I love this product!A DVD photo/video slideshow programhas answered my need for Christmas gift ideas.
SmileShowis a service that enables you to put your digital photos and video clips into a DVD movie slideshow. It includes themes and music for you to choose from and allows you to create your own title page for the DVD.
The most time consuming portion of this experience for me was the preparation and organization of my digital photos. I have nine years worth of photos and had to weed through and make choices as to which photos I wanted to use.Thankfully I have them all stored in one location, but I did have to download them to my computer and organize them in the order I wanted for the DVD. After I accomplished that, the process of utilizing SmileShowand uploading my photoswasquick and easy.
I amhappy with the quality of the DVDI received and from my standpoint, it is a bargain. It played well on my computer and on my television. You can upload 50 photos for $4.99 plus $1.99 shipping. Additional photos beyond the first 50 are $.05 each. I did not upload video clips, but you can do so at $.50 per minute of video. SmileShow will save your online creation for 30 days if you wish to reorder.I plan to utilize SmileShow for Christmas gifts this holiday season.
I was sent a survey after my purchase was complete that allowed me to voice what features I was happy with, where I had issues and what I would like to see from the program in the future. I always appreciate being able to provide feedback from my experience with a product.
As with using any product, I did finda couple ofthings that I wished were differentwhile utilizing the program. One, while trying to uploadphotostoSmileShow's current product version, itwill not allow you to upload photos that are titled with characters, you will receive an error message. I am told that an upcoming version of the product will fix this issue.In the meantime, make sure all of your photos are titled with (and saved as)letters and/or numbers, minus any characters, before you upload.
Two, you cannot upload photos that are less than 320X240 in resolution. I understand the quality issue within resolution.However, I have digital photos from many years ago (when my firstchild was born) and would liked to have had the option of using them, no matter the resolution. We were not using a high quality digital camera at the time, but I would still like to have the option of putting those photos onto my DVD with the understanding that the photo qualitywithin that portion of the slideshow would be poor.
As to my future hopes for the product - A great future addition to the program that I think would make it more user friendly would be a drag and drop option.Especiallyfor those of usplanning to upload a great deal of photos. The program currently does not offer such a feature, butonce you upload your individual photos you can drag and movethe photo location within your DVD creation. Another option that I would hope to see in the future would be additions to the available music themes. I did not utilize music on my DVD creation, but would have done so with more options available and/or the option to upload my own music.
All in all I had a good experience with SmileShow. I found my DVD creation a bargain,a great way to have my photos put intoslideshow form and I am happy with the end product.I do plan to utilizeSmileShow DVDagain and look forward to doing so. While I am at it, I might also checkout the other available productsand utilize some of those as well.As soon as I have time that is.
