wedding slide show

[Kelli]

I am making a slide show for my son's wedding and just want to make sure I have what I need. I primarily use Photoshop element 5 for photo editing. I can create a slide show in that, but cannot burn it to a DVD, right? I need to get Premiere elements 3 in order to do that, if I understand correctly. Will the DVD I make be able to play in any DVD player, or only on a computer? Thanks everyone!

[efarnstrom]

My DVDs play on DVD players or computers with the proper media players.

[ATR]

Kelli

In order to playback your Photoshop Elements 5.0 slideshow on the TV/DVD (better quality), you are going to get your slideshow into a DVD-VIDEO format on a DVD disc. The terminology is sometimes confusing since often you see DVD and DVD-VIDEO used interchangeably.

If you have only have Photoshop Elements 5.0, you can make a VCD (your slideshow on a CD in the VCD format), but you will probably not be happy with the quality when you play it back on your TV/DVD player (IF it supports VCD).

Do you have Nero software that came with your DVD/CD Burner? If Nero Vision (a component of Nero) has the DVD-VIDEO plug in, then you can save your slideshow as wmv and use Nero Vision to create the DVD-VIDEO from it. It is important to recognize that the slideshow comes out of Photoshop Elements 5.0 as wmv and that wmv needs to be converted to DVD-VIDEO on a DVD disc.

There are all sorts of alternatives, but Photoshop Elements 5.0 ALONE is not going to get you the DVD-VIDEO.

Take a look at this recent discussion in another Thread.

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28241

To be continued,

ATR

[Kelli]

I am aware that Photoshop Elements 5 is not going to allow me to burn my slide show to a DVD.
I do not want to burn a CD in VCD format, but a DVD that will play on DVD players. (The software that came with my computer is Roxio. I have only burned CD's -have never tried to burn a DVD.) I am going to purchase Premiere Elements 3 to help make this slideshow because I have heard that it works seamlessly with PSE5 to create a DVD. What does it offer that PSE5 does not for making slide shows, other than you can burn to a DVD instead of a VCD? And, do I still need something like Nero, or does Premiere Elements actually have the burning software with it? Thanks for all your help....

[baderms]

Premiere elements 3 will burn DVDs. I have used it to build about 10 slide shows with both still shots as well as video to a soundtrack. The only problem I've had is on large shows it crashes when burning to DVD often. I've had better luck creating it to a folder on the disk then using Roxio to burn the DVD.

[Kelli]

Thanks Mark, If I am understanding your answer correctly it sounds like Premiere Elements 3 does come with it's own burning software and that you have had better luck creating the slide show and then using Roxio to burn it. I guess I will have to experiment with some slide shows before making my final one.

[ATR]

Good Morning Kelli

1. Roxio. See if it has option to take saved wmv sllideshow created in Photoshop Elements 5.0 and burn it to a DVD-VIDEO format on a DVD disc.

2. Major roles....Premiere Elements is a video editor in contrast to Photoshop Elements, a photo editor. There are workarounds but for Premiere Elements but (a) no fit audio to video button (b) pan & zoom has more detail to operation, either keyframing pr presets for either a pan or a zoom.

3. Major consideration...with specific combo of Photoshop Elements 5.0 and Premiere Elements 3.0, you have option to send slideshow from Photoshop Elements 5.0 as wmv slideshow or as is to Premiere Elements 3.0. This has editing implications for the slideshow once it is in Premiere Elements 3.0. You could wait and see what "Photoshop Elements 6.0 and Premiere Elements 4.0" has to offer. What you might look to see if "Photoshop Elements 6.0 and Premiere Elements 4.0" offers this same option of wmv or as is option.

4. Premiere Elements has its own burn engine for DVD-VIDEO. It is based on Sonic Record Now. The "burn to disc" route uses this. If you opt to use "burn to folder" instead, then you use the VIDEO_TS folder in this saved folder and burn it to DVD using the burn software that came with your DVD/CD burner. For the latter, in most cases you use the setting for burning video files, not make data disc. But, check out the software that came with your DVD/CD burner to see if and how it handles this type of video file.

You have a lot of choices. You could also create slideshow completely in Premiere Elements. A lot of pros and cons. As you can read from other Threads, some prefer to use a non Adobe software for the whole job of creating a slideshow and converting it into a DVD-VIDEO.

I will watch for additional questions.

ATR

[Kabeeo]

I have used Premiere Elements 3 to burn a number of projects that I have made with Premiere Elements 3 and have only had one small problem. It does take a while for the burning to the DVD and my screen saver kept coming on and interfering. It was a pain in the neck. If it is a long project, turn off your screen saver at least for the burning process.

[Kelli]

Thanks ATR...what a thorough explanation! I think what I will do is purchase Premiere 3, make my slide show in Elements 5 and import it to Premiere 3. Then it sounds like I either have the option to burn it to a DVD through the Premiere software or my own Roxio software. I have lots of time to experiment and see which works best for me. I guess I also need to decide if the format I need to use when I export it from PSE 5 is "as is" or as a "wmv video", right? In your experience which one produces a better quality DVD for my purpose? Thanks so much for your patience in answering my questions!
Kelli

[ATR]

Kelli

If you do decide to buy Premiere Elements 3.0, be sure to check the System Requirements beforehand. Next, once you get it installed, be sure to install the Premiere Elements 3.0.2 update from Adobe.

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3565

You are doing the right thing by not waiting until the last minute to check out all your creative tools.

Good luck, and I will waiting for the happy words "success".

ATR

[efarnstrom]

I have used the Elements 5 Premiere3 combination just fine for a year. Then, when the chips were down and I absolutly HAD to have a DVD burned I got an error message. I spent all night trying various ways to get this thing burned, and finally had a DUH moment. I searched here and got an answer. The problem was in the transfer from Elements to Premiere. I had two Elements files with pan and zoom direct from Elements (no file) to Premiere, separated by a short video clip. The whole thing was about 20 minutes long. Frankly, I will NOT do this again until I have the next versions...due out shortly.

Here is the thread I started, with reference to the search where I found the answer.

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27763

[ATR]

efarnstrom

Your spirit of search and find and solve is great. Keep up the good work, and thanks for those helpful links.

If you are referring to the "Data Rate" problem that pops up from time to time, do not dump old for new just yet. I need to check, but it is my recollection that this has occurred with other Photoshop Elements/Premiere Elements combos. You are right that a popular belief is that it is related to a "glitch" in the transfer of the slideshow from Photoshop Elements to Premiere Elements. I do not know if that is THE answer or just a throw out until a better explanation surfaces.

ATR

[efarnstrom]

My frustration was that I had used this combo often and never had a problem. I really like the ease of pan and zoom with Elements, and that is the only reason I used Elements slide show at all. On large projects I would break up segments so that I could insert video clips between them. I always use resized images; i.e., 1024px x 683px, and give enough time for the pan/zoom to complete the action before the transition.

My equipment is: Windows XP with all updates, Dell Dimensions with Intel Pentium D Processor 820 (2.8 GHz) w/ dual core; 4 GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 256MB PCI Express x 16 nVidia GeForce 6800. There is 45 GB free space on my hard drive, which has been defragged. Since reading advice on this forum, I learned early on to turn off screen savers and sleep mode. I always restart my computer before burning a DVD.

This project showed signs of trouble before the burning. When playing from the timeline, it would freeze the image but the audio would continue. As I recall, the preview DVD was okay, so I tried to burn the DVD.

I recreated this show 4 different ways and failed on the burn each time. Then I did the workaround. It messed up my transistions so I wasn't happy with the final result.

Now I skip the Elements slide show altogether and go straight to Premiere to create the show. I don't get the fancy pan/zoom effect, but that is how it is.

Many, many thanks for all the work you do helping us out. I read every post of yours that I find and this has saved me from coming to grief before!