Multimedia forum: Turning pictures into slideshows/movies with music.

This question has come up in the past and the majority of the posters listed:

ProShow Gold

http://www.photodex.com

You can download a free trial version.

It is the best slideshow program that I have ever used. Well worth the price.

You can use the Ken Burns feature to pan or zoom on a photo and you have total control of audio/music.

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There is a free program from Microsoft called Windows Movie Maker. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/getstarted/default.mspx
You can make the absolute best DVD slide shows with music & transitions. It is an awesome program.
You need to have DVD capapabilites on your System and if you do, you will be making wonderful DVD's in no time. It is sooooo simple to do ... I can't say enough about it ... and it's free ! Good luck and post again if you need any help with it .....

Strangely enough, I had never made use of Movie Maker, despite its inclusion by default into Windows XP. I have experienced very pleasant results from Microsoft Photo Story 3, though. Here's a review, and exhaustive written story of Photo Story:

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/photostory3.asp

His download referral wasn't hyperlinked--here it is, for convenience:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

This program helps you assemble a pretty attractive slideshow for CD (haven't tried writing one to DVD yet). It includes some basic photoediting functions, and a wizard interface--ideal for quick creation or users with limited technical expertise.

You see comments to use ProShow Gold from PhotoDex.com Try the demo.

Bob

I would also recommend Photo2DVD for making dvd slideshows. Very easy to use, and I think that should meets your requirements.

Want to add music that stops with the slide show Pro Show Gold works better than most other programs here. You can also do higher screen resolution than most other programs do.

I have had good success with U-Lead CD&DVD Picture Show 3. It was easy for me to use and burn to a DVD, copy and send to our 4 children to play on any DVD player through their TV.
I needed more than the 300 photo limit with the Microsoft free program and I did not want to be limited to their proprietary program in order to play back.
I can't comment on the Pro Show Gold as I am not aware of it's limitations or features.

If you plan to use Windows Movie Maker and/or Photo Shop 3 you will have to buy third party software to create a DVD that can be seen on a TV. I know, since I made several slideshows with Movie Maker and was dissapointed when I found out that they could only be viewed on the computer. I had a lot of old movies and photos that I wanted to save to DVD to be seen on TV, so I invested some money in Pinnacle Studio Plus and a capture card for my computer (to capture the movies). I have created awesome slideshows and movies with music, sound effects, and video effects. I have also mixed photos with videos in the same presentation. It may not be free, but if you plan on doing a lot of projects, and you want versatility, it may be one way to go.

I agree that Windows Movie Maker provides a basic (and free) way to make a simple slide show. I believe it creates it as a WMV file, which can be viewed on a computer or, as you say, put on DVD using another DVD authoring program. ProShow Gold 2.5 gives you more control over the show and its audio, provides motion effects for slides, allows you to create a DVD directly from ProShow, and has a variety of other output options (including an .EXE file/autorun CD that will play on any computer). Other software (such as Adobe Photoshop Elements) may include slideshow software as a "bonus." Even my Sony digital camera came with a basic slideshow program. In most of these cases, the slideshow capabilities are very basic (although it's hard to argue with "free"!). If delving into creating slideshows revs up creative juices beyond the limits of these basic shows, the user will get more satisfaction by moving to a full-featured slide show program.

I am the 'semi-official' team photographer for my daughter's varsity basketball team. At the end of the season, I was asked to put together a video slideshow with music of the photos I'd taken over the year.
After checking out several programs, I chose 'Memories To TV' (http://www.codejam.com/motv.htm) to create the slideshow.
At a minimum, there are several programs ranging from freeware on up that will let you put together a string of images with a sound file playing in the background. What I like about 'Memories' is the variety of slide transitions you can use. 'Memories' was unique when I bought it in that it offered what they call 'Ken Burns' panning on images. Burns is a documentary film producer who would 'pan' across still pictures to make the presentation more interesting. 'Memories' lets you do the same panning, and adds the ability to pan and zoom on a particular slide. Once the show and music are done, you can burn a DVD in either PAL or NTSC, or even a VCD (Video CD) that will play on PCs and some home theater DVD players.
For the audio background, I used the free program 'Audacity' (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) to edit the sound files into shorter clips that fit the sequence of images. Audacity lets you do a 'fade-in, fade-out' on the ends of the sound clips you create, eliminating the jarring effect of just cutting from one song to another in mid-tune. Because the audio track and slides are on a timeline view, it's easy to synchronize the sounds with the visuals.
If I have any beef with 'Memories' it's that it's too tempting to use lots of different slide transitions, and the transitions overpower the images themselves. The variety of transitions is so 'gee-whiz' that you want to use them all in every show. Experiment if you want, but you'll find that the same two or three transitions repeated throughout your slideshow will be the most visually pleasing.

Try Pictures to exe at www.wnsoft.com its a shareware that allows you to make an executable slide show with lots of options including adding your own music. The resulting slide show will play on any computer..But not on a cd player.

After trying many programs for presenting a slide show, I have settled on one called "MemoriesOnTV". It is very simple to use. You can drag and drop your pictures and music and run a preview in a few minutes. Try it you will like it.

www.swishzpix.com ... lets you create flash slideshows from your images and can add soundtracks, speach bubbles, etc etc etc.

I have tried just about all of the programs available at one time or another and Pinnacle is my program of choice. I am currently working on several Travel Documentary projects with mixed media, titles, video, stills, music, overlays, ect. This program is easy to learn, easy to use, and has good documentation.

I can highly recommend this program as others have with the ability to burn to DVD or CD and I always burn to CD as SVCD because it's better quality than SVD.

I have tried and failed with other programs to get my digital photos on TV but this one worked straight away with a nice clean screen and can be tweaked to your liking.

Does anyone know of a good in depth guide for this program to get professional results and how to streamline each project?? I'm sure this would help JPCODY4 and many others. You could also post your own guide here so we have some different approaches. Thanks!