Problem with Sonic DVD Plugin for Photostory 3

[Cheryl]

I went to papajohn's website for instructions on how to burn my Photostory 3
to a DVD to play on a TV. I purchased the Sonic DVD software. I was happy to
see the option under Save of putting it on a DVD for my DVD player. During
the DVD creation process, it checked for media and then when it was
converting files, it stopped about 1/3 of the way through. I had left it for
half an hour and there was no progress. I was thinking maybe I had a memory
problem that Papa John wrote about, I checked my info and this is what I had:
Total: 422832
Limit: 641280
Peak: 547592
The numbers change of course. Can anyone advise on what I need to do to get
my DVD to burn my story? Thank you.

 

[PapaJohn]

Using the option of going to DVD in Photo Story 3 is a two step one... it
first saves the story to a WMV file, and then converts the WMV to MPEG-2 to
burn the disc.

You can check the first part by saving the story to a file on your hard
drive, using the DVD quality option of PS3... if it does that OK, then it
would be an issue with the transcoding to MPEG2 or the actual burning of the
disc.

If it's with the transcoding or burning, Sonic software usually provides an
error message... not always easily understandable, but at least something to
read.

 

[Cheryl]

Thank you for your suggestion. I saved the story as you said and it worked
fine. What should I do next as far as saving it to a DVD? I just purchased
the plug-in which I thought would solve my problem of burning it to DVD.
Please advise. Thank you.

 

[PapaJohn]

the next step would be to use whatever software you have on your computer
that makes video DVDs... not data discs. Most of the recent brands will
accept stories as file inputs.

My website's 'Other Editorsand Making Discs...' section has some info and
links to various software. Adobe Premiere is good and provides a full
featured 30 day downloadable trial version.

 

[Cheryl]

Any ideas why the software I bought the other day for $20 does not work
correctly? My pc is 6 years old and has an early version of XP. Could that be
it? I would hate to think I wasted $20 buying the plug-in that can't use now.

BTW, thanks for all your advice. I will try your next suggestion if it still
does not work. I am going to give it another try. Do you think it could be
the amount of RAM I have available for the saving process to swap in (sorry
this may not be the technical words to describe this)? I was going to try and
change this, too and give it a try. The DVD disks I am using are DVD+R.
Could that be a problem?

 

[PapaJohn]

My experience with Sonic software is such that, when you hit a glitch with
the software it's too difficult and long to try to resolve it. Best to get
on with using something else, even if it's another version of a Sonic
product.

There are too many possible things that could cause it, and it's too soon to
say it's the Sonic software. I just burned a DVD successfully on my XP
laptop with Sonic's MyDVD software... I used it because my Vista Ultimate
system and Windows DVD Maker couldn't successfully make it.

I bought and used the plug-in when it first came out, but wasn't satisified
with its features and havn't used it since. I guess I wasted my $20.

Besides the DVD type... DVD+R... yes, it could be the issue. So could the
brand of disc you're using, the speed of the burn, and other factors.

 

[Cheryl]

Thank you for your response. I downloaded the Adobe Premiere software and
when it went to start, it said I need Service Pack 2 for XP installed. I am
afraid to install that and now I am not sure what to do. Can I e-mail it to
someone to make me the DVD? If so, the file I was able to save in PhotoStory
3 is all I mail? I have a new laptop with Vista on it. Maybe I can mail it to
myself there and burn it to DVD? What do you recommend?

 

[PapaJohn]

Yes, the story file (.wmv) is all you would need to pass over to another
computer to use in a DVD project.

 

[Cheryl]

Thank you for your help. I copied the wmv file to my new laptop and made the
DVD with Movie Maker with no problems.

 

[PapaJohn]

Glad it worked!!... thanks for the followup note..