Ulead DVD PictureShow

Richard Price
February 2002

Digital cameras, like scanners become more and more affordable - now even the cheaper products produce respectable results.

But digital images chew up hard disk space and are not easy to archive, store or share.

DVD Picture Show, software from Ulead, goes some way to providing an easy to use solution that gives anyone with a CD or DVD the ability to create multiple slideshows on disc.

Given the price of DVD burners and the lack of standards, it is probably safer and cheaper to use CDs

Installing and using the program is simple - a wizard-like interface guides users to drag and drop images in the correct order. Ready to use menu templates help in putting slideshows together.

The program works with both CD and DVD burners, which is just as well because I think DVD burners are probably out of the price range of the market segment DVD PictureShow is targeting. If you do use DVD, bear in mind that the DVD player that the slideshow is going to be viewed on must be compatible with CD-R, VCD and DVD-R disks.

Making mistakes is almost impossible with DVD PictureShow. Basically it creates old-fashioned slideshows and while it provides a convenient way of creating menus to view the slides, the program is restrictive and it is almost impossible to be really creative.

The application automatically detects what disc burner is installed on the computer, while Burn-Proof technology helps eliminate buffer under-run errors.

It is also possible to add a soundtrack to a slideshow presentation and DVD PictureShow supports MP3, WAV and MPEG audio files.

Once the slides have been organised in the correct order, they can be previewed before committing them to the media.

It is possible to create a number of slide shows which are grouped together as a single project.

Even computer novices only need to be able to point, click, drag and drop - they should have no trouble putting a reasonable slideshow together.

When it comes to titles, just select a background colour, a menu format from the templates provided, then type in the title for each slide show and sit back and wait.

It is possible to create custom-designed backgrounds. Please don't rely on the audio samples included with DVD PictureShow - they are not very inspiring and you'd do better to record your own.

I tested DVD PictureShow on a Pentium II running Windows ME, and I am confident it performs just as well under 98, 2000 and XP.

DVD PictureShow supports BMP, GIF, JP2, JPC, JPG, PNG, PSD and TIF image files.

Minimum requirements are any Pentium processor, 64MB RAM, 40 MB disc space for installation, and a CD or DVD burner to burn the disks.

All up, DVD PictureShow is a low-cost way of sharing still images. Why not try downloading the fully functioning 15-day trial version from their web site. By that time you should have a good feel for the program and if it is too simple for your needs Ulead have a whole range of more sophisticated editing programs to choose from.

www.asiapac.ulead.com

By Richard Price, Editor EnergyME.com

For information on getting a product reviewed email richard@energyme.com