# Shhh - Christmas present for my wife - create DVD



## blhowes (Nov 28, 2007)

My wife and I have been married for 20 years. When we got married, we had the service recorded onto a cassette, which we've kept hidden away all these years, basically untouched. I was thinking it'd be nice if I could create a DVD for my wife for Christmas that mixes the recorded service with some wedding pictures, and maybe some new pictures I'd take of key places (the place where I proposed, our first date, etc). What's the best software (preferrably inexpensive or free) to use to mix the sound with the pictures, and then create the DVD that'll play on any DVD player?


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## VictorBravo (Nov 28, 2007)

blhowes said:


> My wife and I have been married for 20 years. When we got married, we had the service recorded onto a cassette, which we've kept hidden away all these years, basically untouched. I was thinking it'd be nice if I could create a DVD for my wife for Christmas that mixes the recorded service with some wedding pictures, and maybe some new pictures I'd take of key places (the place where I proposed, our first date, etc). What's the best software (preferrably inexpensive or free) to use to mix the sound with the pictures, and then create the DVD that'll play on any DVD player?



And what was your wife's email address again? 

I'm sure others have better ideas, but I've used the plain old Windows Movie Maker that came on my laptop to produce a few movies. It's sort of clunky, but once you get the hang of it you can do basic editing, mixing, picture placement, etc., and then save it to a DVD.


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## blhowes (Nov 28, 2007)

victorbravo said:


> And what was your wife's email address again?





victorbravo said:


> I'm sure others have better ideas, but I've used the plain old Windows Movie Maker that came on my laptop to produce a few movies. It's sort of clunky, but once you get the hang of it you can do basic editing, mixing, picture placement, etc., and then save it to a DVD.


Excellent! That's just what I was looking for. Thanks.


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## blhowes (Dec 5, 2007)

Anybody done any work with .wav files? The mikes were placed such that my wife's voice during the vows is very faint, as is her father's voice when he gave her away. I'm using a program called Audacity to work on the file and it works well amplifiying the voices. Amplifying alone worked ok with my father-in-law's voice. With my wife's voice, it also amplified the background noise, not to the point where its irritating, but its still noticeable. I'm trying to filter out the noise, and have had limited success. The noise reduction filter doesn't work well - it reduces the noise, but changes the quality of my wife's voice so that it sounds tinny. The FFT filter seems to work better, but its trial and error eliminating the noise. Is there any easy way to find and eliminate the noise?


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## danmpem (Dec 5, 2007)

blhowes said:


> Anybody done any work with .wav files? The mikes were placed such that my wife's voice during the vows is very faint, as is her father's voice when he gave her away. I'm using a program called Audacity to work on the file and it works well amplifiying the voices. Amplifying alone worked ok with my father-in-law's voice. With my wife's voice, it also amplified the background noise, not to the point where its irritating, but its still noticeable. I'm trying to filter out the noise, and have had limited success. The noise reduction filter doesn't work well - it reduces the noise, but changes the quality of my wife's voice so that it sounds tinny. The FFT filter seems to work better, but its trial and error eliminating the noise. Is there any easy way to find and eliminate the noise?



I work with some professional grade software (Adobe Audition and such), and if you would like to send me a copy of your wedding tape, I would be more than happy to run it through the program. It has some nifty auto-fix tools that do the job quite well.


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## Semper Fidelis (Dec 5, 2007)

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PS2XKC?ie=UTF8&tag=puritanboard-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000PS2XKC]Pinnacle Studio Version 11[/ame]


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## NaphtaliPress (Dec 5, 2007)

I saw you move that post.


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## Semper Fidelis (Dec 5, 2007)

NaphtaliPress said:


> I saw you move that post.



 I have another super-duper secret account that I never post with and sometimes forget I'm in that account when I respond.


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## blhowes (Dec 6, 2007)

danmpem said:


> I work with some professional grade software (Adobe Audition and such), and if you would like to send me a copy of your wedding tape, I would be more than happy to run it through the program. It has some nifty auto-fix tools that do the job quite well.


Dan,
That is so thoughtful of you to offer. I appreciate it and if its ok, I might take a raincheck on that. This is the first time for me working with audio files and I'm finding it fun to work with and to learn about (kind of like a kid with a new toy). 







Wow, looks like Audition has a lot of bells and whistles. They let you download a trial copy for 30 days. I think I might download it and check it out. Did you find it pretty user friendly when you were learning how to use it?


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## blhowes (Dec 6, 2007)

SemperFideles said:


> Pinnacle Studio Version 11


hmmm...decisions, decisions...They have a 30-day trial version of Pinnacle Studio Plus version 10.5. Maybe I'll download that first before trying a downloaded version of Audition. I can't afford to buy either one this month, but I think when I have some extra cash I'd be much more likely (at this point) to pay $50 (for Pinnacle) instead of $350 (for Audition)...but it sure would be fun to try out Audition...hmmm, decisions, decisions.

Is it ethical to download something, knowing that I probably would never buy it? Should I? Or shouldn't I? Its a touch decision to make, but sometimes I find it helpful to just sit back, and ask myself...


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## Semper Fidelis (Dec 6, 2007)

blhowes said:


> SemperFideles said:
> 
> 
> > Pinnacle Studio Version 11
> ...


Yes, it is ethical to use trial versions of software.


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## Seb (Dec 6, 2007)

I was in sort of the same position a while back. After evaluating several of them I bought Sony Vegas Movie Studio They also have a free trial for d/l 

I found it to be affordable, powerful, easy to use, and most importantly...very stable. A few of the others I looked at had a tendency to crash.


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## danmpem (Dec 6, 2007)

blhowes said:


> Wow, looks like Audition has a lot of bells and whistles. They let you download a trial copy for 30 days. I think I might download it and check it out. Did you find it pretty user friendly when you were learning how to use it?



Well, I already had been using Audacity for a couple of years, so I could find my way around the simple or similar functions, but I was given a copy of the Lynda.com video tutorial of Audition. That helped with getting the sound quality up on scratchy or poppy sound files. Without the tutorials, I really don't know what I would have done.


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## blhowes (Dec 25, 2007)

I was going to give the CD gift to my wife last, but my sons whispered to me and asked me after her first gift to give the CD to her next. We stopped the gift giving, plopped it into the DVD player, and watched it. My wife told me to tell you, "I loved it! I bawled my eyes out!" 

Thank-you for all your help!

Merry Christmas,
The Howes Family


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