- Includes all you need to create CD and DVD photo shows, from capture to burning.
- Allows you to design DVD menus with a variety of predefined styles you can mix and match.
- Offers many professional editing features not found in similarly-priced competing software.
- Requires some learning time if you're not familiar with video editing software and terminology.
- Poorly translated/edited documentation.
- Timeline mode can be daunting to beginners.
- Combine your digital photos with music, audio, and movie-like effects, then play them back on TV.
- Capture photos directly from scanners and digital cameras to create slide shows and music videos.
- Imports popular image, video, and audio files. Export AVI, MPEG1/2, Windows Media, and Real Media.
- Layer up to four tracks of audio and video (for main video, audio, background music, and text).
- Includes many transitions, effects, camera movements, text styles, video and music clips.
- Pan and zoom over still images for a Ken Burns effect.
- Includes tools for media management, image editing, and enhancing sound quality.
- Create DVD menus with a variety of menu styles--mix and match, buttons, backgrounds, etc.
- Burn to CD (with bundled player for PC viewing), plus VCD, SVCD, DVD, and Mini DVD for TV viewing.
- For Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP. Requires CD or DVD burner and compatible DVD player for TV viewing.
Compiling your photo story is a matter of dragging and dropping photos and clips into the desired order. Beginners will probably feel more comfortable working in the "storyboard" interface which gives you a simplified view of your production. As you gain experience and want to add more eye candy to your shows, it's one click to switch to the more advanced "timeline" mode. The timeline gives you precise control over timing, audio levels, cross-fades, and effects.
When your production is complete, PhotoStory contains all you need to create interactive DVD menus with multiple shows per disc. You can also burn VCDs on CD that will play in a home DVD player, auto-run photo albums on CD for PC playback, or export to common video formats.
Once I got over the initial learning curve that comes with this software, I was quite impressed by the powerful and professional features. It's not the most intuitive or elegantly-designed photo slide show program, but it's possibly one of the most feature-rich.
