Posted by Andrew Forsyth on December 10, 2007 at 5:11 AM
Hi All,
I'm after a piece of software that will allow me to create slideshows (with sync'd music) on a Mac that can export a standalone show (not a Quicktime/Flash movie) that can be viewed on both PC and Mac.
I've played with Fotomagico but this appears to export a Mac only standalone, is this correct?
Any recommendations?
Andrew
Posted by Larry Daniel on December 10, 2007 at 8:40 AM
iMovie?
Posted by Wim Reyns on December 10, 2007 at 10:23 AM
Don't know if you have Lightroom, but if you have you can export the slideshow from there in PDF format,
Posted by Carol Hyman on December 10, 2007 at 12:06 PM
The best slide shows I've seen anywhere -bar none- were created using Adobe After Effects. Wow!
It's expensive and has a learning curve (both reasons we haven't moved to it yet), but the end products speak for themselves.
Posted by Andrew Forsyth on December 10, 2007 at 6:14 PM
Hi Guys,
iMovie - the image quality looks poor when i run the show on my monitor, despite having image quality on maximum. Am i doing something wrong? Original files are good and sharp.
Lightroom - a PC only app, I'm working on a Mac but need cross-platform output
Powerpoint - v poor at displaying image files, plus i need to put together a large number (300+) of images which is no fun at all in PP
Quicktime - I'm finding full screen image quality isn't up to the mark either.
Will have a look at Adobe After Effects, ta.
Any other ideas?
A
ps I run Aperture for RAW processing which has excellent quality slideshows built in, but they can't be exported with a standalone player
Posted by Andrew Forsyth on December 10, 2007 at 6:43 PM
Yikes, just seen the price of After Effects so rule that one out...
No kidding! We would have to do a lot more slide shows or find other uses before we could justify the expense. And neither my wife nor I are all that keen on preparing slide shows. They're a popular item on weddings, but considering the time invested versus the "going price" we can sell them for, they're non-starters. We do it more as a customer services than a money maker.
Posted by Larry Daniel on December 10, 2007 at 9:58 PM
Check over at www.macosg.com, search for slide and show and software, see what comes up. Keynote maybe? I have not used it to do a slide show so it might be a chore to import the photos.
Good luck!
Posted by Jim DeWitt on December 11, 2007 at 1:17 PM
Andrew -
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is cross-platform. I'm no fan of Adobe, but in my opinion Lightroom is second only to Mac-only Aperture for photo management.
Posted by Andrew Forsyth on December 11, 2007 at 4:24 PM
You're right, Lightroom is now cross-platform. My mistake.
I've invested in Aperture so may have to sit tight until a slideshow export develops...
A
Posted by Kelly Rowe on December 13, 2007 at 3:45 AM
Fotomagico makes a DVD slideshow that plays in anything capable of reading a DVD. Mac. PC. DVD player. It is a Mac application, but the output (DVD) is platform independent. I think that when we bought it, we were given the opportunity to buy some tutorial movies that really took us through the learning curve in a matter of hours. We watched those and produced our first slideshow in one afternoon.
Posted by Andrew Forsyth on December 13, 2007 at 4:17 AM
Hi Kelly,
I thought I'd found the solution with FotoMagico before I posted my plea for help. I ran a 5-day trial of the full (Pro?) version but the DVD I burned wouldn't run on any of the PCs I tried. You're right about ease of use and I was hopeful that this was the solution but, unless this function is disabled on the trial version, I couldn't get this to cross over from the Mac to the PC. I went thru the export routines without a glitch and the PC can see a number of folders (including the images) on the disc but this doesn't seem to have the correct file to get it all working together (the Mac just sees a single file that runs the show as planned).
I must be doing something wrong if you can get it to work cross-platform. From the help files it appears as if the export contains a standalone player, but is this compatible with DVD (movie) players only? I would be unable to watch movies on any of the PCs I've tested (these belong to an organisation that I'm doing a series of presentations for next year, although they are fitted with Quicktime and Media Player) so maybe this is the reason for the lack of success?
Andrew - if you're still having problems sorting this lot out, then contact me directly...
fm DVD's are cross platform, so I'm not sure why yours aren't working on the PC. It may be that the DVD drive is an old one?, or that it's actually a CD drive...? You should also try changing the brand of DVD - I've had issues with some cheaper ones with customers not being able to read them...but my Mac can!
Check on the specs of the DVDs you're using. I don't remember the details (and I'm on the road and can't check), but as I recall there are + versions and - versions, and that affects which platform they'll play on.
Discussion
14 repliesI'm after a piece of software that will allow me to create slideshows (with sync'd music) on a Mac that can export a standalone show (not a Quicktime/Flash movie) that can be viewed on both PC and Mac.
I've played with Fotomagico but this appears to export a Mac only standalone, is this correct?
Any recommendations?
Andrew
Carol
It's expensive and has a learning curve (both reasons we haven't moved to it yet), but the end products speak for themselves.
iMovie - the image quality looks poor when i run the show on my monitor, despite having image quality on maximum. Am i doing something wrong? Original files are good and sharp.
Lightroom - a PC only app, I'm working on a Mac but need cross-platform output
Powerpoint - v poor at displaying image files, plus i need to put together a large number (300+) of images which is no fun at all in PP
Quicktime - I'm finding full screen image quality isn't up to the mark either.
Will have a look at Adobe After Effects, ta.
Any other ideas?
A
ps I run Aperture for RAW processing which has excellent quality slideshows built in, but they can't be exported with a standalone player
A
Good luck!
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is cross-platform. I'm no fan of Adobe, but in my opinion Lightroom is second only to Mac-only Aperture for photo management.
I've invested in Aperture so may have to sit tight until a slideshow export develops...
A
I thought I'd found the solution with FotoMagico before I posted my plea for help. I ran a 5-day trial of the full (Pro?) version but the DVD I burned wouldn't run on any of the PCs I tried. You're right about ease of use and I was hopeful that this was the solution but, unless this function is disabled on the trial version, I couldn't get this to cross over from the Mac to the PC. I went thru the export routines without a glitch and the PC can see a number of folders (including the images) on the disc but this doesn't seem to have the correct file to get it all working together (the Mac just sees a single file that runs the show as planned).
I must be doing something wrong if you can get it to work cross-platform. From the help files it appears as if the export contains a standalone player, but is this compatible with DVD (movie) players only? I would be unable to watch movies on any of the PCs I've tested (these belong to an organisation that I'm doing a series of presentations for next year, although they are fitted with Quicktime and Media Player) so maybe this is the reason for the lack of success?
Andrew
fm DVD's are cross platform, so I'm not sure why yours aren't working on the PC. It may be that the DVD drive is an old one?, or that it's actually a CD drive...? You should also try changing the brand of DVD - I've had issues with some cheaper ones with customers not being able to read them...but my Mac can!