On this page ...
How to create
a Foto VCD, SVCD or DVD with "MAGIX pictures to CD &
DVD"...
Magix, known
for it's sound applications, has a great tool for putting your photographs/pictures
on a VideoCD or DVD.
This tool is constantly under development, improving and adding
features all the time. It's not expensive either: app. $49.
If you're looking for a tool that can make an excellent slideshow
on a VideoCD, regular CDRom or DVD, then this might be the right
choice for you.
It has fantasic effects and transistion, text options, flexible
menu designs etc.
Note: the supported formats are VCD
(VideoCD), SVCD (Super VideoCD), DVD
and the so called mini-DVD. The use of mini-DVD
is not advisable as it will not be compatible with most DVD players.
See the Video formats page for more
details on these formats.
Note: Screenshots are based on the Dutch
release 1.05.
Tip: It's highly recommendable to download
the 1.06 update (or newer) from the Magix
website. The MPEG quality has been improved strongly! |

Thanks to Magix
for the evaluation version! |
Overview
What format should I use?
Magix
Pictures on CD and DVD supports several formats. The
right format choice depends on the equipment you have to create the CD/DVD
and what type of equipment you have for playback of the CD/DVD. Check
the table to see what format suits you best:
VideoCD |
A regular CD-writer or CD-rewriter
will do the trick for this format |
Computer, Laptop or standalone
DVD-player. |
+ Most compatible
+ Uses least storage space
- Rather poor quality |
Super VideoCD |
For this format too, a regular
CD-writer or CD-rewrite will be sufficient. |
Computer, Laptop and most standalone
DVD-players. |
+ Less compatible
+ Uses medium storage space
+ Good quality |
mini-DVD |
For this format too, a regular CD-writer
or CD-rewrite will be sufficient. |
Computer, Laptop. Will not
work in most standalone DVD-players. |
+ Most incompatible
+ Uses large storage space
+ Great quality |
DVD |
Requires a DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R or DVD+RW
writer. |
Computer, Laptop or standalone DVD-player
(not all players are compatible with recordable media). |
+ Most compatible
+ Uses large storage space
+ Great quality |
Note: neither of these formats
(only in Magix
Pictures on CD and DVD) will allow you to store, additionally,
the original pictures on disc in a seperate directory. If you're looking
for a program that does support this then look for the less flexible Ulead
DVD PictureShow or the spartanic Nero
Burning ROM.
Collecting
pictures
You may get pictures from several sources
like the Internet,
your scanner, your digital camera, drawing
them yourself, webcam, etc. One thing they all have in
common for use with Magix
Pictures on CD and DVD:
Pictures
must be in either JPEG (JPG) or BITMAP (BMP) format!
Other formats are NOT supported
and need to be converted first. Usefull tools for this are Ulead
Smartsaver (my favorite), XnView
(free and great image browser too) and ACDSee.
TIP: MPEG1
and MPEG2 movies are also allowed!
Sorting pictures:
Think in terms of Albums
Once you collect the pictures you will
have to start to think in terms of so called Albums (as you would do when
putting printed images into a photo-album).
Note: Each album
can hold a maximum of 99 pictures! This is a limitation
of the defined VCD, SVCD and DVD standards! Also: an album cannot
contain subalbums!
I usually create a directory where I copy
all my pictures to. Then I create sub-directories with the name of the
albums I wish to use later on. Using a tool like XnView
or ACDSee allows
me to quickly sort all these images to the appropriate directories. For
example a tree could look as such (C:\MY PICTURES will be considered "root"
of your new Photo VideoCD album):
C:\MY PICTURES
C:\MY PICTURES\HOLIDAY FEB 2002
C:\MY PICTURES\HOLIDAY JUN 2002
C:\MY PICTURES\MY NEW CAR
C:\MY PICTURES\PUCKIE OUR DOG
etc.
This will make life a little bit easier;
later on we can drag the entire content of a directory to Magix
Pictures on CD and DVD.
Let's start Magix Pictures
on CD and DVD
Naturally it helps, if we first install the application
(if you haven't done that already).
Simply insert the CD into the CDRom of your computer. Normally a fullscreen
dialog will appear.
Note: If this is not the case,
then most likely "autorun" has been disabled on your
computer. No problem. Just go to the Windows Explorer and open de drive
letter of your CDRom that holds the Magix
CDRom. There you will find START or START.EXE.
Double click that file so the dialog starts.
In this fullscreen dialog you will see a button called
"INSTALL". Click it and the installation will
start. Follow the instructions presented to you.
After installation has finished, you can close the dialog
screen by clicking the "EXIT" button.
Now go to the Windows START-menu and start the application
by choosing "Program Files" - "Magix"
- "Magix Pictures on CD and DVD"
- "Magix Pictures on CD and DVD". The main
window will open:

The window at first looks a bit strange
- not really a Microsoft Windows style application. On the other hand:
most video related applications tend to use their own interface type anyway
so why not.
Note: The
window is NOT sizeable! It's fixed to this size, and as far as
I can guess the minimum screensize for this application is 1024 x 768
(commonly a 17" monitor). I personally think this is a downside to
the program, as I'm using a 1280 x 1024 screen, but you'll get used to
it I guess.
Your first
album
As soon as you started Magix
Pictures on CD and DVD, the application created the first initial
album. This will also happen when you decide to start compiling a new
CD or DVD (in the menu click NEW in the upperleft corner
of the screen will create a new project).
In this example ("New01"):

In the upper right corner you see a blue
section of the window. This is where you can drag and drop the pictures
from, to the "storyline" that you will find int the
lower half of the window (as indicated with the red arrow).

This blue part of the screen has three
tabs:
The three available tabs are Files
(A), Projects (B) and
Borders (C).
A. Files; here we select
our pictures from, which we can drag to the timeline.
B. Projects; here we can
find previously stored albums (i.e. "menus" also refered
to as "albums").
C. Border; Borders can
be added to the pictures by simply dropping them on the images in the
storyline.
The button "D"
brings you one directory level up, i.e. from for example C:\A\B\C\
to C:\A\B\. If you would like to change
the diskdrive you are working on, then keep clicking this button until
a list of all your drives appears.
"E" is just
an icon indicating that the text after this icon is the path where you
are currently at.
As of now you can start filling the album,
by dragging the images from the upper rightcorner (the blue part of the
screen) to the storyline. Don't forget: don't add more than 99 items on
the story line!
If the order of slides should be changed:
drag and drop within the storyline is supported as well, as long as you
remain on the same page. I.e. the storyline does not automatically scroll
when you are moving beyond the first or last visible slide.
Tip: You are
not limited to drag each picture at a time, you can also select multiple
files and drag them to the storyline. Not only that; you can also drag
them using the Windows Explorer. Just keep in mind that, when using the
Windows Explorer, when you are dragging multiple files, that your mouse
is positioned over the first picture you want to have in the storyline.
Adding
Transitions
After adding some pictures you might notice
the little AB buttons between the images: 
Clicking on the little white triangle on
the right lower side of that button will popup the transition menu where
you can choose from: Cut (remove picture), Crossfade, Thru Black, 3D Blend,
3D Swing, etc etc.

Play a little bit with these effect. You
can take a look at a preview by clicking in the whitebar above the storyline,
somewhere in the middle of the image of which you would like to see the
effect (see arrow in image below).
Tip: The application
comes with a cool demo file showing the capabilites of this program! Take
a look at it, it's amazing what you can do ...!
Now click the PLAY button ( )
to see a preview. The posibilties are almost endless.
Tip: If you would
like to copy this particular transistion to ALL slides in this album,
then click the little white triangle again and choose "Copy
to all".
Changing
playback time of a slide
This is done pretty easy. Below each image
you see the duration time. In the image above: 00:10:00, meaning 10 seconds.
Click the value and a popup appears showing you a slider where you can
change playback duration.

Tip: you will
notice the "Apply to all" button. This will
copy the duration set to ALL slides in the slide show.
The Next
Album
After filling the first album (or menu)
you can create yet another album by clicking the MENU button and choosing
the option "New Slideshow" (or press CTRL
+ N).
Repeat the steps as seen in the paragraph
(go back to the beginning by clicking HERE).
Create menu's
Once you have created one or more albums,
it's time for creating some navigation menu's. Magix
Pictures on CD and DVD offers great flexibility here again.
Click on the tab "MAKE DISC"
in the upper right corner. This (or something similar to this) window
will appear.

The red arrows indicate (start upper left
corner, turning clockwise):
- Remote Control;
Here you can "preview" the playback of a disc.
- Preview Window;
Shows you what the menu will look like.
- Note the little "folder" in the
lower left corner where you can select your own image that can be used
as a background.
- Also note the transparent "Navigation"
button in the upper right corner. This one is pretty important, as when
you activate this button, the buttons Jukebox and CD-Burn buttons disappear.
In their place a navigationtree appears:
This tree determines the order of menu appearance and album appearance.
You can drag and drop the tree items in the desired order right in this
tree.
Note: only the Album names can be dragged, NOT the
individual pictures, that would have been something to change in the
Storyline!
- Create Jukebox CD;
Creates a CD, without all the transistion effects, usable with your
PC. It basically saves your pictures for later user - i.e. print it
in a photo-print shop or something like that.
- Burn CD;
Guess what ... here you start burning your CD. Don't worry, it will
not start without asking you some questions on the desired format etc.
- DVD Menu templates;
Here you can select a predefined Layout, the Text-type
(font etc.), what type of Frame should be used for
the individual menu items, select a predefined Background,
and finally the page Composition (i.e. where and how
the menu items are positioned on the menu page).
Test you production
To test your creating, simply use the buttons
of the remote control. Use PLAY to start the show ... or press the SPACEBAR
on your keyboard.
Burn your production
to CD or DVD
Simply press the ENTER key on your
keyboard, or click the "Burn CD" button
as previously indicated. If you have used the navigation button, this
"Burn CD" button will not be visible. To make
it visible click the NAVIGATION button again.
A window will popup:

A and B will show you
which CD or DVD burner it found and at what speed it will burn. The indicated
speed (B) might be very low because either your drive is not supported
properly or you haven't inserted an empty disc yet for the writer to identify
it's maximum speed.
The button C will show
you info on the inserted blanc disc in the CD/DVD-writer.
Discformat is choosen with the radio buttons
at D, where button E allows you to set
some advanced settings on the used MPEG encoder (quality mainly and some
other expert settings).
Tip: For SUPER
VIDEO CD - Open the ENCODER OPTION (button
E) and click in the new window on the advanced button to see
if DEINTERLACE is checked. If you cannot click the button
then either first uncheck the "INTERLACE" option.
The red button F will
initiate the actuall burning of the CD or DVD. After clicking this button
it's all a matter of waiting. However: since the CD or DVD is
first being rendered on your harddrive, a popup may notify you that more
space is needed. In that case select another temporary directory for rendering
the show.
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