Trying to make a DVD Movie -I'm pressed for time and running out of patience!

[Guest]

I upgraded to Windows XP last week so that I could use Movie Maker2 to make a home DVD movie out of 300 of my families old photos to show for my parents' anniversary party (May 15th), and I'm very frustrated with the new program and all it's new features! And the fact that my package did not have a seperate instructional book for Movie Maker2 with it. So it takes more time to try to look up the problems I run into each time and etc so no wonder I'm about ready to throw it out the window!

But thought I would give you a try right quick and I'm hoping you can help me....I have a deadline to meet; the food/building/screen & projector and etc is all rented and I have to get this movie made and am having troubles.

I had planned to scan in all of the 300 pictures first, then make the movie, but something told me to test the first 20 of them first to see if everything was working, before proceeding any further, so I did, and so far I've saved them about 10 different times to TPX, that didn't work, then I converted them to JPEG and then saved the project so I could get to work. Then after work last night I reopened the project and there wasn't any pictures at all, just the square frame where they were before, and now all I see is red x's! What is causing this?

Also can I scan in more than one picture at a time to make this process go faster? How can I crop each one from there and save it? I've tried that several times? And the red x's show up after that too after I saved them. What's up with that? I need to know all the quick tips and advise I can get! My scanner bed can hold anywhere from 6 to 8 pictures at a time!

Back to the movie, I want to burn this (if I ever get it made in time) onto a DVD or CD (which is the best?), then play it through my home DVD player(which is suppose to play Kodak picture CD, MP3, S-Video Output (what is this?) and JPEG readable files burned onto CD-R or CD-RW) - What's the difference between these and a DVD disc? Why doesn't it say it will play a DVD using JPEG files? Which should I use for the movie?) and show it thru a projector to 250 guests at my parents' reception (and I really only have about 4 1/2 days and nights left to work on this and get it going). I've been told this can be done with what programs came with my Windows XP Home Edition and Movie Maker 2, and the projector I have rented for that day. But I've read thru several of these comments in here and see where people are referring to using MyDVD Player and MySonic and etc....Will I have to buy another program or something in order to show this movie or what?

Please Help ! I have to go to my other job now, but I'll check back when I get back hopefully with all of the info I need so I can get going on this, or if I need to buy something more in order for it to work, then drive 85 miles one way just to buy what ever it is I need (which I don't have time to do, but will find a way some how!)

Thanks A Bunch!
Cind

 

[PapaJohn]

Hi Cindy,

The red X's indicate you moved or deleted the 20 picture files.... when you
'import' them into Movie Maker 2, they need to stay where you first put them
as Movie Maker still needs them.

It's great that you are testing the process with the 20 pictures. Do it all
the way thru until you see your DVD playing on your equipment.

PhotoStory might be easier and better for you when it comes to making a show
with 300 pictures....
--
PapaJohn
Movie Maker 2: www.papajohn.org
PhotoStory 2: www.photostory.papajohn.org
..
..

I upgraded to Windows XP last week so that I could use Movie Maker2 to

make a home DVD movie out of 300 of my families old photos to show for my
parents' anniversary party (May 15th), and I'm very frustrated with the new
program and all it's new features! And the fact that my package did not have
a seperate instructional book for Movie Maker2 with it. So it takes more
time to try to look up the problems I run into each time and etc so no
wonder I'm about ready to throw it out the window!

But thought I would give you a try right quick and I'm hoping you can help

me....I have a deadline to meet; the food/building/screen & projector and
etc is all rented and I have to get this movie made and am having troubles.

I had planned to scan in all of the 300 pictures first, then make the

movie, but something told me to test the first 20 of them first to see if
everything was working, before proceeding any further, so I did, and so far
I've saved them about 10 different times to TPX, that didn't work, then I
converted them to JPEG and then saved the project so I could get to work.
Then after work last night I reopened the project and there wasn't any
pictures at all, just the square frame where they were before, and now all I
see is red x's! What is causing this?

Also can I scan in more than one picture at a time to make this process go

faster? How can I crop each one from there and save it? I've tried that
several times? And the red x's show up after that too after I saved them.
What's up with that? I need to know all the quick tips and advise I can get!
My scanner bed can hold anywhere from 6 to 8 pictures at a time!

Back to the movie, I want to burn this (if I ever get it made in time)

onto a DVD or CD (which is the best?), then play it through my home DVD
player(which is suppose to play Kodak picture CD, MP3, S-Video Output (what
is this?) and JPEG readable files burned onto CD-R or CD-RW) - What's the
difference between these and a DVD disc? Why doesn't it say it will play a
DVD using JPEG files? Which should I use for the movie?) and show it thru a
projector to 250 guests at my parents' reception (and I really only have
about 4 1/2 days and nights left to work on this and get it going). I've
been told this can be done with what programs came with my Windows XP Home
Edition and Movie Maker 2, and the projector I have rented for that day. But
I've read thru several of these comments in here and see where people are
referring to using MyDVD Player and MySonic and etc....Will I have to buy
another program or something in order to show this movie or what?

Please Help ! I have to go to my other job now, but I'll check back when I

get back hopefully with all of the info I need so I can get going on this,
or if I need to buy something more in order for it to work, then drive 85
miles one way just to buy what ever it is I need (which I don't have time to
do, but will find a way some how!)

 

[jquiet]

You have quite a few choices. You should easily be able to copy 300 jpeg
files to a CD-RW using nothing more than Windows XP. That would be the
easiest. Your DVD player will play it back with some default transition and
delay time which may or may not be changeable. These will only be pictures,
no music.

If you want to make a movie it is more complicated since a DVD requires the
movie file plus other supporting files all in specially named directories,
but there are programs that handle all of this.

You could work in MovieMaker saving your final movie as an AVI file and then
load it into a DVD Authoring program.

If you have a DVD burner on your PC then it probably came with a DVD
authoring program, but it is possible that you only have DVD burning
software with no authoring capability.

The only programs I can personally recommend for creating a DVD are Ulead
since they worked for me. Other programs wasted a lot of my time only to
fail somewhere in the last critical steps of actually creating a DVD. There
is a free trial at:
http://www.ulead.com/vs/runme.htm

The other suggestion I would make is to make a sample project. 5 pictures
and 30 seconds of song if you want music. You have decisions to make about
what to do, what software to use, does your DVD player accept DVD-R, -RW, +R
or +RW? You need to try out the whole process quickly. Once you know what
you have to do and how it should be possible to complete the project in a
night, but hopefully it won't come to that.

The red X's mean that pictures are not where you told movie maker that they
were. None of the programs actually copy the pictures. They only create a
link/pointer to them. JPEG is the best format for compatibility with the
programs out there.

Only Ulead Photo Explorer offers easy to use what they call "Auto Slicing"
on scan. It will scan multiple photos and seperate them into seperate files.
But it might not save that much time since more data is being transferred.
Scanning is slow. There is a free trial at:
http://www.ulead.com/pex/runme.htm

Finally Ulead even offers a single purpose program called CD&DVD PictureShow
that sounds exactly like what you need, but I have never used it.. There is
a free trial at:
http://www.ulead.com/dps/runme.htm

I am not a Ulead salesman, they just seem to make some good products, and
always have free trial version which in the past have worked completely.

I upgraded to Windows XP last week so that I could use Movie Maker2 to

make a home DVD movie out of 300 of my families old photos to show for my
parents' anniversary party (May 15th), and I'm very frustrated with the new
program and all it's new features! And the fact that my package did not have
a seperate instructional book for Movie Maker2 with it. So it takes more
time to try to look up the problems I run into each time and etc so no
wonder I'm about ready to throw it out the window!

But thought I would give you a try right quick and I'm hoping you can help

me....I have a deadline to meet; the food/building/screen & projector and
etc is all rented and I have to get this movie made and am having troubles.

I had planned to scan in all of the 300 pictures first, then make the

movie, but something told me to test the first 20 of them first to see if
everything was working, before proceeding any further, so I did, and so far
I've saved them about 10 different times to TPX, that didn't work, then I
converted them to JPEG and then saved the project so I could get to work.
Then after work last night I reopened the project and there wasn't any
pictures at all, just the square frame where they were before, and now all I
see is red x's! What is causing this?

Also can I scan in more than one picture at a time to make this process go

faster? How can I crop each one from there and save it? I've tried that
several times? And the red x's show up after that too after I saved them.
What's up with that? I need to know all the quick tips and advise I can get!
My scanner bed can hold anywhere from 6 to 8 pictures at a time!

Back to the movie, I want to burn this (if I ever get it made in time)

onto a DVD or CD (which is the best?), then play it through my home DVD
player(which is suppose to play Kodak picture CD, MP3, S-Video Output (what
is this?) and JPEG readable files burned onto CD-R or CD-RW) - What's the
difference between these and a DVD disc? Why doesn't it say it will play a
DVD using JPEG files? Which should I use for the movie?) and show it thru a
projector to 250 guests at my parents' reception (and I really only have
about 4 1/2 days and nights left to work on this and get it going). I've
been told this can be done with what programs came with my Windows XP Home
Edition and Movie Maker 2, and the projector I have rented for that day. But
I've read thru several of these comments in here and see where people are
referring to using MyDVD Player and MySonic and etc....Will I have to buy
another program or something in order to show this movie or what?

Please Help ! I have to go to my other job now, but I'll check back when I

get back hopefully with all of the info I need so I can get going on this,
or if I need to buy something more in order for it to work, then drive 85
miles one way just to buy what ever it is I need (which I don't have time to
do, but will find a way some how!)