Software Review
By Larry Anders, Librarian, Tampa PC Users Group
Larry@Andersnet.com
| PictureToTV Software Review By Larry Anders, Librarian, Tampa PC Users Group |
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As of this writing, Christmas is less than a month away, and I think I may have an idea for a gift that everyone will enjoy.
It’s very possible that someone you know is getting a digital camera for Christmas…or maybe they already have one. Or, maybe they’re getting a DVD player…or already have one of those too. Or, maybe that someone is you. If you answered yes to any of the possibilities above, then read on.
If you have a digital camera, a collection of digital photos from the web, or a bunch of scanned images and a DVD player (and a CD burner), PictureToTV (P2TV) is touted as professional photo video made easy. In just a few clicks and a couple of drags and drops you can be showing your photo collection on your TV using your DVD player. A friend of mine, who does not have a DVD player, told me about this program, and it sounded too good to be true. Actually, it sounded too easy to be true. But it did sound interesting, so I thought I’d waste a blank CD and give it a try. (What the heck… I needed something to write about.) But, I was right… it was too good to be true. It took about five minutes. I used all the default settings, burned the CD with the software included in the program, plopped it into my DVD player in the family room and, voila, it didn’t work.
I went back into the program and from the help menu went to support on the Internet and checked out the extensive listing of compatible DVD players and mine was one on the list. What now? I was really excited about being able to do something like this so I wasn’t about to give up. What was peculiar was that it showed the photo I had chosen for the album cover with the number 1 next to the album on my TV screen but when I pushed play nothing would happen.
This time I went back into the program and read the help file introduction. Under getting started and steps to bring your pictures to TV, this is what it said:
That’s all there really is to it. There’s no rocket scientist qualifications needed here. I had followed all of the instructions; I just figured that it must be some kind of incompatibility with my DVD player. But in the spirit of not giving up I sent an email to the support department at P2TV, and the next day got the answer I was hoping for. There was nothing wrong with my DVD player.
P2TV is designed to create as many different albums as the space will allow on the CD you are writing to. Each album is automatically assigned a number sequence. When I created my first album I only created one album, therefore, as I mentioned above, the album I created was assigned the number 1. The email I received from the support department admitted that the next version of P2TV would better explain how to “PLAY” the video on the TV. All I had to do is press the number 1 on my remote. I was impressed. It looked professional and it was easy to use.
You can choose from a variety of transitions between photos and add your favorite MP3s as background music. You don’t need any extra CD burning software. It’s all built in. You can also preview your work before burning it onto the CD. P2TV simulates your TV and the DVD/VCD player in software.
Future enhancements planned are:
1. SVCD Mpeg2 plug-in
2. Cropping of images - This is useful for portrait pictures so that they can fill up more screen estate on the TV, which has a landscape orientation.
3. Text captions - Ability to add text to the pictures.
4. Individual image control - Ability to customize transition effect and delay for each image.
5. DVD format & writer support.
6. Ability to import home video into the project.
If you go to http://www.picturetotv.com/index.htm, you can download a trial version. See if it’s not as easy to use as I said it was. And don’t forget to press 1. The price is only $39.95 and it’s worth every penny! Merry Christmas! u
