Photo album without durations?

laer wrote on 2/17/2009, 1:50 PM
Hi. I just want to have a large number of still photos that the viewer can go through (forwards and backwards), with an infinite duration (so it won't jump to the next image while they are looking at one photo). Is that possible?

I just read now that a still image library is best done with a music/video compilation, since the photo compilation system actually records frames for the actual duration (rather than just having a file and holding it for the specified duration). I don't need any animation, so the music/video compilation seems better suited.

What would be totally ideal would be pages of thumbnail images that you could click on to bring you to a full screen image. Seems like you can do that by dumping images onto a page (creates the thumbnails and links them to a fullscreen version), but there's no back button automatically made. Is there a way to have it include a back button?

Also, is there a way to globally set the duration for all images in a compilation? Seems like you have to set it for each individual image, which is a pain if you have many.

Thanks in advance...

Comments

bStro wrote on 2/17/2009, 2:44 PM
. I just want to have a large number of still photos that the viewer can go through (forwards and backwards), with an infinite duration (so it won't jump to the next image while they are looking at one photo). Is that possible?

No.

Both types of compilations in DVDA result in a video -- it plays from start to finish.

If you want the images to "wait" for input from the viewer, your only option is to fake it by inserting several menus pages and setting the background of each page to one of your images. Then each image will stay on screen until the viewer hits one of the onscreen buttons to go to the next (or previous) page.

Note that there is a 1GB limit for menus.

I just read now that a still image library is best done with a music/video compilation

Hm, not necessarily. It's true that this will save space over a picture compilation, but I have found that "picture slideshows" made with this method can be erratic. At any rate, you still can't make an image stay on screen indefinitely (without hitting Pause on the player / remote).

Also, is there a way to globally set the duration for all images in a compilation? Seems like you have to set it for each individual image, which is a pain if you have many.

Select multiple images in the Compilation window (Ctrl+click to select individual ones or Shift+click to select a range of them). Then go to the Properties window, hit the Slide tab, and enter in the length you want. Careful with that slider -- it's touchy.

Rob
laer wrote on 2/17/2009, 3:06 PM
Damn... that blows. My first and only disappointment with DVDA! Weird. I wonder how regular DVD's do that.... Obviously it is technically possible... it just seems that DVDA doesn't allow it. Damn...

Well, as I mentioned, it seems like you can just dump the images onto a screen, and it makes thumbnails of them and links them to fullscreen versions (which is great)... the only issue is there's no back button created, so I guess I'd have to create one for each fullscreen screen (...ick). Plus, again, there seems to be a duration to the fullscreen (damn!!!)...

With regards to the global duration adjustment, how would you select multiple images. It would just be showing you one image at a time. I was thinking you could select all of them in the timeline, but there doesn't appear to be any way to do that... Is there?
bStro wrote on 2/17/2009, 3:26 PM
With regards to the global duration adjustment, how would you select multiple images.

Look for the Compilation window. It's shows a list of all the items in your compilation. You can select multiple items there -- either by Ctrl+clicking each one or by clicking one and then Shift+clicking another to select both items and every item between them.

Rob
laer wrote on 2/17/2009, 3:33 PM
Ah! Ya, I think I know what you mean. Okay, thanks!
laer wrote on 2/17/2009, 7:43 PM
BTW, what I'm ending up doing is making menu pages with the stills dragged onto them, creating links to each page. Ya, it still has durations on the fullscreen images, but you do get the added benefit of visible thumbnails, rather than having to go through many images sequentially until you bump into the one you want. So, ya, I guess that's the best solution here...

I did always hate that in movie DVDs where they would have a photo gallery with TONS of photos, and you'd have to step through a ton of them just to get to where you may have left off last time. Thumbnail pages are great in that respect....
laer wrote on 2/20/2009, 10:28 PM
The method I mentioned in the previous post (above) worked great, until I tested the disk, and got a 'too many unique media elements' error... So now I really don't know what I'm going to do...

When you say there is a 1 gig limit for menus... do you mean EACH menu, or the total of all menus? I have around 240 photos (totaling about 353 megs). If I do 240 of these 'single photo' menus (with the Previous/Next nav buttons on each), is that going to work?
TOG62 wrote on 2/20/2009, 11:33 PM
Have you considered putting the images on a data CD? Most DVD players will accept these.

Mike
laer wrote on 2/21/2009, 7:19 AM
Hi, TOG62.... Ya, for sure. I'll be doing that as well. This is a video 'slide show' (of sorts) of about 240 photos (that I scanned in and repaired/cleaned) from my parent's life, with music I composed for it playing in the background, and some 'video greetings' from family and friends at the end. That's the main part, but I figured it would be nice to put the photos on the DVD so they could view them on the tv easily (without having to deal with a computer or files). The thumbnail gallery that I had set up was really nice (...being able to see all the photos (small), and click on the ones you wanted to see fullscreen).... except that it results in the 'too many unique media' error that I mentioned.

I have to try out a data DVD on my DVD player, and see how that all works. I knew you could do that sort of thing, but never really tried it. I imagine you'll just get a text list of all the file names (which, unfortunately, are still the default DSC_0001 type format... so you'd be clicking on them blindly).

But, ya, at worst, I'll just keep them off the movie DVD, and just have them on a separate data DVD.

What I am going to try and set up today, instead, is the photos as a series of movie compilations. I didn't like how you had to just sit through them being displayed one after the other... but to remedy that a little, I've divided the photos into categorized packets of about 24 photos (each displayed for 3 seconds)... So at least you can narrow it down (via selection of which named compilation you want to see). Still sucks that you can't really navigate through it, or pick a specific image... but I guess 24 related images are better than a pack of all 240!