Just not Memoriesontv, which I just spent the entire day experimenting with, (" :rolleyes: " ) and have given up trying to make it understand that I want this caption to stay with this slide, and not to repeat itself on the slide in front of it–or two slides in front of it, or the slide at the beginning–and that when I change the timing on a slide in the queue, I do not want other slides to change. And yes, I realize there’s a command for “All slides” vs. “Selected slides”, but evidently I don’t have enough computer juju to make it behave.
Also was not happy with Picasa, which I turned to about suppertime.
And rumor has it that there’s supposed to be Windows Movie Maker somewhere here on my Vista computer, but damned if I can find it.
Anyway.
So.
Beyond those three, there’s a plethora of Google hits for “create dvd slideshows” and my head’s about to explode.
Here’s what I need: I need to put captions on slides and have them play synchronized to music, the whole to be burnable to a DVD that will play both in a DVD player and on a Vista computer.
And it needs to be extremely user-friendly, because life’s too short to spend another afternoon like the one I just spent.
Top price I am willing to pay for something that actually works would be about $100. I am long past the stage of being willing to spend days learning to use some bare-minimum freeware or shareware utility, working around its little quirks; you get what you pay for, and I’m willing to pay for something that works. Free trial would be nice.
Features:
* Create unique photo and video PhotoShows
* Add music, animation, and special effects
* Easy-to-use interface and professional tools
* Edit and touch up photos
* Free personal web space for uploading PhotoShows and videos
* Burn PhotoShows to DVD to watch on a TV set
* Windows Vista® Ready
* Much, Much more
I’ve had lots of good luck with Nero products. Never used this one but I use Nero 8 Ultra and it’s awesome.
I know, not technically slideshow software, but it’ll do the job, is under $100, has a free trial and comes with a DVD authoring kit (though I’ll be damned if I know how it works).
The manual is crap but the interactive tutorial is nice, and it’s fairly easy to learn.
I’m pretty sure you should have Windows Movie maker on your system. My bro made a slideshow DVD and it came out great. Titles, transitions, music overlay, etc.
I haven’t used it yet.
I tried Searching Explorer under variations of the name–no soap. Somewhere on Drive C there’s a Moviemaker hiding in the shrubbery, but its mommy has it well hidden, and of course it gives off no scent.
I’ve been very happy with Roxio Easy Media Creator, which is right at the $99 mark. It’s probably a more complete package than you need, but it’s got a lot of nice features. The disc label printing app is a good extra, kinda puts a nice finishing touch on the project.
I’ve been happy with both Ulead Pocket Slideshow (very quick/easy generation but sparse on features) and ProShow Gold (many more features). I’m also just getting into Vegas Studio and am enjoying it, but I only use it for video.