Customer Reviews

Ulead CD & DVD PictureShow 3 Deluxe

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Hi....I am a big fan of putting photos on DVD and adding music. I just love it. I had bought more "photo to DVD" programs that I care to discuss. I'm like a Mini Software Store at home. Here's my story. I hope it helps everyone out there. Sorry for the length, but if you're like me, this is everything you want to read. All questions answered.

I bought "DVD XShow" by "321 Studios", which I thought would be great! I'd seen DVD's that were created with this program and they turned out wonderful. Menus and all. So, I bought it. 2 months after I bought it, the company went under. So, I had no tech support, no one to call, couldn't get my money back, nothing. I had created a beautiful slideshow of my friends wedding. Naturally, a wedding isn't just a few pictures. I had about 115. The slideshow played beautifully but it would only take 1 song. If I had more pictures than the length of the song, the song would just repeat itself. So, I shortened the show. Went to burn it and it kept erroring. Lost out.

Next program I bought was "DVD and PHOTO SHOW 2005" by "Magix". Oh my goodness, what a joke. GREAT PROGRAM. Yes, it did everything I wanted it to. I could add all my pictures, as many songs as I wanted. I controlled where the songs started and stopped, etc. It was great! I was actually REALLY happy with this product. Once you were all finished, you then create your DVD menu/add your titles/credits/pick your layouts, etc...It was awesome. Like something out of Hollywood. I created a MASTERPIECE. Could have won an Oscar :o). I get to the "Burning" part. And it errors. Over and Over and Over again. I contact customer service. They actually DO try to help me. Turns out my burner wasn't compatible w/the program. I had to buy a new DVD burner. I could use my CD-ROM if I wanted to burn a VCD. But, with burning a VCD, you lose all your menu effects and graphics for the DVD. So, I bought a whole new NEC DVD Drive. Had it installed...the whole 9 yards. Even after that, it still wouldn't work. So, a customer service rep sends me an email listing all and the ONLY DVD drives that will work with this program. If your brand/model isn't on this list. You've wasted precious time and money. A Real Shame. Cause it really was great.

Next, I bought/downloaded "PhotoShow Deluxe" from "Simple Star". Awesome program. They sent me the disc, so I had a hard copy. You could add ALL THE SONGS you wanted. You could alter when and where they started and stopped. You could add moving animation-ANYTHING. It was great. You put all this hard work and time into your project (again...115 pictures-still trying to finish this wedding DVD). Get to the "burning" section and find out, you can only burn a VCD-which normally would be fine, but the VCD only allows for the SAME SONG over and over again. BUT....You don't find this out until you burn it. While in the program, it plays ALL your songs beautifully. At the end, you're so happy for what you've accomplished only to find out, it WONT PLAY all your songs. ONLY the first one you attached. So, I cut the story again, took out the other songs. Now, it only played the one song-start to finish with the pictures. Perfect. NO. When I went to watch it on my DVD player. It just wouldn't play. So, I decided to pause the "movie" and continue to hit the pause button to see the frames and WHATA YOU KNOW?...It played...But, ONLY while hitting the pause button and it totally cut my pictures in half. Next, I paid $40 more dollars to upgrade to the next and most current version of this program. Here you can (if you want to take this route) purchase what you've created to have burned and mailed to you on DVD with a case and artwork for like $15.00. Ok. I was getting desperate. I was willing to pay the $15.00 to at least get this thing done now. Turns out while "sending" my show to the company. My songs that were included in my show were all Copyrighted and I couldn't have them burned onto my DVD. So, now I have all this time/money and Songs gone. You can ONLY use THEIR songs which you can download for free to the program. There are a lot. If you have no problem w/their music (which mind you, except for Classical pieces, I have never heard of) then, this is a great investment. You can burn VCDs or DVDs for nothing. But, if you don't like their selection of songs. You're screwed. And they don't tell you ANYWHERE on ANYTHING, that you can't burn or have burned a DVD disc w/ Copyrighted songs. Example: I had Louis Armstrong's "A Wonderful World" as the starting song. No go. I Paid for a program, plus the upgrade and still lost out here.

Next and last, about to completely give up...I went into Comp Usa and saw this program. The Ulead CD and DVD Picture Show 3 Deluxe". I read up on it, but now I'm skeptical with anything cause once it's opened you can't return it. But, I take a chance. I didn't even know about the menu's part. I only bought it because the box said you could add your own music. I tried it. I really took my time with it and played with every section. It was incredible. NOT ONE COMPLAINT.

I'm sorry to hear that people can actually leave bad feedback about this product. I have no complaints whatsoever. The only thing that could be changed is the length of time it takes to START the burning process. But, once it gets passed that first stage, it flies. And when I put my "DVD" in the DVD player. I had this AMAZING menu-All my music-fading in and out pictures-It was awesome. I made a DVD for my boss and she told so many people that I now actually have people willing to pay me to do their photo shows. Maybe there is this other program out there called "PhotoDex's Proshow Gold". Maybe it works great. But, nothing is perfect. This program is very easy to use. It's well within a reasonable price range and it does not have any flaws. I had 4 songs within the infamous "wedding DVD" and I controlled where and when the songs started and stopped. I controlled how long a picture was displayed for on the screen and I have also used the "Match slideshow to audio duration". Both work impeccably. I honestly don't understand why some of these people are complaining about this product. You can have all the pictures you want to any length of time you want with as many songs as you want. If you take the time to learn the program, which for me was one afternoon, you won't be leaving bad reviews. As for "old" systems. Sure. Understanding computers as I do, I can see why it wouldn't work. Your computer is old. It doesn't have the capability or memory or speed to handle this program. This program has ALOT of little things in it. It can take up to a minute to for it to open. It's very detailed. If you have an old computer, your computer is not going to have the necessary or up to date information you need to run it. Plain and Simple. This program has never frozen with me. If it freezes it's because you're doing something at the same time that you shouldn't be. People take their time to create such a memory. Don't do things that will cause the computer to freeze up while your dvd is working or burning. I finish a project and I get up and walk away. I can't wait for the next version to come out. I tried to defend every critsism given as I truely feel this product is amazing. There may be better ones with more variety or context out there, but this one is great for what you pay and most likely want to do. If you're a "professional" then why are you even looking at a $40-product?

I hope this helps anyone who might have any questions or reservations. If you have questions, email me. I would be glad to help you or answer them for you. Have fun!!

Ulead's CD & DVD PictureShow Deluxe Version 3 is a cosmetic improvement over Version 2. PictureShow 3 features a new simplified, straightforward interface; adds Pan and Zoom motion effects, a nice set of matched visual and audio (instrumental) themes, and the ability to drop clipart on top of one's pictures.

PictureShow 3's new interface divides the program into three distinct parts: 1) Organize; 2) Theme; and 3) Burn. In the Organize section, users select pictures for and arrange the order of the pictures in the slideshow. In the Theme section, users select one of thirty themes, which consist of a matched menu and audio soundtrack, in which to present their slideshow. The Burn section is where users may put their VCD, SVCD, or DVD slideshow on disc.

The 30 themes, divided across six categories (Fantasyland, General, Holiday, Special Events, Sports, and Vacations), make it very easy for a mainstream user new to photo slideshows to create a good-looking slideshow in a very short time. Ulead also provides a free download on their website of 43 menu templates taken from PictureShow version 2, that enables users to load and edit their PictureShow 2 slideshows in PictureShow 3. These templates, however, do not include matching audio soundtracks.

PictureShow 3 retains two major weaknesses from its predecessor:
* It is very difficult to use more than one music piece for a slideshow soundtrack.
* It is also very difficult to synchronize a slideshow's duration to its audio soundtrack's duration -- that is, to end the slideshow and its music at the same time.

In the PictureShow program, unless otherwise manually specified by the user, a music piece will repeat itself until the end of the slideshow. This may not be noticeable for instrumental compositions, but it is quite conspicuous for any vocalized song. To use more than one music piece, the user must preview the slideshow to determine the slide where the current music piece ends, and then manually insert the next piece of music at the next slide.

The new "Match slideshow to audio duration" function seems to work only if the soundtrack consists of a single piece of music longer than the slideshow duration. In other words, the function is quite useless. For all other instances, ending the slideshow and its music at the same time must be done through painstakingly manual trial-and-error. The user must manually calculate the total duration of the audio soundtrack, and then adjust the per-slide duration of the slideshow accordingly.

Consumers new to photo slideshows and with simple requirements -- i.e., those who are willing to keep their slideshows within the time limit of one music piece, will like Ulead's CD & DVD PictureShow Deluxe 3. But experienced users and those who have want to have longer slideshows (e.g., for vacation or wedding reception photos) should consider other software first. Photodex's ProShow, for example, allows the easy use of multiple music pieces in a slideshow soundtrack; and can synchronize a slideshow's length to its soundtrack's length automatically.

I purchased the PictureShow 2.0 version and saw some negative comments so I felt compelled to speak up for such a good product. This software is great. I used it to create my own wedding DVD and also a yoga DVD for a friend. Both turned out much better than some professionally created ones I've seen. I think a lot of professional video (artist types) people are using old tools and aren't very computer literate. I have a windows XP PC.

Pro's
* You can create a professional looking DVD menu with your own image and music in the background.
* It also has many template menus to pick from. Very easy to change font's and colors.
* This product never crashed or got stuck. Unlike Roxio software. I'll never buy Roxio again.
* I had about 600 pictures, 6 categories' (front menu) and used about 20 songs. It handled it no problem.
* It has a default transition of fade to black. It looks the most professional. It also had many other transitions to pick from, but honestly who uses checker, swips, up/down fades on TV or movies. It looks amateurish.
* You can start or end a song on any picture. It has a total time for each picture, including transition time, so you can start the next song when the other one finishes. May require a calculator for the math challenged.
* I never burned directly to DVD because I wanted to make many copies so I created the DVD image on my hard-disk. I then used my crappy Roxio software to burn the DVD. This process works very quickly, as it only takes about 5 minutes to burn the DVD from an already created DVD image. The poor guy in some other review thought he needed a new DVD drive to burn his disk. He didn't, he could have just created a DVD image on his hard-disk and then used ANY software to burn the DVD disk.
* The final DVD looks and plays flawlessly. I have a 6 year old sony DVD player and it actually plays it fine. I was surprised to say the least.
* I don't believe it is possible for my wedding DVD to look better than it currently does, at any cost. An I am a pretty picky guys with a focus on details.
* Just wanted to mention this was only the second time I tried to create a DVD. My first was with ROXIO software (I installed the many updates). So this product is easy to use. Didn't have to look at the nice manual they included even once.

Con's
* Some of the features mentioned above are a little hidden. The default functionality is basic. You need to click on some advanced menu's to get the more extensive functionality.
* Can't think of anything else.
* Figuring out how to create the DVD image took some experimenting but this was more the result of to much functionality...VCD, SVCD, DVD (European, US).

Well, I hope this clears up any confusion about this product. 2.0 was quite incredible. I look forward to getting 3.0 at some point but currently have no need for another product.

A happy user.

As of this writing, I am still unable to import my project files from the previos version.
ULead issued 2 patches already, both trying to address this very problem.
Both seem to be doing nothing more but displaying an occasional ad on a startup screen. Sad.

Other than that, the previos version was a jewel of software, one of my all times favorites. A bit strange and clunky user interface, modeled after the wizard/workflow paradigm.
The interface gets in a way, but it is possible to get the job done, although you will find yourself going back and forth between the screens to complete the task.

Waiting for the patch# 3 (or whatever the number) to fix the bugs
and start using this new version.

-- December Update:

I gave up on waiting for the Ulead to fix the bugs and decided to move to a different package. This was challenging, because:

1)
It was very hard to migrate the project file to different software.
Ulead does not provide any import/export capabilities, so I had to extract the information and map it with 3rd party tools. At the end, it worked, but it took about 3 days of effort. I used string extraction package, a file selection package called BFS (Better File Select) and string to file mapping software.


2) I evaluated close to a dozen of different DVD packages. I seriously looked at Adobe Encore, DVD-Lab, DVD Author, DVD Workshop, Reel DVD, DVDit, myDVD, DVD Junior, DVD Producer and DVD Architect.

The only one I could not obtain an evaluation copy was Sonic DVD Scenarist, which is excessively expensive but considered to be the "gold" standard of DVD production systems.

My choice is DVD Architect, it comes as a combo with a video editor called Vegas. This was by far the best solution that
was easy to work with yet had all the funcitonality I was looking
for. It was originally designed by Sonic Software, later spun out and sold to Sony. At this point Sony owns, designs and maintains the Vegas line of video and dvd authoring through its Sony Media Software division.

As with any software it is not ideal (the price being one of the negative points), but I was able to succesfully migrate my huge PictureShow project (about 2k of pictures and 20+ audio MP3 tracks) into DVD Architect.

If you are an expert than maybe this product is too easy for you, but for those who want to create a great looking slideshow quickly without any hassles, then Pictureshow is great. I find it easier to use than anything else I have tried and they have some nice templates included. I especially like the motion panning movement on my pictures. The clipart and message bubbles are also a lot of fun to add to my pictures. I was able to time my slideshow to my music, though this part did take some figuring out. The bottom line for me is that my slideshows look fantastic and I love being able to watch my photos on TV. I would definitely recommend this product.

I am satisfied with this software. Admittedly, I am a granny and a novice, but it does the job for me. I have been able to easily create slideshows from old slides and photos that have proven to be quite entertaining for our family. I have encountered no real problems with this software. I think that it is well worth the money I spent. Warning: Before I purchased this software, I downloaded a program called "Photo-to-DVD Studio 3. That turned out to be a disasterous experience. It had many bugs, little tech support and no warranty. I gave up on it. PictureShow 3 is a jewel compared to that one and is wonderful for a beginner like myself.

We have been doing digital photo slideshows for family and friends since June 2001. At first we used some package that came with our Adaptec/Roxio software. It worked, but what an unholy beast when you changed your mind. It also only created PC photo slideshows with soundclips. But the worst was you could not add a picture to the show without having to start over again - completely! We needed something better.

So when we realized how much we enjoyed doing slideshows for people, we decided it was time to get something more user friendly - Ulead PictureShow3 was the answer to all of our needs. We just created a 430 slide slideshow with audio clips and music. When they weren't crying they were laughing for 35 straight minutes. Uleads PictureShow allowed us to do everything we needed, and then burn it to a DVD for TV display or CD for PC display. We have not even used the advanced features such as Zoom and Pan or speech bubbles, because we have not found a good use the distract from good pictures, music and sound clips as of yet. We can add and remove photos at will, have songs play over multiple slides and have audio clips play at the same time if needed. It is the best we have used and for the price it cannot be beat.

At first, I liked the improvements made to this over the 2.0 version I had been using; however, when I tried to finally write an output to either a DVD blank disk or to an iso file, the program causes an error and drops out. This, after waiting over an hour for it to compile the slideshow!

Thinking the program had bugs which were corrected in the next version (4.0), I bought Picture Show 4.0 which unfortunately had even more problems. Then I went online to the users support groups and found that both programs had these problems and that many Ulead customers were complaining of the same thing. The same thing was true of several other Ulead products such as movie factory.

After contacting Ulead, I found they had no solution and did not even admit there were problems. Sobeit. Ulead has lost a customer for good.

The better tool (one that works) is ArcSoft's DVD Slideshow, Version 1.

This would apeal to younger group and not as professional grade as I wanted. I was disappointed in the context. Very limited on transitions and timeing. Compaired to ProShow Gold, I liked the moving pictures and the amount of music available. Other than that, ProShow has it beat. What I don't like in both the limit to music DLL's. I had as many freezes with it as with the other and don't understand why.

I am so disappointed in this product. I will never buy another ULead product. Ulead has a great scam going on..Ubuy and Ufigure out how to use the product. Support is non existant. The instruction manual is more of a product description and fails miserably to address questions or troubleshooting if you encounter problems. I sent 6 emails over a two week period and heard zip back from their "Tech Support". Their solution to problems is provide a "Member Forum" and let their customers field the questions and problems with their product. I did post my problem but unfortunately the answers did not resolve the problem. Why does Amazon sell products from a company that has such a poor customer service? Read through the "Member Forum" and you will see the problem is not unique to the PictureShow 3 product. I bought this product based on the reviews on Amazon, but I wish I had researched it further. I certainly am not the only sucker who was attracted by the bells and whistles. Lesson learned. I reluctantly gave this a one star rating...the box it came in is nice.