Burn Multiple Copies Of My Photoshow Slide Show?

[totalnewbie]

I created a slideshow of pictures from the year for my sons' grade school class. I am trying to burn 25 DVDs of the slideshow to give to each student in the class. It is a fairly small slideshow--less than 20 minutes. They need to be DVDs, to play on DVD players, not just on a computer. The trouble is, it has been over 4 hours, and the PhotoShow is still less than 50% complete on burning the first DVD. (I don't even know if it works in a DVD player yet!)

 

What am I doing wrong? Surely it shouldn't take 4+ hours to burn a 20min. slideshow onto one DVD? I did pick the "highest quality" save setting, but still, should it be taking this long? And will each copy take this long to burn? Isn't there a faster way?

 

I searched through help and the other postings, but I didn't find anything to help. Maybe this means the answer is obvious to everyone else. Please enlighten me!

 

This is my computer info (hope I included everything pertinent):

Processor: Intel Premium Dual CPU E2220@2.4 GHz

RAM: 3.00GB (2.87 GB usable)

System Type: 32-bit operating system, Windows 7

DVD/CD-ROM drive: TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-H653Z ATA Device

Creator 2011

 

Thank you!

[Brendon]

The trouble is, it has been over 4 hours, and the PhotoShow is still less than 50% complete on burning the first DVD. (I don't even know if it works in a DVD player yet!)

 

I don't know if you meant to say 'Photoshow' there?

 

If you're making a slideshow with the 'Create Slideshows' menu item, the Roxio Slideshow Assistant allows you to add your photos and it then passes you to MyDVD to finish the process and burn the DVD. Alternately, you can build your slideshow directly in MyDVD and burn from there.

 

There are two parts to this process - building and preparing the slideshow, and then burning it.

 

The preparation involves rendering each photo to the proper size and generating transitions and stuff and takes a long time, so if you're having any difficulties it's often a good idea to break the process up into the two separate parts. You do this by making the output go to an image file on the hard drive, and later burning the image to disc.

 

A useful thing about that is that the program can write an image as slowly as it needs to, without having to constantly burn a chunk to DVD and then wait, then burn another chunk and wait some more. Doing that can waste an awful amount of time.

 

The other useful thing for you is that you only have to prepare the thing once, after which you can burn as many copies of the image as you want, to disc. Also, when you're later burning the image to disc the computer is doing only one operation so you can burn your discs at a reasonable speed.

 

To do this, when you've got your slideshow ready to go in MyDVD, hit the red Burn button at the bottom right, and you'll see the Burn Project window.

 

-UNCHECK Burn to Disc

-Check Save disc image file, and browse to where you want the image saved

-click Burn. An ISO image will be written to your hard drive.

 

After this, from the Main Menu go to Burn Disc Image.

-Navigate to your image to fill the left slot, and set up your burner in the right slot. You can set burn speed and verification with the "Options" button. You don't need "Stage to hard disk" because you've already done that.

-When that's all set up, click the green button to go and burn.

 

There is the option to set the number of copies you want, but some people like to burn them from the image one at a time if their machine forgets what it's doing after burning several copies.

 

I hope I've covered enough, but if I've not been clear please feel free to ask further.

 

Brendon

[totalnewbie]

Thank you so much for your reply. It is full of great information, and I hope I can get to try it, but I must be missing a step in between.

 

I did mean to say "My Photoshow." Somehow I got there from the Roxio screen--I think it's because we wanted to use our own mp3 files and we had to upgrade. So have I posted this plea for help in wrong place?

 

Anyway, the slideshow is all built in My Photoshow, and previews beautifully. But I cannot access it from the main Roxio Creator Home screen. It seems like my only options, from the My Photoshows Finish window, are:

1.)Post to my member page

2.)Post and email

3.)Post and link

4.)Export video file

5.)Burn Photoshow disc

6.)Order DVD

 

First I tried (5), when the computer spun for hours and only got 49% done. After I read through several help posts, I cancelled that operation and tried (4). It took only 25 minutes for the audio files to process, and then it started on the video files. It was 1:30am so I went to bed. When I woke up this morning, it said the process failed.

 

What am I doing wrong? Thank you.

[sknis]

Thank you so much for your reply. It is full of great information, and I hope I can get to try it, but I must be missing a step in between.

 

I did mean to say "My Photoshow." Somehow I got there from the Roxio screen--I think it's because we wanted to use our own mp3 files and we had to upgrade. So have I posted this plea for help in wrong place?

 

Anyway, the slideshow is all built in My Photoshow, and previews beautifully. But I cannot access it from the main Roxio Creator Home screen. It seems like my only options, from the My Photoshows Finish window, are:

1.)Post to my member page

2.)Post and email

3.)Post and link

4.)Export video file

5.)Burn Photoshow disc

6.)Order DVD

 

First I tried (5), when the computer spun for hours and only got 49% done. After I read through several help posts, I cancelled that operation and tried (4). It took only 25 minutes for the audio files to process, and then it started on the video files. It was 1:30am so I went to bed. When I woke up this morning, it said the process failed.

 

What am I doing wrong? Thank you.

 

Yes, that sound like PhotoSHow. Do you have any other video editing DVD making software on your computer? You could use burn the files option and then use that other software to burn it to disc (s).

 

BTW, Make sure that you have the latest build for PhotoSHow. Sign in and go to your account page and redownload/reinstall PhotoShow to update to the latest build of Version 6. Some of the earlier builds did have some issues.

[totalnewbie]

Yes, that sound like PhotoSHow. Do you have any other video editing DVD making software on your computer? You could use burn the files option and then use that other software to burn it to disc (s).

 

BTW, Make sure that you have the latest build for PhotoSHow. Sign in and go to your account page and redownload/reinstall PhotoShow to update to the latest build of Version 6. Some of the earlier builds did have some issues.

 

I assume you meant option 5, Export Video File, and then use Windows DVD Maker to burn it to disc?

 

I checked, and I am using My PhotoShow 6.0, Build 833. We just downloaded it yesterday, so it should be the most updated version.

 

And even more frustrating, now I am having trouble even getting to that final PhotoShow window that gives me the six options. Everytime I open the file and choose "Share" (the option to get me to the final window), the whole thing crashes.

 

Do I just need to start over in Windows DVD maker?

 

Thanks again for your help.

[sknis]

I assume you meant option 5, Export Video File, and then use Windows DVD Maker to burn it to disc?

 

I checked, and I am using My PhotoShow 6.0, Build 833. We just downloaded it yesterday, so it should be the most updated version.

 

And even more frustrating, now I am having trouble even getting to that final PhotoShow window that gives me the six options. Everytime I open the file and choose "Share" (the option to get me to the final window), the whole thing crashes.

 

Do I just need to start over in Windows DVD maker?

 

Thanks again for your help.

 

Usually people don't have to do this when installing Version 6 of PhotoShow but I suggest you do so. Update your computer using these guidelines. The firmware update is optional unless your burner is not working correctly. Once you do that, then TURN OFF YOUR ANTI_VIRUS (not just pause it ) and reinstall V6 again. Reboot. Set your anti-virus to not make changes to your registry.

 

You posted in Creator 2011 section of the board. Do you have that? If so, make your slide show using Edit Video-Advanced and Create DVD.

 

What you eventually use is up to you. If you bought PhotoShow directly from Roxio; you have a 30 day $$ back guarantee.

 

Since this thread is about PhotoShow and NOT Creator 2011, I'm going to move it.

[totalnewbie]

Thank you so much for your help. I updated my PhotoShow and got back to the final screen, where I was able to choose Export Video File. It took a couple hours to finish, but it did it, without crashing. Then I used Windows DVD Maker to burn the file to each DVD. (And that program crashed a few times, too.)

 

I probably could have done the whole thing in PhotoShow after I got the updates, but I was so panicked about my deadline that I was just glad I got that first workable DVD, and I didn't want to mess around trying other stuff. I spent all day burning DVDs and then delivered them to the classroom teacher this afternoon. I'm sure it took me much longer than it should have, but I still call it a happy ending.

 

Many thanks for helping this newbie meet the deadline.