Multimedia advice

Soundslides now facilitates video conversion

I was really excited to come across Soundslides’ latest utility that allows users to convert their slide show into a video. This is an excellent addition to the already-amazing product, and is currently free for registered users while in beta testing. So, if you have ever wanted to cross-promote your slide show on YouTube or Vimeo, now is your chance!

Soundslides developer Joe Weiss currently facilitates video conversion for both Mac and PC users. I tested the converter to change my malnutrition slide show to a video format to promote on YouTube, and I was amazed at its simplicity. In three easy steps, you choose your video size, enter your email address if you want an email update when the conversion has finished, and lastly select a zipped folder of your publish_to_web folder (you need to make the zip folder). Depending on the number of users simultaneously converting files, the conversion can take anywhere from 5-15+ minutes. I was third on the queue and it still only took around 10 minutes until I was able to download my video file.

Besides cross-promoting your product, you can use the video format to more easily share it with others. For example, it is more difficult to burn a cd of the publish_to_web documents and instruct your viewer to click on the .html file and ignore the myriad of other files. On the other hand, burning a cd of just the MP4 video ensures that your viewer won’t click on the wrong thing.

In terms of limitation during the beta stage, Weiss noted that “image movement is not included in the resulting video file. Also, viewer-controlled elements like captions and credits fields are not included in video files.”

My personal advice is to turn off the cross fades between each image. While it works in the Soundslides interface, it doesn’t look as great in YouTube because it pixelates each image during the fade. Of course YouTube might also be to blame and it might not look as bad in Vimeo. Either way, it’s a quick fix in Soundslides so just export a new publish_to_web folder to use for video conversion.

Other posts that might interest you:

• Maintaining aspect ratio when exporting stills in Final Cut Pro
• Testing out Embedr’s video playlist capabilities
• Multimedia Tip: Editing and converting audio files

© 7 October 2009 Innovative Interactivity (II).