Slide show with transitions, audio, zoom/pan?

Sorry for yet another request for a slide show program, but I have not
found the right application yet.

I want to create slide shows with:

- Adjustable timing between slides.

- Audio in the background. Ability to easily sync the audio to
specific slides.

- Transitions between slides. The more choices the better, but at
least a few basic things like fade (disolve), slide left and right,
etc.

- Ability to zoom and pan across a slide (and rotate, as well). This
seems to be known as the "Ken Burns" effect. It lets you provide
"motion" in the show, pan across a high resolution panorama, etc.

- Ability to rotate the picture when shown, without modifying the
original file.

- I do not want to create video files. I want to see my slides at the
full resolution of my monitor (say 1600x1200). The ability to create
video would be nice to have, but that should not be the only output
option.

- Works with a system with dual monitors. It doesn't have to show the
slides across both monitors, in fact I don't want it to. But some
slide show programs are confused by the dual monitor setup, and show
only half the slide on the left monitor.

- Good navigation during the show. You should be able to pause, move
back and forth between slides, go to a specific slide, show the
filename of the slide, turn on and off caption or other descriptive
information. Also zoom and pan would be nice.

- The ability to import a list of slides from a file (csv, xml, a
database, whatever). I want to choose the slides and order them in
another program, export the list of filenames, and then import them
into the slide show program.

I have tried a number of programs, including MyAlbum, ProShowGold,
MemoriesToTV, MySlideShow, IMatch, etc.

The best seemed to be ProShow Gold, but it can't import a list of
slides, and the navigation during the show was poor - mouse only, no
keyboard, only forward and back (no jumping to a specific slide), no
information about the slide avaialble. I am also unhappy with the
ProShow Gold license agreement, which specifically permits them to
send information from my computer to them.

Any suggestions for applications that can do the above?

Thanks,

Terry

Photo Story 2 which is part of Microsoft Plus will do some of your stuff.
You can make VCDs with it, and I think that it costs about $20.


"Terry" wrote in message
...
Sorry for yet another request for a slide show program, but I have not
found the right application yet.

I want to create slide shows with:

- Adjustable timing between slides.

- Audio in the background. Ability to easily sync the audio to
specific slides.

- Transitions between slides. The more choices the better, but at
least a few basic things like fade (disolve), slide left and right,
etc.

- Ability to zoom and pan across a slide (and rotate, as well). This
seems to be known as the "Ken Burns" effect. It lets you provide
"motion" in the show, pan across a high resolution panorama, etc.

- Ability to rotate the picture when shown, without modifying the
original file.

- I do not want to create video files. I want to see my slides at the
full resolution of my monitor (say 1600x1200). The ability to create
video would be nice to have, but that should not be the only output
option.

- Works with a system with dual monitors. It doesn't have to show the
slides across both monitors, in fact I don't want it to. But some
slide show programs are confused by the dual monitor setup, and show
only half the slide on the left monitor.

- Good navigation during the show. You should be able to pause, move
back and forth between slides, go to a specific slide, show the
filename of the slide, turn on and off caption or other descriptive
information. Also zoom and pan would be nice.

- The ability to import a list of slides from a file (csv, xml, a
database, whatever). I want to choose the slides and order them in
another program, export the list of filenames, and then import them
into the slide show program.

I have tried a number of programs, including MyAlbum, ProShowGold,
MemoriesToTV, MySlideShow, IMatch, etc.

The best seemed to be ProShow Gold, but it can't import a list of
slides, and the navigation during the show was poor - mouse only, no
keyboard, only forward and back (no jumping to a specific slide), no
information about the slide avaialble. I am also unhappy with the
ProShow Gold license agreement, which specifically permits them to
send information from my computer to them.

Any suggestions for applications that can do the above?

Thanks,

Terry

ProShow Gold does all of the thing you want & more! Google them & you'll
find their site.

jbruceb wrote:

Photo Story 2 which is part of Microsoft Plus will do some of your stuff.
You can make VCDs with it, and I think that it costs about $20.

This originally looked to me like it only created video files, but now
that I look again, it's not clear. I'll download the LE version (demo)
and see how it looks. Thanks.

Terry

Jimmy G wrote:

ProShow Gold does all of the thing you want & more! Google them & you'll
find their site.

No, it doesn't. As I said in my original post:

The best seemed to be ProShow Gold, but it can't import a list of
slides, and the navigation during the show was poor - mouse only, no
keyboard, only forward and back (no jumping to a specific slide), no
information about the slide avaialble. I am also unhappy with the
ProShow Gold license agreement, which specifically permits them to
send information from my computer to them.

If I'm wrong about any of this, please let me know.

Terry

Terry wrote:

jbruceb wrote:

Photo Story 2 which is part of Microsoft Plus will do some of your stuff.
You can make VCDs with it, and I think that it costs about $20.

This originally looked to me like it only created video files, but now
that I look again, it's not clear. I'll download the LE version (demo)
and see how it looks. Thanks.

Yep, it's video only. Max 640x480 resolution. Max 150 slides (why
would they put such a limit in?!). Those are show-stopping
limitations. Besides that, it does not rotate slides. WMV format only.
Poor runtime controls, no filename display. The LE (demo) version
doesn't let you control transitions, zoom and pan, so I can't tell how
good (or bad) that is in the Plus version.

Terry

Terry wrote in news:ivsde05jsc27964tvvm9hultsk5rl7p6rs@
4ax.com:

I have tried a number of programs, including MyAlbum,

FYI, the next version of MyAlbum has transitions. I use the beta and it
works.

--
Onno

Onno wrote:

Terry wrote in news:ivsde05jsc27964tvvm9hultsk5rl7p6rs@
4ax.com:

I have tried a number of programs, including MyAlbum,

FYI, the next version of MyAlbum has transitions. I use the beta and it
works.

That's good to know. I had noticed that MyAlbum had a transition in
the object model, but it seemed like nothing connected to it. Now I
know why!

Transitions would make MyAlbum pretty good, and I have to admit the
price is right (free). It is still missing some things:

- No zoom and pan across the image.
- Setting timing for individual slides is not easily done (only with
scripts, no user interface to do this).
- No import a list of slides
- It doesn't work with my two monitor setup (Win XP), it detects it as
one monitor, so shows the image spread across the two monitors. There
are no controls that affect this.

Please correct me if I've missed something.

Thanks for the info. Do you have any idea when the next version will
be available? Or is the beta open?

Terry

Hi,

right now the best Slide Show program that we are using in our digital
photography club is ProShow Gold.
I lets you do transitions, control the time for each slide, syncronizes music
and voice over, and has fade in and fade out for sound.
It is not very intuitive but if you take some time to experiment you can do
some pretty fancy stuff.
Also it lets you burn to CD and DVD.
Rosita

Terry wrote in
:

Onno wrote:

Terry wrote in
news:ivsde05jsc27964tvvm9hultsk5rl7p6rs@ 4ax.com:

I have tried a number of programs, including MyAlbum,

FYI, the next version of MyAlbum has transitions. I use the beta and
it works.

[snip]
Transitions would make MyAlbum pretty good, and I have to admit the
price is right (free). It is still missing some things:

- No zoom and pan across the image.


Press Z and the left/right/up/down buttons. It can be done with the mouse
too.

- Setting timing for individual slides is not easily done (only with
scripts, no user interface to do this).

In the beta this is possible without a script.

- No import a list of slides

Why do you want to do that? It's rather easy to make an album with
MyAlbum.

- It doesn't work with my two monitor setup (Win XP), it detects it as
one monitor, so shows the image spread across the two monitors. There
are no controls that affect this.

In settings (File - settings) you can tell MyAlbum which monitor to use.
It has a Monitors tab. If it doesn't work, you can contact the author. He
is very helpful.

Do you have any idea when the next version will be available?

No. But I think the beta works fine

Or is the beta open?

Don't think so. The author, Pierre Meindre, gave me a download link for
the beta, because I needed it to make the Dutch translation. The link is
not on his site.
Even if the link still works, I don't think he would want me to disclose
it in a NG.


--
Onno