Photo slide show with music

[AACJ]

Since we just took a nice long cruise to New England/Canada and took some 250 digital photos, I thought it would a nice suprise for my wife if I could make a slide show on a DVD and add some music to set the tone for the different photos. I want to play this on our DVD/VCR player.

We have a Kodak camera and the program that comes with it, along with HP Photosmart from our printer, but I didn't see any kind of slideshow feature that I could use.

Any suggestions on a nice program to use?

[Ltltony]

Windows Movie Maker would work fine.

[Gunnar]

I'm not sure about the music, but nearly every DVD player will display JPEG pictures if they are on a CD. If you are doing it this way burn 5 to 10 pictures first on a CD-RW so you can try out your DVD player. Don't place the files in a folder on the disc. You might need to go into the menu of the DVD player in order to alter the time that each picture is displayed on the screen.

Do you edit your pictures at all? By that I mean alter colour balence, contrast etc.?

[AACJ]

Haven't edited, yet. I wanted to go with an introduction screen showing the dates and where we cruised from, etc. So just plugging them on a DVD will not work, I want it to look more refined and "professional" than just inserting a DVD into the player and watching the pics go by, I want to customize it.

[Bowcephalus]

I did this with a bunch of old family photos and set to Paul Anka's "Times of Your Life" (the Kodak song)....When Dad watched it the first time tears welled up in his eyes.That song works every time with family photos across a span of time. For a title page I just used a sunset with "The Times of Your Life...."across the top in script....I made up several different versions for different in-laws and such........

[AACJ]

What software did you use though?



I did this with a bunch of old family photos and set to Paul Anka's "Times of Your Life" (the Kodak song)....When Dad watched it the first time tears welled up in his eyes.That song works every time with family photos across a span of time. For a title page I just used a sunset with "The Times of Your Life...."across the top in script....I made up several different versions for different in-laws and such........

[Ltltony]

Haven't edited, yet. I wanted to go with an introduction screen showing the dates and where we cruised from, etc. So just plugging them on a DVD will not work, I want it to look more refined and "professional" than just inserting a DVD into the player and watching the pics go by, I want to customize it.

Movie Maker will do all of this very well and is pretty simple.
If you want higher end software I would go with Pinnacle Studio
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Home+Video/Studio+Family/

[AACJ]

The Microsoft website says it comes with all new XP's, I don't recall seeing it anywhere, although I am not home right now....but I suppose I will have to look when I get back. I was actually looking for something "inexpensive" if not free.

thanks!

[Ltltony]

The Microsoft website says it comes with all new XP's, I don't recall seeing it anywhere, although I am not home right now....but I suppose I will have to look when I get back. I was actually looking for something "inexpensive" if not free.

thanks!

If you have sp2 I'm sure you have it. If not you can download it with update.
If you are looking for free it will more than do the job. I didn't have pinnacle loaded on my machine at the time and used movie maker for my wedding slide show. It turned out really nice.

[Bowcephalus]

I used Sonic, very simple, fast. I'm sure what Ltltony suggests will work as well.....

[PedroNavaja]

I just finished doing something like that, using MS Movie Maker.
I ripped the music I wanted using MS Media Player to convert the file to .wma
Then I imported the pictures and the music file into Movie maker.
Then I added a couple of text begining and ending slides.
Finally you let Movie Maker do its thing and burn the DVD
Piece of cake

[PedroNavaja]

If you have MS Windows XP SP2 and don't have Movie Maker you may be able to install it from the Original XP disk, you'll have to double check on this

Edit: You'll find how to get Movie Maker here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx

[papasmurf]

Art give Nero a shot I use it all the time it is very good and easy to use and sync music to .

[AACJ]

I DO have Movie Maker on my computer, I have been importing all kinds of music to go along with the photos. It looks pretty easy!

[R-James]

Movie maker is a good simple choice yes, I have used it in the past with good results. At the moment I use the olympus softare that came with my camera and that too works good

[AACJ]

Okay, I uploaded my photos, made some titles. Now, does anyone have any songs that I can use? I am looking specifically for:

The Cheers Theme Song: "Where everyone knows your name"

and

That song from Dirty Dancing "I've had the time of my life"

I used a bunch of other songs but since we visited Cheers, I thought I'd add that that tune, and my wifes favorite movie is Dirty Dancing.

Also, when I play the slideshow on my computer, the pictures aren't that clear as if I opened them with my picture viewer, do the pics show better on a TV?

[AACJ]

I got the Dirty Dancing song.....Thanks Richie!

[thirdeye]

How about Crosby,Stills, and Nash......"Southern Cross".....or "Wooden Ships"?

[AACJ]

I actually used Enya - Only Time for the natural and nice romantic photos and B-52's - Love Shack for our cabin. The rest is Dirty Dancing and Cheers. It's only about 20 minutes long total. A couple of fog horns tossed in there for good measure too.

[thirdeye]

I actually used Enya - Only Time for the natural and nice romantic photos and B-52's - Love Shack for our cabin. The rest is Dirty Dancing and Cheers. It's only about 20 minutes long total. A couple of fog horns tossed in there for good measure too.

Enya is a good choice....and the fog horns...that's a fine touch..

[papasmurf]

YOu need to add some of this to thew end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU&feature=related


I am sure she will love it

[thirdeye]

YOu need to add some of this to thew end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU&feature=related


I am sure she will love it

Boy Nick, you didn't strike me as such a romantic type of fellow...:biggrin:

[AACJ]

Rays been Rick Rolled.

[thirdeye]

Rays been Rick Rolled.

:lol::lol::lol:....hmmmmmm!!!!

[AACJ]

Alright guys, I made it, it works on my computer but doesn't work on either of my DVD players. I created the CD by clicking on "Save to CD".

Any thoughts?

[PedroNavaja]

For it to play in you DVD player it has to be burned to a blank DVD using a DVD burner and probably the format has to be NTSC

[Ltltony]

Alright guys, I made it, it works on my computer but doesn't work on either of my DVD players. I created the CD by clicking on "Save to CD".

Any thoughts?

Does you dvd player play .WMV files?
If it doesn't and and you want to play it from a cd you will probably have to convert it. Most DVDs can play mpeg-1 or mpeg-2 video which is the format for VCDs. You may have to save the file and convert it using something like:
http://www.infopackets.com/channels/en/windows/gazette/2004/20041012_movie_shrink_and_burn_v2.htm

and then burn it to a VCD using your favorite burning software.

I will have to double check this when I get home. It's possible that moviemaker will do the conversion for you but I'm not sure.
I will get back to you as soon as I can

[Aevum]

you could always get a wii, does it automaticly,

[Ltltony]

It doesn't look like movie maker will make mpeg-1 or mpeg-2 files.

So you either need to burn to a dvd or save it to disk and convert it.

[St.Nick]

Download Microsoft Photo Story 3 its free if you have legit xp. You can burn Dvds from it also

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=92755126-a008-49b3-b3f4-6f33852af9c1&DisplayLang=en

[AACJ]

I'm having my brother in law who does have a dvd burner, burn the dvd for me. He knows what he is doing, he works in IT.