It may sound strange, but in about two hours or so I made a cool present that I gave my mom (along with a Mexican cruise 
). Here's what I did:
- I nabbed a bunch of family photos, including some of her growing up, her kids, and her grand kids. For 29 cents each, the physical photos were digitized at a local Walgreen.
- On my computer I arranged the selected photos in order by naming them 1-40, saved in a "birthday" folder. If I needed to squeeze a couple of photos in the middle later on, I named it, for example, 13a, 13b, etc. That way they always stayed in order. Captions can be easily put on the photos, but I chose not to.
- I put the folder of photos on to my PS3.
- Then I connected the PS3 (out via S-Video and audio cables) to a DVD recorder's S-Video in. From there I connected the DVD recorder to my TV so I could see the XMB and hear the sounds.
- With the PS3 on I went to the music player, selected one of her favorite songs and put it on repeat play. Then I pressed 'select' until all of the on-screen info disappeared.
- I then pressed the PS 'Home' button to go back to the XMB (music still playing). I moved over to the Photo section and hovered over the birthday folder.
- Next I put a recordable DVD into the player's drive.
- Without opening the photo folder, I pressed Triangle and then selected one of the five photo viewer programs 20 seconds before the song in the background was about to replay itself.
- As soon as the viewer started, I paused it on the first photo (it can be a greeting/intro jpg if you make one). Also I used Triangle->Viewer Speed option to make it transition the photos at the pace I wanted.
- Just before the song restarted, I hit record for the DVD player and then unpaused the photo viewer.
- I had previously tested to see how many photos it took to last through the entire song, so once the tune ended on the final photo of the entire family I stopped the recording.
It may sound like a lot, but it is pretty simple. And surely you guys have tried the photo viewers on the PS3 to know how cool some of them are. No PS3 text ever appears on-screen if you do as I describe, and it has a real professional look to it in the end. I finalized the DVD and played it for her on a projection screen at a big surprise party we put together and everyone loved it.
). Here's what I did:- I nabbed a bunch of family photos, including some of her growing up, her kids, and her grand kids. For 29 cents each, the physical photos were digitized at a local Walgreen.
- On my computer I arranged the selected photos in order by naming them 1-40, saved in a "birthday" folder. If I needed to squeeze a couple of photos in the middle later on, I named it, for example, 13a, 13b, etc. That way they always stayed in order. Captions can be easily put on the photos, but I chose not to.
- I put the folder of photos on to my PS3.
- Then I connected the PS3 (out via S-Video and audio cables) to a DVD recorder's S-Video in. From there I connected the DVD recorder to my TV so I could see the XMB and hear the sounds.
- With the PS3 on I went to the music player, selected one of her favorite songs and put it on repeat play. Then I pressed 'select' until all of the on-screen info disappeared.
- I then pressed the PS 'Home' button to go back to the XMB (music still playing). I moved over to the Photo section and hovered over the birthday folder.
- Next I put a recordable DVD into the player's drive.
- Without opening the photo folder, I pressed Triangle and then selected one of the five photo viewer programs 20 seconds before the song in the background was about to replay itself.
- As soon as the viewer started, I paused it on the first photo (it can be a greeting/intro jpg if you make one). Also I used Triangle->Viewer Speed option to make it transition the photos at the pace I wanted.
- Just before the song restarted, I hit record for the DVD player and then unpaused the photo viewer.
- I had previously tested to see how many photos it took to last through the entire song, so once the tune ended on the final photo of the entire family I stopped the recording.
It may sound like a lot, but it is pretty simple. And surely you guys have tried the photo viewers on the PS3 to know how cool some of them are. No PS3 text ever appears on-screen if you do as I describe, and it has a real professional look to it in the end. I finalized the DVD and played it for her on a projection screen at a big surprise party we put together and everyone loved it.
