Thanks, I will try stretching them out. I assume this process will not affect the quality of the picture? I tried changing the 5 seconds to various settings, but I did not see any difference by doing so.

Stay tuned.

Thanks again.

Deloresw

All of the slideshows have five songs that total 15:94 minutes in length with 130 to 171 slides. If this was my project I would work with one song at a time. Simply pre-calculate the amount of pictures to be displayed per song.
So after you finish the 1st song (which would be the 1st slideshow) then export it (File | render as) to a dv.avi file. Perform this on all the songs. You will have 5 separate videos (dv.avi's) when complete.

Then for the final project I would load the 5 videos (slideshows) and put them in sequence on the timeline and render out to a new video file. Whatever format PowerPoint accepts.

Thanks for your input, but I am not trying to produce them in PowerPoint. I originally did four of the slideshows in PowerPoint, but I wanted to try to make a DVD so they can be viewed on the TV instead of the computer.

In PowerPoint, I did exactly what you proposed, i.e., calculated the length of each song and matched that to each of the slides. It took many "tests" to accomplish the end result, e.g., some songs played two or more times and by design, the first and last song play only once.

I tried to use the same method in VMS8, but it did not work UNTIL I did the "stretching" technique suggested above by Chienworks. It now works perfectly! YEAH! Thanks Chienworks!

I now have another question. I had added five slides at the end of the slideshow with text, and I inadvertently grouped them with the pictures. I was able to ungroup them, but I can't find how I can "unstretch" them. I deleted one of the slides and created another one in its place, because for some reason it would not show up in the preview window. So now I have four "stretched" text slides and one text slide that is not stretched.

My plan is to group the five text slides, add another short song, and stretch the five slides so the complete song will play. Am I trying to do the impossible?

Thanks for anyone's input!
Deloresw

There isn't much that's impossible with Vegas.

You are aware that you can change the length of any picture on the timeline by simply dragging the edges left or right, aren't you? Similar to what you did to stretch out the whole group of pictures, but don't use the Ctrl key.

While this may wander off a bit, for slide shows, consider a product
like Photodex Proshow Gold or Producer -- they are designed for
slide shows, have really great handling of slides and effects AND
one of the options is to output in AVI uncompressed which imports
back into Vegas where you can do anything you want with additional
overlays, alpha stuff etc. They actually work quite well together ( I
have both VMS and Proshow Producer and go back and forth this
way quite a bit). Proshow Producer has a mode you get in by hitting
the TAB key where it shows the slides on the timeline and the music
waveforms so it is very easy to sync your slides to the beat of the
music etc.

mikey

Thanks! I discovered the stretching of the pictures, but thought it would distort the picture so left it alone.

Early this morning, I tried to copy the five text slides I had created in one of my "test" files and paste them into the other file where I had perfected the fitting of the music to the pictures. It did not work so I redid the text slides and added one more to the file I want to keep. The six text slides are "credits" similar to what you see scrolling at the end of a movie, but I made them as stills. I then trimmed the song "Memory," performed by James Galway from 3:29 to 1:34 minutes, and stretched the six slides to fit. It works to perfection--thanks to your help!!

A quick explanation for the slideshows is I made them from birth to the present for my five grandsons, four who are 8-years-old and one who is 11.

I do genealogy research so I used satellite maps and regular maps for various countries and states to depict their heritage along with some really great landmarks pertaining to Austin, TX, e.g., the UT tower lit with the No. 1 after the football team won the National Championship. The whole experience has been great fun for me even with all of the frustrations.

I celebrated this morning by treating one of my daughters and her triplet sons to breakfast!

Now, I need to read the instructions again that tells me how to "render" my file to a DVD. I have read several of the questions and answers on this forum about rendering, but I just don't understand most of the lingo. I am sure I will have more questions so I hope you have patience with me.

Stay tuned.
Deloresw

Stretching on the timeline has nothing to do with how the images are displayed. It only affects how long they appear. "Left to right" across the timeline is time (duration), not image width.

Please feel free to keep asking questions. Remember, we learn as much from answering as you do from asking. :)

Thanks for your kind words and your help! I know I will be asking many more questions.

I know there are several neat sites with great maps, but the following are my favorites.

www.geology.com

http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/

Deloresw,
Good to see your making progress, I wasn't referring to making the slides in PowerPoint. My suggestion was to do everything completely in VMS. Working in stages or one slideshow at a time makes it easier to build and manage the complete project.
Good luck.

I am sorry, I misunderstood what you said. I am happy with the end results so far, but I do have more questions. :-) I have to say that I tried to use some humor in listing the credits. I have some great pictures of my five grandsons holding baby goats and chasing about 42 goats on a farm. I added the credit: "Goats courtesy of...."

1. My slideshow now contains 136 slides equal to 17:46 minutes; approximately 7.7 seconds per slide. Do I need to change any of the settings in the Preferences window or just leave them alone?
2. Does anyone know how to insert the copyright symbol into a text slide?
3. In regard to Burning to a DVD: The Help menu says, "When rendering is complete, click "Send to DVD." Use DVD Architect Studio to create and burn the DVD. The instruction book says: Click "Send it to DVD Architect Studio" and create a project with your movie OR Click "Finish" to close make movie wizard.

Again, I am sorry for the long post, but I need to know if I use the Movie Wizard to render my file to my hard drive could I use Roxio Easy Creator 9.0 to burn the file to a DVD without going through Architect Studio?

Deloresw

I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about making a movie or making a DVD. Being you have spent so much time on this project I would make sure not to move any pictures or music file and don't install any new software on the computer until you finish your project. You need to know the video format of your country. USA is NTSC is US format 29.97fps and PAL is Europe 25fps (frames per second).
Before you started your project you should have setup your "Project Settings" to match your target, in your case is to create a dvd. I have no idea what your present project settings are so to me it's best to save your complete project with the name you have been using to save the project. Then re-save the project again as a different filename. So goto file | save and save the project. Then goto "File | SaveAs" and give the project a different filename such as slideshow_rendering_stage. Reason I suggest a different filename is the original filename is a backup to revert to if something goes wrong. These are project files you are saving, not video files. You need to render your project to a video file now. After you have saved to a new filename.
This is an example if you are using the NTSC format, if you are using PAL format then you change the setings for PAL.

Goto "File | Properties" Select the "NTSC DV (720x480, 29.970 fps)" Template and then make the following changes.
<Video Tab> Field Order = None (progressive scan)
<Video Tab> Full-resolution_rendering quality = "Best", Deinterlace method = "Blend Fields" (the default)
<Audio Tab> Master bus mode = Stereo
<Audio Tab> Sample rate = 48,000
<Audio Tab> Bit depth = 16
<Audio Tab> Resample & stretch quality = Good or Best
Click "OK", then "File | Save" (Save the project with these new settings)
Then File | "Render As" <Save As Type> = MainConcept MPEG-2 (*.mpg)), <Template:> = DVD NTSC
Make sure none of the boxes at the bottom are checked on, assign a filename and create a video file by clicking on the "Save" Icon.
VMS will render this video file to your harddisk and your video file will have an extension of .mpg, anyway you can play this video file in any software player on the computer and this would be the file you would use in any other program to create a dvd. I suggest using Architech Studio to create your dvd.

BTW- The above project settings are for a slideshow, fielding=none. Do not use this setting for a real video such as from a video camera, if your source was from a video dv camcorder then this setting would be "Lower Field First"
Hope this works for you. Playback the video file on your computer screen and see if your happy with the results. Then you can use this video file to create a dvd and of course that is another topic. I love dvd recorders.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Your instructions worked great!

The only item I did not see in Properties was the <Audio tab> Master bus mode = Stereo, but the music played in stereo.

The file rendered in a little over 6 minutes and created a 416 MB .mpeg file. I viewed it in Media Player and it looks great.

I am ready to burn it to a DVD. I have read the instructions in Movie Studio and Architect Studio, but cannot figure out how to get Architect Studio to burn it from the .mpeg file I created on my hard drive. Again, I need my hand held to go through the process.

Also, should I have posted this under the topic of burning to a DVD?

I will wait to hear from you or anyone else that can walk me through the burning process.

Deloresw

Run DVDA. The bottom left tabs are important. Click on theme, choose a theme and drag it to the preview window.
Now click on the explorer tab. Find your mpg file and drag it to the preview window as well.
Double click on the 'menu' in the tree-view window. In the menu page options, make sure 'end action' is set to 'loop'. Check the preview, keep an eye on all details.
Now you're ready to burn! Click onthe 'make movie button'. Choose prepare and burn.
Tips:
1) If you have one, burn your first couple of dvd's on RW media, so you won't waste media when you make a mistake.
2) DVDA renders audio and menus always. If you render your movies in VMS in the mpg format, DVDA will use it as is, which is a great time saver. (Unless it's a very long movie which needs recompression)
3) DVDA keeps your prepared dvds on your hard disk; DVDA will remember the files, and use them whenever needed, which again is a great timesaver. If you're low on disk capacity, you may want to delete these directories, though.
4) When burning, leave your pc alone. Don' t use it for anything else.

Thanks so much! I will give it a try. I wish the instruction books would give as simple instructions as I have received from this board! I guess that is too much to wish for. :-)

I do not have a RW disc, so will have to use DVD-R. Is it necessary to apply a "theme" and shouldn't I have done this before I got to the stage of burning the DVD?

Deloresw

There *must* be a theme, but you can use the default "blue" theme that DVDA starts up with. There's no need to change it if you don't want to.

The theme is a layout for the DVD menus. It doesn't exist until you get into DVDA so there's no reason to worry about it earlier.

Yes, applying a theme is one of the first things to do. In the beginning, stick with one of the VMS themes instead of building one yourself, because they are pretty standard, and will play on most dvd players.

Next time you're in a shop, buy a couple of DVD+RW: they are great to try things out until you get the dvd absolutely perfect, and you can use them again and again. Then, you burn a permanent dvd on your DVD-R media.
DVD-R is ok, as it will play on all dvd players, even the old ones. DVD+R is more recent and may not play on old dvd players (before 2004), but DVD+R(W) has a more robust error management system than DVD-R(W), allowing for more accurate burning.

Ivan123,
Thanks for posting that, Architech can get rather deep.

Delores,
If you try another dvd format other then dvd-r don't be disappointed if your dvd player doesn't play it.
Many dvd players will not playback dvd+rw, dvd-rw or dvd+r dvd's. So it's a hit or miss. You may have to look in your dvd players manual. Thing is if you want to take the dvd or make copies and give to others in the family I would use dvd-r media because you don't know if their dvd players can play dvd media other then dvd-r disks. Your computer should be able to play all the formats so if the computer plays it and the dvd player doesn't then most likely your dvd player doesn't support the format. If you have trouble burning the dvd then post back here. You said Roxio was installed and sometimes roxio has a drag2disk feature that can interfere with other programs burning dvd's. But try it anyway.
It's never easy, computers, bla. :)

I cannot thank all of you enough for all of the wonderful comments and instructions! If I had not had your input, I would have given up long time ago.

Roxio kept interferring during the rendering process so I had to keep clicking it off. I think I will disable my Mcafee antivirus before I start the burning process. I know many people do not follow the procedure of disabling their antivirus software during installations, etc., but I am a firm believer about doing it. Unless you all tell me different, I can't see that it would do any harm. I had the bad experience some time ago with a software program not working properly after installing it, until someone told me to try turning off the antivirus. This fixed the problem.

An aside. I paid for a Dell contractor to setup and install this new computer, transfer my files from my old one, and install some of my software. We got in a "heated" argument, because some of the programs would not work correctly, and he refused to disable the antivirus per my instructions. He said he had NEVER had a problem by NOT turning it off. I guess I ruffled his ego a little. :-)

I bought a package of 10 DVD+RWs today so I am set to try the burning process.

I will let you know how it goes. Thank you again!

Deloresw

Well, I am very upset. The DVD will NOT play on either one of my DVD players nor will it play in Media Player.

I followed your instructions about burning the DVD. In Architect Studio, I saved the file to DVDMiller072907.dar. I chose "copy user and theme media with project and chose "activate button." I named the menu 1 page Miller Ryan Egan for lack of a better name.

I chose "Make DVD" and chose "Prepare and burn." Everything looked good. Before the burning started the Wizard, I guess came up. A message appeared that said "Audio on Track 1 will be compressed." The next window showed the title was "Unknown" so I typed in DVDTEST072907.

The prepare and burn went well and finished after 17:23 minutes. It said it was successful with 476.7 MB.

I have a combination Sony DVD/ VCR player purchased in 2005 that says it will play DVD Video from a DVD+RW so figured it would only show the pictures and not play the sound.

I also have a Sony DVD/VCR player/recorder I purchased in March 2007. It has a section in the manual that says it will play a video and music slideshow from a DVD+RW disc.

I tried the DVD player first and got an error message. When I placed the disc into the DVD recorder, I received the message "disc not formatted, please wait for formatting." It finished formatting, but nothing came on. I pressed "play" and received the message "No title list is found," and NOTHING happened. I just read in the manual that it might take awhile if there are several images to load, so I may try it again later although after the experience with Media Player, I don't think it will do any good.

I inserted the disc on my computer for Media Player, but when the screen came up, it showed "Title Menu 100% free" and would not do anything. Now, I am wondering if the DVD recorder wiped the disc clean when it did the formatting.

Please tell me what I did wrong?

Deloresw

My guess is your dvd player/recorder initialised your dvd+rw media, which is very normal when you put blank dvd media in it.
Still, the fact that it did, shows that your player does play dvd+rw media.
Also, the fact that it did, teaches us that nothing was on the dvd+rw!
So my guess is you prepared the dvd, but did not burn it!

My suggestion: burn your dvd!. It should not take long, because this time you can select 'burn a previously prepared project'. Just follow the instructions.
After burning, try to play your dvd on your computer first. Windows Media Player should do just fine, but I like the freeware program 'VLC media player' (just Google for it).

If it plays on your pc, then take it to your most recent dvd player and pop it in. It should play.

Thanks for your suggestions, but I thought I checked to prepare burn. I will try it again. During the burn process, it spent quite sometime in preparing the "lead in" before it went to the "burn." During this process it showed 66 percent complete. It said it was in the burn process after that and showed the burn time as 17:23 minutes.

I just checked the DVD through Windows Explorer and there are some files on it, but nothing familiar and nothing over 200 kbs. Would this possibly be files that the DVD recorder added to format it?

I have another question about the menu in Architect Studio. I chose a theme and typed in the title. When I added my slideshow file, it plopped into the middle bottom of the menu. Is this what it is supposed to do? In the window on the left side, the slideshow is listed under the menu and if I click on the slideshow it opens up in the project window, but I could not figure out whether they were connected or not because when I viewed the file in the lower right, it starts with the slideshow. If I click on the Video part, it only shows the menu in several windows and the slideshow does not show up.

Thanks again for your suggestions. I will let you know what happens.

Deloresw

I am thinking that somehow the file was burned as a .dar instead of a .mpg file. Again, I am grasping at straws. I watched it as it burned and saw the audio files and video files listed.

I am going to leave for awhile.

Deloresw