How to make photoCD to view on TV?

[athlonfan]

Hello,

I have a self-described computer illiterate uncle, who would like me to make a CD of the pictures I took at his sons wedding. He wants it set up so that he can put it in his DVD player and view it. I tried sticking a CD I had made using windows drag and drop in my own DVD player. It worked, but it was soooooo slow. Is there something I can do to make viewing on TV faster? I don't mind even having to bring my own CD (or a memory card) to be done up professionaly, and I don't mind having to borrow a friends DVD burner. So, what do I need to do to make viewing JPEG's (or any format, just tell me which to use) on a TV convenient? Also, what kind of CD does he need to take to a developing place to get developed?

Thanks,
Richard

[willyb21]

If his DVD player isn't too old it should run VCD's you can make with Nero or almost any burning software. I like to use Ulead VideoStudio. You can add menus and music tracks. I am in the process of doing one for my wife as a 20th anniversary gift, so far I have just over 1000 jpegs and about 45 min of video from our wedding. Just select the VCD option From the videos and pictures menu nero and Add your jpegs you can create menus and add backgrounds and text as well. I don't recall if adding music is an option with nero but using ulead you can. I think my digital camera came with finepix software that also creates simple vcds that will also open up as a website on a PC if his DVD player won't handle the VCD format.

Hope that helps a little
Will

[athlonfan]

I called him to find out what kind of DVD player he has and we both have the same kind. I tried a CD of highest quality undownsized JPEGS that were burned on a CD-R and it seems to work ok in this player (before I was testing in a different player). Now I have a couple questions. The first is, can I burn images to a CD in a specific order? I burned them in the order I wanted them in, but the DVD player just alphabetized them. Also, this Nero, is it free? Is there a free burning software that will automatically downsample the JPEGs before burning them?
Thanks,
Richard

[willyb21]

Sorry Nero is not free but you can download the full version for a Trial period at Nero . I played around with it and you can drag and drop the files in the order you want. You can also try out Ulead They have almost all of their software available for a trial run. I'm not sure what you mean by downsample, but most of the pictures I have burned are about 300 dpi Jpegs and roughly 4 by 6 in size and they fill a good portion of the screen when viewed.

Will

[athlonfan]

I made an SVCD with the Nero trial, and it looks pretty decent, only, how do I navigate it? It gives me 15 thumbnails, if I press the skip button, it goes to the next page of thumbnails. If I press play, I get the first picture of whatever page of thumbnails I happen to be on. How do I see the other pictures?
Thanks,
Richard

[willyb21]

If I remember right each menu is numbered and you just hit the number of the item you want to view. If that's not right I will burn one and see what's up

Will

[athlonfan]

It does give me the numbers, and what you say seems logical, but I get the little icon telling me I can't do what I just said to do when I try that. I think I'll go with Ulead anyways. Sure it's a lot less functional, but it gives me only what I need and is $20 cheaper, and plus it does what I need a little nicer I think.
Thanks,
Richard

[RayH]

If you have Nero, the absolutely easiest way is to use the freeware Irfanview 3.91.

The slideshow is a no brainer to set up. Irfanview slideshow now has a one button BURN TO CD option that works automatically with Nero. Use the burn to VCD option.

Use a DVD player to show the slideshow. Use the pause button to stop on an individual picture. Real quick, easy, and down and dirty.