INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: deerhunter on December 04, 2004, 12:37:59 pm
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What is the best software to create slide shows and/or edit video and burn them to dvd. Want something simple and inexpensive.
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I use Cyberlinks Power DVD to make all my video albums. It's very simple, has a thirty day free trial of the complete program and isn't very expensive (aprox. 40 US, if I remember correctly). It has features like being able to add transitions and music to the slideshow, you can make your own menu page and choose the backgrounds and button types. Here's a link to their site:
http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/index.jsp
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I use Sony's Movie Studio (http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/Products/ShowProduct.asp?PID=932). It can do video editing and slide shows, though it's aimed more at video editing. It works well with MC too - you can use playlists to storyboard your movie / slide show and then drag and drop everything onto the timeline.
Ulead's products are generaly well thought of, though I don't have much experience of using them.
Pinnacle's Studio is one to avoid - it's easy to get started with and has some nice features, but it's very unstable.
Ian G.
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I use Nero www.nero.com (http://www.nero.com) . Its just out in a new version including decoding for the latest MP$ Video Standard (H.264).
Excellent software
BB
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I should have added "and works well with MC. The Sony one does. Are there any others that work well with MC.
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If you just want to create a simple slide show (no titles, no synching with the music etc), have a look at PhotoDVD (http://www.vso-software.fr/"). It's cheap and simple, and the results are easy on the eye!
Ian G.
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I do want to synchronize music and add titles. Why isn't that added to Media Center. You can make a nice slide show on MC but you can't sync music or add titles. And it only plays properly on MC.
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In case the first billion suggestions weren't enough, here's the billion-and-first: Photodex ProShow and ProShow Gold (http://www.photodex.com/products/) are very highly rated. The current version is 2.0, and I have not used it. I do have a ProShow Gold 1.3 license, though, and it was the best of its kind that I found back then, and I tried quite a few of them. ProShow is $30, and ProShow Gold is $70.
Other links:
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/proshow.html
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/proshowgold.html
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Thanks for the suggestions. I might add I have the latest Dell computer with Microsoft XP Media Center. Been having a lot of problems with conflicts between software. Had to delete the Sonic dvd/cd burning software so MC burning would work. Have Music Match and don't know if I need that. Will take a while to get this computer in order.
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Another one in this area would be Photojam 4 by Shockwave. http://www.shockwave.com/sw/content/photojam
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I've tried a great many apps for creating and burning slide shows and ProShow Gold 2 http://www.photodex.com/ ($70) has been a clear winner for its shear ease of use, stability and features. It can handle individual sounds per slide and mixed with a soundtrack for the show, which is easily sychronised over the selected slides or the entire show, while optionally retaining the relative timings for slides and transitions that you have set. It has a good range of effective slide transitions and outputs high quality MPEG1/2 either as a file or direct to VCD/DVD.
I haven't tried it yet, but 3D-Album http://www.3d-album.com comes recommended with the additional ability to multilayer images, but its fully featured commercial suite version is rather pricey at $299.
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To get what I want will cost over a 100 bucks. In fact the Sonic upgrade that comes with Dell costs 129 bucks plus shipping :( :( :(
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And this is just an upgrade to the one they sent me with the computer!
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To get what I want will cost over a 100 bucks.
Can you be a bit more specific about what you want? If Movie Studio or Pro Show Gold can't do it, it must be quite unusual!
Ian G.
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Im pretty sure the Nero suite will cover just about all of your burning needs. It eve. has a fully functional trial period. I've used it for nearly 3 years now and swear by it.
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None of those apps seems to have the ability to import any kind of image tags that have been exported in some way from MC11. So whatever you are going to burn on a DVD it won't be tagged or you tag it again by hand.
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Proshow Gold will do the job but it is still over 80 bucks with the shipping. I can't download them with my slow dial up modem. Am leaning to Nero.
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Well I am the proud owner o Nero 6 ultra edition. We'll see how it goes.
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Which application in the Nero suite accomplishes what you want? (I can't keep the billion-or-so EXEs straight.)
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Haven't had a chance to get into much though I burned a cd with it. Hopefully make and edit video and photo slide shows possibly edit photos, and burn cd's and dvd's. I like MC better for cataloging and playing music. Don't know if I can burn with both programs yet. Will have to know how to disable one so I can burn with the other. Right now Nero burner works but MC doesn't so Nero must have taken over burning. JUst another dumb user.
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Right now Nero burner works but MC doesn't so Nero must have taken over burning. JUst another dumb user.
Real curious as to what you installed when you installed Nero and what does not work in MC. Especially, what error message, if any do you get?
I have Nero installed and MC burns without a problem,
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DVD X Copy xpress is the best burning software for DVDs!
here is a link to download the demo:
http://www.downloadpost.com/go.php?go=download&id=2100
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It doesn't seem to recognize the cd writer. It worked before so I just assumed that it was conflicting with Nero. Haven't time to get into it too deep.
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It will play the cd's from the cd drive but will not recognize the drive in burn mode. I'm sure I have to disable either the drive that comes with windows xp or with Nero or both and it will work. Anyone tell me how to do that quickly and be able to re enable them when needed.
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Forget everything I said. I did a test burn. It said okay so I burned a cd with mc and it went perfect so apparently it does work with Nero installed. Now all I have to do is learn how to use Nero.