I need to make a slideshow playable in a DVD player

Organichu

Hey, guys. I need to make a slideshow that will, hopefully, autoplay in the average DVD player. I made a slideshow in WMM and burned it to a CD-R and it will play fine on a computer... but isn't recognized by either of the two DVD players on which I've tried it. I figure I need to:

a.) use a program that will burn a DVD-player friendly slideshow, and

b.) maybe use a DVD-R?

Any one know of some free programs that will allow me to do this? Oh, and the actual slideshow itself definitely isn't a big deal- just a few dozen pictures, one song, and maybe some simple transitions with a title overlay.

Halp!

Crashtard

It really depends on the dvd player brand, because every one is different. If you know what brand it is you can look up what types of cd/dvd/files that it supports and burn your files accordingly.

ApexMirage

A potentially easier solution depending on your intended application would be to simply create a video of the slideshow and burn that instead. You get the audio and the image you want, with whatever transitions and overlays you please. If you need to browse through the images, you can just split the larger video into chapters, as if it were an actual movie.

Organichu

Crashtard wrote: »

It really depends on the dvd player brand, because every one is different. If you know what brand it is you can look up what types of cd/dvd/files that it supports and burn your files accordingly.

I honestly don't know what players it'll be used on. My sister wants to give it to several of her female friends, her aunts, etc. for Mother's Day... it'll be a myriad of players. Is there a solution that will work on 'most'?

Organichu

ApexMirage wrote: »

A potentially easier solution depending on your intended application would be to simply create a video of the slideshow and burn that instead. You get the audio and the image you want, with whatever transitions and overlays you please. If you need to browse through the images, you can just split the larger video into chapters, as if it were an actual movie.

That's actually a great idea. Would I make the slideshow, and then use a video capturing program as it plays? Any suggestions for that?

ApexMirage

Uhh fraps? There was a topic about screen capture a few pages back, look for that.

ben0207

Can you find somebody with a Mac and use their iDVD? Even my grandma could do this with her eyes closed, and the results will kick the crap out of the awkward kludges people are suggesting.

shutz

Before you run out and buy a Mac, you really should try all the basics:

Have you tried to google "DVD slideshow"? I mean, that's the first thing you should have done! There's a bunch of viable (but not free) solutions right there on the first page!

Check out www.videohelp.com, you'll find links to software that should help you do what you want.

Also check out all the CD/DVD burning software you have installed: a lot of those actually have the functionality you're asking for, built-in!

If not, use any video-editing software you have, but when you render the results, either render as MPEG-2 at 720x480 (I'm assuming you're in North America, here) or as NTSC DV, which will give you an AVI file that your DVD burning software should be able to use (but it will take a while to re-encode the video before burning.)

Just forget about the screen capture method: all you'll get is a choppy mess of a video, and you'll still have to convert it to the right format afterwards.

By the way, more and more DVD players these days can display JPEGs directly from a DVD Data disc (meaning, not burned as a DVD Video) If you set up the files with short, easy-to-read filenames and group sets by folders, navigation should be pretty easy.

FyreWulff

Organichu wrote: »

ApexMirage wrote: »

A potentially easier solution depending on your intended application would be to simply create a video of the slideshow and burn that instead. You get the audio and the image you want, with whatever transitions and overlays you please. If you need to browse through the images, you can just split the larger video into chapters, as if it were an actual movie.

That's actually a great idea. Would I make the slideshow, and then use a video capturing program as it plays? Any suggestions for that?

I know for a fact that you can drop pictures into Windows Movie Maker and make a video out of them, so you could start there, and then import the video into a DVD authoring program.

Organichu

Thanks a lot, all. I'll report back with results.

FyreWulff

Oh, for some reason I didn't notice that you said you burned it to a CD-R in the OP. Unless the player supports that specifically, they'll all expect a CD to be music or a Kodak-format picture CD.