NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, January 2009
Media Show 4 by Cyberlink
A review by Terry Oden,
President, Macon Computer User Group, Georgia

http://www.mcug.org
terryo (at) brmemc.net (click to email author)

This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups; all other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above).

There may be hundreds of ways to gather, store, view, edit and show off your pictures and videos. This is one of the best and easiest I have found so far. Your own operating system will do a fairly good job of getting your pictures and videos into your computer for you. On the net you also have programs that are free like Picassa, Flickr and You Tube which all do a very good job of storing and displaying your own work to family and friends.

One of the things that I liked best about Media Show was ease of operation. There are only 5 buttons to control the whole program. Below you’ll find a screen shot of the second screen you’ll see select the Pictures button.

Starting with the # 1 button, or the Home button here you can see all of your different folders and how many pictures or videos you have in each folder.

For the # 2 button you have Create. Here you can do things like make your own Screen Saver, compose a movie or DVD. You can print your own pictures or order prints on line.

Next you have the # 3 button or the Share button. Here you can share your pictures with friends and family or up-load them to Flickr. Also, you could upload them to U-tube with a single click of your mouse, if desired.

The next button # 4 is the View button, here you can adjust the size of your thumbnails or add any captions to your pictures. You can also change the color of the skin of the program (appearance).

The last button or # 5 is the Folder Tools button. Here you edit, sort, locate, delete or hide some pictures if you like.

This Media Show 4 is one of the top programs when it comes to ease of operation, not to mention what the finished product will look like. To create a movie or slideshow with sound and motion, fading or cell you only have to make about three clicks of the mouse. First you have to decide if you want background music or not, next select what format you want to use, and where to save your work in your computer. Yes, you do have to tell it what pictures or videos to use! At last, all you do is click the Burn button and that’s it. Zap you’re done!

To create a DVD it’s very easy. First decide a name for your DVD. Then pick out a menu style for your DVD. Now comes the hard part. You must decide which videos you want to use and if you want any still pictures in it or not. Yes, once again you have to tell the program which videos or pictures you want to use.

Next. click on the preview button to see what your work looks like. If you like it, click on the burn button and you’re done.

System Requirements

    1. Operating System- Windows Vista / XP (with Direct X 9 or above)
    2. Screen Resolution- 800 x 600
    3. Printers- All
    4. CPU- Intel Pentium D 3.0 GHz, AMD Athlon 64 3500+ or above
    5. Sound Card- PCI sound card or on-board audio
    6. Memory- 512 MB RAM minimum, 1GB recommended
    7. Hard Disk Space- 1 GB required, 20 GB recommended for DVD production
    8. Graphics Card- Intel 945GM or above-64 MBVRAM or above
    9. Optical Drive- A DVD burner (DVD+R/RW or DVD-R/RW) is required to burn content onto DVD’s
    10. Import Devices- Cameras via removable disk interface-Cameras support Windows Portable devices interface-Camcorder DV devices via IEEE 1394 (Firewire)
    11. Internet Connection- An Internet connection is required for some upload/download features.

As for the overall way the program works, I’ve not found a program this large at this cost that operates so easily and simply. I have found no shortcomings with this program yet. This is the best program for the money that can be found, under $50.00.

Click here to return to top



==================================================================