Creating Slideshows

[Mr Darcy]

(Not sure if this should be here or Computers/IT but anyway...)
I am trying to create a slideshow of a subset of my Antarctic photos to send it to relatives. As I won't be present when they view it, I am trying to add a soundtrack of me describing each photo as it comes up.
Any suggestions on how to go about this will be greatly appreciated.

All the photos are in LR3, and I have set up a slide show there. It plays, but without soundtrack.
I have recorded a soundtrack using my iPod. That creates a .wav file that LR does not recognise.

Lightroom can play any .mp3, .m4a, or .m4b music file as a soundtrack to a slide show. Music plays as the slide show is viewed from within Lightroom or exported as a video.

So I converted it to an .m4a file using Wavepad. That works as a LR slideshow but crashes when I try to save to Video

Here is the crash report:

Log (6)
Assertion failed: self->aenc
info: Creating MainConcept H.264/AVC video encoder ...
info: Version: 8.0.0.47059
info: Platform: OSX
info: Using library: MainConcept optimized Software Encoder (mc_enc_avc.001)
extendedOption: media_time_offset : 0.000000 -> 1000.000000

I have also tried .mp3 files and both .m4a and .mp3 converted by Audacity, another sound editing program.
I also tried a .m4a music track ripped from one of my audio CDs by iTunes. That worked, but does not help me reach my goal.

Any suggestions???
Yes I have raised the issue with Adobe, but that will take months if not years to be resolved.
My ultimate goal is to have a DVD that can be just dropped into a player and watched on TV as the intended recipients are not computer literate. So even if I get the LR solution resolved, I will still need to create a standard DVD format (The LR output isn't!) and burn it.

I don't want to spend a lot of money on this as it is a once off, so if you suggest a software suite make it a cheap (free!) one. There are about 400 photos involved.

[gstark]

Thinking laterally, and if your intended outcome is to make a DVD, then why not send the slide show to a video editing program, and add the soundtrack there?

Then you can save that in a DVD format, burn and go.

[Mr Darcy]

If I knew where to start that process, I would. This whole area is new to me. Any suggestions?

[Murray Foote]

Maybe the key point is the conversion process. I just tried searching for convert wav to mp3 and got a number of options including some free ones. Perhaps try some of them, converting if necessary to all the possible formats, and see what works.

[Mr Darcy]

Maybe the key point is the conversion process. I just tried searching for convert wav to mp3 and got a number of options including some free ones. Perhaps try some of them, converting if necessary to all the possible formats, and see what works.

Hi Murray,
That's pretty much what I have done. I have tried two conversion programs - WavePad & Audacity. Audacity is free. WavePad cost me about $70 when I bought it several years ago for another purpose. Both will convert from .wav to both .m4a and mp3. Wavepad does not do m4b. I haven't checked Audacity. I have tried both programs with both formats. Within each format, I have tried multiple options in the save path. Nothing has worked for my purposes.
.m4a always works with a "live" (within LR) slideshow, but not a saved to Video one. mp3 NEVER works even with a "live" slideshow. mp3 gets an exclamation mark beside it when selected in LR and will not even show the duration of the "music". I assume the exclamation mark means that LR sees some problem with the file, but I can find no documentation on it.

At this point, I guess I need to look at non LR solutions, but as this whole video thing is new to me I don't even know where to start. Hence my post here. I am sure others here have been down this road before me.

To give credit to Adobe, I have had a tech contact me, saying that they can see where the problem is. It is an unhandled assertion point within LR. They can fix the assertion point, but as he points out, all that means is that the export will still fail, albeit more gracefully, as something is causing the program to reach that point in the program. It seems to be the m4a file, but it may just be that the presence of the m4a file is causing some other failure to manifest. They have asked for, & I have supplied a copy of the problematic .m4a. Hopefully they will reach a solution or at least a work around.

In the meantime I am searching wider for a work around. As a software developer myself, I am quite aware of the turnaround time for even a simple patch to get out to the real world. At best it will await 3.4.2 which since 3.4.1 has only just come out, will be a while yet. This is not a "drop everything and fix it" kind of bug.

[Murray Foote]

Mmmm. Best of luck. Hope you get a quick fix from Lightroom, which is presumably the quick and easy option if available.

[Mr Darcy]

I have resolved the first part of my dilemma
Along the way, Adobe (Kudos to them for their proactive support!!!) have acknowledged a bug in their software that needs to be addressed. As it only affects non standard music files, I don't expect a quick resolution though.

After much research, I discovered that iTunes can create a compatible .m4a file
In iTunes, highlight the Voice Memo you want to convert, then select Advanced...Create AAC Version.
This will convert the file and create a .m4a file of the same name.
Unfortunately, it is not in the same directory, and iTunes gives no feedback as to where it is.
Nor does it list it in the VoiceMemo playlist in iTunes.
I found it in iTunes\Music\Music\My iPod\Voice Memos\

Now all I need to do is work out how to turn the mp4 video into a playable DVD.
Any clues?

[Aussie Dave]

I have three words for you....
Pro Show Gold
http://www.photodex.com/products/proshow/gold

I have created slideshows in programs like Sony Vegas etc and whilst it works well, nothing I have used compares to the ease and output of ProShow Gold.

Not a huge outlay (around $60-70), but it makes slideshow creation so easy.

Simply import all your photos and either choose a ProShow wizard template which puts in different transitions between each photo and/or manually add transitions as you go.....then drop in audio (which you can also edit within ProShow if needed) and then you have the option to output as many different file types, or create and burn to DVD, or save as an executable PC file, etc etc.

Have a look on the website (listed above) and see what you think.
I think it's well worth consideration.

Dave

[Matt. K]

I agree..............Pro show. Simple and brilliant! But if you don't want to spend the money then what about a Power Point presentation?

[surenj]

Hi Greg,

how about DVD fab?

http://www.dvdfab.com/video-converter.htm

You could use the trial and see.

Good luck.

[Mr Darcy]

Thanks for the suggestion Matt and Dave
One small problem:

Do you have a Mac version of ProShow?
Unfortunately, there are no Mac versions of our software available at this time.

Looks like the same wee problem with your suggestion Suren

System Requirements

★ Windows7/Vista/XP (32-bit/64-bit)

[stetner]

If you are on a mac then iMovie (and maybe iDVD) should do what you want. I just fire iMovie up, then in the lower right click on the camera and browse to the photos you want. Drag them up to the upper left area, click on the microphone in the middle bar, click on the 1st image and start recording as the slideshow plays.

After you are done choose Share->Export .... either mp4 or lots of other formats with the QuickTime option, or share it to iDVD and burn it.

I just tried it with about 20 photos and it worked great. 400 may take some time

Doug

[surenj]

Good luck with this one Greg. Sounds like you can do it without new software!