DVD Presentation Software

[lehozle]

Just got back form a fantastic vacation with a bunch of old friends where 1000+ pictures were taken. I'd like to make a DVD to capture the event and send it to each of the families and was wondering if anyone could recommend a software package that I can use.

I'm looking for the standard features like:

1. Picture slide shows that allow different transitions.
2. Music that I can fade in and out.
3. Include Small Video files
4. Insert Title Slides to introduce various segments
5. Menu selection at the start to skip to the various "chapters"

Thanks in advance...

[sigma1914]

ProShow Gold is AWESOME! You can do anything imaginable.

[Hansen]

I'll second Pro Show Gold. Extremely powerful program and very flexible. Very easy to work with and can output final product to almost any type of media. It meets all the criteria you set out in your OP.

[lehozle]

Thanks for the feedback I'll check it out!

[Ron Barry]

I use ProShow Professional. I was a ProShow Gold user and went to ProShow Professional about a year back. Being using the software for about 4+ years. Excellent product

I am not a big fan of their upgrade model. Free upgraded for a year... Yes this sounds good on the surface, but if you buy at the end of an update cycle you can run into where you have updated to the latest a year later and get caught where your upgrade runs out and the software you have has not had the bugs worked out. They tend to release software and then it takes about 6 or 7 releases to flush things out and stabalize.

I believe PS SHould do what you are looking for. Couple of words of advice when doing any slide show.

The slide shows I have done use about 100 to 130 slides for an 8 minute show. On that clip 1000 slides would take about an hour. Way to long of a slide show in my opinion.. You might think an hour is fine, but you you do not want to be known as Uncle Slide show. I would try to break things up and keep them around 8 to 10 mintues and keep the overall show less than 30 minutes at Max. Be selective...

On the note.. Less is more.. You will be tempted to throw ever transition that comes with the package.. You will zoom.. You will pan... Resist it. Look at the examples of people on the site. Minimize your transition and use them for effect not because you have them.

Be very aware of motion and minimize it.. You can give your audience motion sickness. I had a friend that created a slide show. I watched about 2 to 3 minutes of it and I was about to throw up. Pictures constantly flying around.. Constant movement... Give you users time to focus on the pictures and enjoy them.

If you have any questions on PG or Pro, Fire away.. Looks like there are a few users here that have the product.

[dmurphy]

Just got back form a fantastic vacation with a bunch of old friends where 1000+ pictures were taken. I'd like to make a DVD to capture the event and send it to each of the families and was wondering if anyone could recommend a software package that I can use.

I'm looking for the standard features like:

1. Picture slide shows that allow different transitions.
2. Music that I can fade in and out.
3. Include Small Video files
4. Insert Title Slides to introduce various segments
5. Menu selection at the start to skip to the various "chapters"

Thanks in advance...

Do you have a PC or a Mac?

If you have a Mac, you can use iDVD (included) to create this.
http://www.apple.com/ilife/idvd

If you have a PC, it sounds like that ProShow program above might be a good option. Other than that, I'm out of ideas ...

[lehozle]

I use a PC but thanks for the info...

[lehozle]

I use ProShow Professional. I was a ProShow Gold user and went to ProShow Professional about a year back. Being using the software for about 4+ years. Excellent product

I am not a big fan of their upgrade model. Free upgraded for a year... Yes this sounds good on the surface, but if you buy at the end of an update cycle you can run into where you have updated to the latest a year later and get caught where your upgrade runs out and the software you have has not had the bugs worked out. They tend to release software and then it takes about 6 or 7 releases to flush things out and stabalize.

I believe PS SHould do what you are looking for. Couple of words of advice when doing any slide show.

The slide shows I have done use about 100 to 130 slides for an 8 minute show. On that clip 1000 slides would take about an hour. Way to long of a slide show in my opinion.. You might think an hour is fine, but you you do not want to be known as Uncle Slide show. I would try to break things up and keep them around 8 to 10 mintues and keep the overall show less than 30 minutes at Max. Be selective...

On the note.. Less is more.. You will be tempted to throw ever transition that comes with the package.. You will zoom.. You will pan... Resist it. Look at the examples of people on the site. Minimize your transition and use them for effect not because you have them.

Be very aware of motion and minimize it.. You can give your audience motion sickness. I had a friend that created a slide show. I watched about 2 to 3 minutes of it and I was about to throw up. Pictures constantly flying around.. Constant movement... Give you users time to focus on the pictures and enjoy them.

If you have any questions on PG or Pro, Fire away.. Looks like there are a few users here that have the product.

Thanks for this excellent advice. I didn't intend on using all the pictures and I'd like to keep the whole project to abut 20 minutes.

Will I have any problems creating title slides to introduce a group of Photos say of "the house" with unique music. and then the people again with unique music, scenes with unique music, etc. And will I be able to fde the music in and out?

Thanks again

[sigma1914]

My Dad used it to document his trip back to Vietnam. (He served there in 69-70 & went back last year to "give closure" & see the country with different eyes.) He made DVD shows for family and also made short versions for Youtube. PM me if anyone's interested in seeing his shows.

[houskamp]

Windows movie maker will do that.. wife just did one..

[Ron Barry]

Actually any Video editing software should be able to allow one to create slide shows. ProShow Gold/Professional is designed specifically for slide shows so to me it is a lot easier to use for that particular purpose.

[Ron Barry]

Thanks for this excellent advice. I didn't intend on using all the pictures and I'd like to keep the whole project to abut 20 minutes.

Will I have any problems creating title slides to introduce a group of Photos say of "the house" with unique music. and then the people again with unique music, scenes with unique music, etc. And will I be able to fde the music in and out?

Thanks again

Yes you can, fade in and out, shorten the length of music. You can actually adjust slide transition times so that the slide matches the length of song.

You can do titling of slides and add multiple pictures on a slide with each picture being able to transition. This allows doing things like having a picture on one side of the slide fade in, Move to the, right and then fade out and have another fade in in its place.

Lot of functionality and power and it can be cumbersome at times so there are some extra stuff you can buy to make things easier. Templates for example.

[Cholly]

There are many other programs that will do the job. If you have either Roxio Easy Media Creator or Nero, they both have facilities for doing what you want.