Ulead CD & DVD PictureShow 3 Deluxe review:5 stars (**AMAZING PRODUCT! WORTH THE $$ SPENT**) - Hi....I am a big fan of putting photos on DVD and adding music. I just love it. I had bought more "photo to DVD" programs that I care to discuss. I'm like a Mini Software Store at home. Here's my story. I hope it helps everyone out there. Sorry for the length, but if you're like me, this is everything you want to read. All questions answered.

I bought "DVD XShow" by "321 Studios", which I thought would be great! I'd seen DVD's that were created with this program and they turned out wonderful. Menus and all. So, I bought it. 2 months after I bought it, the company went under. So, I had no tech support, no one to call, couldn't get my money back, nothing. I had created a beautiful slideshow of my friends wedding. Naturally, a wedding isn't just a few pictures. I had about 115. The slideshow played beautifully but it would only take 1 song. If I had more pictures than the length of the song, the song would just repeat itself. So, I shortened the show. Went to burn it and it kept erroring. Lost out.

Next program I bought was "DVD and PHOTO SHOW 2005" by "Magix". Oh my goodness, what a joke. GREAT PROGRAM. Yes, it did everything I wanted it to. I could add all my pictures, as many songs as I wanted. I controlled where the songs started and stopped, etc. It was great! I was actually REALLY happy with this product. Once you were all finished, you then create your DVD menu/add your titles/credits/pick your layouts, etc...It was awesome. Like something out of Hollywood. I created a MASTERPIECE. Could have won an Oscar :o). I get to the "Burning" part. And it errors. Over and Over and Over again. I contact customer service. They actually DO try to help me. Turns out my burner wasn't compatible w/the program. I had to buy a new DVD burner. I could use my CD-ROM if I wanted to burn a VCD. But, with burning a VCD, you lose all your menu effects and graphics for the DVD. So, I bought a whole new NEC DVD Drive. Had it installed...the whole 9 yards. Even after that, it still wouldn't work. So, a customer service rep sends me an email listing all and the ONLY DVD drives that will work with this program. If your brand/model isn't on this list. You've wasted precious time and money. A Real Shame. Cause it really was great.

Next, I bought/downloaded "PhotoShow Deluxe" from "Simple Star". Awesome program. They sent me the disc, so I had a hard copy. You could add ALL THE SONGS you wanted. You could alter when and where they started and stopped. You could add moving animation-ANYTHING. It was great. You put all this hard work and time into your project (again...115 pictures-still trying to finish this wedding DVD). Get to the "burning" section and find out, you can only burn a VCD-which normally would be fine, but the VCD only allows for the SAME SONG over and over again. BUT....You don't find this out until you burn it. While in the program, it plays ALL your songs beautifully. At the end, you're so happy for what you've accomplished only to find out, it WONT PLAY all your songs. ONLY the first one you attached. So, I cut the story again, took out the other songs. Now, it only played the one song-start to finish with the pictures. Perfect. NO. When I went to watch it on my DVD player. It just wouldn't play. So, I decided to pause the "movie" and continue to hit the pause button to see the frames and WHATA YOU KNOW?...It played...But, ONLY while hitting the pause button and it totally cut my pictures in half. Next, I paid $40 more dollars to upgrade to the next and most current version of this program. Here you can (if you want to take this route) purchase what you've created to have burned and mailed to you on DVD with a case and artwork for like $15.00. Ok. I was getting desperate. I was willing to pay the $15.00 to at least get this thing done now. Turns out while "sending" my show to the company. My songs that were included in my show were all Copyrighted and I couldn't have them burned onto my DVD. So, now I have all this time/money and Songs gone. You can ONLY use THEIR songs which you can download for free to the program. There are a lot. If you have no problem w/their music (which mind you, except for Classical pieces, I have never heard of) then, this is a great investment. You can burn VCDs or DVDs for nothing. But, if you don't like their selection of songs. You're screwed. And they don't tell you ANYWHERE on ANYTHING, that you can't burn or have burned a DVD disc w/ Copyrighted songs. Example: I had Louis Armstrong's "A Wonderful World" as the starting song. No go. I Paid for a program, plus the upgrade and still lost out here.

Next and last, about to completely give up...I went into Comp Usa and saw this program. The Ulead CD and DVD Picture Show 3 Deluxe". I read up on it, but now I'm skeptical with anything cause once it's opened you can't return it. But, I take a chance. I didn't even know about the menu's part. I only bought it because the box said you could add your own music. I tried it. I really took my time with it and played with every section. It was incredible. NOT ONE COMPLAINT.

I'm sorry to hear that people can actually leave bad feedback about this product. I have no complaints whatsoever. The only thing that could be changed is the length of time it takes to START the burning process. But, once it gets passed that first stage, it flies. And when I put my "DVD" in the DVD player. I had this AMAZING menu-All my music-fading in and out pictures-It was awesome. I made a DVD for my boss and she told so many people that I now actually have people willing to pay me to do their photo shows. Maybe there is this other program out there called "PhotoDex's Proshow Gold". Maybe it works great. But, nothing is perfect. This program is very easy to use. It's well within a reasonable price range and it does not have any flaws. I had 4 songs within the infamous "wedding DVD" and I controlled where and when the songs started and stopped. I controlled how long a picture was displayed for on the screen and I have also used the "Match slideshow to audio duration". Both work impeccably. I honestly don't understand why some of these people are complaining about this product. You can have all the pictures you want to any length of time you want with as many songs as you want. If you take the time to learn the program, which for me was one afternoon, you won't be leaving bad reviews. As for "old" systems. Sure. Understanding computers as I do, I can see why it wouldn't work. Your computer is old. It doesn't have the capability or memory or speed to handle this program. This program has ALOT of little things in it. It can take up to a minute to for it to open. It's very detailed. If you have an old computer, your computer is not going to have the necessary or up to date information you need to run it. Plain and Simple. This program has never frozen with me. If it freezes it's because you're doing something at the same time that you shouldn't be. People take their time to create such a memory. Don't do things that will cause the computer to freeze up while your dvd is working or burning. I finish a project and I get up and walk away. I can't wait for the next version to come out. I tried to defend every critsism given as I truely feel this product is amazing. There may be better ones with more variety or context out there, but this one is great for what you pay and most likely want to do. If you're a "professional" then why are you even looking at a $40-product?

I hope this helps anyone who might have any questions or reservations. If you have questions, email me. I would be glad to help you or answer them for you. Have fun!!1 stars (Will not run on my Win 2k system) - I have been attempting to get this program to work on my win 2k system since January, to no avail.
It brings up the flash screen and comes up with an error halt - I was able to get it to boot up on my old win 98 system - but it is not usable on that system because it is too slow ( 500MH). I was not able to get through to tech support -and received no answer to my email as of yet - So will I will return the program. Hopefully I `ll receive some sort of compensation.

I have used Ulead programs in the past and they were great. These good experiences plus the great writeups influenced me to buy Ulead again ... I will probably buy MySlideshoow - Proshow gold which I have also tried. 2 stars (More for Kids) - This would apeal to younger group and not as professional grade as I wanted. I was disappointed in the context. Very limited on transitions and timeing. Compaired to ProShow Gold, I liked the moving pictures and the amount of music available. Other than that, ProShow has it beat. What I don't like in both the limit to music DLL's. I had as many freezes with it as with the other and don't understand why.
Ulead CD & DVD PictureShow 3 Deluxe Features:
Computer software (programs)
Graphics
Multimedia
Edit (Editing)
Graphics (Graphic)
Professional Design
desktop publishing
desk top publishing
Image Capture Capturing
CD Recording (Burning, Burners)
Video
Editing
CD

Ulead CD - DVD PictureShow 3 Deluxe is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 29.99USD.