DVD Interactive Slide Show in CS5

[Tony Stram]

Ok readers I'm new to this slide show stuff. I mainly make videos to DVD and I have made in the past video montages from stills but my biggest customer just threw me for a loop. He wants a 2000 photograph, viewer interactive DVD. I'm out of my element here. Yes I can make it a movie, I don't need that kind of help. I need to know if its possible for a user to use a DVD player as you would a Slide projector. He wants the viewer to be able to control, pause, forward and backward as a slide projector. Plus he wants a word doc and the original file folder on the same DVD for those who want to print out a selected photo via a home computer. I never made a multi-platform DVD. I've seen demo videos of people using Photoshop to do this or Encore or both. What about Premiere? The DVD will need a menu for 8 selections which will have about 250 photos each. I don't think he realizes it will take a viewer several viewings to completely see all of it without getting bored. No soundtrack and simple butt splices. Someone has had to make something similar and maybe there is a better program out there to make it with. My calculations estimate that the length would be just under 3 hours, so that alone may make it impossible. So knowing that it may be a boxed set 1 DVD and 1 CD-R with the files.

[Byron Jones]

In PPro you could make the 4 videos with the 250 photos each into one big video. Set the time of each still to clients preference. Set it up with no transitions like requested and put an Encore chapter marker at the beginning of each still. Send it to Encore via dynamic link. In Encore, make one menu with four buttons. Link each button to the first chapter in each of the four parts if your video. You will not need additional buttons for all the other chapters. The user can use the chapter forward and backward buttons on their remote to navigate. Set the menu and title buttons to both go to the main menu so the user can easily get back if desired. The end action of video should be the menu. You can also use Encore to add a folder with all the originals and a .txt document with instructions or whatever else with the DVD ROM option. Then burn the DVD with Encore.

[Tony Stram]

Thanks, Looks like Encore will be the preferred option. A few others I have talked too also agreed that Encore was the best choice for this. Does Encore have a fit to screen like premiere does? Otherwise I have to size the photos manually in photoshop. I've only use Encore at its very basics, Single menu with simple movie and out, so I have a learning curve to deal with too. Thanks for the reply. I know by the time I get it done I'll be talking fluent Sailor/ Truck driver...LOL.

[Denis Danatzko]

I agree that Byron's method will work, however I'm not sure your description of the "interaction" required is detailed enough to provide what may be the best method or the one that most closely satisfies your customer's needs. There are numerous ways to skin this cat, and I suspect Encore provides enough navigation control features to meet nearly all of your customer's needs, but more info would be helpful. For example,

1. What must happen once a viewer starts the slide show?
- Should it automatically continue to play/advance to successive photos within the same of the 8 possible selections, or,
- should it automatically advance through all of the 8 possible selections on its' own until the viewer pauses/moves forward/back, or,
- should it show only 1 photo at a time until the user advances to the next one regardless of which "selection" is being displayed?

2. Must a viewer be able to choose from among the 8 selections?
If there are 8 "selections" a viewer MUST be able to choose from, then there must be at least 8 buttons, 9 if you need a "Play All" button, though they don't all need to be on the same menu. Without multiple buttons, there's no way for a viewer to choose a specific/particular selection, (but perhaps that lack of choice is something your customer wants).

3. What must happen after the last photo of a selection has been displayed?
-Should it automatically start displaying photos in the next "selection"? Should it present the viewer with a menu or button to choose any of the 8 selections? If advancing automatically, must the start of a new "selection" be noted in a text panel/overlay of some kind?

Note the following from Adobe Encore Help and Tutorials:

"You can now add more than 99 slides in a slideshow for DVD. Encore CS6 accommodates any additional slide you add beyond 99 slides in the last chapter.
Also, Encore CS6 lets you add 999 slides in a slideshow for Blu-ray. Encore CS6 accommodates any additional slide beyond 999 slides in the last
chapter. However, you cannot use Manual Advance on your remote for individual slides in the last chapter.
Encore CS6 does not impose any such limitation on the number of slides you can add to a slideshow for web DVDs."

I've imported both .tiff and .jpg files as Assets, and placed them on a timeline without problem, and each automatically is given a new chapter point, but FIRST, you may want to set a default duration so the display length is the same for each one. Pay attention to, and be careful in your selection; you should be able to select them in bulk, and they should be added to the timeline in bulk, in the order you select them.

It seems like you intend to use 2 versions of each photo: 1 for viewing, and 1 for printing. For the viewable ones, read the Help on using Playlists. They allow a lot of flexibility and maneuverability in navigating a DVD, and may be of use for your purpose/your customer's needs.

I haven't done the math, but since you're using stills only, and only for display, could you get it all on a dual layer DVD by using a low bit rate? It seems that if a viewer wants a higher-res print, that is what the other (printable) folder and instructions are for. Displaying any instructions for the viewer to follow may also require another button.

I'm using CS6, and in Encore I haven't seen a "Fit to size" option, at least not when importing an "Asset".
You can try using "Interpret Footage"; that allows for changes to pixel aspect ratio. Otherwise, if you find that you must resize in Photoshop, and many of the photos must/can have the same changes applied to them, you should be able to record those steps in Photoshop (as an "action", I think), then apply the "action" to multiple photo files. Note that any resizing should take into account the paper size most likely to be used for printing.

Lastly, I think you may well be able to do this without using PPro at all.

I realize you've asked about CS5, and I provided examples based on CS6, but for DVD, I don't think the functionality of Encore changed much from 5 to 6.

fI hope this helps.