I want to take digital images from my Coolpix 950 (Nikon) and burn them on my cd burner so as I can then view them on my DVD as a slide show format to be viewed on my television. Also want to scan photos via the same format. What software is available to me? If at all? Frustrated.

-- Rob Agee (madisons@socket.net), July 02, 2000

Answers

I am having the same problem and I am as puzzled as you are. Appreciate your feedback once you get an answer different than the one described below. I did not try it yet but my initial research has indicated the following:

1- Use Adobe Premier software to create movie show as AVI file (slide show) from your digital photos you can also add fancy titles, music and introduction etc..

2- Encode AVI file using XINGENCODER. The purpose of encoding is to tranfer the AVI file to MPEG file for viewing on DVD or VCD. You can download a demo version to encode an AVI file for 30 seconds only. The software costs around 200$. However, the quality will not be compatible with a full picture video DVD quality, it should be good enough on a smaller screen similar to Windows Media Player.

3- If you are looking for full screen and high quality video DVD as you mentioned, you cannot do it through software but it must be done through hardware typically an ENCODER video card. These start from 300 $ up to 5000$.

I was advised that it is also cheaper to do it through professionals shops if you want the full screen option, otherwise you may settle for the smaller screen option.

I was also told that an hour of full screen video show takes about 13 GB while a normal CD burner takes only 650 MB

-- Houssam Hussein (hhussein@emirates.net.ae), July 04, 2000.

You might have luck with a software package put out by a company named Sonic. I saw their booth at NAB this year, and how good the product is?...you'll have to make that assessment on your own. Their big pitch point was to use the DVD format but be able to burn it onto a CD. They had hardware cards, but what their function?...I didn't hang around to find out (sore feet day).

They got my email address thanks to my registration and have been sending me links in ads, so I can't promise you where this'll take you (besides their storefront, which is a place at least to start). Good luck!

http://store.dvdit.com

-- Sue Bald (destiny3@ix.netcom.com), July 05, 2000.

>>>I was also told that an hour of full screen video show takes about 13 GB while a normal CD burner takes only 650 MB>>>

This isn't exactly true, Houssam.

The payload rates depend not only on time, but on factors such as compression ratios and lines of resolution. Are you going for standard def, enhanced def, or high def?

Below is a quick summary of the NTSC numbers, and I wish I could take credit for this work, but it was done by a "Grandpa Video" engineer at MCI WorldCom, Fred Huffman.

Pixels Per H Line (Y Payload) 720 Pixels Per H Line (U Payload) 360 Pixels Per H Line (V Payload) 360

Field Size (Pixels) 720x243 Frame Size (Pixels) 720x486

Bytes Per Field 349,920 Bytes Per Frame 699,840 Bits Per Field 2,799,360 Bits Per Frame 5,598,720

-- Sue Bald (destiny3@ix.netcom.com), July 05, 2000.