DVD authoring programme

T

Tosh

Its a long time since I posted a question here but as a
regular reader may I pose a problem to you all.

I am a PPt user who has been asked by my clients to make
presentations for play back using a DVD player. Can any
one recommend a programme that has the kind of
functionality and ease of use that PPt has, but dedicated
for DVD production?

I have tried Ulead Picture Show and Work Shop but they are
really for the home user and do not have the interactive
functions that PPt does so well.

I have read many people asking how to put there PPt show
on a DVD disc but I will continue to use PPt on the PC as
usual but now need a separate application for DVD discs.

Any thoughts please?

I promise my next post will be a proper PPt query !


Tosh

Edinburgh Scotland
 
T

TAJ Simmons

Tosh,

I've not heard of any program that can create a dvd and still keep the
interactivit and ease of use of powerpoint.

Sorry!



TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
free powerpoint templates, tutorials, hints and tips etc
http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com
 
E

Echo S

Sonic Foundry had a program called DVD Architect. I think that may have the
features you're after. Seems Sony bought those products, though, and rolled
DVD Architect in with Vegas Video. I'm not sure if DVD Architect's available
as a stand-alone now or not.

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/

Now, Tosh, I should explain here that I'm assuming you are looking for a DVD
authoring program which is easy to use (like PPT is), but not necessarily
something to convert your PPT files into DVD with...

I suspect that, whatever program you use, you'll find it easiest to export
your PPT files as images and insert those into the DVD program. Or perhaps
capture the PPT files with Camtasia or similar and then import those movies
into the DVD program. (You'd probably have to run those through Vegas Video
after capturing if you were using this combination of products.)

Maybe Google on DVD authoring?

Echo
 
J

John Langhans [MSFT]

Hello Tosh,

PowerPoint does not have the built-in ability to save presentations as
video files or other video formats such as DVD-Video and I am not aware of
any software that would preserve all possible interactivity that is
possible with the latest versions of PowerPoint for Windows (or if it's
even possible)

Given the limitations of DVD-Video (and other movie formats) when compared
to the fidelity of a native PowerPoint slide show, what slide show
capabilities/quality customers are willing to give up in order to get the
perceived benefits of DVD output?

However, if the ability save presentations to DVD-Video, directly from
within PowerPoint, is important to you (or anyone else reading this
message), or if there are specific features of PowerPoint slide show that
you would like to see (which might eliminate the need to save presentations
as DVD-Video), don't forget to send your feedback to Microsoft at:

http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp

As with all product suggestions, it's important that you not just state
your wish but also why it is important to you that your product suggestion
be implemented by Microsoft. Microsoft receives thousands of product
suggestions every day and we read each one but, in any given product
development cycle, there are only sufficient resources to address the ones
that are most important to our customers so take the extra time to state
your case as clearly and completely as possible.

IMPORTANT: Each submission should be a single suggestion (not a list of
suggestions).

John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of any included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm
 
T

Tosh

Many thanks for your reply-I have looked at the web site
and will ask my Sony supplier about availability

Tosh
 
T

Tosh

For such a strange reply I am compelled to respond.
I asume you did not understand my query or you did not
read it properly.
-----------------
You say - I am not aware of any software that would
preserve all possible interactivity that is possible with
the latest versions of PowerPoint for Windows (or if it's
even possible)

If you went to a video games or video rental store you
would be spoilt for choice to see what DVD can do in terms
of interactivity.

------------------
you say - Given the limitations of DVD-Video
capabilities/quality customers are willing to give up in
order to get the perceived benefits of DVD output?

DVD provides more that one hour of high resolution, full
screen, 25 frame per second MPEG 2 motion video, fully
synched audio with digital 'better than CD quality '
surround sound play back.
can power point?
----------------------------
DVD can hold and control play back of many thousands of
full screen broadcast quality photographic stills,
graphics, animations, visual effects music, voice, sound
effects within one presentation.
can power point?
-------------------------

You say - if the ability save presentations to DVD-Video,
directly from within PowerPoint, is important to you ---

no it doesnt interest me at all-I asked if there was a
dedicated programme for producing DVD
-----------------------
You say - what slide show capabilities/quality customers
are willing to give up in order to get the perceived
benefits of DVD output?

DVD plays from a single 12 cm plastic disc costing less
than £1-00 It plays with out the need for a computer
costing over £700-00 but plays on a £40-00 DVD player with
out ever crashing and having animations and special
effects that power point user can only dream about


well you will have to explain that one to us, because we
at this end thought we were gaining a whole lot more on
DVD than power point can provide.



Tosh
 
S

Steve Rindsberg

-----------------
You say - I am not aware of any software that would
preserve all possible interactivity that is possible with
the latest versions of PowerPoint for Windows (or if it's
even possible)

If you went to a video games or video rental store you
would be spoilt for choice to see what DVD can do in terms
of interactivity.
------------------

Perhaps John meant that there's no software that would convert PowerPoint to
a DVD format and still preserve all its animations/interactivity.

------------------
you say - Given the limitations of DVD-Video
capabilities/quality customers are willing to give up in
order to get the perceived benefits of DVD output?

DVD provides more that one hour of high resolution, full
screen, 25 frame per second MPEG 2 motion video, fully
synched audio with digital 'better than CD quality '
surround sound play back.
can power point?
----------------------------

DVD has the advantage in some departments, PPT in others. I don't believe
DVD can display content on displays of arbitrary resolution up to (and
beyond) 1600 pixels across.

DVD is also going to be NTSC video in this part of the world, which imposes
its own set of limitations that PPT + computer monitor isn't heir to.

---------------------------

DVD can hold and control play back of many thousands of
full screen broadcast quality photographic stills,
graphics, animations, visual effects music, voice, sound
effects within one presentation.
can power point?
-------------------------
It can do far better than broadcast quality images and can play back huge
quantities of media (sound/video/images). It can't, however, synch sound,
animation and video together the way a DVD video could.
---------------------------
You say - if the ability save presentations to DVD-Video,
directly from within PowerPoint, is important to you ---

no it doesnt interest me at all-I asked if there was a
dedicated programme for producing DVD
-----------------------
Ask a PowerPoint Guy a question in a PowerPoint forum, get a PowerPoint
answer.
Feel free to ignore it if it doesn't suit.
----------------------
You say - what slide show capabilities/quality customers
are willing to give up in order to get the perceived
benefits of DVD output?

DVD plays from a single 12 cm plastic disc costing less
than £1-00 It plays with out the need for a computer
costing over £700-00 but plays on a £40-00 DVD player with
out ever crashing and having animations and special
effects that power point user can only dream about


well you will have to explain that one to us, because we
at this end thought we were gaining a whole lot more on
DVD than power point can provide.
---------------------------
They each have their benefits and drawbacks.
If the drawbacks aren't thorns in your side, then the medium is nigh
perfect.
The same drawbacks might be deal-breakers for someone else.

I'd hate to be about to go in front of an audience and notice that I had a
typo in the title of my DVD-based presentation. On the other hand, I'd be
in even worse state if my autorunning presentation relied on tightly synched
audio and slide changes and PPT were my only tool.

Horses for courses.


Tosh
 
N

nola

Hello
I have been doing powerpoint presentations and recording
with camtasia, but always appeared to be something wrong
with the numerous dvds that were burnt. I have now
purchased a panasonic video recorder that does powerpoint
the way that it is created, nothing is slow or missed.
excellent, excellent but 800.00 to purchased but well
worth it.
nola
 
J

John Langhans [MSFT]

Hi Tosh,

Actually, I meant exactly what I said. Some things are possible with
DVD-Video that are not possible with a PowerPoint slide show and, vice
versa, some things are possible in PowerPoint slide show that are not
possible with DVD-Video. It's the nature of different formats that they
will support different capabilties and scenarios. I wasn't saying that
DVD-Video was inferior to PowerPoint slide show, just that it was different
and that, sometimes, those differences mean loss of functionality should
you attempt to recreate on DVD-Video the full set of interactivity possible
natively within a PowerPoint slide show. Having said that, those
differences might be completely acceptable to many PowerPoint customers
(once they understand what they are) given the additional benefits that
DVD-Video provides. It's just that sometimes customers only see the
benefits and don't understand the drawbacks...

Here are just a couple of examples in which DVD-Video format is not capable
providing the full PowerPoint slide show interactivity experience.

With the addition of trigger options for animation effects (PowerPoint 2002
and 2003) it is now possible to show multiple animations each of them
completely out of sequence with eachother so that each time the
presentation is delivered it can look completely different to each separate
audience depending on which triggers the presenter activates and when. This
is simply not possible with the DVD-Video format. However, If you want to
record a specific instance, of the delivery of a presentation, as a movie
(capture the specific order and timing of which triggers were activated)
then you have a perfect recording of THAT PARTICULAR DELIVERY of the
presentation. The person receiving that movie (as a DVD-Video) can no
longer change or interact with that scene of the presentation since the
interactivity has been taken away from them.

Other examples of interactivity impossible with DVD-Video include
presentations which execute code or have OLE object interaction. For
example, I don't have Excel on my DVD-Player at home so I know that if I
have specified an Action Setting to Open an Excel worksheet when I click on
it during Slide Show, I don't expect that Action Setting to work if I
convert my presentation to DVD-Video.

Also DVD-Video is lower resolution (at even it's highest quality) than the
resolution at which most computers/projectors typically used to show
PowerPoint presentations. Compound this with the fact that many television
sets are not able to display DVD-Video at it's best quality you have a
customer experience when viewing a DVD-Video of a PowerPoint presentation
on a TV that is of significantly worse visual fidelity than when the
presentation is displayed using PowerPoint on a computer display.

John Langhans

Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of any included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm
 
T

Tosh

All very interesting, pity you still dont under stand my
original query.

I do not want to convert any power point presentation into
a DVD presentation.

The information might be useful to some one who has an
existing Power point file who needs to show it on a DVD
disc but that was not my question.


Tosh
 
A

Adam Crowley

Tosh

Short answer (if you hadn't guessed already) - there isn't anything that
does what I think you want; any solution will consist of a suite of
animation, video editing, encoding and authoring software. Putting a
presentation together this way will require an investment in time and
creative skills far beyond that required by PowerPoint.

Long answer...

Steve and John have replied to your individual assumptions in a way that I
couldn't possibly add to. But I couldn't resist trying.

I'm afraid your assumption that DVD will offer a lot more than PowerPoint is
a misapprehension.
Yes DVDs can have interaction but it is very limited, slow and clumsy.
As the others have mentioned, DVD resolution at its best is significantly
lower than the average PC screen and this has a significant effect on
graphics content and text. Many differences between data display and video
display can reduced quality still further and it should be noted that any
graphics you see on DVDs tend to be very simple and bold. Video and
photographs, on the other hand, can often look better on a TV than on a
computer screen.
Also bear in mind that pretty much everything on a DVD is a video file.
Still images, animations etc all have to be converted to video (this may or
may not be handled by the authoring program). This will hinder or slow down
editability.
As for 'animations and special effects that power point user can only dream
about' that depends entirely upon your chosen animation package, creative
skills and time, but don't expect creation to be easy. You can create DVDs
with relatively cheap software (with little or no animation capability) but
the kind of stuff you see on commercial discs is created using hardware and
software costing thousands......

I could go on but I'm boring myself...hopefully you realise that John's
answer was far from the strange reply you thought it was (although, to be
fair, you did make it clear in your initial post that you weren't asking how
to convert a PowerPoint file to DVD).
 

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