take 9 years.

So, where's the automatic tool to do it right?

[Fuzzplug Jones]

I don't know what NLE you have, but it's pretty easy with Premire Pro. You can import the folder of images. Set the image duration to the length you want in frames. Select "Export to Timeline" and all images will be placed in the timeline with default transition(cross-fade). You can encode it as Progressive w/24fps. That will give best quality at smallest file size.

You'll have to manually insert chapter points within DVD-Lab.

Thanks. I have Vegas but I'll see if there's something similar...

I still think there should be a utility to do this a little more automatic. I never understood why so many software companies think they have to make the SAME exact program, now there's literally hundreds of goofy-transition slideshow programs, not one does this simple thing.

Thanks for the help

[borax]

It is possible with dvdauthor and some scripting...
(I plan to support this feature for one of the next GfD versions as well)

The DVD specs allow for 99 titles in a titleset and 99 titlesets total. This amounts to 9800 titles total (maybe dvdauthor allows less, I havn't tried > 500 yet). After each title (which may be just one single video frame) you can have an infinite pause.

The procedure would be something like this:
1. Batch convert each picture to a jpeg image with the appropriate size (probably 720x480) This can be done easily with IrfanView.
2. Set up a batch file to convert each jpeg into a single frame mpeg using jpeg2yuv + mpeg2enc
3. Set up the xml file for dvdauthor and author

Feel free to ask me, if you want/need more precise instructions or help to set up the batch and xml files

[Nelson37]

Ulead DVD PS - the special edition comes free with many drives - will do this. Set each pic to 2-3 minutes, make that duration the chapter time interval.

It will actually be much easier when you get the commentary audio, it will automatically set each slide duration to the accompanying file's duration. What you may end up doing is grouping slides and making one audio for each group, but then you loose individual selectability, and would have to manually set each slides duration. Or something like "20 seconds each for this group, 40 seconds for this group" - a little math will give you the correct length to match the audio duration, odds are the time spent talking about a group would about match the time you wish to spend looking at it.

You may want to add some space for some long explanations and stories, so you can press a menu button for the complete history of Cousin Bob while looking at one slide but in the slide show itself Cousin Bob doesn't stay on the screen for 10 minutes every time.

I haven't added audio to each but I've made shows of over 1000 slides with audio in groups. Just turn off transitions. After playing with that a lot, I thought short duration, random transitions made it a little less boring.

Make an AVI with Ulead then VBR encode with favorite encoder. Not much bitrate is needed.

A note on the audio you are going to make. Get it done. You only have two sources for it and you do not have unlimited time. I waited too long on a similar project and a lot of family history was lost.

[canadateck]

DVD Architect Will Automatically set Chapter stops for Pictures/Images.
All you need to do is set the Display Time,in the Setting then Import your Images.

Not Sure if you can have over 1000 Chapters though.

[Fuzzplug Jones]

This is all very good advice, thank you... however someone on the DVDLab forums claims that DVDLab does in fact add chapter stops, and that it might have just been a problem with my PowerDVD that I didn't see them... if this is the case I'll stick with that but if not I'll be back to check on some of these ideas.

[Moontrash]

PicturesToExe

[toryamos]

why not split the image collection over a number of CDs and do a CD slideshow instead. DvD players will play CDs. guide @
http://www.network54.com/Forum/336827/thread/1119087306/last-1119221353/Create+a+CD+or+DvD+Slideshow

[dimad]

Each PGC can have only 99 programs, each Title can have 999 chapters (refering to programs in different PGCs). You can have up to 99 Titles in TitleSet. So DVD specs will allow you to put all 3000 pictures on one disk.

Try muxman: http://mpucoder.com/Muxman/ It can definetely do what you want, all you need to do is to create a text script file.

[Bjs]

Ulead dvd picture show is what you would be after .

Last project I created using it had 4,700 images on a dvd .

Some other programs dont allow anywhere near that number .

Ulead will allow you to create menu's for sub groups , should they need to be arranged in any specific order ... and no ... it wont take you 5 years ..

I grabbed one in ebay some time ago , just so I could see what the fuss was about between the different programs that were available , and it won hands down ...

Another tool , though it has its problems , is easyphototools , found on simtel site , free , but when building project , make sure each folder you import from dosent contain more than 60 pics , and import only 30 at a time , it has a problem , not sure what it is , but if you try too do too much , it just stops working .

The good news about both tools is they dont dissort the pictures width or hieght , if too big , image is downsized equally till both fit within specified area on screen . If image is smaller , it is simply centered , simple .

[tnamrog]

how about buying a dvd player that handles JPG's.

you could just create a DVD with the JPG's on as data and view tham that way.

Sifag's is the best way to keep it simple for the parents.

Also, think about how you're going to scan all of those slides. You might want to get a quote from a professional photolab to do it for you. They would dismount and scan it on a high quality scanner and remount it for you and give you a disc.

[Cornucopia]

You could use the DVD's spec-legal "User-advanceable VOBU still" feature, where each still is saved as a single I-frame GOP with a longer stream. There are some limits to this (don't remember right now), but it's not too limiting. Advancing the stills is just a matter of repeat tapping of the [PLAY] button. And, of course, this works on ALL dvd players.

Problem is, it's not for the feight of heart to create. You have to have to good authoring package to do it right, you have to have everything set up correctly, and it takes a while. In the past I have used DVDMaestro for this, with EXCELLENT results, but I daresay you won't be able to find that now. Not sure which current packages support this (as I still would use the Spruce if I have need for that feature).

Good luck,

Scott

[rvelez]

I've used Nero's Vision Express with really good results. My family just loves the DVD's I send them!

[Wile_E]

Do not convert still pictures to mpeg2 format, if all you want is basic viewing, and not a music slideshow. MPEG2 just reduces the quality even further than the original jpg. Plus, remember regular TV is only 480i scanlines. This is roughly 640x480 or 720x480 in DVD resolution. This will be poor in comparison to the original pictures. 720p and 1080p would be better resolution to use, but I'm not sure any DVD player actually will output jpg in that format. But I save most of mine at 1024x768 for my player.

Look for a dvd player that has HIGH-MAT jpg ability. Then save the CD/DVD using HIGH-MAT format. High-mat uses a menu/thumbnails. I have a Panasonic S47, which has also has it's own tree and thumbnail menu for jpg's and also supports HIGH-MAT. Thumbnail view is slow though, and it is slow with larger sized pictures. I have to scale my pictures down to about 1024x768 in order for it to display fast.

Make one copy for your parents at this reduced size quality for DVD player, and keep the originals backed up for viewing on computer.

[Des]

Not to muck things up any, but does it have to be a DVD? You can do exactlhy what you want in flash pretty easily (there are even pre-written scripts for it) and then show it on a PC or laptop.

You would have a folder with the jpgs on them and a jpg compatable DVD player or have them available on the same disk for neat and simple printing, etc.

Just a thought.

--dES

[Fuzzplug Jones]

Okay, thanks for all your suggestions, this is how I solved it:

Somebody either here or on the DVDLab forums mentioned that a per-picture delay of 255 seconds would be more reliable than the max of 3600. They were right. The default DVDLab-generated slideshows now work flawlessly on the target DVD player. Not sure why but I don't care at this point if it works.

To address some concerns others had here:

1. The slides are all already scanned. We bought a Konica-Minolta DImage Scan Dual IV last year around this time and did them all already. We scanned them at 3200dpi so there is absolutely no issue with the source resolution of these photos.

2. This particular "release" or "version" of this DVD is a proof-of-concept. Resolution is of secondary importance to me because as you've already seen, the question has always been "is this possible?" And until we found the 255-second solution, it wasn't - why would I care about resolution at that point? Mom and Dad want to see a little progress and this will be more than enough for them at this point. I don't mind redoing this in HD resolutions when there are standards for that.

3. To the person who recommended Flash - well, yes, but there are also things built into WINDOWS to do slideshows, so that would be a lot of work for nothing. Yes, it has to be a DVD, I've said over and over that if my parents were actually computer-literate and comfortable with high technology, I wouldn't be doing this.

4. HI-MAT might be a good idea when it becomes more standard, but I wanted to see if I could make a disc that would play in any DVD player, anywhere, anytime. What if I spent a lot of time doing a HI-MAT disc and five days after Christmas my parents' DVD player dies, and they can't find one for a reasonable price with HI-MAT support? Whereas if I do it in a standard format, I don't have to worry about that.

For the moment, the problem seems to have been solved. Thanks.

[Bjs]

Pcgedit also allows for "255-second solution" , as mentioned in my guides already .