Creating Photo Slideshow Movies
Notes from ClifNotes, Dec 2007, permalink Windows Tips
I recently read this article at "The Daily Download" blog which is hosted by Download.com. In the article the author suggested different software to take your photos and create a DVD slideshow that you could play on any DVD player. I thought it was an interesting article, but he offered no free solutions to create the DVDs.
After reading through the comments of the article, I finally found one enlightened person who offered his freeware solution to the problem.
from Copman
One you might like to try is Foto2Avi which will create an avi file, then use Avi2Dvd, DVD Flick, or WinFF all similar programmes. All of these are freeware - just google. For a bit of a dinosaur, not an expert or geek at this PC lark but for something simple these work for me.
I took Copman's suggestion to "google" the Foto2Avi and Avi2Dvd programs. I didn't like the top results I found but I finally spotted links to AfterDawn.com and I knew I'd found a good place to download them.
After a little research, I determined that the best way for me to create the avi movies would be to try out two tools I already had installed. I found out that Picasa and Windows Movie Maker would both do the job.
See these tutorials if you want to learn more.
Part 1 Changing or converting PowerPoint to a Movie for DVD
How to Create a Picture Movie using Picasa
How to Make a Photo Slide Show With Music (with Windows Movie Maker)
I learned that Picasa was good for making the videos but had almost no options for adding sound or transitions. It's great for somebody who wants a simple way to create avi movies of their photos. It even has a "Gift CD" creation wizard that will publish a CD with slideshows and photos.
I really liked the features of the Windows Movie Maker which does allow you many more options including sound and video transitions. However, most folks with WinXP don't realize it's even installed on their PC. I'm not sure where it appears in the Start Menu but I found it here on my hard drive:
"C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\moviemk.exe"
I created a short video slide show using Windows Movie Maker using the following sources.
Wallpapers by GrafixEye
http://grafixeye.deviantart.com/gallery/
Song "Amblyopia" by Jimi Pocius
http://www.indiehitz.net/html/bands/56/
Windows Movie Maker creates a WMV file but it's no problem to convert it if you go to a website like MediaConvert.
I decided to upload it to teachertube.com so that I could display it here for you.
I don't have a DVD burner, so this article is really incomplete. However, if I had to recommend a way to burn the avi file, I'd have to tell you to try the DVD Flick first since it's an open source freebie.
Make sure to comment below if you have your own great way to create movie slideshows and burn them to DVD.
postCount('CreatePhotoDvds');
