Making a cd of your scrapbook...

[Ellenb]

Hi all,
I haven't gotten quite this far, yet, but I was wondering--is a large (multiple pages) scrapbook going to fit on a cd with music, etc? Has anyone else done one? I am trying to cover 18 years here and I was just thinking I don't know if it's going to fit on one cd?
Ellen

[Tburn]

Hi all,
I haven't gotten quite this far, yet, but I was wondering--is a large (multiple pages) scrapbook going to fit on a cd with music, etc? Has anyone else done one? I am trying to cover 18 years here and I was just thinking I don't know if it's going to fit on one cd?
Ellen

Don't know, but here's a suggestion. Do your first year and save it, then create your 'test' cd/vcd with music. Once you are comfortable that you have enough pages for that year, take a look at the size of the file on the cd.

This should give you and idea of how much the 18 years should take.

Another suggestion, if you intend to do vcd (to play in dvd player) and if you are comfortable with these sorts of things, is, publish to JPG file (images) then use these images in a slide show program to create your vcd.
I tried the vcd option here once but it did not work properly for me, I am sure it is quite capable of doing it just that I did something wrong.

[Scrapbook MAX!]

Scrapbook MAX! supports up to 250 pages per scrapbook. A CD-ROM can hold about 650 MB of data. An average page being published using the "extra large" and "high quality" settings will take up about 1 MB. So, that leaves you lots of room for music!

[Ellenb]

Thanks!

Not really quite ready to do it, but wanted to see. No problem space wise as it runs just over 4 minutes, but nice to know about the space issues. I tried to do a video type cd, as I have done this with an older program without a dvd burner, but I can tell I need one. It burned the cd, but it's very choppy. I would have to figure out how to get what I want in my son's computer that has a dvd burner. But I did a slideshow cd which won't play in my dvd player but plays very nicely and smoothly on the computer. I like to see what I've got so I can change what I don't like and see what I want to add.
Ellen

[Scrapper]

Hi all,
I haven't gotten quite this far, yet, but I was wondering--is a large (multiple pages) scrapbook going to fit on a cd with music, etc? Has anyone else done one? I am trying to cover 18 years here and I was just thinking I don't know if it's going to fit on one cd?
Ellen

Thats great info to know does the info also apply for a DVD? The reason I ask is I want to be have to have my scrapbook viewed and played on a DVD player. Sense I'm new to all this I'm not sure how it all works I'm not too worried though as my husband is a computer whiz and is able to figure most everything out given he as the time to do so. The problem is he doesn't have allot of time to do that at the moment.

I think I will end up buying the program due to it's customer friendly format, range of possibilities and I really would like to be able to do more with my digital pictures then what I'm currently doing (printing them out to use in my scrapbooks though I do find it enjoyable) I would also like the ability to do as I first mentioned. I think in doing so it would be close to what my niece did with her pictures wherein she had music playing in the background and cool transition affects all burned onto a DVD capable of being viewed on the TV. My parents don't have a computer so being able to do so would allow me to share it with them as well... and if it turns out they like it burn a as my as I like for them.

One more question, am I tied to 8 by 8 printout only or can I print it out in a bigger format for my scrapbook pages?

[Lorne]

Thats great info to know does the info also apply for a DVD? The reason I ask is I want to be have to have my scrapbook viewed and played on a DVD player. Sense I'm new to all this I'm not sure how it all works I'm not too worried though as my husband is a computer whiz and is able to figure most everything out given he as the time to do so.

There are three ways to get a scrapbook to play on a DVD player:

• publish to a Video CD (VCD)
• publish to a Photo CD/DVD (not all players support this, but many do)
• publish to a Movie, and then use a DVD authoring tool to create the DVD

The VCD option is very easy, but it's limited by the low resolution of the VCD format, so you may not be happy with the quality. That's just because the VCD format itself is a relatively low-quality format. You can have background music, though, which is nice.

The Photo CD (or DVD - you can burn to a DVD as well) is just a data disc with JPEG images on it. Many newer DVD players recognize such discs and will display the images in a slideshow at very high quality. There's no background music, however.

The absolute best quality is to publish to a Movie, which produces a standard MPEG video, complete with background music if you added any. You can then use any DVD authoring software you have to burn that movie onto a DVD so it can be played back on a DVD player. This approach results in the best quality, but you'll need some DVD authoring software and you'll need to learn how to use it.

It sounds like your dh is nice and geeky though so he might be able to figure out how to author a DVD and show you how to do it.

One more question, am I tied to 8 by 8 printout only or can I print it out in a bigger format for my scrapbook pages?

You can change the page size to anything you want - for example, 12 x 12, or 8 x 10, or any size you want. Choose Page > Settings from the menu, and click on the Size tab to change the size of the page you're currently working on.

You can also print your pages bigger or smaller when you print them; to do that, choose File > Print Setup, and use the Page Scaling options at the bottom.

[Scrapper]

Thanks for your help!

Lorne, thanks responding to my questions. It's good to know that I'm not tied down to one page spread. It's also nice to know that I have options available to me when it comes to burning my scrapbook pages onto CD-DVD's though the process sounds a bit complicated to me.... it's a good thing my husband is a computer whiz and I have a sister-in-law who said she'd help me learn how to digital scrapbook. Though that part doesn't seem as scary to me now as it did before I downloaded the trial version of scrapbook max on this website. Plus I have the benefit of their online community to meet other online scrappers like yourself who are more familiar with the program. I don't know if my sister-in-law is aware of this particular program but I will be excited to show it to her when the time comes. Again thanks for your help! This will be quite a venture for me once I'm able to get into it more. I'll have to have my husbands help getting ahold of the software you mentioned though and probably some help on learning how to use it.

Signing Off For Know, Scrapper

P.S. Sounds like you and my husband have a bit in common by way of computers... though working for the Lincoln County as their computer tech. specialist has really burned him out on computers, not to mention writing a court track system for a tribal court within the state of WY. My husband is now working on a new venture that will allow him to stop working for the county and put us that much closer to our dream home in the surrounding valley of cache county, Logan being the place wherein I grew up.

[Lorne]

The first two options I mentioned are super easy - just click on the golden CD on the toolbar, and choose either Photo CD or Video CD. Pop a CD into your burner and Scrapbook MAX will take care of everything else.

The only one that's a bit tricky is making a DVD for DVD players, and that's just because you need to use an external program.

I just checked out Logan in the wikipedia, it sounds like a nice place.

[Scrapper]

Mind boggling experience.

The only one that's a bit tricky is making a DVD for DVD players, and that's just because you need to use an external program.

I just checked out Logan in the wikipedia, it sounds like a nice place.

I just surfed the Internet to see what is currently available for DVD authoring software and let me tell you it was mind boggling to say the least. There are so many programs out there and when one is new to this whole digital world of doing things it gets rather confusing pretty fast!!!! However confusing though there are aspects of it that are appealing to me, like being able to turn my scrapbook pages into a movie, which honestly I didn't know you could do until I came across scrapbook max. However just like in paper scrapbooking I like all the embellishments that give my pages depth and feeling. To me being able to take my photos or in this case take my scrapbook pages and turn them into a home movie would do that. I guess I'm just not making the full connection between scrapbook max home video application and what I saw as currently available for DVD authoring software. To me they feel more like two different software applications that run separately from each other then in conjunction with each other bringing me to the question of how do you bypass that hurdle. Anyhow as I can't quite yet see how to bring this about this is one project that will just have to be put on hold... that's ok though as I have a limited amount of money I can spend right now and if I put in my current order with Creative Memories it doesn't leave much more money for much else.

Signing Off For Know, Scrapper.

P.S. Logan is as nice as it sounds but as I said that's my hometown wherein I grew up so it will always have that special significance to me.

P.P.S. One more thing I did find one program that seemed like it would work and is reasonable in price. Are you familiar with Presto! DVD Power Suite 2. It's suppose to be easy to install, use and have a professional feel to it. There was also a couple of authoring software programs listed on http://www.dvd-software.info/dvd-authoring-software/ that looked applicable but after looking at all these and more it made my head spin. Information overload for me. making me wonder all the more how do you make it all come together to create the desired affect. In truth the two applications seemed to be in competetion with each other then the other way around.

[Lorne]

Ah, it's actually really simple. You use Scrapbook MAX to produce the source video - a video slideshow, which will be saved as an MPEG file.

Then you just need a program that can take any standard MPEG file and turn it into a DVD. This part is referred to as "authoring" the disc: getting everything converted and in place and ready to burn. (DVDs have specific format requirements and there are data files and stuff that need to be created, the authoring software should take care of that part for you.)

That's it.

[Scrapper]

Thanks, you've most helpful.

Just a short email to say thanks you've been most helpful to me. I'm grateful scrapbook max provides us with this little online community. Being able to come here and voice my concerns and get responses to my questions really helps ease my mind of them, making the decision to go forward with the purchase of scrapbook max that much easier. Quite a big step for me as I wasn't thinking along those lines when I got into scrapbooking but as I'm delving more into the delights of traditional scrapbooking I'm also finding that my money doesn't seem to go as far as I would like it to go due to the expense of it all... of course I'm pretty picky about what I buy if it doesn't meet my requirements for scrapbooking safety then I won't commit my resources into buying it. So all in all it's almost as though I'm feeling myself being pulled more and more in the direction of digital scrapbooking even though I know I will never convert entirely over to it due to the many delights I'm discovering with that of traditional paper scrapbooking. I figure why not have my cake and eat it too! (Is that how that saying goes?) There's so much to discover in both worlds that the possibilities are only limited to one's creative imagination.

Sincerly, Scrapper

[Scrapper]

Lorne, Good News

I just wanted to let you now that I was able to find a authoring software that works with scrapbook max (though I haven't actually tried burning it onto a DVD as of yet so far so good) Though I've only played with the trial version it was easy to download and I was able to access the movie clip and see it work within this DVD authoring software. The picture pictures themselfs was a tad bit unfocused but my husband said that was due to their the software having manipulated the original to fit in their small view screen. So as far as I understand it should burn as good as the original. It's a rather nifty little program and for the most part I like what I've seen of it (your also suppose to be able to edit and work with your home videos as well though for that my hubby says you need a special software card for your computer) as well as the price tag... it's not as high priced as some of those other ones I was looking at so that puts buy both scrapbook max and DVD sideshow within a price range I can afford... The only thing I don't like is that I can't control what transition I want from one picture frame to the next (which I would like to be able to do) when creating my own home slide shows, which makes me think if I want more control over that feature I need to play the field a bit more... "Sigh" I'm not sure if i want to go to the added effort of doing that it's been rather a drain on me getting this far and the other packages I felt an interest in are higher priced. However in doing this I proved one thing to myself I can download and use such a program as this and that is farther then I imagined myself doing. Same thing with Scrapbook Max. Well I best be logging of for now just wanted to tell you of my progress thus far.

Scrapper.

P.S. My husband downloaded a Windows Movie Maker for me this past week and I found I can use it to do what I need when it comes to burning my scrapbook albums onto DVD. Now all I need in our computer is a DVD burner, my husband has a external one that can be used to hook up to this one that he bought for his own personal use but to me that seems like a bother to have to do. As long the final project burns onto DVD as good as what I saved to my computer using the above Windows Movie Maker then I can Oh and Ahhh everyone who watches them. Well anyhow it's getting late fast and I have three girls I need to rally off to bed before that hour gets much latter... They like to stay up as late as they can so if I don't rally them off to bed while the night is still young they'll push it to midnight or later.