Make photo CD/DVD to play in DVD player to display on TV?

[Sylvander]

Make photo CD/DVD to play in DVD player to display on TV?
This to pass on a photo collection to someone who doesn't have a PC?

I want to burn to a CD or DVD [R or RW], a higherarchical folder system of photos presently held on a HDD.
This optical disk would then be played in a DVD player to display...
Ideally...
The higherarchical menu on the TV screen so the user could navigate using a remote to choose folder contents or individual photo files to display.

Can this be done?
Any software available to do this?
Any of it for FREE?
Should I be using a different better method?

So far found this http://www.nu2.nu/photovcd/
But the FREE LITE version only provides for a single-level menu system as contrasted with the paid pro version that provides unlimited menu depth.

[Ajmukon]

i think it can be done with any DVD movie editor.
set it up as a slide show, with each photo as a "chapter" and make it so the photos are displayed for like 5 min

[mjc]

If you have Nero(I think since 5.x, but definitely 6.x) it can make photo CDs natively.

[Sylvander]

Hmm, I'm trying to avoid the slide show method if possible.
Reason being...
There are SO MANY photos it would take forever to display all of them and the viewer would probably give up or lose interest.
So I figure I need to provide a method for the viewer to choose which folder contents and/or images within those to view.

[Sylvander]

I have a trial version of Nero 7 Essentials installed, and the trial period is finished.
Which part of that would do the job, and would it only work if I pay for the full version?

[mjc]

Probably full version...

It has been a while since I've made a photo disk...

[George Hallam]

i have Nero 7 ultra edition and i was looking but it only seems like you can make slide shows.... i have not made one but i doesn't seem like you can put folders....

how many photos are you having by the way?

[Ajmukon]

Hmm, I'm trying to avoid the slide show method if possible.
Reason being...
There are SO MANY photos it would take forever to display all of them and the viewer would probably give up or lose interest.
So I figure I need to provide a method for the viewer to choose which folder contents and/or images within those to view.
yes, but if you set up the DVD so that each photo was a "chapter", then he could jsut select the chapter to go to...

[Sylvander]

"if you set up the DVD so that each photo was a "chapter", then he could just select the chapter to go to"
I hear you, but there are hundreds of folders holding thousands of photos.
Can you imagine the work involved in choosing each individual photo as a chapter?
And the size of that list of chapters!
Then each would need to be given a descriptive title to make it possible to decide which to choose to display. Lots more work.

At the present time there is a hierarchical folder system holding the photo files.
The names of the folders describe the where, when, what, who, so that when the user opens a folder it's obvious what it contains.
That's what is needed on the TV screen, with a means of navigating through that.

[mjc]

Not gonna happen...unless you have a fairly advanced DVD player that can understand folders. Most don't.

If you do, then you just burn a data disk, using the level of folder you want to start in as the root folder for the burn...

[Sylvander]

"Not gonna happen"
In the page I linked in post #1...
QUOTE
Photo to VCD/SVCD Creator is a program to create a VCD or SVCD from your JPG images (for example from your digital camera) in high resolution (PAL 704 * 576, NTSC 704 * 480) and from your MPEG movies. You can mix photo's and movies within the same menu.
This program will automatically create a menu on the VCD/SVCD based on the directory structure where your pictures and video's are located.
The created VCD/SVCD will play in most standalone DVD-players on the market.

The main difference between this program and others in the market is the virtually unlimited menu length and menu depth (sub-menu's).

Extra's in PRO version:

* No limit in menu depth (Lite version has 1 level i.e. no sub menu's).
* Design your own menu buttons and menu background (in LITE version the background is always black):
* Number of movies only limited by the avaliable space on the VCD/SVCD
* Add text to your images. When the image is being shown just press the [enter] key on your remote to view the text.

I'm hoping there is another prog out there that offers the menu depth that this pro version offers, but for free [unlikely I know].

[mjc]

Difference between menu/menu depth and folders...

All the pictures are in the 'root' folder...there are no other folders (or very few/no depth) and the menus will take the place of the folders...you will still have a lot of work to do to make the pics 'menu ready', which, is what it seems you want to avoid in the first place. My DVD player can handle, (I think...I haven't checked lately) folders 3 deep, after that it refuses to play what is in them. So nesting the folders isn't a really good option...unless you are going to stick to computers to play/view the disks.

[Sylvander]

"All the pictures are in the 'root' folder...there are no other folders (or very few/no depth) and the menus will take the place of the folders...you will still have a lot of work to do to make the pics 'menu ready'"
So what about the quote that says...
This program will automatically create a menu on the VCD/SVCD based on the directory structure where your pictures and video's are located.
And...
The main difference between this program and others in the market is the virtually unlimited menu length and menu depth (sub-menu's).

That says to me that if you present the program [running within Windows] with a hierarchical system of nested folders [held on a partition] that hold photo files....
The program will create an identical system of nested menus with names [that can then be edited] the same as the folder names.
These menus would be displayed on the TV when you play the disk in the DVD player.
That it would then be possible to navigate through the menus using the arrow keys on the remote control, and choose individual photo files to view.

Am I wrong in thinking this?

[mjc]

Maybe...if it will actually put menu items in a way that your average DVD player can access them.

I haven't played around with that program, so I don't know exactly how much of its claims are true or 'true, but...'

[Sylvander]

I'll wait and see how my inclinations develop.

I have nothing to gain by doing any of this.
The object is to GIVE family photos to others who don't have copies of these and don't have a PC.
Might just make a data CD and they'll need to gain access to a PC or laptop.

1. Using PhotoVCD LITE to make a VCD with a single-layer menu would take a lot of work and be rather unsatisfactory. May do that if I get the time.

2. Paying for the prog would be a good solution, but...
Should I be spending money to give when the receivers may not even appreciate it? Time will tell.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

I have an old small DVD player that opens regular files easily as long as the depth is shallow ie no file withing a file within a file within......... It can use the small ~3x5 display or connect to a TV.

Ask whoever you are intending to give this to which model they have and you can look up whether the player can do this or not.

Your alternative is to do as you just said. Give them some cd's or DVD's of the pics and let them have the responsibility of either viewing them on a computer or going to a 'photo center' and printing out the pics from the cd's. Photo centers here can be local pharmacies (Rite Aide etc) or large retail outlets (Walmart, Kmart) etc. that have machines to read the cd's, dvd's whereas upon viewing, the person chooses which ones they want to print and pays only for the number of prints chosen.

[Sylvander]

I've been trying to distribute copies of the family tree and family photos to various near & distant members of the family, but it isn't very easily achieved.

I've expended thousands of hours on building the family tree; it would cost a great deal to pay someone do this.
I'm prepared to give it for free.
But people generally seem rather disinterested in information about the less immediate relatives, whether living or dead.
None of my brothers or sisters had PC's until recently.
I managed to persuade my favourite sister "M" to buy a PC, but she does nothing with it. Doesn't even have an email address yet.

Just recently, my sister "A" in Australia came over on a visit and began with my 3 other sisters in Bristol.
Then she and "M" came to Edinburgh.
"M" brought a small flash drive with her and I copied lots of photos to that.
But so far she hasn't even viewed those yet; she doesn't know how to do it.

When "A" was here in Edinburgh we visited our brother "J" and his sons "J1" and "J2".
"J1" asked me if I had any photos of my father, his grandfather.
I told him I have that and MANY more.
e.g. I have a photo of his fathers' fathers' father, born 1863, and his wife born 1865.
He has a laptop and an email address.
So I uploaded chosen photos to a folder on an account at http://drive.123-reg.co.uk/Pages/Home and made him a "friend" of that folder.
I've done this successfully with other people and other files, but he says he cannot get it to work. When I tried to help him over the phone he said his keyboard was malfunctioning. :confused: :(

"J2" visited me a few days back and says he'd like to have copies of the photos, but has no PC.
Hence this post.

[sassie05]

A REVIEW:

I was just playing with this (http://www.dvd-photo-slideshow.com/online-demo.html) (trial version) software and though, it will create menus of individual photo albums (folders), there is a lack of quality to the photos (viewed on my PC). It also seemed to be rather lengthy to encode and burn to a 4x DVD+RW, about 20min for 3 albums and 30 photos! Also, the disc would not play in my DVD player (Samsung) or my daughter's player (Apex). The cost is somewhat high $59.95 USD.

[jamer]

I use PowerPoint to create slideshow
& Presentation To Video Converter to burn PowerPoint on DVD-player

http://office.microsoft.com/powerpoint/
http://www.geovid.com/Presentation_to_Video_Converter/

[bassman]

Hello jamer and welcome to http://pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif
Just a quick note. When a new member comes on and starts posting links to products, it is often viewed as spamming. Having looked through your links I don't feel that you are spamming but rather trying to post informative help. Thanks for helping, that is what we are about. I might suggest making a few non-linking posts and getting familiar for a while ;)

Sylvander, I think Ajmukon's suggestion would work great but rather make each Folder a chapter, not each photo. Yes this is a lot of work but that is why you pay 10's and 100's of dollars for software, so you don't have to do as much.
Have you considered doing a simple website for your family to view? I know the cd/dvd was also intended for those without computers and/or to view it on a TV so everyone can sit round and watch

[Sylvander]

1. "Have you considered doing a simple website for your family to view?"
For those with a computer I decided to go with uploading to the 123-Drive webhosting site (http://drive.123-reg.co.uk/Pages/Home).
This has been working quite well.

2. "I know the cd/dvd was also intended for those without computers...to view it on a TV"
Exactly!
I could buy the program that will do exactly what I want...provided I think it's worth the cost.

3. "Ajmukon's suggestion would work great but rather make each Folder a chapter, not each photo"
Whilst at my local library I found a book that explained how to use HTML to make menus & sub-menus for photos [slide show?] on a CD [or some such].
Didn't have the time to read in detail or take the book out.
Perhaps next time I'm there.

[Cavalier90]

I may have missed something, but why not simply burn the folder structure(s) to a CD or DVD? Most, well most I've seen, DVD players will display JPEG pictures if written to a CD/DVD. You burn the disc, put it in the DVD, it recognises a data disc containing JPEGs and starts showing the pictures. There is a button on the remote, varies from machine to machine, that can switch to display a tree structure that reflects the folder structure burnt to the disc. The tree structure uses the folder names.

Seems your hard work is done by structuring and naming the folders on your PC. Your family simply pick the folder they want to view and hey presto.

[mjc]

See one of my earlier posts about the depth of folders that DVD players will see. Newer players are able to handle more nesting...so unless you know that it will only be played on new(ish) players you may run into problems with displaying them.

[Sylvander]

"There is a button on the remote, varies from machine to machine, that can switch to display a tree structure that reflects the folder structure burnt to the disc. The tree structure uses the folder names.
Seems your hard work is done by structuring and naming the folders on your PC. Your family simply pick the folder they want to view and hey presto."
Sounds good, so I'd like to try it.
Which button is it?
I have [among the many]:
1. DVD Menu.
2. Title Menu.
3. Subtitle Menu.
4. Audio Menu.

[Cavalier90]

Try each in turn until one shows the tree structure. As my old French teacher used to say, "if all else fails, read the instructions". What this had to do with French always escaped me, but do you have the instruction book for the DVD player?

I think my DVD player simply has a "menu" button that does the job. I would guess the Title menu sounds like a good option on yours.

On my machine, if I have added extra pictures to the CD, ie done multiple burns, I am presented with a list of "sessions" when I load the CD into the DVD player. Select the latest session for the full list of photos, always assuming when you do the new burn you import the previous session.

Good luck.

[Sylvander]

Superb!

That worked just fine. :)

1. Used a copy of "Ashampoo Burning Studio 2008" given away for FREE to readers of "Computeractive Magazine", and...

2. Burned the folder system [8 deep], and all the jpg photo files therein, to a CD-RW optical disk.

3. Ran it in my DVD player connected to my TV.

4. The folder system was displayed [nothing special needed to be done]...
I navigated down through the folders one level at a time using the down arrow button on the DVD remote control.

5. Once down to a folder holding photos I navigated to the 1st/top photo listed and hit the "Enter" button.

6. The photos in the folder began to display like a slideshow; each one for 10 seconds.
Once all had been displayed the list of files was displayed again with the bottom file highlighted.

7. I'd rather it was possible to choose each individual photo and once shown it should be possible to pause or close and be taken back to the list to choose the next to display.
Know how?
At the moment the title is the only description of the content; it would be nice to have a caption displayed above or below the image.

I'm off to experiment. :)

[Sylvander]

8. OK, I can navigate up & down the list of files or folders using the up & down arrow buttons.

9. I can navigate to a file, hit enter to view, hit pause to view for as long as needed, then hit the stop button to terminate and go back to the list and choose another.

10. Once at the top of the list in any one window, at the folder with the two dots [..], I can hit the left arrow button to be taken to the parent folder.
In this way it's possible to navigate back up the tree.

[mjc]

Yes, but my previous DVD player only allowed 3 deep...I haven't checked out my current machine, but I do know newer machines can handle 'deeper'...so 8 deep is a potential problem, especially if you don't know the age of the machines it will be played on.

[Cavalier90]

Glad it worked. You just need to tell your family when you send them the disks how to view them, but bear in mind different machines have different options.

[Sylvander]

1. "8 deep is a potential problem, especially if you don't know the age of the machines it will be played on"
(a) Yes, I guess I'll just need to "try it and see" on various DVD players.
(b) I'm quite pleasantly surprised that LFN's are being displayed, and hit no problems with the depth of the folder system [9 deep in at least one branch].
(c) I wonder what effect the choices I made just before burning had upon the end result? [ISO 9660 + Joliet + UDF 1.02 I think].
(d) Any idea what makes the individual images display each for 10 seconds in sequence?
Is it the DVD player, or the optical disk burning software?
(e) My wife discovered the skip forward/back buttons make individual images skip to the next/previous image.
(f) The images are rather too pale on the TV.
This I think is because this monitor makes images rather dark despite the contrast and brightness being up at full.
So I brighten the images and they then look OK on this monitor, but too pale on other PC->monitors etc.
I think I'll buy a new flat screen monitor soon; that should fix it.

[Cavalier90]

On my DVD there is an option to run as a slide show or not, and if you do, you select whether it runs slow/normal/fast. The choice displays on the screen that shows the list of photos in the tree structure. It is the DVD that controls it not the burning software as I use a standard file burning package, Roxio.

[Rick]

1. "8 deep is a potential problem, especially if you don't know the age of the machines it will be played on"

(f) The images are rather too pale on the TV.
This I think is because this monitor makes images rather dark despite the contrast and brightness being up at full.
So I brighten the images and they then look OK on this monitor, but too pale on other PC->monitors etc.
I think I'll buy a new flat screen monitor soon; that should fix it.

IF The files were edited on that system and the bright+contrast are 100% and still show up dark on the TV
Then it is time for a new monitor and/or time to check the color profiles you are using
In your advanced tab under the video controller/display settings

By default the system should adjust the image to print as seen on the screen to your default printer
If it is set wrong it can cause some real head aches and poor images

Also if you are using Adobe photo and loading the Gama correction
it must be set correctly

[Sylvander]

Cavalier90
There's a "Setup" button.
Pressing that bring a menu up on screen that facilitates adjustment of...
General [TV, video out, language, screen saver]
Audio
Dolby
Preferences [Languages for audio, subtitles, disk menu, and parental & password]
But...
I cannot find any way to make adjustment of the kind you can make on your machine.

Rick
"if you are using Adobe photo and loading the Gama correction it must be set correctly...time to check the color profiles you are using"
"Adobe Gamma Loader.exe" is in the Startup folder, therefore being run.
I don't see it in the Control Panel; thought it was there previously.
Tried and failed to calibrate using this; don't know how, seems quite complicated.

"time to check the color profiles you are using "
In "Display Properties->Settings->Advanced->Color Management" there are no "Color profiles currently associated" with my PC's graphics controller & monitor. :(
Any idea how I should do that?