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[Ann J Evans]

Looking at your post dated Apr 2004 re Creating A DVD AS Easy As 1-2-3.

We have just for the 1st time created a 190+ album in 3D-Album, and got right thru to and including the capture to create a movie file.

We notice that you have listed some Authoring progams to use to get the DVD for use on a DVD player / TV.

There are so many options available now Can you recommend a suitable program. Are you still using U-Lead Picture show.?

Appreciate your reply
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Ann
Taranaki
New Zealand

[Bill Smith]

Ann,

This is a good question. It deserves it's own thread, so I've asked the support team at 3D-Album to move your question and my answer (and any others who jump in) to a new posting thread.

I am not the right person to recommend any one authoring program over another. Why? Because, unlike several others I really don't do this commercially. Most of my DVDs go to friends whose children are getting married (and who I watched grow up).

I have used Ulead's CD&DVD Picture Show product for many of my DVDs. I currently own version 3 of that product. It fits most of my needs - but it isn't the best authoring product out there. It is inexpensive, costing only about $50. The biggest drawback with version 3 of this product is that you can't move the chapters around. You can use your own background picture, but must use one of their template layouts. They have quite a few.

I have just recently obtained a copy of Ulead's DVD Movie Factory 4.0 SE product that came bundled with some hardware that I purchased. I am going to start using it, as among other things it allows me to move the Chapter icons around. This product is alos inexpensive - costing only about $70.

Both the Picture Show and the Movie Factory product allow me to create simple slide shows, and to add videos created by 3D-Album. More important to me, they also allow me to create the DVD file folders on my hard drive, so that I can then use a separate DVD burn program allowing me to mix together the TV DVD along with other PC programs such my digital photo album (a simple HTML slide show), copies of pictures ready to print (full resolution sizes), etc.

Many people will already have some basic authoring program that came with their new PC or their DVD writing drive. Unless they are doing commercial work requiring better controls and capabilities they can probably get by with those products. I'll let other forum posters respond with their favorite products and ask them to explain why they like those products.
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Bill

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[Ann J Evans]

Thank you Bill for your reply. I also don't want to buy an expensive authoring program, at this stage anyway. I was interested in your comments about Ulead and we have checked out their products on line.
I will look forward to hearing other comments on other software.
Thank you again.

Ann
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Ann
Taranaki
New Zealand

[nan]

I recommend Sony's Vegas MovieStudio + DVD (If you want HD, go for the Platinum edition.) The software is not expensive and they offer you upgrade path to the professional Vegas version. I used to use Ulead and Pinnacle. Ulead is a good choice but I do not recommend Pinnacle. Vegas MovieStudio is very efficeint and easy to use. I am now thinking about to upgrade to the professional version.

[Ann J Evans]

Thank you for that - I will check that out as well.
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Ann
Taranaki
New Zealand

[rsnow]

I guess I'll be the lone advocate for Pinnacle. I have had a love/hate relationship with Pinnacle Studio for the last 10 years (well at least from version 8 on). Yes, at first I had a lot of problems with their program. But then they issued a patch which resolved 99% of those problems. When I upgraded to the next higher version (9) it was the same thing over again...problems resolved 6 months later with a patch. Since the patch I have been able to create a number of DVD videos without any problems. That is without problems other than the ones I create myself.

Although I do have Ulead Studio 8 and Adobe Premiere Elements 3 and have used Roxio and several others in the past, I still use Pinnacle for most of my work. I guess my preference for Pinnacle is due in large part to my having those original problems which caused me to become very familiar with the program. Now it seems I can navigate the interface easier and thus am able to be more creative in putting together a video. I won't knock the other programs because:

1. I don't like to be negative if I can possibly avoid it.
2. I only use the others sparingly when I want a certain feature or special effect they have and Pinnacle doesn't.
3. Most folks have different opinions about all of this stuff anyway.

The one thing I have learned when using Pinnacle is that you have to give it time to do its thing. In other words it is possible to overload the program by giving too many commands too fast. Once I learned this I have been able to work through some rather large video editing projects without a single hiccup.

And thus, I have spoken in support of a program which many folks do not seem to care for.

Oh, I almost forgot, I also prefer Corel PhotoPaint over Adobe Photoshop.
Maybe I'm just a rebel with or without a cause?

[Ann J Evans]

Thanks for another view, and yes I can understand how you prefer a program you have become very familier with. Well we have been looking at all the sites for all the different programs, and I chose Roxio. The reason is this: we have used MGI Photosuite for years and were intending to upgrade. Roxio bought it out, some time ago, and we had sort of forgotten until we saw the write ups about Roxio Easy Media Creator 9, which includes Photosuite and many other software. We now have the program and have it set up on the computer - but there is just so many different options in it I don't know where to start. What part do I use to do the authoring? I have been trying to work my way through all the Tutorials and haven't figured it out yet. So if some-one can tell me that would be great. I have put my digitial photos into an album with 3D-Album and I just need to do the authoring part so it can be viewed on the TV. This is what I am really keen to do, put photos into albums and view them on the TV. There is a lot of learning but I guess once you know what you are doing its easy!
Thanks
Ann
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Ann
Taranaki
New Zealand