Thanks for the tip. Gonna give it a go and will advise. DGrob

Has anyone actually bought this program? From what I read from the site, the program changes the resolution of picture files. In view of that, does the resulting change negatively affect a DVD output? In other words, will the pictures playing on a DVD while viewing on a TV look crisp and clear or blocky and pixalated?

The only price I see for the base software is $39.95 - is there another site that has it for $24.95?

Very cool. Interesting to see hot it will compare


You must click on DVD to get the $24 price

http://www.3d-album.com/vac.html

I think the $24.95 DVD title is an add-on to create either dvd images or other movie files (avi, etc) from the basic 3-D Album presentation file. So, for us VV users, we would need both products - still looks like a good deal - I was just wondering where the original poster's price of $27.95 for the base product came from.

thanks,
David

I found it for $27.95 on Amazon.com; also check buy.com.
By the way, the graphics are really smooth and phenomenal in full screen mode,but I have no idea how they would translate when converted to .avi or .mpg using the addon program.

THAT'S what I'm wondering. Although the program looks good on computure screen within itself, how about the DVD ad-on? I'm concerned that the photos will not be high resolution enought to show well on TVs.

Hi all,

I bought it yesterday at CompUsa for $29.95. I'm going to add the Upgrade and fool with it and see how it does with DVD and report tomorrow.


Have a good day!!

I downloaded the VAC portion and used a couple of styles and made a few AVI's and Mpegs and it worked pretty good. Quality for the most part was good. Some of the styles worked better than others when encoded to Mpeg but this would be the case I think with all 3D composites. I made DVD's of the AVI's and Mpegs and then played on my set top to TV and they look pretty good. When making a AVI you can use any codec on your system or uncompressed. I used the MainConcept codec I have and it worked quite well.

I also used the preset for DVD NTSC and it seem to work fine also. I'll have to do more testing but for a total of $55.00 you could do some very cool 3D photo montages as well as some neat intro's to your video. All in all they did a good job with the programs and there are a lot of new styles that download quickly on their web site.

I think it is well worth the money

They are also taking preorders for a Pro Version coming out but not sure @ $249.00 if it will be worth it or not.

Have a good day!!!

Thanks Doormil for the quick review and feedback. Much appreciated. Makes the spending of $55 buck a little easier :)

Thank you.

I wouldn't run out and buy this software just yet....
First off, compusa sell this for 29.99 + 24.95 for the add-on(render to mpg/avi/whatever).
Second, it seems to have a problem with some mp3's(not all but some)
It sounds like some mp3's are very distored(however it's spelled).
I do however like the software but honestly Ulead's cool studio is 1000000000x better then this and does the same.
IMO(owning both programs) skip 3d-Album and just buy Uleads software.
Remember this is only my opinion, if you have the money to throw around i say go for it but if your tight on money, save up for Ulead or other softwares like this.

He may be right about the audio. I wouldn't rely on it for the audio myself anyway. I have Ulead Cool 3d as well and like it but for adding your photos to a 3D backcground like this does, I don't think there is anything easier.



Thanks and have a good day!!

Doormill is correct about that, it is very easy but easy doesn't = great/good.
I only recommend this software to people that have the money to throw around.....just my opinion

I don't thinks it's great but it is good and worth the money but only if your looking to do what it does. Less than half the money of Cool 3d Studio and I'm not sure how you would do this in 3DS. They are 2 different programs for 2 different things. It does quite well what it advertises it does. Not allways the case with new software.

IMHO


How would you acomplish putting in a bunch of Photos of your own in a 3d render with Cool 3D Studio. B.T.W. did they get the super slow rendering fixed in 3DS?

Have a good day!

Ok, after messing with all the extra free add-ons, i will say the program is better then i thought.
The only problem i see is the problem with mp3's and every once in a while it just crashes(win2k/everything updated).
I didn't like the fact you had to download 20+ add-ons but after you do it does make it worth while, at $29.99(compusa) it's worth every penny.
This program is geared for people who need nice openings or closings for that matter and nothing more but it makes very nice openings.
The options are so so, they do however allow you to change the backgrounds/other things with your own .jpg's making them very cool.
If you do however make pictures and want to put them on cd/dvd, this is a pretty cool program.
Whats funny is when you start messing with all the add-ons, first thing that came to my head was, "VV does everything this program is doing, plus" but, and yes theres a big BUT, 3d-album just makes it easier with cool 3d surroundings.
I rate this product 8/10.
I havn't tried the "render to mpg/avi" yet(wanted to try the product first before going all gun ho and buying a bunch of software i didn't like) but i will be right after i shut my mou....

Just bought the 2 programs in discussion.

Boy, talk about slow render times! 2 minutes takes just less than 30. I'm trying to render both an AVI file and and MPEG2. I'll take the files into VEGAS and DVDA and see what quality is like on a DVD for TV playing.

When I tried to create an AVI file, I could see NO option to use the Main Concept codec. How'd YOU do it?

Julius_911

My pleasure


clearvu

I didn't seem to have as slow render times. In AVI are you using uncompressed or DV codec? If I remember correctly it was pretty quick with AVI and MainConcept codec while MPEG2 was about 5:1 for encoding time.

I have a P4 2.53 overclocked to 2.69.

After encoding and burning to DVD as I said in a earlier post. It looked pretty good quality wise but like most 3D renders, some were very so-so like the "Fall" background that looks like a forest changing colors in autumn. It did not look very good but the flip Albums looked quite good. Like any program thou I think the higher res stills you start with will make a difference. All in all I feel like I got my moneys worth and a program that will be usefull if only as Slobra98 says for intro's and closing. If you needed to make a photo montage with fades between, one of the basic presets with fades would do a folder of pictures very quickly. Once again just IMHO.

Have a good day!!!

What I'm doing is using the VAC program to create an uncompressed AVI file. THAT'S the part that takes so long. I'm running a Pentium 4 3.06 with HT enabled. I've just tried a 45 second clip and it takes just over 8 minutes.

I'm rendering the AVI at 30 frames per second. Is that what YOU did it at?

Yes I used the same settings but used the MainConcept Codec. I'll pay more attention next time, it didn't seem to be that long thou.

Have a good Day!!!

You know what? Wham, bam, thank you sir, it ain't bad for the quickies we all probably get into - what with the neighbor's kid's birthday party and the like. Knock together a folder of your's and their photos, scab on a little charming music, render a VCD and you're done! And they LOVE it! Kinda fun, not bad quality, cheap.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I've just gotten into Ulead Cool 3D. It'll be a while before I can approach these effects - a very long while. DGrob