# What program do you use for making a slideshow



## sandman55 (May 28, 2005)

Hi Guys as the title says what program do you use to make a slide show. After our recent trip to New Zealand I decided to make a slide show with music in the background so I downloaded a trial of Photostage slide show producer and was impressed with what it could do but I didn't burn it to disk at that time. I got busy and by the time I decided to get back into it the trial had expired so I lashed out and bought the professional version which was a download. 

The making of the slide show as I said was good but when I burnt it to a DVD to play on my TV it would only play a couple of frames and stutter and lock up also the quality of the slides are poor. I tried saving it as a .avi file and using another program to burn it to DVD and that worked but once again the quality of the images was poor. I think they try to make the file size too small so it wont take up too much space on disk. I see others on the net complaining about this program.

I'm cutting my losses I have made too many DVD coasters with this program and I have asked for a refund which I am confident I will get because of their policy NCH Software Refund Policy Statement and our consumer affairs laws so I'm not looking for help with this program just advice on a better program. I have tried the free Windows DVD maker and I see that the images are poor in that as well. I have a friend who makes good slide shows and would ask him but he is overseas at the moment so I would be interested if anyone has used a good program.


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## etaf (Dec 28, 2008)

I use windows movie maker 
What version of windows do you have 

It has worked great for quite a few DVDs i have created of images set to music

you can set the quality you want - just make sure the images are to the same quality 

its part of windows essentials (i cant remember if it comes with windows 7, BUT It does not come with windows 8 and you have to download windows essentials)


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## sandman55 (May 28, 2005)

Hi etaf I have Windows 7 Home Premium and it comes with Windows DVD maker. It does a reasonable job but I lose the quality of the photos. I can set the aspect ratio from 4:3 and 16:9 also the burner speed which I set to slow and The Video format which I set to PAL which is the Australian setting but there is not setting for its quality it's quite basic.


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## etaf (Dec 28, 2008)

What quality are the photos to start with

what size TV

I played on a 50" and looks ok 

1080 pixels high


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## sandman55 (May 28, 2005)

It's modern wide screen TV measures diagonally 102 cm/40 inch The photos are good quality before starting. The Windows DVD maker is better quality than the Photostage software. I just tried the photos as .jpg's on a USB stick on the TV and they are very clear the Windows DVD maker is not as clear but the frames are steady I could use this if I had to, the Photostage played on my computer (22 inch/56 cm wide screen) as it doesn't play on the TV is much less clear and the frames seem to vibrate a little. Maybe I'm asking too much but to play the photos as files from my usb stick is great (my TV just plays the individual photos) only there is no music and I can't pass this on to friends and family as a playable movie


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

DVD resolution is only Standard Definition (720 x 576 pixels) which is why photos look a bit shabby compressed for DVD by DVD maker.
You can use Windows MovieMaker to make a slideshow that will be higher definition...I think full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) is the highest MovieMaker goes ...unless they have introduced 4K timelines.
To do this you just need to make sure you have the project settings set to give you the HD timeline then before adding your images define the time each image is on screen (can't remember what the default time is...may either be in seconds or frames...timeline will be 25fps for us PAL ppl) then import and drag the images to the timeline, rearrange them in the order you want them in, add titles, music then choose HD export settings for an avi or wmv file


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## sandman55 (May 28, 2005)

Thanks for that zulu I will check it out. I must say NCH were prompt in giving me a refund for the Photostage software it came through today. I did find their Wavepad sound editor (Free) was a good program.


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

They make some good software...I used to use Prism, their video converter, when I had to transcode footage before editing and have used Wavepad too


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

a couple from a Google search for best HD slideshow software...first one says it can do 4K resolution...last one I have heard of people using it...haven't tried it myself


Disclaimer: I haven't tried or even downloaded any so can't vouch for them to be any good or even malware free...try at your own risk 

4K Slideshow Maker

ezvid

a review from another site


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## sandman55 (May 28, 2005)

Thanks zulu I just had a play with Windows movie maker and so far I am impressed I have only previewed the slideshow it but it looks like it will do the job the resolution looks good I have all my photos and music in numerical order and they dropped in nicely the music has fade in and fade out I haven't played with slide transitions yet but I think simple is best otherwise I have to allow for extra time and to match the slides to my music works out best in this case. 

I wont try downloading any others as when things weren't working out with photostage it was late at night and I was tired and downloaded smilebox I started to install it and got to reading the Eula and it said about third party programs and a tool bar so I stopped there and Googled it and found malware went with it. Even though I didn't click accept the next day a program that shouldn't have been on my PC wanted to update. Fortunately I have an Acronis image and I reimaged my PC

The Windows Movie maker I think might save as a .avi file. I hope it saves as a playable movie that can go in a DVD player and start up automatically that I can give out to family. Anyway hopefully I will get time to have a play with it tomorrow evening, it looks good.


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## sandman55 (May 28, 2005)

Thanks for your help zulu the Windows Movie maker worked out. I had to download DVD Flick to convert it for TV and burn it and in doing so I lost a little resolution but still acceptable. All the DVDs are done and posted to family and I was able to get my money back for the Photostage software.


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

:thumb: good to hear sandy


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## CharisVera41 (Jul 21, 2015)

I use photodex since i rebuild my system. I's professional and easy to use. You can make slideshows in few clicks without doing complicated tweaks.


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