All, I have Nero 6 Ultra Edition, Photo Album 4, and ULEAD Video Studio 8 software. I would like to start burning pictures taken with my digital camera and home movies taken by my digital camcorder to DVD discs. The Photo Album 4 manual talks about creating a slideshow and then burning a VCD from my pictures and I believe the Nero and ULEAD do the same thing. I do want to add background music to the slideshow and have the highest quality image possible but I don't know if this is acheivable with VCD. As far as the home movies go I need to choose between using Nero or ULEAD but I don't quite know which NERO program to do a comparison. I did read post somewhere in the forum that NERO may not be the application of choice for burning home videos but I don't recall why that statement was made. Any post in helping me choice the right program(even if there are free software that do a much better job than the ones I listed) or pointing me towards the appropriate guides would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
This is just an opinion on software to use. I have made a great slide show to music with a program called MemoriesonTV (http://www.picturetotv.com/) You can use pictures or video. It looks great on TV and the VCD quality is very good. It looks great on a 50" screen. They have a lot of transition effects and you can control when each pic comes in and how long the transition lasts. You might wanna check that out. Its very easy to do so you wont need a guide to figure it out..
Sorry, but I am not looking to purchase any new software. The 3 programs that I already have can create slideshows and burn to VCD. I am seeking advice on which one yields the highest quality video, or whether there are freeware software that do a better job.
Hi bigdm, I use NeroVision Express to do slideshows with. I don't care for the menus but other than that it seems to work just fine. I like the transitions and text effects better than the Ulead program. but maybe that has gotten better since I last used it. I have done some camcorder stuff with both programs and like Nero better. For more serious work I use Premiere Pro but that is overkill for most folks. Nero is one of the most widely used programs available so we get a lot of Nero questions here. I find it to be easy to use and has lots of other features. I have not burned any VCDs so I can't say much about quality. If it is an issue, then consider getting a DVD burner at some point. Does seem a bit of a waste to put a small slideshow onto a DVD, maybe using only 10% of it's capacity. Nero does have some tutorials here: http://nero.com/us/631956523192996.html I'm working on couple of guides at my website so you can take a look there as well. Cheers, Frank
FasFrank, thanks for the reply. How long has it been since you used ULEAD? Nero now has this program called Photoshow Express. Have you used that? In the slideshows you created did you add sound. I head that when adding sound you need to be carefully on the selection of speed or frequency becasue there is a difference between CDs and DVDs. I don't know if this is true or not. I was thinking about burning the slideshows to a DVD +RW disc and adding menus so that I could chose between multiple slideshows and maximize the space on a DVD disc. If there is a guide out there to help me acheive this that would be perfect. Bigdm
Hi again bigdm, It must have been awhile since I don't have the Ulead even installed anymore! I usually put two or three slideshows on one DVD, Ilike having a menu so I can select each one. Sometimes I will add a video clip or two as well. What I do is make the slideshows first, I end up with a few folders, each containing a slideshow. The next step is to open NVE again, this time selecting make a DVD Movie. I find the folders and just drag the contents into the timeline. I also add any video clips at this time. Next, I add a transition between each slideshow and use the text editor to add text for intros and anything else I want some on-screen test for. I then make a menu, each slideshow and video clip becoming a chapter in the movie. I don't spend much effort on adding audio, other than trying to get the duration of the slideshow to match the duration of the audio. NVE is a bit sloppy so what you see in the preview may not be what you actually get. I like to use a R/W disc to tune the thing up so it looks and sounds right on TV. To get my audio I use Nero once again to rip a track off a CD. I save it as a .wav file with a sample rate of 48 kHz, rather than the 44.1 rate that is on the CD. I add the audio during the creation of the slideshow, however there is no reason you couldn't add it during the creation of the compilation. A couple of more things. I don't add a menu to the individual slideshows. I imagine you could but where are you going to put the chapter points at. I learned to do this and practiced with just two images. That way you can try all the features, figure out where all the buttons and settings are and screw it all up in just a few minutes rather than trying to get dozens of images in the first time out, spending hours on it and then having something go wrong. For me it wrks really well and after doing lots of these projects, it gets really easy. My guide at my site for making an "insert disc 2" clip is pretty much what you are trying to do. If you do take a look at my guide, let me know if it works for you. You can e-mail me from my site if you have any feedback. I'd like to hear from you. Cheers, Frank
Frank, It sounds like the instructions you gave is exactly what I am tring to do. I need to do a few more reading before I give it a twirl. I will let you know how it goes.
