Which Slideshow Program is your favorite?

[laola]

I am trying to figure out which program to use to create slideshows which can be burned on CD's and then played back on most PC's. Can you suggest your favorite program and tell us something about its advantages and disadvantages?

Here is what I would like the program to do:

1) I also would like to be able to add sound (preferably as an MP3 file).

2) I would like to be able to control the transitions (both the effects as well as the timing).

3) I would like it to be relatively easy to use.

4) I would love if you also could add text, possibly animated text.

Anny suggestions? Somebody actually recommended MS Powerpoint. Do you agree?

[Conk]

The program that will provide all these things you mentioned is Microsoft's Power Point.

[Jerry Vanderberg]

I agree that Power Point is the most powerful for this, but I have not yet been able to figure out how to bring in AVI clips that will show in the slide show. BreezeBrowser also does a good job at a slide show but similarly does not permit viewing of AVI clips. (Their technical staff responded to me that it could not be done.) Similarly, the "VIew as a SlideShow" function within "MY Pictures" of MS XP presents a nice slide show but doesn't incorporate AVI clips. Does anyone have any ideas?

[teekay]

I strongly recomend "Slide Show to Go". It's cheap, powerful and very user friendly.

It can be found at: http://www.nightwatchsoftware.com

[Jerry Vanderberg]

Thanks for the reference teekay. When I went to the site and checked the formats that they accepted, for AVI they noted "First Frame". Do you know if this means that it only plays the first frame of the clip during a slide show? If so, it won't do the job.

[laola]

Thanks for recommending Slide Show to go, teekay. I never heard of it before and will definately give it a try. All the specs. sound great indeed. Do you happen to know whether there is a size restriction for the number of photos or in terms of MB?

[Jerry Vanderberg]

I already got an answer to my question above concerning "Slide Show to Go". They explained that the current release does not permit viewing of AVI clips, but that they expect that the next release will. In the meantime, I came across two other Slide Show programs: "Digital Photo Slide Show" and CyberLink MediaShow". Has anyone had any experience with these?

[Alexandre]

I use photoimpact album

[madhg]

Have you tried Irfanview? It supports a huge variety of formats including AVI - but I don't know if you can include AVI in a slideshow. www.irfanview.com freeware, very high quality.

[lord.hypnos]

madhg wrote:
Have you tried Irfanview? It supports a huge variety of formats including AVI - but I don't know if you can include AVI in a slideshow. www.irfanview.com freeware, very high quality.

Yes, you can. You can add just about any video or image format to a slideshow. It also allows you to save the slideshow as an executable or a screensaver.