P2e shows to dvd

[pushu]

I know this topic has been discussed in great detail over the past year, and I have been following all the discusions, however I have a few questions of my own. I am a professional photographer (100% digital) and use p2exe to show all of my images. With weddings I am giving the bride a copy of the show on either vhs tape or on cd.

This brings me to my questions. I am currently shopping for a new computer (faster processor) and am wondering if I should include an internal dvd burner. Where is p2exe at with being able to burn the show to dvd? I know I could add an external unit later but was advised that the internal was much cheaper. I am not happy with the quality of the show on video tape and would like to get away from that. If the show is on dvd as opposed to cd, does that make it harder for a customer to steal the images? I know there is software to make dvd shows right now, and I have been following the pros and cons of those, but would prefer to do it all using p2exe. Is this something that might be available within the next 6months or year? What about the issue of dvd formats? Is it possible that the dvd I burn would not be playable on my customers dvd player? Any info (even speculation by admin) would be most appreciated.

For my application, the dvd seems to be the best choice and this feature would top my list of future changes.

[Truelight]

You are not alone in wondering if PTE will soon come in a version that can export shows for playing in DVD players (typically what are called "VCD" shows). There has been no indication from the developers here that is in the works, (but then they've never said, no they're not going to do that either.)

In the meantime, a great little program for doing what you wish is Xatshow (with the new 5.0 version out now for beta testing).

Http://www.xatshow.com

As for your finished show playing in all DVD players... probably not. Most of the newer DVD players can play VCD shows, but older models may not. I suggest you spend some time at the site below where you can get an education on all things VCD --

http://www.vcdhelp.com

[Ken Cox]

see

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...act=ST&f=2&t=88

if you keep below 200 jpegs it does the job -- granted it is not the same as a monitor display using p2e but it is a compromise if the bride and groom have dvd player

ken

[fgnoel]

The vcd format has been mentioned here with regard to dvd burning. I have not been satisfied with the quality on vcd. (xatshow or or other software that burns slideshows to vcd. My question is "why not consider developing a program that burns a slide show to dvd format (mpeg 2) rather that vcd (mpeg 1 quality) to get a higher resolution and better quality? I'm new at this and maybe this question shows it. But I would appreciate any enlightment.

Frank

[Danabw]

You can create DVD slideshows w/several programs. Ulead makes one, Pinnacle makes one, there's another called slideshow moviemaker, and there's My Sonic DVD, etc. Proshow gold can make MPEG2 movies which then could be authored to a DVD.

I use Pinnacle Studio 8 (really primarily a movie editing program) to make DVD slideshows. Great quality, poor interface for slideshows, but you can do a lot with it if you're patient. Nice thing is that it allows you to mix video and stills, which can be very fun. Pinnacle Expression is a DVD slideshow program that makes good DVD/VCD slideshows, but lacks the power and flexibility of PTE, and doesn't create quite as good quality MPEG2 files as Pinnacle Studio 8.

None of the programs are as good as PTE. If PTE could make DVDs directly, I think I would never ask for anything again. Well, not for a few weeks, anyway.

Dana

[Ian]

There was a flurry of correspondence a few weeks ago about Pro Show Gold, which has the facility of writing VCD files and also outputting to MPEG2 for DVD players.

Did anyone try out this facility? I downloaded the trial but didn't have time to play with it and its now expired...

Ian

[pushu]

I also downloaded proshow gold but didn't really want to learn another software program. What I really want is for p2exe to have the ability. I am hoping admin can give us a guess as to when (and if) this will happen.

[Truelight]

ProShow Gold has a beautiful (inter)face, (a thumbnail/timeline style which I wish PTE would adopt!), but under the skin lies ugliness. Because it produces MPG files for taking the shows to VCD, the effects are (ugh!!) rendered. The dissolves for instance look very rough... not at all like the silky smoothness one sees with PTE.

Now, perhaps if we all had a DVD burners and were going to -real- DVD MPEG-II format (instead of to a VCD format burned to a CD-R) we might see something, but until DVD burners drop to a price affordable to the common man, my opinion is stick to PTE for computer-based shows and use something like Xatshow (no transitions for VCD shows) which doesn't sacrifice image quality for gee-whiz transitions when you are making something for DVD-player viewing.

[Danabw]

Proshow Gold will make true MPEG2 files, but the quality (last time I looked at it on my computer and on a DVD I burned) the transitions were the problem, as Truelight notes. (Aside - the quality of VCD is not acceptable for me, haven't tried SVCD in a while. Neither of those are consistently compatible w/DVD players out there, although as I note below, there are DVD compatibility issues as well....) Proshow gold also doesn't do much hand-holding in the MPEG2 generation - you have to manually configure all your settings for that format. Why they don't have a "DVD-compatible MPEG2" menu choice is beyond me.

Pinnacle Studio8 transitions in DVD slideshows are smooth as buttah ( ) and images are rock-steady and very sharp. So great DVD slideshows can be created now. So far my "audience" has been much happier w/the shows delivered on DVD vs. computer via PTE. They just like being able to slouch on the couch and watch them on the TV like any other media they watch (VHS, DVD movies, TV) these days. Nice thing about DVD shows is also that now-a-days most newer computers come w/a DVD drive in them (play only) so computer playback is still an option. Not as sharp images as PC-only playback provides, of course. But again, on the TV, the shows look great, both on my "small" 27" TV, and on my neighbor's 65" HD TV.

DVD burners are on sale in the sub-$200 range these days. The real cost of going to DVD is getting your hardware up to the rendering task. Even w/a P4 2.4 and 512 fast memory, lots of disk space, etc., it takes about 3 hours per hour of video (3:1) to render a DVD (MPEG2) movie. Then another hour per hour (1:1) for the software to complete the compile step (that time is pretty consistent across different processor speeds), then time to burn the contents to your DVD. And DVD discs cost around a dollar in bulk, more in small quantities, so it's more costly to distribute your shows this way. And (life is just not simple!) there are compatibilty issues - some DVD players support a format called "-R" and others "+R" (there are -RW and +RW formats as well). (And some older DVD players recognize neither format!) So you might create a DVD, burn it to a -R disc, and find your mom's DVD player wouldn't recognize it because it only supports +R discs). In my case, I solved that dilemma by getting a DVD burner from Sony (DRU-500A) that burns +R/+RW and -R/-RW. I find out what the target player(s) is/are, and then burn the apporpriate format(s). So you can get around the issues, but it costs more (DRU-500A was about $350, single-format burners run closer to $200, some nice ones like the HP 200i, which does +R, has been available for $189).

So making DVDs ain't for the faint of CPU, or anyone in a hurry, or anyone who wants to keep their life simple. Nothing like the "give me my show NOW!" attitude that PTE allows us. But in spite of the complications of getting the format right, once the DVD is in my family and friends' hands, they tell me they play it more and enjoy it more than they did the PC-based shows. Our "But the pictures aren't as sharp on the TV!" concerns aren't an issue for the audience in my experience.

Blah-blah-blah. Sorry for the long ramble. Making DVDs isn't really an activity that anyone should try to get into, unless the movie bug hits them (it is SO cool to see your own DVD menu on-screen w/chapters and even nested menus) and they have the hardware (or patience to wait for long render times).

Dana

[Truelight]

The new beta version of Xatshow now allows creation of DVD-like "chapters" (which is more a visual menu page used to launch multiple shows from a single CD. This is the same as Ulead DVD Pictureshow has had for a while. Another cool feature of this new version of Xatshow is the capability for what they call "Image captions." A strange way to describe them, but what this is is a way to add images over existing images on a slide. PTE already allows this, but one cool thing about Xatshow is it deals with any image transparency that may exist (for instance, .PNG files with transparancy work great!) or you can select a color to be transparent.

I made a show with a "frame" that was transparent in the center and made that the default "image caption" for all slides in the show. I only had to do it once and it then appeared over all the slides in the show.

I also praise the makers of Xatshow for not sucumbing to the pressure to add fancy transitions for VCD slideshows at the expense of image quality. However, if you do like nifty transtions, the PC-show and Web-show capabilities of Xatshow are very cool - 3D Page turns and all kinds of great stuff! The dissolves are also "smooth like buttah."

Is anyone willing to host shows on their website that have been created with these other programs? Bart? We all love PTE, but there -are- other fish in the sea and it would be nice to see demos made with other programs.

Here's the link to the new V.5 beta version of Xatshow --

Xatshow V5 beta