Help Me Get Started

[Samc]

OS-Windows XP Professional SP2; Roxio Creator Suite 10

 

I have over 2000 pictures(.jpg's) I would like to put on a DVD. When doing so, I want to categorize them and place them in separate categories similar to a Directory/File layout. Example: Summer-1960/pic1. pic2, pic3, etc; Summer-1970/pic1, pic2, pic3,etc; Summer-1980/pic1,pic2, etc.....

 

The goal that I am trying to achieve is when I put the DVD in the player, I can skip to a particular area: example --Summer-1970 and look at those pictures. I do not need to read the DVD sequentially from the very first picture.

 

Can the pictures in each category be a "slide show"?

 

I understand all DVD players are not alike. For example- my DVD will not show ".jpg's" but my father's does. Is there a format I can use that would be common to most DVD players?

 

I just purchased CR 10 within the last couple of days. I am new to all of this and have no idea how to proceed. Can you help me?

 

Thanks,

Sam

[sknis]

OS-Windows XP Professional SP2; Roxio Creator Suite 10

 

I have over 2000 pictures(.jpg's) I would like to put on a DVD. When doing so, I want to categorize them and place them in separate categories similar to a Directory/File layout. Example: Summer-1960/pic1. pic2, pic3, etc; Summer-1970/pic1, pic2, pic3,etc; Summer-1980/pic1,pic2, etc.....

 

The goal that I am trying to achieve is when I put the DVD in the player, I can skip to a particular area: example --Summer-1970 and look at those pictures. I do not need to read the DVD sequentially from the very first picture.

 

Can the pictures in each category be a "slide show"?

 

I understand all DVD players are not alike. For example- my DVD will not show ".jpg's" but my father's does. Is there a format I can use that would be common to most DVD players?

 

I just purchased CR 10 within the last couple of days. I am new to all of this and have no idea how to proceed. Can you help me?

 

Thanks,

Sam

Standard DVD players will play DVD movies (slide shows). That is probably what you want to make. Read this post. it should help you get started. For the applications involved (Video Wave and My DVD), EMC 10 and EMC 9 are pretty similar.

 

You can only get one hour of best quality video on a standard DVD. You will be taking the images and making a slide show so you will have video. Let's see, 2000 images per 60 minutes is about 0.56 second display time. Even if you use compression to get 2 hours on a disc, that is only about 1 second but them you have to allow for menus, music (?) etc. There are other formats but it sounds like you don't have the equipment to play something like a DivX type file. You dad's player might though.

 

Better if you make several DVDs with common themes rather than one you can't watch. You can make one for a particular family member or one foe vacations, a specific one for a specific vacation, etc. Blanks DVDs are inexpensive so don't try to scrimp and fit too much on one DVD. Buy a good quality DVD, stay away from Memorex and from store brands. Verbatim are usually good. Try a few of different brands to see which ones work best with your burner and player.

 

Read the threads and watch the videos that have been posted in the Tips and Tricks area of EMC 9 and EMC 10. A few minutes of reading and playing around (with RW discs) will save you grief in the furore. Don't use RW discs for long term but they are good to use and then erase and burn again.

 

Don't take shortcuts, they don't work and in the end you will save nothing.

 

Sam, if you would please post your computer equipment spec in your signature, it would be a help for us to identify issues solutions if you have a problem. Go to My Controls at the top of this page and then look to the left to edit signature. Put in the important things like CPU speed, video card information, burner information, etc. Look at other's signature and put in the important things. Do not put in every bit of information re: your computer.

[Samc]

Sknis:

 

Thanks for your reply. I understand what you are saying about spreading the project out to several DVD's. It does make a lot of sense.

 

One of the things I am trying to do is to make things as easy for my dad as possible (he's 91 years old and is not computer literate). Some of the categories I was talking about in my original post are very short. For example, he has pictures of my wedding 42 years ago (maybe about 50 pictures). Then he has pictures of his and my mom's trip to Italy (maybe about 200 pictures)- You can see the importance (ha-ha)

 

If I was to call Wedding, Italy categories, and if I was to put them on separate DVD's, I would have a lot of wasted space. On professional DVD's I see things that allow you to skip to a certain track (topic or song). That's one of the things I am trying to accomplish.

 

Using the following, is this possible to accomplish:

Insert the DVD into the player and on the TV screen have a menu popup that would say something like:

Wedding

Italy

etc.

By highlighting Italy and hitting "enter", I would then go to the still pictures or slide-show of Italy.

[bimicher]

Sknis:

 

Thanks for your reply. I understand what you are saying about spreading the project out to several DVD's. It does make a lot of sense.

 

One of the things I am trying to do is to make things as easy for my dad as possible (he's 91 years old and is not computer literate). Some of the categories I was talking about in my original post are very short. For example, he has pictures of my wedding 42 years ago (maybe about 50 pictures). Then he has pictures of his and my mom's trip to Italy (maybe about 200 pictures)- You can see the importance (ha-ha)

 

If I was to call Wedding, Italy categories, and if I was to put them on separate DVD's, I would have a lot of wasted space. On professional DVD's I see things that allow you to skip to a certain track (topic or song). That's one of the things I am trying to accomplish.

 

Using the following, is this possible to accomplish:

Insert the DVD into the player and on the TV screen have a menu popup that would say something like:

Wedding

Italy

etc.

By highlighting Italy and hitting "enter", I would then go to the still pictures or slide-show of Italy.

 

 

That is easily accomplished. Using Videowave create separate slideshow for each category and output them to a DVD compliant mpeg-2 file. You would have a Wedding.mpg, Italy.mpg, etc. You then launch myDVD and using the Add option, you add each of the mpg files separately. Each time you add a movie a new item is added to the menu. You would add titles until the DVD is full (status bar at bottom)

[Samc]

That is easily accomplished. Using Videowave create separate slideshow for each category and output them to a DVD compliant mpeg-2 file. You would have a Wedding.mpg, Italy.mpg, etc. You then launch myDVD and using the Add option, you add each of the mpg files separately. Each time you add a movie a new item is added to the menu. You would add titles until the DVD is full (status bar at bottom)

 

I notice you and others keep mentioning mpeg-2. Is mpeg-"2" different than mpeg? Is "2" a special version of mpeg? Where do I get it?

 

I'm sorry for asking these simple questions but I am going to have to be "hand held" through this process.

 

I hope you understand?

Thanks,

Sam

[ggrussell]

There are many versions of 'MPEG'. The number designates which. MPEG 2 is the version chosen for the video DVD standard. The older VCD (Video CD) and SVCD (Super VCD) used MPEG 1. There are thousands of good websites on digital video standards. A good place to start would be Wikipedia. You can also search for beginner sites.

[Samc]

Well, I'm almost there.

 

Via "Photo/Create Slideshow", I created 3 ".dmss" files (Pack0.dmss, Pack1.dmss,Pack2.dmss). Then via "Video/MyDVD/Add Slide Show", I added then burnt the .dmss files to the DVD.

 

The result:

When I put the DVD in the player, I got 3 icons each containing the 1st picture of each file and in "My Menu" was the 1st picture in Pack0.dmss.

 

When I pressed the "skip forward" button on the DVD remote, "My Menu" picture changed to the 1st picture of Pack1.dmss and the same for Pack2.dmss.

 

The problem is I could NOT get the slide show of Pack1.dmss or Pack2.dmss to play. I'm not sure what I did but I was able to get the slideshow of Pack0.dmss to play.

 

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

 

Thanks,

[grandpabruce]

Well, I'm almost there.

 

Via "Photo/Create Slideshow", I created 3 ".dmss" files (Pack0.dmss, Pack1.dmss,Pack2.dmss). Then via "Video/MyDVD/Add Slide Show", I added then burnt the .dmss files to the DVD.

 

The result:

When I put the DVD in the player, I got 3 icons each containing the 1st picture of each file and in "My Menu" was the 1st picture in Pack0.dmss.

 

When I pressed the "skip forward" button on the DVD remote, "My Menu" picture changed to the 1st picture of Pack1.dmss and the same for Pack2.dmss.

 

The problem is I could NOT get the slide show of Pack1.dmss or Pack2.dmss to play. I'm not sure what I did but I was able to get the slideshow of Pack0.dmss to play.

 

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

 

Thanks,

 

You are using the slide show assistant. It should work, but there have been a ton of folks who have had problems with it. Create your slide shows in VideoWave, and see if it solves your problem. You will have to create your slide show over. If you import your "assistant" slide show, into VideoWave, the errors will still be there.

 

[bimicher]

You are using the slide show assistant. It should work, but there have been a ton of folks who have had problems with it. Create your slide shows in VideoWave, and see if it solves your problem. You will have to create your slide show over. If you import your "assistant" slide show, into VideoWave, the errors will still be there.

 

Bruce, would not the problems the OP is having be more related to the authoring in myDVD and have nothing to do with the slideshow assistant (or eventually Videowave)?

[Samc]

You are using the slide show assistant. It should work, but there have been a ton of folks who have had problems with it. Create your slide shows in VideoWave, and see if it solves your problem. You will have to create your slide show over. If you import your "assistant" slide show, into VideoWave, the errors will still be there.

 

I got it working by using your suggestion. Thank you so much.

 

I do have another question-- As I said earlier, the menu icons show the 1st picture of each slideshow. Is there an easy way to have it show some wording? for example: Wedding-1966 or Italy-1968. I realize I can make a "jpg" with that wording and insert it as the 1st picture but I would assume there is a way to do it using Roxio software.

 

Thanks,

[bimicher]

I got it working by using your suggestion. Thank you so much.

 

I do have another question-- As I said earlier, the menu icons show the 1st picture of each slideshow. Is there an easy way to have it show some wording? for example: Wedding-1966 or Italy-1968. I realize I can make a "jpg" with that wording and insert it as the 1st picture but I would assume there is a way to do it using Roxio software.

 

Thanks,

 

What menu style are you using. Practically every menu style allows you to add text under the thumbnail. If you want the text to appear in the thumbnail, then you will have to add with a special jpeg as the first picture. Maybe someone else knows a different method

[ggrussell]

You can choose any button style and there are several that are text only - no thumbnail.

 

Select the button

View / Settings

Select the second TAB

In that first drop-down list, select a button style that has no thumbnail

[grandpabruce]

Bruce, would not the problems the OP is having be more related to the authoring in myDVD and have nothing to do with the slideshow assistant (or eventually Videowave)?

 

 

Walt, most of the problems, that I have read about with the Assistant, are when the .dmss files are taken into MyDVD to do the menus etc., then burn. The .dmss files are fouled up somehow.

 

I got it working by using your suggestion. Thank you so much.

 

I do have another question-- As I said earlier, the menu icons show the 1st picture of each slideshow. Is there an easy way to have it show some wording? for example: Wedding-1966 or Italy-1968. I realize I can make a "jpg" with that wording and insert it as the 1st picture but I would assume there is a way to do it using Roxio software.

 

Thanks,

 

You are welcome, and Walt & Gary have you covered on your other question.