VSO needs feed back on PhotoDVD

[claire]

Hello, Here at VSO Software, in order to improve our software, we need some feed back on those of you who own or have tried a trial version of our software. The most important question for our programmer at the momment is: 1) What is the average amount of pictures you put onto a slideshow ? and 2) What is the largest amount of pictures you have ever made into a DVD slideshow? otherwise 3) Is the interface easy to use and understand? 4) Is the interface logical? 5) Do you enjoy the effects of hot spot? 6) What options are missing in PhotoDVD? Otherwise please feel free to give any additional comments and or suggestions. Thank you for your time, The VSO Team

[Jan Paul]

Hi, 1. About 50-100 pictures. 2. About 500 pictures. 3. Yes, very easy to use. 4. Yes. 5. Can't find this function. I've seen it on the new features list, what does it do? 5. Manual index. I would like to have an option to put an index in the slideshow. Now it does an automatic index every minute. There should be an option to do this manually. Also a small helpfile would be nice (see the Hot Point). It is a very easy to handle software and does what it supposed to do. Regards, Jan Paul

[claire]

Hi, And thank you very much for your answers to our questions, I will not comment on them for the moment, but they will be passed on to the developer who will be very happy to recieve more information. For now, I simply wanted to explain the "hot spots" function. On the interface of PhotoDVD there is a sort of magnifying glass on the bottom left end of the screen. (This is only on the last version of PhotoDVD). Click on this icon and another window will pop up with a picture in it. With the mouse click on an area of the picture you would like the screen shot to zoom into. (This is a subtle zoom that will add a sort of focal point in the picture.) Then go to the bottom of this new window click on the arrow to go forward or backwards in the slideshow to continue applying hot spots to your pictures. (Trick: in order to avoid constantly going back in forth with the mouse between placing the hot spot within the picutre and then having to have to go back down to the arrow to move onto the next picture, you can place hot spot and double click in the same spot and the next picture will appear----without having to use the arrow icon.) Thank you again , Claire P.S. If those who read this forum have the same relpies as Jan Paul please express that too, and if you have a different opinion, we would love for you to share it with us. Thanks in advance.

[upton66]

Can I write again what I wrote in November: Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 2:33 pm Post subject: Couple of Suggestions -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have tried several "burn slideshow to DVD" type programs and this one is by far the quickest and easiest and displays the best quality images on my TV via a Bose DVD player. So I am thinking of buying, but have a couple of suggestions: Whilst being able to burn thousands of photos onto the DVD is great, it would be good to be able to break them into "Chapters" so you could use the remote control to jump to a particular set of photos. However you pre-sort your photos in a folder on your pc when you import them into the program they default back to alphabetic order. Personally I would prefer to view them in date taken order. Would this be possible? My only alternative appears to be to rename every photo with a numeric digit before the file name to ensure they are viewed in my preferred order. On the lines of the previous comment, if this is my only option then I should like to be able to use the DVD remote control to jump to a specific image number. From the forum I see that the next version may allow you to remove the pan and zoom option. This gives a very professional and pleasing effect but does cause a rippling effect on the TV, which can spoil an otherwise almost perfect image. I appreciate a TV display cannot match a quality pc monitor for quality.

[Jan Paul]

Oh no: do not remove the pan-and-zoom functionality! Thats one thing I really love about PhotoDVD!! Jan Paul

[claire]

Hello to upton66 and Jan Paul, Jan Paul: The Pan Zoom function will not be removed from the program---no worries, and thanks for your concern Upton66: "pan and zoom option. This gives a very professional and pleasing effect but does cause a rippling effect on the TV, which can spoil an otherwise almost perfect image." There was an error in previous versions that caused the rippling effect. This has been fixed in the newer versions. The Pan zoom affect and also be eliminate or reduced in the program by going to Settings and then imaging. Thank you both for all your comments, ane we are alawys all ears for more, Claire

[IanG]

I've only been using PhotoDVD for a couple of hours, so these are very much first impressions! 1) I don't know yet, but if there's no ability to create chapters I'd have thought 50-100 2) 100 - still on the trial version 3) Yes 4) Yes, though I'd prefer it if the "add files" select menus defaulted to the last selected folder rather than going to "My Pictures" and "My Music" every time. 5) Haven't tried it yet 6) Chapters - I can't imagine putting 100s of images on a DVD without them. I'd like to see a few enhancements to the audio too; gapless changes, the ability to set the length of time that each piece of music should play* and a "next slide" hot key so that slide changes can be synched to the music. * even better would be some sort of dummy picture to flag the change to the next music file Ian G.

[JohnT]

An excellent piece of software. However with a large number of photos I would like to be able to split them into chapters. You say in your guide that you can export to a file and then use an external DVD burner. I have used DVDPlus to create a menu system and then tried to import the slideshows from PhotoDVD. However I am unable to carry over the subtitles even when trying the packages VobSub and VirtualDub to generate Avi files and the associated .idx and .sub. With large numbers of photos it is essential for me to be able to use the subtitle with the photos. Is there any hope for a future version with chapter provision. Alternatively can you suggest any other method of using an authoring and burning package with files exported from PhotoDVD.

[claire]

Thank you very much for your input. PhotoDVD is a work in progress, and more options are coming soon.

[tchase]

Here at VSO Software, in order to improve our software, we need some feed back on those of you who own or have tried a trial version of our software. The most important question for our programmer at the momment is: 1) What is the average amount of pictures you put onto a slideshow ? 200 2) [b]What is the largest amount of pictures you have ever made into a DVD slideshow 260 3) Is the interface easy to use and understand? Mostly yes. 4) Is the interface logical? Yes 5) Do you enjoy the effects of hot spot? Yes 6) What options are missing in PhotoDVD? 1. The ability to add text directly to photos rather than as subtitles. 2. The ability to import AAC audio files directly from iTunes. 3. The ability to control music fade in/out. Overall a very nice program for the price.

[lapinou]

6) What options are missing in PhotoDVD? 1. The ability to add text directly to photos rather than as subtitles. 2. The ability to import AAC audio files directly from iTunes. 3. The ability to control music fade in/out. 1 ) what is the purpose to make them directly in the photos ? 2 ) aac is not DRM protected ? 3 ) yes planned in a later version

[mike47]

You really need to have a function to build a title page to identify the show. Also, is there a command to time the photos to the music?

[claire]

Hello, Menus will be an option in a future version of PhotoDVD. And for music and photos to synchronized as you would like, there is not real precise way to do this but you do have two ways to check your their match up. Play your slideshow using the preview button to see what the show looks and hears like before compiling, (see version 2.2.1.4 and above) or on second window of application ("audio") notice io bottom right hand have of screen a bar that tells you the slideshow length compared to the audio length.

[sgc]

6) What options are missing in PhotoDVD? 1. The ability to place descriptive text messages on final DVD Slideshow 2. Ability to input microphone audio as oppossed to selecting an audio file such that you can provide a brief audio commentary on each slide which comes up, then save all to the DVD slideshow regards

[IanG]

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