I created a slide show with photos, text and music. The preview looks and sounds great. And the burning to the disk appears to have happened (I can see the ridges in the disc). However, when I go to play the disc, i don't get anything. I burned it to a dvd+r. I have two different players in my computer - dell inspiron 1520,windows media and another. neither worked. I put the dvd in an apple as well, played briefly, then never again.put it in the tv and only saw the front page. I tried several dvds. I would be happy if I could just play it on my computer at this point.I can play other dvds on my computer. please help
Computers & Internet - Individual - SlideShow Expressions
Answers & Comments
I have also recently had a problem related to SlideShow Expressions and eventually turned to Individual Software's technical support team for help. I did get help and my problem was solved. You can find them at individualsoftware.com. You have to register your product in order to get help, but it's all free and I recommend it.
However, I'm going to run you through some pointers I've picked up along the way.
Firstly, make sure that your computer meets all the necessary requirements as given on the box and in the User's Guide (included in pdf-format on the install disc). For example, it may be that you have Windows Media Player, but that you need a later version of it. The requirements for SlideShow Expressions involves certain versions of specific media players - these can be downloaded from the web. Also have a look at chapter 3 of the User's Guide (section 3-3) for all the supported file formats (audio, photo's and video). And, yes, DVD+R should work just fine.
Originally, I also suspected my computer (Dell) and my writer drives, but it turned out that the software can sometimes develop difficulties. The following may not apply to your situation, but I'm going to tell you about it anyway, since I believe in the product and I know what it's like to be frustrated making slide shows.
My problem was related to the size of the photos I used and the length of my projects. One can make rather lengthy projects with SlideShow Expressions, which is great, because most other software brands don't allow you to do that. I've successfully burned slide show projects containing up to about 390 photos, using the original sizes (averaging around 300-400 KB, but also including photos of over 1MB and 2MB). (I have a 305 photos large project containing only photos above 1MB each as well, burned successfully.) I hit a problem though with a project of 466 photos in total. It turned out that when moving into this kind of length, the size of your photos needs to be smaller for the software to be able to run correctly. In the end I had to resize all the photos that were over 1MB. I ended up with my largest photo being at 440 KB before I could successfully burn the project. Resizing your photos doesn't necessarily reduce the quality of the photos in your project, though. Really, I can tell no difference between the original sizes and the resized photos in my project. I used Microsoft Office Picture Manager to resize. Also, I was told by Individual Software's technical support team that the option to archive your original photos and music files on the DVD as well, has been linked to burning problems, but this seems to occur mainly when your projects are rather large. I eventually opted for adding a Data CD with the original photos (as an extra) to my slide show project. In this way the project looked great, and the family could copy from the CD containing the original sizes.
Well, maybe some of this will help. I really recommend contacting the technical support people though. Good luck with your project and don't give up - the end result is going to be great. From: 11407336.