For several years now, I've been creating VideoCDs. Not, as you might think, of pirated movies from the Internet, but with still images. Namely, my photographs. I have created VCDs (which play in most DVD players, incidentally) using the MPG stills option in the VCD 2.0 spec. Most software allows you to create these. Alas, these prohibit the use of background music, or fades. To do this you need to convert the stills into an mpeg 2 movie file. This is something I've never done before. I'm a photographer, and need quality images.


However, the wedding I was at on Friday comprised mostly of 'snaps', so I didn't object to the lower quality images. I downloaded a program called Slide show movie maker and added a backing track (John Coltranes' Love Supreme). It was then I realised how awful the quality of mpeg movies can be! Having been used to the mpeg still quality and thinking favourably of it, I'm thinking this will be the last movie-based slideshow I create. This is a shame, since the SSMM tool is very good, but it's time to let movie slideshows die a merciful death. I'm going back to the mpeg still format, up until the time I am able to create DVD-quality slideshow movies.