Making a Slide Show & Saving in DVD Format

The discussion came up at our last meeting about making a slide show in Windows 7 and saving the final show in a DVD format so it can be played in any DVD player.

I used the Windows Live Movie Maker as this program allows for making of videos and/or still photos to make a slide show. A word to the wise….generally, these cannot be used as a “For Sale” item if you are using copyright material, music as an example. Same applies if the photos are someone else’s artistic work but I find making a DVD for sending to family members a good way to let them see my world.


Okay, that being said, let’s talk about the assembly of the Mk-1, Mod-2 Acme Jungle Gym…..ooops, wrong program. Trying again I suggest you preselect your photographs and put them in email size (640 X 480 pixels) and copy them into a folder. That way they are easy to find and upload into the movie maker. With friends and family the watermark is an optional item. My brother would sell me out in a minute….no, only kidding but he’ll never know as he is yet to come into the electronic age. He, like our mother, believes the microwave oven is high tech stuff.

 Picture #1

 Picture #2

For this demo, I have selected 3 web (email) sized photos. These are uploaded into the Windows Live Movie Maker by clicking on the “Add videos and photos’ icon. (See Picture #1 and Picture #2)

 Picture #3

You will see the pictures in the box on the right side (See Picture #3) and they will play starting at the top left and across to the right. Next to the Add videos/photos you will see the “Add music” icon. This can be used to add any MP3 file for background music. Another option would be to use a microphone and add your own interpretation of the photos. I am not going into the use of music or audio as that is something you can experiment with on your own. The next set of icons (Movie Themes) control how each photo comes into and leaves the viewing screen (fade, roll off, etc.).

 

Picture #4

Once you have all the photos you want to use, have selected background audio/music, and have selected the Movie Themes you are ready to save your project. This is done the same way as any file or folder, generally with a “Save Project As” command so you can name the video. (See Picture #4) This menu is in the upper left with a “down” pointer. Once we have saved our project, then we can make the DVD for playing on other DVD players.

 

Picture #5

On right side of the menu bar for Windows Live Movie Maker we have another save selection. (See Picture #5) This is labeled “Save Movie” which has the subcommand of “Burn DVD”. The burn DVD command will transform the files into a DVD format and once completed with the burn, you should be able to play the burnt copy in a standard DVD player. Do not test it in another computer as this will read the original format of the files and show you the slideshow. Try the DVD in a “stand-alone” DVD player.


One other note of interest. I used a DVD+R to burn the slideshow. DVD+R disks do not normally require a “finalize” command as they will do this function automatically. I did not try to burn a copy in the DVD-R format.


Ray

Screen captures made using  Screenhunter 5.1 Free

Windows 7 Tips, Tricks & Misc. Info–Giddy-Up, Faster, Faster

To speedup any computer through the years was to simply add more RAM (random access memory) to the computer.  Adding RAM called for you to purchase a circuit card, sometimes a matched pair and open up the case on the computer.  Today, that is still the case, so to speak.  Physical RAM (now called SDRAM) is still the best way to add flexibility and processing speed to a computer. 

But Windows 7 gives us another option.  If you have a USB thumb drive that is equal to/or up to twice the amount of RAM you have installed in the computer, then you may be able to use the thumb drive as extended memory.   Preparing the thumb drives for use, you should first make sure there are no files you need on the drive, plug it into the USB port and right click on it’s icon in Computer.  Select and run Ready Boost to speed up your data handling.  If Ready Boost will not run with the thumb drive you have, then you will need a newer thumb drive.  Not EVERY thumb drive will work.  Remember your RAM is temporary memory and whatever you have not saved when you turn off the computer, goes away.  The thumb drive normally is like a hard drive in that it saves the data it contains but NOT WHEN USED AS RAM MEMORY.  This is just one way to help speed up file handling by your computer.

NOTE:  If your computer has slots for reading camera memory cards/sticks, you can use most camera memory cards and accomplish higher speeds as discussed above.

Another improvement was to run the Disk Defragmentation (Defrag).  Vista and Windows 7 are quite similar except Windows 7 has the fat trimmed out of the OS letting it run much faster than Vista.  Defrag would take “fragmented” files and rearrange the file to be in one location.  You no longer have to defrag in Windows 7 because the computer does it automatically if the computer is idle.

As always, there will be more to come on this blog concerning Windows.