14 DAY TRIAL // Wouldn't it be nice to look at your memories sitting back in a comfortable armchair and sipping a fine drink? And on top of all to have a pleasant music playing in the background. I would like to do this once or twice a year. Just insert a disc full of images, press start and just watch.
I found a software on the Internet that is designed to create slideshows from your pictures. And it can even burn the disc for you, so you do not have to use additional softwares. It will create a real DVD, with menus and transitions and background music.
Its name is Photo DVD Creator and it's created by a developer with the same name. The installation file is 6.11MB large and the cost of the full version of the software is $29.95. The developer allows the user to use the program almost to its fullest for a trial period of seven days.
The interface is somehow lively and it is a pleasure to work with. The whole work is done in three easy steps, so even a baby could use it. The first step is called Edit. Here the user gets to add a thumbnail that is representative for the slideshow. You can create a maximum of nine slideshows.
This menu will also give you the chance to set the display duration of a picture. It does not matter if you have upside down pictures, because the software allows turning them to the correct position. Once you have set the slide you can now precede to adding the pictures. In the trial version you cannot add more than fifty images per slideshow.
In the left side of the application window there will be displayed the slides together with some additional information like the number of files and the total duration of the entire slideshow. If you want to add some music for the slideshow, then now is your chance.
The second step is called Menu, because here you create the menu for your DVD slideshow: background image and title. You will see two windows in here. The first one on the left is the preview to your DVD, and the one on the right is the Menu Editor with the default 14 background images. In order to preview your DVD slideshow, you have to press the Power On button. The 1-9 buttons represent the maximum number slideshows available. If you want to skip from one title to another all you have to do is press one of them.
The Text window will become available for editing the moment you click on the title name. You can customize the name, change the font, size, style, color, color of the shadow, and shadow size. If you do not like how the titles are arranged in the window, just drag them with your mouse to the desired position. The default name of the DVD is "My Photo SlideShow". If you click on it, you activate its text window and make the necessary modifications.
The music for the background can also be changed from the Custom Menu window in the right lower side of the application window and also the BackPhoto. As long as you select one of the supported formats (.jpg, .bmp, .ico, .emf, .wmf for the image and mp3 for the audio), everything is OK.
The last step in creating your slideshow is the burning part. The user can name the volume, and all there is left for you to do is click the Start button in the lower right end of the window. If you do not want to burn it to a disc, you can save it to a folder or create a disc image. Of course you can choose your DVD slideshow to be in either NTSC or PAL format.
The Good
The software is easy to use and the result is amazing.
The Bad
When trying to set the audio for the slideshow I got some errors, but after a few tries I managed to impose my wish.
The "Please Waiting" blinking message when writing the disc should be corrected and I felt the need to know an estimation of the time to burn the disc so that I know how much time I have to wait. All there is displayed is the total time that the software takes for burning. I wanted to set the burning speed, but I did not find any option that did that.
Big disappointment in the burning section of the software. After taking 20 minutes of my time writing the provided disc, a message pops up saying that the disc is not "black". Check the last screenshot for more details.
The Truth
The software seems a bit expensive, but if all those baddies were fixed and if it were able to write faster, I would pay the money.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
