VSO needs feed back on PhotoDVD

[claire]

Hello, How to add Voice narration to your Slideshow with PhotoDVD: a guide is coming shortly(now added to this thread see messages below), needs 3rd party freeware though.

[claire]

What you need: --PhotoDVD to create slideshow http://www.vso-software.fr/products/Photodvd/photodvd.php (download and install) --Pocket Voice Recorder to record voice http://www.xemico.com/pvr/ (download and install) --A microphone. 1) Add photos to PhotoDVD

[claire]

2) Click on next add music if you want voice narration to play with back ground music.

[claire]

3) Open Pocket Voice Recorder. 4) In PhotoDVD click on “Preview” button (see figure 2) and immediately click on record in Pocket Voice Recorder (see figure 3). 5) As you watch your pictures go by in the Preview (VSO Photo Player) speak into microphone. Press stop (the gray square button in figure 3) to stop recording. If your slideshow is longer than 10 minutes you will need to record several WAV files that will played one right after another. 6) To listen to your narration in Pocket Voice Recorder, hold down the ‘ctrl’ key and click on the green arrow. If you like the narration you have just finished, save this audio file by clicking the “Set” button and select “Export message to WAV”. By default these WAV files will be saved to C:\ Documents and Settings \ your user name \ Local Settings \ Application Data \ XemiComputers \ Pocket Voice Recorder 7) In PhotoDVD in the window “Audio” add the audio (WAV) file you have just made with Pocket Voice Recoder (figure 2). 8 ) Press “Preview” in PhotoDVD to make see what the final result of your slideshow will look like. 9) To finish slideshow click on “Next” select the Output and click on “Next”.

[sgc]

Thanks Claire, Just what I was looking for regards

[PiPEÑO]

1) What is the average amount of pictures you put onto a slideshow? 20. 2) What is the largest amount of pictures you have ever made into a DVD slideshow? 60. 3) Is the interface easy to use and understand? Yes, very easy. 4) Is the interface logical? I think the buttons should be above the image list. 5) Do you enjoy the effects of hot spot? Haven't made use of it? or don't know what it is 6) What options are missing in PhotoDVD? It lacks of effects really, but most importantly, an Export MPEG2 option would be very very appreciated. And hopefully with subtitles added on the video (not as a separate file of course).

[Cougar_II]

[PiPEÑO]

Yes, but I'd like to start using it mainly to add Photo Galleries to my Video DVDs... That's why I'd like an Export to MPEG-2 function, it'd suit all my needs

[IanG]

[emschmidt]

Hi! First of all, I'd like to tell you that I enjoy your product quite a bit! The average amount of pictures I use in a slideshow is typically about 100-250 pictures. I'm the "techie" for my extended family, so I tend to take everyone's pictures and combine them into one slideshow. Now, the most photos I've ever used to make a slideshow is just a tad over 1,200 (8 teenage girls, 8 digital cameras, 5 days at Disney/MGM/EPCOT/etc. - go figure!). Feature request: chapters, please! As you can see from my reply, I use a lot of pictures, and it would be nice to provide more options for viewing only selected groups of pictures from the same slideshow.

[Cougar_II]

[ckhouston]

PhotoDVD could allow user selectable chapter points or menu capabilities so we could group our pictures and access a group quickly. But it might be better to leave those capabilities in the hands of a separate authoring program designed for those functions.

For example, we could use PhotoDVD to output video to the hard drive for the first group, then the second, and so on. Then those separate videos can be input to an authoring program such as ConvertXtoDVD to set up selectable menu items and burn a DVD. We can do this now.

The primary job for PhotoDVD is to take motionless images and transform them into a video capable of showing motion. The pan and zoom feature along with the "hot spot' capability and transitions provide some motion. I would like to see this capability increased before concentrating on authoring features.

For example, I have a program that allows specifying any number of "hot spots" at selectable times during the duration that an image is displayed. The frame size (the portion of the original to be displayed) is also selectable at each "hot spot", thereby controlling and varying zoom between "hot spots".

The resulting motion created by this is very interesting. It can take a still image and give a very good impression that the resulting video came from actually panning and zooming several times with a video camera. Except, of course, subjects in the image don't move and the panning and zooming is much smoother than can be done with a handeld video cam.

[claire]

Hello,

Added not so long ago to PhotoDVD was the possibility to set chapter points, so you can acess a group of photos quickly.

To use the custom chapter points go into the settings, un check automatic chapters, and a now go back to the page where you have your photos added to your project. Right click on a photo and you should have possibility to insert a chapter. (Chapter points are placed in between transitions points between two photos).

Menus are still in the planning, but as mentionned above creating the videos first and then using some 3rd party authoring tool (or ConvertXtoDVD) is the best way to get multiple slideshows with a menu onto one DVD.

(Nice to see you around ckhouston )

[ckhouston]

Thanks for the tip on setting chapter points Claire.

I experienced some quirkiness in setting them, nothing repeatable. For example I set a point but the chapter icon didn't display beside the image thumbnail. Right clicking on the thumbnail again only showed an option to remove the chapter point so I assumed all was well. But, since I didn't have a similar problem setting other points, I went back and right clicked on the thumbnail where a chapter icon wasn't displayed. The menu showed an option this time to add a chapter point, and an icon was displayed when I chose to add it a second time.

The finished product played great on my set top player, not so well on PC players though. All of them chirped (audio track added) when skipping to the next chapter. All but Power DVD hung when advanced to a short 3 image 45 sec chapter. And NeroShowtime stretched the display to 16:9 aspect instead of 4:3.

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