Slideshow Software

Who's using what for slideshow software? And is anyone using Nero's Photoshow? I have the OEM version of that software and can't get it to work. I've got hours in with one slideshow and it's crashed my computer, crashed the CD burner, and I've burned two CDs that won't play in my DVD player. Anyone else tried it and think it stinks?

So what should I use? I like the idea of being able to give a friend or client a slideshow DVD or CD after I shoot a party or wedding. I've checked the slideshow software reviews here but don't really know what to do. Who's got some advice for the captain?

I tried to create a slideshow DVD for Christmas last year, and had about the same luck that you had...

I borrowed a copy of Nero 6 (I think) from a coworker but I didn't have any luck with that. In fact, when I installed it on my PC, it didn't even give me the same options that he had on his PC. I thought that was odd.

I also tried a program that came with my PC but didn't have much luck with that either. I was able to burn disc that plays on my DVD player, but the music skips so bad I couldn't stand it... Eventually I just gave up on the idea.

Some other coworkers have used iDVD and said that they were pretty happy with it, and that it was easy to use. If you have access to a Mac, you could give that try.

On a side note, I was watching Photoshop TV at work last week, and they showed a way to use PSCS2 to prepare all your photos for a slide show. I don't remember exactly how it worked, but basically it batched everything to the optimized size (depending on your TV-regular or wide screen) and file type for you. Then all you have to do is dump the files into your DVD program of choice and your all set. Assuming you can find a DVD program that works the way you want it to. :)

Ah, what is wrong with PowerPoint and the variety of plug-ins available for it? I have even mixed animation with slides in this program.

Ronnoco

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Originally Posted by Ronnoco

Ah, what is wrong with PowerPoint and the variety of plug-ins available for it? I have even mixed animation with slides in this program.

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I don't know. I've barely used it. Can I make a DVD slideshow that someone with no knowledge can play on the DVD player in their living room? That's what I want to be able to make.

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

I don't know. I've barely used it. Can I make a DVD slideshow that someone with no knowledge can play on the DVD player in their living room? That's what I want to be able to make.

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Up to this point, I have used it with CD, rather than DVD, since I have only recently picked up a new external DVD unit but using Windows Media Player, it seems that anyone can play a PowerPoint Presentation from either CD or DVD.

Ronnoco

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Originally Posted by Ronnoco

using Windows Media Player, it seems that anyone can play a PowerPoint Presentation from either CD or DVD.

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What I want is a CD or DVD that will play in someone's DVD player, on their TV - for the family - no computers involved.

For what it's worth, I think the Nero slideshow software is terrible. I can't get it to work, can't find documentation about problems - it ends up being a big time-waster.

Roxio has a good product which is simple to use and will add the slideshow to CD or DVD. The transitions built in a quite good to.

I have used it for exactly this purpose and also used it for creating backups of my photo's to CD in the past. I now use the drag and drop features to DVD.

Roger

I just downloaded the trial version of ProShow Gold. It's got two perfect reviews in our reviews, an award from PC Magazine, and the features look great. I'm going to try it out today and I'll let you know if it works and what I think. I'm getting excited about being able to make slideshows. I like the idea of giving people something they can watch on their TV, without a computer or any special equipment.

ProShow Gold site >>
ProShow Gold reviews >>

Don't forget that most TV's aren't as good as monitors unless their HDTV.

Roger

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Originally Posted by readingr

Don't forget that most TV's aren't as good as monitors unless their HDTV.

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That doesn't matter. The whole point of this is to give people something that they can watch easily and as a family or a group. Quality depends, to some extent, on context. The project right now is a series of portraits of my friend's father. He already has high resolution JPEGs. But I think a slideshow, with music, that they can watch on the TV is a really nice thing to add. It's not a replacement for great photos. It's just another medium in which to make use of photos.

Before I got smart I resized all my images in CS2, then imported them into Ulead Mediastudio Pro, manually set times, added transitions manually, then created a AVI file that I burned to a DVD. It took a while, but my wife loved the DVD since it was some of our wedding pictures. I now have Cyberlink Mediashow, but haven't had time to play around with it much.

I know you can do one with ACDSee, it will create an AVI file that you can burn to a DVD, but I've sortof tried that one.

Captain,

Just to fill in the discussion from the other side of the personal computer devide...

I use iMovie and pass it off to iDVD. It works flawlessly for me. But my wife insists on using a PC so I'll put the info gained from this post to good use.

Thanks,

Ed

John, let us know what you think? How long is the trial version for?

I'm very happy to see this topic.

I made DVD slideshows and use Ulead pictureshow. It has all the elements I want and is easy to use. Now that I said that there is one GIGANTIC problem with this product. It crashes. So I now save my slideshows in numerous files. The reason for the numerous files is I was doing a slideshow for our HS football team and for unknown reasons the file because corrupt. So instead of constantly saving my work to one file I save it as a new file each and every time I save.

You can burn onto CD's that play in a DVD player or right to DVD's.

I've been searching for something that has all of the bugs worked out, but haven't found that one perfect program yet. They all tend to have so many issues.

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

That doesn't matter. The whole point of this is to give people something that they can watch easily and as a family or a group. Quality depends, to some extent, on context. The project right now is a series of portraits of my friend's father. He already has high resolution JPEGs. But I think a slideshow, with music, that they can watch on the TV is a really nice thing to add. It's not a replacement for great photos. It's just another medium in which to make use of photos.

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Much of the photography I do is specifically for a DVD slideshow.

No matter what the quality is on screen my slideshows have impacted a lot of people. There is something moving and enticing seeing your photos set to music and telling a story.

Photo John, I'd be more then happy to send you the DVD's I made for our hs football team last year. There are two. The first one has no action shots in it. I had an auditorium full of snivelling snivelling football players and their friends and family when it was shown to them.

What's my point here..... It impacting and nice to have to pop into a DVD player.

I have used Pinnacle's Studio line (current ver 10) to create several slide shows up to 30minutes (hundreds of photos) or longer. It is fairly easy to use and quite powerful for the price. Once complete you can output to a variety of formats (DVD, AVI, MPEG, CD, etc). Studio is really a video editing software package but it works great on stills as well. You can drop photos in, create neat titles and transitions, add soudtracks, pan and zoom stills and add special effects.