Formatting digital pictures to read as a DVD?

[Jesus_Freak]

Backing up family pictures on a DVD is easy; however I really want the pictures to play as a movie/slideshow in my normal DVD player. I have seen freeware that supposedly allows this, but I have never tried it. Does anyone have experience with this? Suggestions on format and free software? A TMC google search revealed nothing, so sorry if I have missed it already...

[3event]

I have friend that uses ProShow Gold for this purpose (www.photodex.com), works pretty slick. Since I already have Adobe Premiere Elements I have not been willing to spend on yet another piece of software. Whether in Premiere Elements or Pinnacle, I found the resolution to be totally disappointing on a 46" lcd. Looked like Proshow was a bit better, but did not have time to investigate how or why.

What really blew me away was placing the pics on a USB stick and plugging it into the slot on the HDTV. Will run a slideshow from remote/menu. No better way to appreciate a quality digital image.

[chudson]

From what I understand if you have have microsoft office. microsoft powerpoint offers this. You go to the slide show tab inside power point it should be able to help.

You can first make a PowerPoint slideshow with your family pictures, then you can convert the slideshow to DVD with a converter like Moyea PowerPoint to DVD Burner Pro,easy and professional!

[east tx skier]

If you have a newer dvd player, it should be able to read .jpeg files. If not, you need to creat the slide show yourself and burn to dvd. I like pinnacle, but most any basic video editing software can accomplish this. If it were me, if you are archiving to DVD and deleting the pictures from your hard drive, I'd suggest doing one as a data/jpeg dvd and the other as DVD video.

Honestly, for archival purposes, I prefer an external hard drive backed up to an online backup service like Mozy.

This DVD player is $45 (probably cheaper than entry level editing software) and can read jpegs. I'm sure there's a cheaper one out there that will handle it just as well.

[Jesus_Freak]

Originally Posted by east tx skier

If you have a newer dvd player, it should be able to read .jpeg files. If not, you need to creat the slide show yourself and burn to dvd. I like pinnacle, but most any basic video editing software can accomplish this. If it were me, if you are archiving to DVD and deleting the pictures from your hard drive, I'd suggest doing one as a data/jpeg dvd and the other as DVD video.

Honestly, for archival purposes, I prefer an external hard drive backed up to an online backup service like Mozy.

This DVD player is $45 (probably cheaper than entry level editing software) and can read jpegs. I'm sure there's a cheaper one out there that will handle it just as well.

Thank you all!

My main goal is to set it up so that the family and I can "watch" all of our digital pictures stored on our computer. No one ever looks at them otherwise. I already have everything backed up for archival purposes...just want to now enjoy them. I guess I will try powerpoint first.

[Jesus_Freak]

FWIW....So, I converted the powerpoint file (containing more than 900 pictures) to a video using the trial version of Camtasia. I got so very tired of attempting to work with the trial version of Nero that I gave up getting the powerpoint file to a DVD. I ended up just plugging my laptop into my TV with an S-video cable. Not as clear as it could be, but does the job.

[ProStar190Fan]

if you have microsoft windows vista you have windows photo gallery under start and all programs, just select which pictures you would like to have in the movie and burn.

[Jesus_Freak]

Originally Posted by ProStar190Fan

if you have microsoft windows vista you have windows photo gallery under start and all programs, just select which pictures you would like to have in the movie and burn.

Thank you. Excellent idea, but "DVD" is not an option for outgoing media. Again, my goal is to pop it into a DVD player...

[Cloaked]

Originally Posted by Jesus_Freak

Thank you. Excellent idea, but "DVD" is not an option for outgoing media. Again, my goal is to pop it into a DVD player...

I can assist with TechSmith Camtasia Studio 6.0.3 (Build 928). PM me if you are interested, but I don't log in often. I'll check sometime soon.