Making a slide show dvd with music

[bkush]

Everyone,

I think this is the correct forum... I have a friend who has a cd filled with pictures he scanned in. He also has a cd or two of music. He wants to make a dvd slide show with music. I know this can be done, and it's probably not too hard, but I've never done it before. Can anyone walk me thru the steps? Which software should I use? I have DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink, IMGTool, Roxio EZ CD Creator, and Movie Maker (I guess, never used it before)...

This is a one time thing, so I'd prefer not to have to buy any software (wouldn't we all!)...

Thanks in advance, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bill

 

[Quadophile]

Any software bundled with the DVD Burner will do the job for you. Roxio and Nero both have this facility. Just follow the software instruction and you should be able to create one in few easy steps.

A DVD is not really needed for a slide show. You can burn a perfectly acceptable slide show on a CDR as well. A slide show must end otherwise the people who are watching will loose patience if the thing has to continue for hours. We all like our own pictures or picures of our own loved ones but others see it from a different viewpoint. Even pictures from National Geographic will eventually tire people after some time.

The key to a good slide show is timing and secondly the type of music you choose. Not everyone will appreciate Mozart or Mettalica at the same time. Maybe you could make a few with different type of music for different audience. The music can help make pictures either interesting or boring.

When I had to archive my sons 1st birthday video from an 8mm tape to the DVD I spent many hours trying to edit it and selecting music for it. Not a very easy job.

Just to give you an example of my selection of a piece of music for a particular passage: The footage was that from an amusement park and my son then a year old was sitting in one of those coin operated helicopters where all sorts of lights and sounds were prominent. in the background I used "What a wonderful world" by Louis Armstrong. This song has mass appeal and also happens to be one of my son's favourite songs. It blended with the atmosphere very well for the main reason it was a very simple song and something a child would be thinking of when sitting in the heliciptor which takes off and lands (albeit within a range of few feet). For him it sure was a wonderful world to be in

Good Luck with your project!

 

[ChristopherP]

The best program by FAR is Windows Movie Maker 2.

Just drag and drop the pictures, drag and drop the music, add any effects/credits/transitions that you want and then burn to a CD or whatever.

 

[KGB-911]

Or Pinnacle studio 8/9 (very expensive if you dont have it)

 

[floppybootstomp]

The best program by FAR is Windows Movie Maker 2.

Compared to what?

I'm using Pinnacle Studio 8 myself atm, it's really quite good.

But anyway, yes, either Nero, Easy CD Creator or Windows Movie Maker 2 will do the job

 

[ChristopherP]

compared to nothing, it just does not get any simpler!

Drag the photos you want onto the storyboard, drag the music track on and press save.

thats it.

 

[floppybootstomp]

compared to nothing, it just does not get any simpler!

Drag the photos you want onto the storyboard, drag the music track on and press save.

thats it.

OK, perhaps it is. Now, forgive me for perhaps being a little pedantic here, but how can somebody possibly state something is the best if that's the only one they've used?

It do not make sense.

Yep, this Austin Metro is the best car ever. Of course, I ain't driven nothing else, but...

Granted, one could offer the opinion that this software is extremely easy to use, but to call it the best?

Is it me? Am I being pernicketty here? Ohmigawd, I'm gonna get me a Sol from the fridge....

 

[Quadophile]

I agree with Flops, anything THAT simple cannot be the best. I have used all the three mentioned, Nero, Roxio as well as Movie Maker 2 and I personally would not use Movie Maker 2 for this kind of job since the other programs are offering better options as far as I am concerned.

I will not vote for either Roxio or Nero since it actually boils down to what was bundled with your burner and which one you feel comfortable in using. When I bought my first CD burner, it was bundled with Nero, when I got my first DVD burner it came with Roxio so I am familiar with both.

 

[ChristopherP]

i meant that MM2 is the best for making a slide show of pictures with music, thats it.

If you want anything more than that then yeah - other programs would be better, but i simply can not see how anything more complicated can be better at something so simple.

Ive used a couple of others - i forget what they are called but the "Snazzy" user interface more complicates things than helps them.

 

[bkush]

Any software bundled with the DVD Burner will do the job for you. Roxio and Nero both have this facility. Just follow the software instruction and you should be able to create one in few easy steps.

Okay, maybe I'm just dense... I tried Movie Maker, and it created a .WMV file... Useless to me as far as making a DVD slideshow. Next, I tried Roxio PhotoRelay (I have EZ CD Creator 5). It allowed me to add the .jpg files and create a slide show with a looped music track, and I burned the slideshow to a CD-R, but when I played it in my DVD player (home stereo system) it just played the music track...

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,

Bill

 

[ChristopherP]

You save it as a DV-AVI file, then use Nero/Roxio to burn to DVD.

Hope that helps.

Chris

 

[Quadophile]

Bill,

I assume you checked the burned disk on the computer and it played OK. However, not sure if your DVD player supports playback of images. Have you tried it on the same DVD player before, if not, check if your player supports playback of images. The manual of the DVD player should give you the information.

Which DVd player you have? Can you let us know the brand and its model no?

 

[floppybootstomp]

I think quad has the answer here. My first thought was also that the DVD player may not support that format.

 

[bkush]

Thanks for everyone's help... It's almost as much fun watching/listening to you guys argue over the thread as it is actually making the slide show...

Anyway, I did manage to make a .WMV file. Is there a way to use this file? Other than in Windows Movie Maker or Media Player?

I also made a slide show from Nero (I think). It played just fine on my home DVD player (a newer Panasonic 5 disc changer. From what I remember glancing at the user manual it plays almost every format known to man). The only problem is that Nero's slide show tool doesn't let you add more than 1 audio track. Nero allowed us to create a VCD disc. Like I said, this played on my DVD player just fine, but when my friend took it home and tried it on his (an old, cheap one he said) it played the first 7 or 8 slides and the music, then froze on the 8th slide but kept playing the music track...

I suppose if I opened up the wallet and bought some good software this project would have been a lot easier. It would have to be, because this attempt was enough to make me thankful that I only have to deal with users on large Vax equipment at work!

Thanks again everyone...

Bill

 

[Quadophile]

Bill,

Glad to know things finally worked out for you

 

[ChristopherP]

I save as DV-AVI and then use Vision express to encode and burn.

Works on every DVD player going, from My expensive phillips one to me nans cheapy Asda Wal*Mart one...

 

[Quadophile]

My expensive phillips one ...

Which one??????? I never knew you had a Philips DVD player.

 

[ChristopherP]

Oh blimey, i don't know the model number, but it was one of the best out when i bought it... It was a joint christmas and birthday present from the parents, cost £150 2 or 3 years ago, and they even put the multi-region hack into the unit in-store.

It is VERY good, even by todays standards. All Dolby etc etc...

 

[Quadophile]

cost £150 2 or 3 years ago, and they even put the multi-region hack into the unit in-store.

It is VERY good, even by todays standards. All Dolby etc etc...

£150 does not get you one of the best DVD players as this is considered budget category, not even mid price by any standards, and any DVD player from 2 to 3 years ago is considered totally obsolete. You could easily get a DVD player under 80 quid today which will beat your DVD player in all the departments.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Lemme see, I paid £80.00 for a Toshiba SD220E two years ago and it's equivalent model is now £60.00 if you shop around. At the time, it was voted best overall DVD player of 2002 by several magazines.

It plays mp3's and VCD's, but not SVCD's. I've never tried a slide show on it, I'll have to try that.

I'm happy with it, it handles all my home made DVD's OK and picture quality is good. I'm not trying to say it's top of the range by any means, but it does me

Cost me another £20.00 for a gold plated SCART lead as well, that's 25% of the cost of the player...