CD slideshow problems with Photoshop Elements 5.0

[cshlagor]

I've created a slideshow in photshop element 5.0 and it seems to have written some data files to the CD disc, not the slideshow itself. The only files on the CD are "CDI", "EXT", "MPEGAV", "SEGMENT" and, "VCD" and these files can't be opened by any program because they are either .vcd or .dat files. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Does this problem have something to do with not having the right CD writing software (shouldn't Windows Media Player be able to burn a photoelements slideshow?) Shouldn't photoshop elements be able to read a .vcd file? If this issue is because of the software, can anyone recommend the best software to write CD's from photoshop element 5.0?

[johnfranklin]

I like simple solutions so I just edit a bunch of photos to a uniform size (to fit my TV screen)JPEG them at 150 dpi ideal resolution, create a windows folder to store them in, then burn the resultant mess with Nero express (select all in the folder and then drag and drop to Nero). The CD can then be used in a set top DVD player as long as it supports JPEG photo viewing. Many set top DVD players actually incorporate Kodak picture viewer software. While this is admittedly rudimentary, the photos load well and transition with a fade to and return from black. Unfortunately, PSE burns real, fancy, complicated slideshows in VCD format which while playable in many set top boxes, look like ca-ca due to the fact Video CDs only have half the resolution of normal NTSC television. I am not aware of any set top DVD players which would support WMV or AVI file structure. I haven't tried it, but the solution probably resides with Premier Elements which would allow you to import photos from PSE, edit to your hearts content then burn your creation in DVD-Video format at full NTSC resolution with a menu n' everthin'. For use with your computer just use the organizer collections tags, pick some nice music, add some speech balloons, bang F11 and let 'er rip. Again, simplified, but entertaining,fast and easy.

[johnfranklin]

Dumb being me. PSE5 makes it extraordinarily easy to create polished slide shows, the pan and zoom effects are the cats meow. I am used to using PSE3, so I went and opened up my copy of Five-0. Which even to me made sense if I was going to try to speak on the topic. Wow, the creation section actually is quite an upgrade! PSE5 even offers to launch Premier Elements for if you click on Create>DVD-Video! This cleverly bypasses the problem still residing with PSE's burning engine, the fact that it makes Video CDs. This format is still wretched with respect to picture quality and isn't universally supported by standalone players. PSE5 claims it will link up, ( using Intel's Viiv technology) your television with your media center PC. That would eliminate the middleman, so to speak. The technique of importing your slideshow into Premier Elements in large part merely borrows PE's DVD-Video encoder and burning engine, seamlessly integrating the two programs. Gosh, who would have seen that coming? Probably only Adobe's marketing executives. Still, this is the easy way to do what you want to do. Banging around wtih the the Windows Media Encoder, or trying to use Nero as an editing/burning platform would probably only accelerate or aggravate any pre-existing medical conditions you might have. Photography always has been a cash intensive business, hobby, Avocation, whatever. So ugly be though it may, the moral of this story is it might be worth it to acquire a copy of Premier Elements if share tangible media you must. I'm going to close now, for starting to talk like Yoda I am.

[Willow]

Maybe thinking you might want to try ProShow Gold for Slideshows.....
I have been dreaming of this for sometime, tried the trial version. Very impressed I am.... Now for the $69.95 USD funds...or a magic registration # to find in my inbox :rolleyes: ;)

[cshlagor]

johnfranklin, I already have Premier Elements so I did what you suggested and exported the slideshow from PE5. However, Premier Elements won't burn a CD slideshow, only a DVD and that's not what I want. I want a Video CD but as I mentioned before, PE5 has some kind of a problem and won't burn the actual slideshow, it just places files on the CD that won't play on the computer and won't open back up in PE5 because they're .vcd or .dat files. There shouldn't be a media incompatability problem because I've got 2 CD/DVD burners and both can take all 4 media types (CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW). Weird.

[Barb O]

The folders that you listed in the earlier post seemed like they are the correct folders for a VCD. Did you try to play the Video CD with your DVD player software on your PC?

You say you want a VCD - but maybe you don't really want a Video CD since it is a very specific format convention. Since you do not seem to be happy with the VCD, I am going to question you on why you do not want to use a DVD???

Or if you are only going to play this slideshow on a PC, you can write it out as a File. It can be a WMV file or a PDF file (with the restriction that a PDF file will not support pan and zoom). Then you can use any CD burning software to burn that file to a CD.

[Barb O]

adding email notification

[johnfranklin]

The folders that you listed in the earlier post seemed like they are the correct folders for a VCD. Did you try to play the Video CD with your DVD player software on your PC?

You say you want a VCD - but maybe you don't really want a Video CD since it is a very specific format convention. Since you do not seem to be happy with the VCD, I am going to question you on why you do not want to use a DVD???

Or if you are only going to play this slideshow on a PC, you can write it out as a File. It can be a WMV file or a PDF file (with the restriction that a PDF file will not support pan and zoom). Then you can use any CD burning software to burn that file to a CD.

As I was explaining in my earlier posts VCDs are created using Mpeg 1 compression and are 1/2 the resolution of standard NTSC TV (the broadcast standard definition junk). I have 6 freestanding DVD players, 3 say they will accept a VCD. VCD is sort of a junk, obsolete format as of before now. DVDS are at full NTSC resolution 640 by 480 lines and are created using Mpeg-2 compression (way more better) I never suggested that these slideshows be dragged into Premier for anything other than burning as DVD-Video. It's what I've been lobbying for, and I'm going to hold my breath 'till I get it!

[cshlagor]

Does the ProShow Gold for slideshows allow you to attach more than 1 song to it instead of playing the same song over and over throughout the slideshow?

[cshlagor]

I actually just want to make a CD slideshow to send to friends that will view it on their PC, not as a DVD. The slideshow has got audio attached with some pan and zoom and therefore a PDF file isn't going to be adequate. Even if I got rid of the pan and zoom, I'd like to keep the audio. I did try to play the CD from the CD/DVD drive on the PC and it only shows the folders I mentioned ("CDI", "EXT", "MPEGAV", "SEGMENT" and, "VCD"). I thought if I clicked on "VCD" the slideshow would start but it only opens to folder to show more .vcd files ("Entries", "LOT", "INFO", and "PSD") and none of those files launch the slideshow. As a matter of fact, when I click on those, PhotoElements launches to try to read them and says it can't read .vcd files (which seems strange because isn't it Photoelements that creates the .vcd files?).
I did save the slideshow as a .wmv in a folder in my hard drive but the only thing that opens that file is Windows Media Player and when I tried to create a CD from that file the same thing happened, i.e. it created those files on the CD that won't open or launch the slideshow. I'm ready to give up. I think there's something really basic that I'm not understanding (I'm a beginner at this, as you can tell!).

[Barb O]

I suggest that you not try to use Windows Media Player to burn your CD; it seems from your description that you are still creating a Video CD format instead of a plain ordinary CD containing a wmv file.

Do you know how to use the Windows XP CD burning support ?
Or just about every PC comes with some CD Burning software.
That WMV file is just a file. Use the WMV fiile from whatever folder you specified to save it - then burn it ito a CD like you would burn any other file on your PC.

It also may be worthwhile to discuss which resolution you specified when you created and saved your WMV file during the PSE slideshow creation - so I suggest that you post that info to this thread.

[johnfranklin]

[QUOTE=cshlagor;175628]I actually just want to make a CD slideshow to send to friends that will view it on their PC, not as a DVD. The slideshow has got audio attached with some pan and zoom and therefore a PDF file isn't going to be adequate. Even if I got rid of the pan and zoom, I'd like to keep the audio. I did try to play the CD on my DVD player on the PC and it only shows the folders I mentioned ("CDI", "EXT", "MPEGAV", "SEGMENT" and, "VCD"). I thought if I clicked on "VCD" the slideshow would start but it only opens to folder to show more .vcd files ("Entries", "LOT", "INFO", and "PSD") and none of those files launch the slideshow. As a matter of fact, when I click on those, PhotoElements launches to try to read them and says it can't read .vcd files (which seems strange because isn't it Photoelements that creates the .vcd files?).[quote]

Actually, no ,not strange at all. Premier elements will output DVD-Video files to a DVD burner, but you can't import it. Premier accepts Mpeg-2 files which are the same only different. A "Codec" inside PE "Transcodes" these files to DVD-Video. The book that comes with PE tells you outright: Once you hit burn you can never handle these files with that program again (PE). If you haven't opened a DVD-video (and if you know this apologize) it contains three types of files IFO the information files this tells the player where to seek the VOB files, the actual encoded video files, and last but not least, the BUP files. These are the B ack UP files to the IFO and they exist as error checking mechanisms. If "PSD" files exist on your VCD then it hasn't been properly handled because they are Photoshop file extensions, and should have nothing to do with VCD, the actual files of which are the MPEGAV (Motion Picture Experts Group Audio Video) compression method 1. It's the PSD files which are causing PSE to launch, it's the default app for them. I think the reason that everyone is pushing DVD on you is that the DVD player is now ubiquitous in the american household. I don't actually know which files the Windows Media Encoder will transcode to WMV. PE should know how to manipulate all the file types created by PSE and it's anybody's guess as to which files extensions are accepted and converted by other programs. I could tell you many horror stories about Nero (which accomodates & converts more file types than almost any other program) and U-Lead Movie Factory, which not only caused a major system crash for me, it even crashed the Dr. Watson windows debugger. There may be a simple answer to all this, unfortunately I d'ont have a clue what that might be. Again I, myself would take the cowards way out, and if Premier Elements could make me a workable DVD, I would take it up on it's offer. Will PE save the slide show as WMV to the drive? I own this program and don't use it very often. If so, do that, and simply burn it with another app. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[Barb O]

"I actually just want to make a CD slideshow to send to friends that will view it on their PC, not as a DVD.'

Since the originator says the objective is for friends to play the slideshow on a PC, I don't think it is safe to assume that all friends' PCs will have DVD players/readers. Therefore writing the PSE Slideshow created WMV file to a CD using Windows XP or CD burning software does seem to me to be a beter solution for how to send this PSE slideshow to the friends. Then they can play it on their PC with Windows Media Player. (Of course if friends have Apple computers, it is not quite as simple.)

[Wendy]

Hi Barb ...

If they are Mac users then they can just download the Mac version of Windows Media Player :)

Wendy

[johnfranklin]

"I actually just want to make a CD slideshow to send to friends that will view it on their PC, not as a DVD.'

Since the originator says the objective is for friends to play the slideshow on a PC, I don't think it is safe to assume that all friends' PCs will have DVD players/readers. Therefore writing the PSE Slideshow created WMV file to a CD using Windows XP or CD burning software does seem to me to be a beter solution for how to send this PSE slideshow to the friends. Then they can play it on their PC with Windows Media Player. (Of course if friends have Apple computers, it is not quite as simple.)

I would suggest if they own a computer they own a TV, but that's just me trying spark controversy. I have just undertaken the extremely unconventional and radical step of reading the the instruction book that came with my copy of Premier Elements! I have version 1.0 (version 2.0 & 3.0's page numbers may differ) Chapter 2: (begins at PG 49) "Capturing Video and Adding Files" On pg 56 "Supported Video Files",and "Supported Audio Files. On pg 57 "Supported Still Image Formats". On Pg 131 Chapter 6: "Creating DVDs". On Pg 149, Chapter 7: "Exporting Movies". Adobe is suggesting that PE will do whatever you need it to do, manipulate all the file formats you said you would like to use, then export them to your hard drive, or burn them to DVD. Since I don't know another (or have) another program of this type to evaluate, again, I can't speak to that. If Adobe is lying, I apologize on their behalf. Here's a little tease from the book, just like on Amazon.com: Note "Although Premier Elements supports VCD and SVCD-compatible formats, you must use another aplication to burn them onto CD". As to why you can only burn DVD-video & not import it, one good reason could be that, since this is true, it severely curtails the ability of PE to violate anyone's motion picture copyright using it. DVD-Video playback itself is licensed and even the mighty Windows Media Player requires a codec to be bought and installed before playing it. As I suggested earlier it might be time to obtain a copy of PE. (I'll even relax my restrictions to, by whatever means necessary). External programs that will simply copy a pre-prepared file to CD are well, manifold. I have never been able to change one of my car tires with a butter knife, and I would beg you to consider that similar forces could be acting upon our slideshow efforts. Truth be told you can download a trial copy of PE3. Broadband is a must.

[Barb O]

I think John and I just do not agree on the best immediate solution.

We totally agree that the Video CD format is not good. We agree that if the slideshow is to be displayed on a TV, it should be done via a DVD (MPEG2 format) and that Premiere Elements will burn such an MPEG2 format DVD.

Where we do not agree is what is the best current solution for the originator of this thread.

- My judgement is that the simpest course of action is the best for right now. The PS Elements slideshow Creation will write a WMV file to the PC hard drive in a folder chosen by the user. Because it was stated that the current objective is to play the slide show on the recipients PC, I think that it would be simpler to do a PSE slideshow Output coammnd to save a WMV file. Then use the CD burning support that comes with Windows XP to write that WMV file to a CD and mail the CD to the recipients. (you write this wmv file to the CD as you write any Data file and not as a video CD)

- John is in favor of following the path to create a TV playable DVD, which does have the advantage that TV viewing allows more people to easily watch the slideshow. However, it is a more complex process and that is why I do not consider it the best immediate choice.

[johnfranklin]

I think John and I just do not agree on the best immediate solution.

We totally agree that the Video CD format is not good. We agree that if the slideshow is to be displayed on a TV, it should be done via a DVD (MPEG2 format) and that Premiere Elements will burn such an MPEG2 format DVD.

Where we do not agree is what is the best current solution for the originator of this thread.

- My judgement is that the simpest course of action is the best for right now. The PS Elements slideshow Creation will write a WMV file to the PC hard drive in a folder chosen by the user. Because it was stated that the current objective is to play the slide show on the recipients PC, I think that it would be simpler to do a PSE slideshow Output coammnd to save a WMV file. Then use the CD burning support that comes with Windows XP to write that WMV file to a CD and mail the CD to the recipients. (you write this wmv file to the CD as you write any Data file and not as a video CD)

- John is in favor of following the path to create a TV playable DVD, which does have the advantage that TV viewing allows more people to easily watch the slideshow. However, it is a more complex process and that is why I do not consider it the best immediate choice.

Okay, I just made a small slideshow with PSE5. Just a simple test mind you. Here are my test critera;
1. I selected about 25 photos 24 Jpeg, 1 Bmp
2. I opened creations and asked PSE to save the file to my drive as a
WMV file. It did so.
3. I simply opened Nero Express and asked it to burn a DATA disc. (Nero is my weapon of choice for all burning tasks). No Tricks, no file manipulation with Nero. Just drag the file into Nero and write the file on a CD-RW (Yes, this exactly Barb's suggestion with Nero substituted for the WMP burner).
4. I opened the Windows Media Player and asked it to play the disc.
This process took all of 10 minutes including PSE's encode! The CD played flawlessly. As I said this was a simple test. However, it does provide us (maybe) with a course of action. If all you want to do is make a CD with WMA files to give your friends, It seems to me a fairly simple task to accomplish. PSE5 obviously converted the still image files to WMV format.
All of this leaves me completely baffled as to why there was a "VCD" generated with all the slop files on it. Or why it wasn't (with PSE) saved to the HDD as a WMV file to begin with. After all, isn't that what we wanted in the first place? I probably don't need to mention this but, if you're going to generate a WMV CD it should be dedicated to only that because with a number of disparate file types The Windows Media Player won't know know what to do with it, and if you open the disc in Windows Explorer, it will either select the appropriate program to open the selected file (why it was booting PSE when it hit the PSD file) or simply open the folder and show you what's inside. Keep in mind that windows won't preview a PSD file for you. I hope that this helps. My advice for a course of action is to do as I did, and try something less ambitious 'till you get the hang of it. As to VCD being garbage, consider this, VCD has half the LINES of resolution of Standard Def TV (NTSC) and as a consequence of the inverse square has only ONE FORTH of the pixels. (We both agreed it was ca-ca and there's the math to prove it). Again, start with something simple and work from there. PSE will only save in PDF or WMA. So, I am creating a larger collection of photos, an asked PSE to save it as a WMF file with Standard NTSC 480 X 720 dimensions.(for burning to DVD), to which end I'm going to pull it into "NEROVISION 3", Have Nero convert the file to VIDEO_TS (DVD), and burn a DVD from it. No editing, just a simple re-encoding. So, I'll get back to you on the second half of this undertaking. Rather than have one solution with respect to choice of final media, it seems to me to be advantageous to have more.

[johnfranklin]

I spent a couple of hours here this morning, burning Cds and a DVD of some slide shows I created with PSE(5). They all worked. But I used the Nero suite 6.6 as the burning engine. I opened Nero Express, then open the "My Videos" folder (in my documents). Then I copy and paste the file into the file field of the Nero window. I simply burned the WMF file as "data " Nero asks what do you want to burn? I tell it data. Nero burns it and then the Windows Media Player runs it. I click on the disc in Windows Exoplorer, right click, on "Properties" and Windows tells me that the disc is "Windows Media Audio/video File" There are no"mystery" files on the CD. None, nada. My first impulse is to consider that the steps of this process are being done incorrectly. If there are any MPEGAV files on the disc then you tried to burn it with PSE's burning engine,if there are still PSD files on the disc then the slide show has either not been rendered by PSE or, yeah, well, or? Since the only way that PSE will render a slideshow to a disc is with a VCD. As to the Windows Media Player as a burning utility I avoid it like the plague. Dunno why, just do. Both Barb and myself outlined to process for creating a WMV disc,her with the WMP, I with Nero. If the Nero suite is then a problem, I just bought a Sumsung external DVD burner from Newegg, for $55.oo. It came with a full version of Nero with DVD-video plugin and it's a not a trial version!!! Either that's a free DVD burner or $55.oo worth of free software. Only the owner can dictate that spin. I concede completely that Premier is not the answer, since it would only serve to confuse the issue a great deal more.

[cshlagor]

The folders that you listed in the earlier post seemed like they are the correct folders for a VCD. Did you try to play the Video CD with your DVD player software on your PC?

You say you want a VCD - but maybe you don't really want a Video CD since it is a very specific format convention. Since you do not seem to be happy with the VCD, I am going to question you on why you do not want to use a DVD???

Or if you are only going to play this slideshow on a PC, you can write it out as a File. It can be a WMV file or a PDF file (with the restriction that a PDF file will not support pan and zoom). Then you can use any CD burning software to burn that file to a CD.
Barb, you mentioned that the folders on the CD I created from PE5 are the correct ones for a slideshow but how do I actually get the slideshow to start on the PC? When I put the CD in the CD/DVD drive shouldn't the slideshow open automatically with Windows Media Player or PE5 or something? It won't even start when I click on one of the folders on the CD (I presumed it would be the VCD folder but that doesn't open the slideshow either). I'm hopelessly new at this and pretty frustrated. Thanks for any help you can give me.

[johnfranklin]

Barb, you mentioned that the folders on the CD I created from PE5 are the correct ones for a slideshow but how do I actually get the slideshow to start on the PC? When I put the CD in the CD/DVD drive shouldn't the slideshow open automatically with Windows Media Player or PE5 or something? It won't even start when I click on one of the folders on the CD (I presumed it would be the VCD folder but that doesn't open the slideshow either). I'm hopelessly new at this and pretty frustrated. Thanks for any help you can give me.

PSE5 DOESN'T HAVE TO BE ABLE TO PLAY A VCD IT CAN SIMPLY PLAY THE SLIDESHOW FROM A FILE! With the correct graphics card, (S-Video Output) you can simply plug the computer into the TV and watch it there. I had believed this had been covered but, one more time: VCD is a GARBAGE format it is intended to allow mediocre quality video to be burned to a CD blank, then played in a freestanding DVD player or by someone that doesn't have a DVD drive. At first you just wanted to be able to share slideshows with your friends on their computers we solved that (mostly Barb) this way: EXPORT THE FILE AS WMV (save to the drive then burn it with the Windows Media Player. Since everybody can obtain the latest version of the Windows Media Player FOR FREE, even Mac users, all your friends will be able to load and play it on their computers! When I suggested DVD this became another controversy. Apparently, no matter how many alternatives are suggested, we keep coming back to this VCD you burned. I burned a VCD once. I put the VCD into my FREE-STANDING DVD recorder it played ,(first try).
I played it once. It was awful, wretched,ugly et al. I took it it out, and threw it away. Yes, I threw this extremely valuable 18 cent CD blank in the trash! So now, do we have to be able to play this VCD you made? Is it merely the challenge? So, if you've now decided you HAVE to HAVE VCDs, burn them with PSE and start looking around for something to play them on. Since I typed step by step instructions to get a WMV CD and explained where to begin with creating DVDs, this whole process seems to be going in circles back to where we began. When I get really stuck, I go the the menu bar, click on help, then the little blue question mark. I spent a couple of hours burning CD and DVD slideshows the other day, reasoning that I would be better able to communicate the methodology of creating them. Bear in mind (as I mentioned in my first post) I don't even bother with slideshows. The WMV CDs worked, the DVD worked, and yes, I used a NON-rewritable DVD-R to burn a slideshow that I didn't want or need. In fact, I may throw it away just to demonstrate that that can be done as well. I'm going to close now and come to grips with my failure as a communicator. You have a good night, and a pleasant tomorrow.:twisted:

[cshlagor]

Barb O and John Franklin, you have been awesome spending so much time on my issue. At some point during all my trials I think I did burn a wmv file to a hard drive and tried burning a CD but I will give that a try again and see what happens. I also did burn a DVD from Premier Elements and it played nicely on my TV, with one MAJOR exception - the pictures were "magnified" and cut off about 1/3 from all sides, meaning some pretty important heads were missing on picitures of my friends. That's not going to go over very well! What did I do wrong on the settings when I burned it?


Thank you so much and I'll let you know what happens!

[Barb O]

Barb O and John Franklin, you have been awesome spending so much time on my issue. At some point during all my trials I think I did burn a wmv file to a hard drive and tried burning a CD but I will give that a try again and see what happens. I also did burn a DVD from Premier Elements and it played nicely on my TV, with one MAJOR exception - the pictures were "magnified" and cut off about 1/3 from all sides, meaning some pretty important heads were missing on picitures of my friends. That's not going to go over very well! What did I do wrong on the settings when I burned it?

Do post back with your results creating a a WMV file in PSE and then using the CD burning software that came with your PC to burn that WMV file to a CD.

Also for your problem of heads missing when you made the DVD, I suggest that you post the pixel dimensions of your original photos. That info may help to figure out what happened.

[efarnstrom]

I will add my observations about this problem Elements with cutting off the image when played on a TV. It takes one time to learn to not put text too close to the edges and to manually adjust the image by clicking on it and grasping the corners to make it smaller. There are a couple of boxes you can check: crop to fit and fit on slide. I always use fit on slide.

In Premiere Elements, there is a handy tool to show you what will be cut off. Right click on the image in the monitor and choose "safe margins." This will plop some lines on the image. The outer one indicates this portion may be cut off: they call it the action safe margin. The inner one (called a title safe margin) is used to guide you to keep the text within this margin. You can manually adjust your image to make it fit within the safe margins as above, click on the image and grasp the corners to make the image smaller. The safe margin lines will not appear on the video.

I did a search in help to see if there is a comparable safe margin guide in Elements. I didn't find it.

I hope this helps.

[Barb O]

efranstorm

Thanks for mentioning the "Crop to Fit" choice in the Photoshop Elements slide show Preferences. It is likely that choosing crop to fit may have caused the partial heads result the cshlagor experienced. I always have the Crop to Fit unchecked and I tend to forget about its existence.

I agree that there seems to be no choice of showing the Safe Margins in the Photoshop Elements slideshow Creation process - hopefully a future version will provide that. For now all we can do is keep text away from the edges.

[MarieBoyer]

John:
I do not want to hijack this thread from original poster, but would you be willing to list the steps of how you take the PSE slide show into Nero (which I have but do not use for this) and burn it to DVD for viewing on tv screen?


I have a full blown digital video-editing software solution that I love and use all the time. But PSE slide shows offer incredible simplicity and speed. If I could make one within PSE and then burn it to Nero for tv, I would be psyched.

You may have exhausted your store of advice here, but if not, I would love the exact steps. Thanks a million.

[cshlagor]

Thanks to everyone and their suggestions. I FINALLY got a great slideshow! I created the slideshow in PE5 and "unchecked" the "Crop to Fit" in the Edit, Slideshow Preferences. I also checked the "Fit To Slide" by opening up the properties on each picture. I then saved it to "My Videos" in my C drive. I then went to that folder and selected the file and used the Windows XP CD writing software It turned out great - no heads cut off!

Thanks again, everyone!

[johnfranklin]

[QUOTE=MarieBoyer;178344]John:
I do not want to hijack this thread from original poster, but would you be willing to list the steps of how you take the PSE slide show into Nero (which I have but do not use for this) and burn it to DVD for viewing on tv screen?

It's almost as easy as pie. (whatever that means). First you need the full retail version of Nero. This must include "Nerovision Express", Which is the application that will convert the file format to DVD-Video for you.
1. Create your slideshow. When you're done, click "Output" then (same window) "Save as a file" and check "Movie File" (WMV) and in the slide size box select "DVD - NTSC 720 x 480". Click OK to save it.
2. Remember where you put it. (This is the step I always forget)

3. Close PSE, then launch Nero. "Smartstart" appears. You can launch "Nerovision Express" by simply clicking on it in the program list on the left side of the smartstart window.
4. 1st Nerovision window, on the right "what would you like to do?" Hover on "Make DVD" then click "DVD-Video"
5. Next window: " What would you like to do?" Click "add video files" the file browser window opens (to "my videos" by default, so put your slideshow there to begin with.) Click on the slideshow, then click open. Nero will import it. In the same window click "Next".
6. You should be on the menu page now. At the top right you'll see "menus to use" in the drop down select "do not create a menu" (first try, after all) Click "Next"
7. You should be in the preview screen. (TV screen & Remote control(which works)) With no menu it will auto-play the slideshow for you
8. Happy? then click "Next".
9. We're almost done! You should be in the "Burn Options" window.
the top left will say "Current Video Options" They should be: "Aspect ratio: automatic", "Video mode: NTSC", And "Quality: Automatic". (These should be the defaults)
10 Click "Burn To", select your recorder and click "BURN"
11. That's it! A few minutes later Your burner should spit out a DVD slideshow!:cool:

[MarieBoyer]

This is awesome! John thank you so much! I have not tried them yet, but I printed these and have taped it to my desk to give it a try when I have time. Much appreciated!!!

[mom to 4]

John:

I just tried you method!!! How easy was that!!!! Great! Worked like a charm!!!!

EVERYOBN SHOULD TRY IT !!!!

[johnfranklin]

This is awesome! John thank you so much! I have not tried them yet, but I printed these and have taped it to my desk to give it a try when I have time. Much appreciated!!!

You're quite welcome!

[mom to 4]

Just wondering....do you know if I can use that same method for burning if I use Pinnacle Studio for a slide show???????

BTW, I made two copies. the first took about 20 minutes to burn and the second took all of 3 minutes!!! It was incredibly easy!

Thank you John!!!!

[johnfranklin]

Just wondering....do you know if I can use that same method for burning if I use Pinnacle Studio for a slide show???????

BTW, I made two copies. the first took about 20 minutes to burn and the second took all of 3 minutes!!! It was incredibly easy!

Thank you John!!!!

Nero will convert most video formats so, I'm going to say: If Pinnacle will let you save the slide show in a format that Nero will convert, sure why not? Once it's saved to the drive it's out of pinnacles hands. The only (theoretical) way that Nero couldn't burn it, is if Pinnacle will only save in a proprietary format that Nero can't read. Say ".pnc" or such. < (I made that file extension up).

[cshlagor]

johnfranklin, I've got a new copy of Nero 7, just released in October 06, and it has the Nero SmartStart but I can't see that it has Nero Express. Are you saying that I won't be able to import a .wmv file to make a DVD video or slideshow with it? I haven't tried creating anything yet and I want to know what I'm getting myself into. Thanks.

[cshlagor]

johnfranklin, nevermind my previous e-mail. I did find NeroExpress in the menu for Nero 7 under the "data" option. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm going to try to convert that slideshow I had so many problems with in PE5 to a DVD (like you originally suggested!) just to see what happens. The Video Slideshow worked great so I thought I'd graduate to DVD's!

[johnfranklin]

johnfranklin, nevermind my previous e-mail. I did find NeroExpress in the menu for Nero 7 under the "data" option. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm going to try to convert that slideshow I had so many problems with in PE5 to a DVD (like you originally suggested!) just to see what happens. The Video Slideshow worked great so I thought I'd graduate to DVD's!

The DVD burn is NOT going to be a "data" burn. It's going to be a DVD-video burn. Follow the post I made on Page two of this thread, step by step, ( The post is titled: Click, Click, Burn, Burn), and you should get it on the first try. I only have version 6.6 of the Nero suite, but other than added features, I don't picture the user interface being much, if any, different.

[cshlagor]

Yeah, I know it wasn't a data burn but for some reason the Nero Express function was found under the data option in Nero 7 Once I got to Nero Express there was the option for the DVD video. In the end, though, I didn't use Express, I used the Nero 7 DVD video option on the main menu. It was awesome and very fast! Thanks for your help!

[MarieBoyer]

I am about to try this "John Franklin/NERO method" for creating a DVD with PSE. Very excited about it.

Before I start, can I ask two simple questions:
1. Can PSE handle >200 photos?
2. Can it handle multiple music tracks?

I have Pinnacle (a full blown editor) but it would be nice to make simple, quick slide shows with JUST photos and music from within Elements. Wondering the basic parameters before I start launching into a big project.

Thanks in advance.

[johnfranklin]

I am about to try this "John Franklin/NERO method" for creating a DVD with PSE. Very excited about it.

Before I start, can I ask two simple questions:
1. Can PSE handle >200 photos?
2. Can it handle multiple music tracks?

I have Pinnacle (a full blown editor) but it would be nice to make simple, quick slide shows with JUST photos and music from within Elements. Wondering the basic parameters before I start launching into a big project.

Thanks in advance.

I burned a DVD video slide show from PSE5 with Nerovision Express, it worked just fine. When the "creation" reaches Nero it's already been encoded by PSE with respect to file extension (.wmv) and resolution (720 X 480) Nero merely takes that file and "transcodes" it to DVD-Video. So pass or fail is (or should be) based on PSE's ability to encode the .wmv file. I have some reservations (unsubstantiated) as to whether PSE's encoder can withstand multiple file types, alpha channels (saved selections) extremely large files, (say 30 megabyte PSDs ) The more work the encoder has to do, the longer it will take. I am starting to think that preparation for these projects should begin in the editor. The photos I used to create it were were all fairly large Jpegs (1 to 3+ Megabytes) and PSE had no problems with it whatsoever. When it was presented to Nero, the slideshow was about 160 megabytes and was about 245 photos and it hardly scratched the surface of the blank media or Nero's ability to burn it. So, have fun;)

[cshlagor]

I tried the DVD with Nero Express but it only allow 99 pictures. Nero 7 allowed all 313 pictures that I had.

[johnfranklin]

I tried the DVD with Nero Express but it only allow 99 pictures. Nero 7 allowed all 313 pictures that I had.
Linda Ronstadt: Different Drum: Her first big hit. My Point, you say?
I am using Firefox at the moment, it supports tabbed browsing, my point you say? The second tab is opened to Nero's website. Nero 7 has "Nerovision 4" now, if you brought 99, 321 or 2000 pictures into Nero you did not follow any of my instructions. PSE will create the slideshow and save it as a WMV files then you import it into Nero[U]as one slideshow, not separate pictures[U] Now, Nero will make slideshows on it's own. But, I didn't think that that was the point of this discussion. I thought we were trying to use PSE to create the file and just use Nero as the burning engine, which by the way is the thing at which it's best. Nero sucks as a video editor, Nero sucks as a photo editor. But for encoding and burning there's nothing like it! As long as you got what you wanted I suppose no harm, no foul! Again I implore you to read my post "click, click, burn, burn". Just substitute Nerovision 4 for Nerovision 3.:(

[johnfranklin]

I tried the DVD with Nero Express but it only allow 99 pictures. Nero 7 allowed all 313 pictures that I had.
Linda Ronstadt: Different Drum: Her first big hit. My Point, you say?
I am using Firefox at the moment, it supports tabbed browsing, my point you say? The second tab is opened to Nero's website. Nero 7 has "Nerovision 4". Now, if you brought 99, 321 or 2000 pictures into Nero you did not follow any of my instructions. PSE will create the slideshow and save it as a WMV files then you import it into Nero as one slideshow, not separate pictures Now, Nero will make slideshows on it's own. But, I didn't think that that was the point of this discussion. I thought we were trying to use PSE to create the WMV file and just use Nero as the burning engine, which by the way is the thing at which it's best. Nero sucks as a video editor, Nero sucks as a photo editor. But for encoding and burning there's nothing like it! As long as you got what you wanted I suppose no harm, no foul! Again I implore you to read my post "click, click, burn, burn". Just substitute NeroVision 4 for Nerovision 3. My "StartSmart" interface calls the program you should be using " Nerovision Express 3". Nero Express 7 is another program altogether. NeroVision Is Nero's video editing program, and when you save from PSE as WMV you now have a video file to contend with.

[cshlagor]

Yep, you're right and I did follow your instructions. I imported the slideshow itself, not the individual pictures. When I first tried Nero Express I was importing the individual pictures (it would only import 99) and that's what I thought the previous forum user was asking about. However, if you're importing the slideshow itself into Nero 7's Nero 4, you're right, it will import all photos, no matter how many.

[johnfranklin]

Yep, you're right and I did follow your instructions. I imported the slideshow itself, not the individual pictures. When I first tried Nero Express I was importing the individual pictures (it would only import 99) and that's what I thought the previous forum user was asking about. However, if you're importing the slideshow itself into Nero 7's Nero 4, you're right, it will import all photos, no matter how many.

This is semantic but at that point they're no long pictures per se but a "movie". I helps me to think of it that way. Still, we're good now, yes?

[mom to 4]

Have to admit, backin September I tried to create a slideshow IN nero and had the issue with only allowing 99 photos. Didn't have PSE5 or Pinnacle at the time. Now I have both!:D create in them and only BURN with Nero. Thanks John, it really worked great!

[johnfranklin]

Have to admit, backin September I tried to create a slideshow IN nero and had the issue with only allowing 99 photos. Didn't have PSE5 or Pinnacle at the time. Now I have both!:D create in them and only BURN with Nero. Thanks John, it really worked great!

Nero is a burning suite with paranoid delusions of editorhood!! Don't fall for it! Grab your fiddle and enjoy the ride! (after you've done all your editing and creating in PSE!!) You're quite Welcome!

[MarieBoyer]

Just wanted to report back about my experience with PSE/Nero versus my Pinnacle software (equivalent to Premiere).

I followed John's directions, and they worked like a CHARM. Thanks so much, John! Very easy to follow. You should write a manual on "how to" items in digital photography, processing etc...

I watched my newly created PSE/Nero DVD tonight and the quality was okay not great. Just not as crisp as I am used to.

I then went and created it anew in Pinnacle and the quality upgrade was astounding. The encoders in these more serious digital editing programs is really much better for DVD slide shows. Just something to keep in mind.

[johnfranklin]

o.

I then went and created it anew in Pinnacle and the quality upgrade was astounding. The encoders in these more serious digital editing programs is really much better for DVD slide shows. Just something to keep in mind.

I going to take your word for this, in spite of one point I don't quite understand. I "assumed" that the resolution of the DVD/NTSC format would be the limiting factor of output quality, (720 X 480). Only so many pixels to play with, as it were. So, this does come as quite a surprise. It's counter intuitive I tell you!:eek:

[MarieBoyer]

John:
I was surprised by the quality differential as well. And disappointed. But I burned the identical DVD in both programs and watched them on my t.v., back-to-back. So I could see the difference in real time.

My Nero DVD also skipped in a couple of places. That surprised me as well. I was not sure how to slow the burning down to try it again, but Pinnacle had no skipping so I simply threw away the PSE disc.

Thanks again for your excellent directions.

[johnfranklin]

John:
I was surprised by the quality differential as well. And disappointed. But I burned the identical DVD in both programs and watched them on my t.v., back-to-back. So I could see the difference in real time.

My Nero DVD also skipped in a couple of places. That surprised me as well. I was not sure how to slow the burning down to try it again, but Pinnacle had no skipping so I simply threw away the PSE disc.

Thanks again for your excellent directions.

Well, Nero is based in Karlsbad, Germany, so it is sorta like brought to you by the same wonderful people who brought you World War II. Then it opened in the US and traveled back to Yokahama. Again eerie.:rolleyes: For me to say anything against PSE would be tantamount to heresy.:o Further obfuscating the issue is the fact I was taught that pinnacle was a superlative adjective, so you couldn't have more than one in any given context. Yet when I stumble into Best Buy, I have often seen many levels of pinnacle. Which is the most serious?:confused: They didn't have tongue in cheek smilies in the menu so, please read them into that paragraph.

Nero is sort of moody and cranky at times. Elements has DVD data burning codecs, but apparently Adobe is too cheap (again here what I call too cheap, Adobe would consider being practical) to license a DVD-Video codec(they would rather sell you PE!) So, they continue to campaign with VCD, not even SVCD, (which would be Mpeg2, same as DVD).

Drive burning speed is adjustable in Nero in the final click to "Burn" screen, there's a drop down almost in the center of the window. Thus far it has been my experience that drive speed has no direct bearing on success of a disc burn. I've slowed down drives and had them generate bad discs, then cranked them up to full speed and been successful with the same project. Sometimes it just spits out coasters no matter what speed I'm using. (my Nero is having a CDaudio crisis at the moment). That could just be my luck, simple misadventure, or the wrath of God. I just bought another 100 CD-Rs and "As God is my witness I'll never go CDA hungry again".
I guess I should apologize to Vivien Leigh for that, albeit posthumously.
As I said before, one of Nero's virtues is the ability to import and manipulate so many different video formats (with varying degrees of success).
I have a couple of stand alone Pioneer DVD recorders, which possess the most bizarre of filing conventions. They crash Nero, well you name it and their DVD-RW VR mode recordings will crash it. They have file pointers going to addresses that simply don't exist. This is even after the discs are finalized.

When you say "serious video editing" could you clarify that as to edition and dollar value. For instance, Comp USA is selling one of Pinnacle's little "Dazzle" USB2.0 capture thingys (with some software) this week for $35.00 I'm going to stick my neck way out and say that's probably not what you're talking about. I fear you mean the $1000.00 Pinnacle Liquid Edition 7.

The AV editing segment of the software market has probably more purchasing pitfalls and pretenders than any other (save games). The names Pinnacle and Canopus keep popping up as high quality, but the price range of their product is massive, from 50 bucks to second mortgage. I had taken a video course in college using Premier Pro, and on the school's underpowered and insufficiently equipped with memory computers, It turned out to be a "crash course" in the truest sense of the word.:D The words "Final Cut Pro" were always on my lips, like a prayer.

[MarieBoyer]

John:
I use and LOVE Pinnacle Version 9 Studio Plus. I have never upgraded from my version, even though the upgrades were free. I always have a fear of tinkering with something that works.

It costs about $100. Now it is in version 10. I talked Colleen into buying it, as she was desparate some time ago to create a slide show in a really short time frame (and we had not yet learned that we could use Nero to burn one from within our beloved PSE). I knew Pinnacle and I knew I could walk her through it over the telephone so she took the plunge. She has Version 10 and is very happy with it as well. Hers only cost her $50 at Target.

I bought Pinnacle before I even had PSE. I have always been interested in digital video editing, since I was in college and made a slide show for my graduating class -- of the year in review.

Pinnacle can be finicky. I suspect they all can. I have some tricks that help a lot, and have helped Colleen as well. We turn our internet off, turn off our Anti-virus product, and then use "EndItAll2" to turn off every single program running in the background. That way we are using Pinnacle in a more pristine environment, and it is less likely to hiccup. I can share more details with you anytime.

Colleen is currently working on a gargantuan project in Pinnacle. She is becoming quite the star, mastering it like a pro. I will send her this link so she can weigh in. Hopefully her project is going well. If not, I am sure she will tell you!

Let me know if you need anything else. Thanks again for the Nero help. I love Nero. Whenever I cannot get my project to burn in Pinnacle (which fortunately is rare), I turn to Nero and it always works.

[mom to 4]

Oh, Marie!!! I am becoming quite the star?????:o How many times to I call you with questions????????:eek:

John:

I have Pinnacles Studio Version 10. I must admit I really do love it. I purchased it in September and created my first slide show from start to finish including render and burn in about 6 hours. I did a very basic slide show usiing about 150 slides, many title overlays and 3 songs. The slide show lasted 10 to 15 minutes:eek: It was a learning experience!

I am currently working on a slide show for our football banquet. I have about 600 slides lots of pan and zoom, blank title slides, title overlays, sound effects, and lots of music. I am almost afraid to say it is working like a charm. That is always the kiss of death for me!!!

Anyway, I bought my version of Pinnacle at Target on sale for $50. ABSOLUTELY WELL WORTH $50. I did try the PSE version and it worked well enough, but I just think there is much more flexibility in the Pinnacle. I didn't delve into PSE too much, but it seemed to work fine, but first, I paid $50 for pinnacle. I don't intend to throw it away, I WILL use it. Second, although PSE may have some of the same features, (and I am not denegrading PSE's at all ) I am very impressed with the different views you have in Pinnacle. I just feel that PSE is more for photo edited and its slide show feature is more of a nice add on. I feel Pinnacle is to the slide show what PSE is to photo editing. Does that make sense to you????

In Pinnacle, I am continually flipping back and forth between the slideshow view, the tracks view (actually called something else) and the text veiw. I think all have great benefits in creating the slide show precisely how you want it. My first "burn" through Pinnacle was very scary for me and Marie walked me through it. Although I took notes from her, I am concerned about my ability to do it again without her help. I did burn my PSE show through NERO and I thought it worked extremely well.......Did Marie say there were a few blips in her burn through Nero???? I thoguht the Nero burn was very quick!!! Very quick!! I think what I might do is my first burn of the slide show through Pinnacle and then burn another through Nero, and yes Marie, I am surprised you didn't see the speed burn timing (?) on that screen, I usually lower it as per your recommendation.

I do as Marie said....unplug my cable, turn off my AVG, and END IT ALL to the background. Pinnacle runs much smoother and faster that way. Before I started doing that pinnacle would just close on me in the middle of working on something, but my work was always automatically saved. Love that feature. But since shutting everything down, it hasn't shut down once on me! I burned some of the music for the slide show to CD's the other night and didn't shut things down.....phew! Lousey.....lots of skips. I was just in a hurry and said burn it! Won't do that again!

So, what was I supposed to be weighing in on???????:D

[Brio]

This may be a workaround for your problem. I had used this when I made some VCD's a few years ago.
Startup windows media player, then file:open. Select the drive that shows your VCD and double click. Select folder named MPEGAV. In the drop down list at the bottom of the window change the file type from"media files" to "all files" You should see a file named something like "avseq01.dat" Double click on this and see if VCD plays.
Good luck

[Magnanimity]

To answer the initial question as to how to open the slideshow file in PSE 7.0: Windows Media is the program you need to use to read the .DAT file, even though you get an error initially which probably scares people saying you'll do damage if you try to mess with the file. Don't be scared.

So, open the "MPEGAV" file. Get through all the screens until you can browse the program you want to choose to open the file anyway (disregarding the "error"...choose Windows media. PLAY, then right click to get to full screen).


It sends up an error telling you that you can corrupt data or the disc trying to "alter" any information on it. But, you aren't wanting to alter anything, you are just wanting to play it, so click on the button where it says to choose a program that will open it (Windows Media) AND select the little box that says "Always choose this program to open these types of files" -- you won't keep getting that error pop up.

I did think that the size screen options for burning the file were a bit small for large screen viewing, which is what I need it for. I like the idea of creating it with PSE, then using another application to burn it to file. I may try that next time.