SUGGESTED SLIDE SHOW SOFTWARE With Dissolves

[GHO64]

Please help (New Person with very little knowledge of slide show presentation) with suggested Slide Show Software that is simple & easy to assemble & record to CD & has many of the following features:

1..... Wide Variety Of Available Slide Dissolves,
2..... Variable time that each slide is presented on screen,
3..... Callout Shapes for adding text,
4..... Add Music with options to Change Tunes without the usual two (2) second lag time
5..... Instant Autorun From CD without long period of "Black Screen" while presentation is downloads.

Thank You in advance for your suggestions & any other useful advise for a Slide Show Newbie.

gho64

[Phil Hall]

You might have a look at www.photodex.com. It has a variety of dissolves and adds music. It will also write autoplay CD's for both computers and DVD players.


Phil Hall
Santa Ynez, CA

[toglenn]

I'm no expert on slide shows but many of the things you are looking for are offered in the PhotoRelay program that is part of Roxio's Easy Creator Cd program.

I've used this program for sending slides to friends and it runs on most every computer with all kinds of slide changing effects.

Cheers,

[aholman]

I have spent many hours looking at programs with these exact features. Currently I use Slide Show to Go which is very easy to use and also inexpensive. It can be found at http://www.nightwatchsoftware.com/sstg/sstg.htm. If you combine it with the easy tagging and gallery feature of Thumbsplus, slide shows are very easy to construct and execute.

[Vegas Poboy]

It seems you want the availability to go high end with everything your asking. You might already have something on your PC and don't realize it. Things to think about is what format are you going to use, DVD or CDR most of the time your hardware comes with a software program. Look at the following.
Adobe Elements 2
Windows Movie Maker II
Proshow
Ulead & Sonic has many products
Last but not least if you have the $$$$ Adobe Premiere and this can picked up cheaper if you know of a school student.
Most MAC users I know use Imovie or Final Cut
Yes some of these programs are for movies but works just as well for stills.
I've personally do most of mine in Premiere due to I use photoshop and it mixes in well when I add video.
Another rule of thumb is that your slide shows should not last more than twenty minutes and too many transitions can bother most people eyes.
You can also try searching these websites. Main thing research so you don't end up like me with more software than you need.

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/author
http://www.computervideo.net/

Good Luck,

[GHO64]

Hi Phil, Toglenn, Andy & Vegas,

THANK YOU ALL for the great suggestions, I am sure that I will find exactly what I need from your educated suggestions. Best Regards.

Hersul (gho64)

[billfranklin]

I have tried several of the best slide shows. The one that is easy to use and does all the things you require is ProShow from photodex. It is a great tool.

Bill F.

[GHO64]

Hi Bill F.,

Thank You for your suggestion. ProShow was also highly recommended by another reply. However, I cannot open it on my Windows XP Pro operating system. Any ideas, Have a great evening.

Hersul (gho64)

[RGorrill]

Hi,

I discovered Pictures to EXE and have found it to be an excellent program at a reasonable price. It does a multitude of dissolves, can handle background music and narration, allows for variable timings on each individual slide if desired, and puts it all together into an executable file that is self-running on any PC.

You can even set it up to run continuously until the Escape key is hit instead of a single run through. You can find it at:

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/

I tried it by downloading the demo file which simply needs the unlocking key to make it a full-fledged program on your system.

Bob

[horqua]

Just tried ProSHow Gold from PhotoDex. Great product! It took me about three hours to work thru the learning curve and complete a 75 slide show with titles, music, and transitions. I'm really pleased with the results. More time spent on the show will yield more enhancements and fine tuning.

here's a link: http://www.photodex.com/products/proshow/index.html

[morenoar]

I have only used Power Point for my slides (presentations).

[jd_D60]

Go for Adobe Photoshop Album (for around £30) ts great (it also does DVDs)

[WyzMan]

Have a nosey at Pinnacle Studio V8.
Get the software and then dowload the latest patch as there were one or two bugs in the early versions.
I have put together DVDs, SVCDs and VCDs with this product which allows scrolling titles, a stack of different transitions. Music tracks can be added and edited. In my view a top product.

[boBquincy]

I run ProShow on my XP system. I had trouble downloading it and had to temporarily disable my firewall.

A dedicated slide show program may allow larger pictures than a video program (limited to 720x480 afaik). I have made slide shows in Adobe Premiere and they work well but I wanted a larger image.

ProShow uses a lot of resources from the PC, especially if you use fast dissolves and large images. A show with 0.1 second dissolves would not run smoothly on much under a 2 GHz system with a good video card.

Anyway, I have looked at a number of slide shows and tried a few, I liked ProShow best (and purchased it).


boB

[excessnoise]

I second ProShow Gold from PhotoDex! I've used Adobe's slideshow and Studio 8. Studio 8 is really good but takes too long for me. Its main emphasis is video editing. Adobe (included in Photo Album) is the easiest but very basic. Can only have one song...it just repeats, over and over again. Also limited to I believe 99 slides. ProShow is quick but has multitude of transitions, not limited in slides or music.
I love it and so do others who view the slideshows. Most say they like them better than video.

PS: it runs fine on my XP

[PSChia]

Do try out MemoriesOnTV 2.0 at:
http://www.picturetotv.com/index.htm?

Lots of 5-stars awards.

[tekgik]

how about foto angelo by acdsee? iv been using it to create slideshows for my friends & relatives! It can make self exe. file w/ sound + dissolves. Or simply make a screensaver!

[rockyc2]

gho64 wrote:
Please help (New Person with very little knowledge of slide show presentation) with suggested Slide Show Software that is simple & easy to assemble & record to CD & has many of the following features:

1..... Wide Variety Of Available Slide Dissolves,
2..... Variable time that each slide is presented on screen,
3..... Callout Shapes for adding text,
4..... Add Music with options to Change Tunes without the usual two (2) second lag time
5..... Instant Autorun From CD without long period of "Black Screen" while presentation is downloads.

Thank You in advance for your suggestions & any other useful advise for a Slide Show Newbie.

gho64


Gho64, I use Paint Shop Pro. Below is just a sample that I just now threw together for you. I have never tried to add sound yet. Remember that when you make a slideshow, all the images have to be the same size. With this program, you can change the view time, and also a lot of different transition styles such as disolves, you name it. It's got them.
Rocky
http://starbrighttwo.com/HTMLobj-1498/Animation2.gif

[mushedroom]

the best one i've worked with is:

magix-photostory

[Phil Hall]

PC mag recommends Microsoft Plus! Photo story, included in the Media upgrade pack for Windows XP.-$19.95. It includes fades, dissolves and "Ken Burns" pans and zooms. It also includes music. I just ordered it and will report on it when it arrives.

[sparty314]

For cost and ease of use, don't overlook PS Elements that comes bundled with your camera. I'm at work (so this is from memory). I think it's:

File
Automated Tasks
Create PDF slideshow (or similar)

I find it useful for emailing friends a series of pictures, since the output is a fool-proof PDF!

[psk4363]

I'm with Bob Gorrill and his recommendation for Pictures2Exe - simply fantastic.

Cheers,
Barry

[PaulB]

Try Xatshow from Xat.com.

[nukacola]

my suggestion for video editing and adding callots
is here (http://www.presentavid.com/)

and here is my advice for slide show (http://www.geovid.com/Flash_SlideVidShow/)

good luck

[malla1962]

Proshow gold is very good,download the demo.:D

[pc411guy]

I've tried so many over the past few years and because of the low resolution of televisions, have always been somewhat disappointed. That, however, came to an end once I found ProShow Gold! Not sure how they do it but the pics look just as good on the tv as they do on the computer monitor. Learning curve is small - put together first slideshow in about 15 minutes! Love the option to adjust the timings to match the audio length. Awesome transitions also!

[Jack W.]

I'm also a fan of ProShow. I started with Gold, then bought Producer and gave Gold to my g/f. She's having a great time with it.
Terrific program.
Jack

[Master-9]

Get a Mac and I-Movie comes with it free

[rrpruett]

I am also using Pro Show Gold and have created many DVD slid shows with it. Many Christmas gifts this year were DVD shows and the people loved them. It is easy to learn and I have had no problems running it on XP.

Good luck.

[ScottE]

I saw a friend's presentation of his Mt. Everest trip that he did on Power Point. It looked very good. It included some video clips that he shot with his point and shoot camera as well has great photos he took with his DSLR.