Burning to DVD or using Thumb drive

[SharonKruse]

How can I burn or copy my slideshow onto a flash drive for viewing onto a tv? I've been burning onto DVD dual layer but the quality isn't very good with only being able to select 720x576. I want the higher quality resolution of 1920x1080. I've created a 2 hour slideshow with music. I want to keep the movie menu's that I created as it's nice to select Play Movie or Scene Selection. Is all of this possible or am I stuck with using DVD dual layer and low resolution? I can't burn onto blu ray disc, because I'm giving copies of disk or thumb drive to people as gifts and not everyone will have a player.

[Steve Grisetti]

Which version of the program are you using -- and what kind of TV are you trying to play your thumb drive on?

Current versions of Premiere Elements include an Export & Share/Devices/TV output feature designed to do precisely what you want -- output high-def video to a thumb drive. Assuming you've got a TV that can play it.

[SharonKruse]

I’m using Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements version 15.

Here’s what I trying to do. I created a slideshow for my 50th Class Reunion. It’s about 1.5 hours long. All my photos have been created or edited in Photoshop, and all saved as a png format. Then I imported everything into Premiere Elements (Expert) and organized them in the timeline. Added audio files in the timeline. Created markers where I wanted the menu markers to be located. I then rendered everything. Then I selected the movie menu template that I liked and made sure everything was where I had selected the scene selections to be based on my menu markers, and they look good.

Now was the time to figure out what and how I show create the slideshow. I first purchased printable dual layer DVD so I could print a title on the the DVD. I was bothered that my only selection for burning to a DVD on an 8.5 GB was low resolutions (720x576 or 720x480). I knew I couldn’t burn to a blu ray as many people do not have blu ray players. I did try saving the file to AVCHD as an ISO image on my external drive (with the idea that I would forget about using DVD’s and buy thumb drives for everyone) and then the quality would be much better. I’m sure most of the classmates will want a copy so I thought DVD might be the way to go, but quality isn’t very good, even with the old and new pictures. Also due to the size of my slideshow and if I select the high quality, I would really need a disc to hold around 15BGB. So that’s when I decided maybe I should purchase thumb drives and put the video on there for everyone. Problem is my movie menu doesn’t show up but I can say the quality is pretty good. Also right before you hit the triangle on the slide bar you have the destination appearing on the first slide. Not very professional and also the fact that I can select Play Movie or Scene Selection isn’t very impressive either.

What options do I have to make this a great slideshow that I can give to everyone and look professional when they view on their televisions? I can’t predict what type of tv everyone owns, but I can ask if they have a smart tv or HD tv and then the thumb drive should work…..providing the menu burns onto that drive.

Sharon Kruse

[SharonKruse]

Sorry I meant to say that I can not select Play Movie or Scene Selection.....(in my second paragraph)

[Peru Bob]

You can't use Premiere Elements to create a menu on a USB drive.

[Peru Bob]

I haven't use either of these, but you may want to check them out:

USB Menu Creator - Creates an AutoRun Menu Interface for a USB Flash Drive / USB stick

How to: easily create [autorun] menus for external media (USB/flash drive, CD/DVD, external hard dri...

[SharonKruse]

So the only way to have a Movie Menu appears at the beginning of the slideshow is to burn a DVD or Blu Ray disc?

[Peru Bob]

  wrote

So the only way to have a Movie Menu appears at the beginning of the slideshow is to burn a DVD or Blu Ray disc?

In Premiere Elements, correct.

[Bill Sprague]

SharonKruse  wrote

So the only way to have a Movie Menu appears at the beginning of the slideshow is to burn a DVD or Blu Ray disc?

Sharon,

You must be frustrated.  DVDs are low quality.  Blu-Rays are not universal.  Thumb drives can only play in only some TVs and don't have menus. 

For all of those reasons plus the proliferation of "devices", the world has moved forward to online distribution of home video.  My choice is Vimeo.  Anyone can watch it on anything, they can download a copy and you can control who has access.  No, there are no menus.  But, it is easy to create separate "chapters" of shorter videos.  

I would be happy explain how to get started using Vimeo if you think it suits your purpose.  YouTube works too, but does not offer the controls I like. 

Good luck with your frustrating issue.

[SharonKruse]

Yes it is frustrating. I’ve spent hundreds of hours preparing photos for the slideshow video, not to mention setting it all up so the music goes in and out at all the appropriate times and coincides with the photos. I wanted to get every classmate a copy they could sit down and watch on their home TV whenever they felt nostalgic. But I wanted them to be able to see with clarity everyone in each slide. On my 40th reunion I created this same slideshow and had it playing on TV for anyone to watch throughout the night. People loved it even though I felt quality wasn’t the best, but they still loved seeing every picture that anyone was ever in during 12 years of school days, plus I had photos from many TV shows we all watched in the 60’s, plus photos of all the cars we remember, plus photos from all past reunions. Then I decided to add the 50th reunion photos to this slideshow and mail everyone an new copy on DVD. That’s when I realized I just had to try and get a better quality. I guess it’s not going to happen.

I think DVD and even blu ray are becoming a thing of the past. With smart TV’s these days I thought I would put this lengthy slideshow on a thumb drive and give to everyone. I figured most people have the latest TV and probably have USB ports (or will have on their next purchase). But I don’t understand with technology how we can’t get a simple movie menu to control the slideshow to work on that drive.

Well, I thank everyone that has given me advice and I am looking into everything offered by everyone.

[SharonKruse]

Well I thought I'd give a try to upload to YouTube.  I have tried 3 times in Premiere Elements to transfer the video and each time it gets to the end....or at least I think its the end....and displays this message "Online Services encountered an error. The service will now be terminated or paused if possible".  I have fast internet and not sure if this is too large of a file (12GB) to do whatever Elements is doing.  At first I thought it was uploading it and the whole process, but now I'm wondering if it's only preparing the file so it's able to be uploaded in a format that YouTube can accept.  Any comments on my still ongoing deliemma?

[Bill Sprague]

Do it in two steps. 

First, output a video to you computer.  Play it to see if you like it.

Second, use the YouTube uploader, rather than the direct method inside Premiere Elements.

I'm sorry that this is frustrating. 

[RjL190365 · Accepted solution]

Here's the deal:

You cannot burn a DVD Video-compliant disc with any video content above 720x576 (for PAL nations) or 720x480 (for NTSC nations). Burning HD content at its native resolution to DVD requires that the discs be burned in the UDF 2.5 format, which is not backwards-compatible with UDF 1.x devices. Unfortunately, standalone DVD players are only UDF 1.0-compliant. And UDF 1.x-formatted DVDs are restricted in their maximum video resolution and in their maximum total practical bitrate.

And yes, there are some people who are "permanently" stuck on old times: No EDTV or HDTV, no digital receiving equipment outside of a cable box or a digital-to-analog converter box, no Internet access, no mobile phone. So, you have to continue serving those people. Unfortunately, that means degrading the video quality and resolution to what works with such legacy video systems.

Randall