Photo DVD

Photo DVD

By: Ajay Kumar Srivastava

Photo DVD - About this presentation

This presentation is intended to describe, how to cre-
ate a DVD video from still pictures with added music
to it, that can be played with any standalone DVD
players. The methods and tools described here are
well tested. This presentation mostly tries to use free
software(s) tools to achieve its task. Only in unavoid-
able condition it recommend to use licensed soft-
ware(s).

Photo DVD - Introduction

Memories, that we capture and preserve with us in
the form of pictures. That describes many things,
whenever we review them. Now we can look them in
a whole new perspective by adding some more flavor
to it. Yes, by adding your favorite music to it, and
making it playable with commonly available
standalone DVD players such that you can share
them along with your family, relatives and friends.

Photo DVD - Prerequisites and notes

• Still images (tested with jpg files)
• Music files (tested with mp3 files)
• Empty DVD R 4.7GB (label it with your occasion)

Photo DVD – Tools and Requirements

Tools
• Google's Picasa – A free photo editing software available for both
windows and Linux.
• Imagination – A free video creator tool available for Linux only.
• DVD Styler – A free DVD authoring tool available for both windows
and Linux.
System requirements
• PC/Laptop with (any) Linux (tested with Ubuntu 9.10)
• DVD R/W
Note: For Windows operating system “VSO Software's CopytoDVD”
is similar to “Imagination”. However CopytoDVD is a licensed
software.

Photo DVD - Steps involved

• Step1. Image Editing
Adjust the image color balancing for attractive look

• Step2. Creating Video file
Add music and create video file from still pictures

• Step3. Finalizing DVD
Add menu screen and burn DVD

Photo DVD – Image Editing

Image files color balancing
Pictures (jpg files) taken from camera are color
unbalanced, the best way to balance the color in the
images is to use Google's picasa software tool. The
next section describes how to balance the color in the
images using picasa.
Download and install picasa which is free graphic
editing tool from Google, link to picasa can be found
in the link section at the end of this document.

Photo DVD - Image Editing Cont...

Picasa web album software


Load images files to picasa for color balancing

This can be done by selecting “Add File to Picasa” from File
menu


Once the image files has been loaded

Select and double click the image to modify


Picasa has a wonderful feature that automatically adjust the color
balancing of the image i.e I'm feeling lucky button. Click it and see the
magic. Do this for all the files by selecting thumbnails from top navigation
bar.


Once the editing is finished go back to library by clicking
back to library button.

And apply the changes by clicking save changes button.


All the changes are updated to the current folder by keeping
a backup copy in the same folder with name “Original”

Note: The modified images are available with existing folder,
not with the folder name “Original”. It is always suggested to
copy modified images to some other folder that again should
not contain any sub-folders.


Note
• Video Slideshow can also be created using Picasa but that
supports Windows video format (WMV) only.
• Picasa does not provide as many transition effects as
Imagination.
• Picasa does not support multiple audio files.

Photo DVD – Creating Video file

Add music and create video file
Now the images are ready for DVD slide show. The next
step, adding music and creating video file can be carried out
with the help of free software “Imagination version <= 2.1”

Imagination requires the ffmpeg encoder to produce the
movie file and libsox to handle the audio.

Photo DVD – Creating Video file Cont...

Configuring Imagination

• Select Slideshow>Properties
• Select video format as PAL 720 x 576
• Check option “Rescale image to fit desire aspect ratio”
• Select desired background color and click OK


Importing Image files

Import image files by selecting from menu
Slideshow>Import Pictures


Select the image files to import and click open.


Slideshow properties
• Applying transitions
• Setting transition speed
• Setting slide duration or slideshow length

Manual transition effect can be assigned by selecting each image or random
transition effect can also be given by selecting all the images and clicking on
Random button.
Transition speed can be set to Fast, Normal, or Slow as required.


Slideshow properties
Slide duration can be set to individual image by selecting
each image or common slide duration can be made by
selecting all the images.
Note: The sum of duration of each image + the transition
speed = total duration of slide show.


Importing music
Select Slideshow>Import music from menu to import music
files.


Importing music
Select the music files (tested with mp3 and ogg file formats)
and click open. You can add as many as files required.


Music settings
• Play music file
• Delete music file
• Change the order of music files

Note: Music duration is the sum of duration of all music files
and it must be approximately equal to slideshow length

(app)=


Export to DVD video
Select Slideshow>Export>VOB (DVD video) from menu.


DVD video settings

• Select the path for video file to be stored.
• Select aspect ratio 4:3 for regular screens and 16:9 for wide
screens and click OK.


Exporting DVD video

Now the imagination is exporting images and audio to DVD format.
Once this is 100% completed video file is available at specified
path.


Exported DVD video

Now the video file is available to burn to disc. Similarly multiple video files can be
created and burn to disc with menu navigation using DVD Styler software that is
described in next section.
Note: This image can now directly burn on disc as video DVD with any disc
burning software and can be played with standalone DVD players. The purpose of
using DVD Styler software is to provide menus and create professional looking
multi-video DVDs.

Photo DVD – Finalizing DVD

DVD Styler
DVD Styler is a DVD authoring tool for designing menus and
navigations. This is freely available for Linux and Windows.

Photo DVD – Finalizing DVD Cont...

DVD Styler Configuration (Select Configuration>settings)

Ensure Configuration is set as shown in the figure above and click OK


DVD Styler Options (Select DVD>options)

Label the disc with the name you like, select disc capacity as 4.7GB. Keep video
quality as auto.
Video format PAL 720 x 576, Aspect ratio 4:3 (normal) and 16:9 (wide screen)
Audio format AC3 48KHz and click OK.


Background
From the left panel right click on the desired background and
select “Assign to background”.


Safe TV Area
Right click on the selected background View>Show Safe TV
Area to ensure not crossing the TV boundary.


Adding Video files
Select file browser from left panel and browse for the video files that we
created using Imagination and drag them to the main window.


Adding Video files
You can add as many as video files and create menus until
the length of all video is equal to the length of DVD, that
shown at the bottom right of the editor.


Resizing the video icons
Once all the video files are added, video icons on the main
window can be resized for better visibility. To do this double
click on the icon to open button properties.
Select custom in Location and size column and set width
and height to 200, and click OK. Repeat the same steps for
other icons as well.


Button property window


Adding titles to icons
To add title to the icon right click on the icon and select Add>Text


Adding titles to icons
Select the desired title for your video, and click OK


Font, Size, and coloring the title
Title can also be modifies for different fonts, size and color. To do this right click
on the font and select properties.


Font, Size, and coloring the title
Once the title editing is done click OK and repeat the same steps to add titles for
other video icons


Finalizing the screen
Once the editing is done, organize the video icons and corresponding titles by
dragging them to a proper location for better visibility on TV screen area. Ensure
do not cross safe TV area.


Burn to DVD
Now, insert a new blank DVD disc in your DVD drive and select File>Burn DVD.


Burn to DVD
Select option Burn and click Start to start the burning process.


Burning Process
That's it, you are successfully done with creating Photo DVD. Once the process is
completed, take the DVD out and play it in your DVD player. Enjoy...!!!

Photo DVD - Links

Google's Picasa - http://picasa.google.com/linux/
Imagination - http://imagination.sourceforge.net/
DVD Styler - http://www.dvdstyler.de/
Ubuntu Linux - http://www.ubuntu.com/
FFMPEG - http://ffmpeg.org/
SOX - http://sox.sourceforge.net/
CopytoDVD from VSO Softwares -
http://www.vso-software.fr/products/copytodvd/copytodvd.php

Photo DVD - Disclaimer

All the information provided in this document is true
and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Please do this experiment on your own risk. In any
case author is not responsible for any damage or
unavailability of data.

Photo DVD - Comments and feedback

Comments and feedback
– Please send your comments and feedback to
shrivastav.ajay@gmail.com

Thank you

Ajay Kumar Srivastava

Photo DVD

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