Pictureshow and Menus

[autoharp]

Using Ulead's Pictureshow, when I create a "menu" for a slideshow on a VCD, the only option I have for accessing each slideshow is by using the number keypad and then it plays through all the slides--in that "chapter" and all the rest that are "behind" it.

I'm desperately trying to find out how to create a set of good menus so that I can get my father's Christmas/birthday present finished. I'm prepared to buy a DVD burner if that's what I need, but I've spent hour upon hour over the last couple of weeks (and more back in the summer when I first got Pictureshow) trying to find out if the problem is that I don't have the right software, the right hardware, both, or something else (like I'm just a big dummy). I even went to the trouble to call Ulead last week because they never responded to two tech support e-mails and the guy I talked to just wanted to pass the buck on what the problem is. Geez.

I want my father (a definite newbie in all things tech) to be able to navigate through an on-screen menu system (the more extensive, the better for the different slide arrangements I want to offer him--tray, holidays, vacations, etc.) using the arrow buttons on the DVD controller--not the number pad. And I want him to be able to play just one chapter and not that chapter and all the chapters behind it.

Am I doing something wrong or is it just Ulead or do I need a DVD burner? Will Pictureshow ever create what I want? I've got a new-this-spring-Vaio computer and I'm using a new Sony DVD player (can't remember the model number), but my father will be using a combo TV/DVD/VCR unit that is also part of the present. I don't know how much the DVD player might contribute to problems with the menus.

ME

[tomclary]

I have used PictureShow and a DVD burner to create a slide show. The menu system would allow you to navigate with the cursor keys and then select which slideshow to play. Which sounds like what you want to do but have not had any luck.

I did have the opposite problem. I wanted it to automatically play a few hundred slides but it would return to the menu after playing a slide show. A slide show was limited to 99 images for the DVD. I had to periodically restart it on the next slide show. It worked well enough for what I needed.

I have never tried doing a VCD with it. My guess some of the problem is that DVD players do not react to VCD menu's in the same way.

[autoharp]

Thanks for the information.

Has anyone else out there had any luck with accessing the separate slideshows on a VCD? I'm just trying to find out if I really need to buy a DVD burner or if there is some other software that would produce the type of slideshow I want.

ME

[kitty]

It is a limitation of VCD navigation, not a bug or nonfeature in Ulead DVD Pictureshow. VCDs have a limited input definition in the standard: the number keys, previous (usually <<), next (>>) and return (Michael did I miss one?). The "arrow keys" were a DVD spec thing that came years later and there is no VCD 3.0 spec to incorporate them.

You are either stuck with the number keys in Pictureshow for a VCD or a DVD burner to get the arrows to make a DVD (several hundred $).

If you author in vcdimager/vcdeasy etc. you can define a few more tricks but with many pictures it would take alot of work.

As Robert Heinlein would state: TANSTAAFL.

[tomclary]

Autoharp, I've got some other options for you.

You can create a DVD .iso image with PictureShow, burn it to CD, and then find someone with a DVD burner to put it on DVD. This will save you the cost of getting a DVD burner. My disk of 437 pictures just turned out to be an image of just 50Meg.

I guess another avenue to pursue is the miniDVD format which allows DVD formatted data to be put on a CD. Not supported by many DVD players and limited in the amount of video you can put on it. But for a slide show, it might work out ok.

If you can get an image to me by 12/19/2002, I will be willing to put it on DVD-R for you at $10 a disk per disk (covers media and my time and effort) + return shipping costs. My e-mail address is tec7@rocketmail.com if this is of interest. Or someone else closer may be able to help you out.

Tom

[autoharp]

Thanks for the offer of help, tomclary, but I've not yet finished scanning my slides (another 3-6 trays of 140), and I bet I'll be burning the final disc, whether it be VCD or DVD, on Christmas morning just minutes before my Dad arrives. No need to rush these things.

By the time I'm finished with this project, it will be one of the most expensive gifts I've ever made for my father (or anyone else, for that matter), but I can't think of anyone who deserves it more. Guess I'll be ordering that DVD burner today.

Thanks for all the advice.

ME