How Can I Convert a Picasa SlideShow to Video?

[Mike Temporale]

My father in-law wanted to create a slideshow for his highschools 50th (or was that 75th... oh well. ) reunion. So I set him up with a scanner, Picasa and a half hour tutorial on how to import, manipulate and create a slideshow from his year books and various pictures.

They loved it. The reunion was a huge success and everyone was talking about the amazing slideshow. And this is where my problem starts. You see, they loved it and now they want to put a copy in the time bomb...erm, I mean time Capsule. ;) So that it can be seen the next time the capsule is opened. At first they just wanted a copy of the program and the files, but after I explained that they would be hard pressed to find any program that could touch it in 5-7 years, let alone 20 or 25, they agreed that it wasn't a good idea.

So, how can I take a Picasa slideshow and convert it to video so that it can play in just about any DVD player? I have Pinnicale - although I have yet to actually use it. :? But I have no idea what steps I need to do in order to take the slideshow and make it into something that Pinnicale or whatever program is needed, can handle.

Can someone offer me a little insight, and possibly hand holding?

[Jason Dunn]

Well, Picasa's slide show functionality is pretty basic - crossfades playing to an MP3 file. So why not use PhotoStory? Take all those images, whatever music he wants, then slap it into PhotoStory, export an 800 x 600 WMV file, then burn it to a DVD. Do NOT use the DVD template - Microsoft screwed it up by making it 640 x 480. :?

[Mike Temporale]

Huh... The answer seems so simple.

I'll have to export the images from Picasa since he did some touch-ups and what not, but that's not a big deal. I think the biggest issue with this is making sure all the pictures are in the same order once I have it in PhotoStory. Which, again isn't too big an issue.

Alright, I'll give this a try and let you know how things turn out. Thanks! :D

[Mike Temporale]

Alright, it's only been 6 months, but I've finally finished moving it over to PhotoStory. It took a fair amount of work to line up the audio. It seems that showing a picture for 5 seconds in Picasa is actually different than 5 seconds in PhotoStory. :S I think the difference is due to the time used for a transition effect.

So, now that I have this in WMV format, how can I put it on a DVD such that it can be played back on any dvd player?

[Jason Dunn]

So, now that I have this in WMV format, how can I put it on a DVD such that it can be played back on any dvd player?

Either use this: http://www.estore.sonic.com/enu/photostory/default.asp

Or export it as an 800 x 600 WMV, then use a DVD burning program (almost any should do it) and it will convert the WMV to MPEG2 and burn the DVD. It's very important that you not use the DVD default on Photostory, it's 640 x 480, while DVDs are at 720 x 480 and the 640 x 480 file would need to be upscaled, which results in a horrific loss of quality.

[Mike Temporale]

Cool, I got a couple different DVD buring apps, so I'll give them a try and see if they handle it. Thanks! :)

[Mike Temporale]

Alright, so the DVD software I had doesn't do that out of the box. I would have to buy a plug-in which costs more than, and offers less than Sonic. So...

The Sonic tool is pretty nice. However, there's one small annoyance with it. I had to make multiple copies and the Sonic plugin asks how many copies you want. Except, it doesn't keep the converted video. After each disc, it asks you to insert the next disc, and then it starts the conversion all over again. :( Oh well, it's not a deal breaker. Overall, I'm impressed with how nice and easy it is to use.

Thanks for all the help Jason! :way to go:

[Jason Dunn]

After each disc, it asks you to insert the next disc, and then it starts the conversion all over again.

Wow. That's incredibly lame. 8O

[Mike Temporale]

Agreed. But it doesn't bother me too much since it's running on my home file server. So, it's not like it slows my work down. I start it and walk away. If it was on my day-to-day machine I would be way more upset.

Ah well, I'm just happy to have it done. :D