What's New In Dvd Slide Show Software?

[rikytik]

I keep returning to this subject because I haven't found the ideal DVD slide show program yet. Going to be putting my thousands of slides in a show format for all the trips we've taken over the past 10 years and want an easy program so I can add background music a narration track.

Anybody got any great new ideas along these lines?

[KingCobra]

I'm watching this thread, because I'd like to do much of the same.

[rikytik]

As a footnote to Vinnie. I did use Memories on TV (April post)and it made a pretty nice slide show, but I'm looking for greater ease in using a sound track for background and then adding a narration track.

Had trouble with my Laptop installing Vegas 5. Uninstalling SP2 because of an apparent problem with NET framework, so won't get back to that till tomorrow.

[rikytik]

Roxio Media Creator does the job. Native music track, background music track, narration track.

I banished Roxio from my PC years ago when they were having all kinds of trouble after moving the sofware from Adaptec, Thought I'd look at it again. I'm amazed at the immense numbers of things you can do with it. I just made a test DVD of a few slides and burned in on a DVD-RW all from inside Creastive Media version 7 and bingo. Looks like this could be it.

=============================== Meanwhile, later,

Just did a 284 image slide show with enough music tracks to take it to the end. And I can record a live narration track before burning while the show runs through the slides, as a seocnd track. Burned it and it plays great on the DVD player.

Unless anybody has something better, this is the one!

[rikytik]

ran into something new regarding image dates.

Still checking out Media Creator. My last trip is composed of images taken on 2 different digital cameras and 3 different memory chips. In addition one of the cameras (my daughters) was initally at a default date of 1/1/2001 and later reset to actual. So between image names and dates, it is a royal mess. I ended up making batch date changes in ACDSee, a pretty easy task, but Media Creator see differnt dates. There are the original creation date, the last modified date, meta dates and ACDSee data base dates. Man what a mess. I may have to simply use ACDSee's date system, get it in order and then do a batch name change.

Other than that, I am really pleased with the potential for Media Creator. Looks like the back ground track is stereo. it can be moved and manipulated, so that you can modify the slide show and not worry too much bout that track.

The narration track also seems to be stereo, but once you record it you cannot move, nor alter it. If you want to redo a part, you've got to delete the track and redo the narration. Not a problem, jsut something to keep in mind.

This seems a lot easier than other programs I've tried. Sonic, ULead, and a couple others that escape my mind at this moment.

[rikytik]

Hey, it's looking even better. What you think King Cobra?

[rikytik]

KingCobra, I hope you are still reading. We're not getting much input. I guess slide shows are old hat.

just finished putting in 9 different sound tracks for background music into my now 250 image slide show. Tried the narration track and it works very well. If you want to change it, you've gotta delete it and start over, but the back ground music is independant and unaffaected by the narration channel. Main thing I discovered is it's best to finish the show then make up a script so you can have names, places in front of you as the images roll by for the narration channel.

You can either burn a DVD, VCD, SVCD, or simply burn to HD. The burn to HD creates an iso which contains the standard DVD file setup. This is good because it means you can burn a number of iso's to hd and then later, at your leisure, use Nero, or whatever to burn the DVD disks. I've been burning to DVD-RW to test all this stuff.

Easy Media Creator Suite 7 is a fine program for this purpose. My only criticism so far is that editing background tracks is far from intuitive. I don't like reading instuctions and have lost some time on account of that.

[rikytik]

This program is IT! Works in all demensions. I'm doing DVD slide shows with a dozen background mp3 soundtracks, plus a narrative track. It is really the best.

Hope someone will tell me I've been misled.

The main problem is the narrative track. You can't move or modify it. If you want to redo it, you delete and start again. Probably no big deal for most people. The background music is no sweat. The main thing is you can move things and nothing is insribed in stone except the narrative track.

[KingCobra]

Thanks for the input.

I might have some questions for you down the road.