I Love This Product: SmileShow

I love this product!  A DVD photo/video slideshow program has answered my need for Christmas gift ideas.

SmileShow is a service that enables you to put your digital photos and video clips into a DVD movie slideshow.  It includes themes and music for you to choose from and allows you to create your own title page for the DVD.

The most time consuming portion of this experience for me was the preparation and organization of my digital photos.  I have nine years worth of photos and had to weed through and make choices as to which photos I wanted to use.  Thankfully I have them all stored in one location, but I did have to download them to my computer and organize them in the order I wanted for the DVD.  After I accomplished that, the process of utilizing SmileShow and uploading my photos was quick and easy.

I am happy with the quality of the DVD I received and from my standpoint, it is a bargain.  It played well on my computer and on my television.  You can upload 50 photos for $4.99 plus $1.99 shipping.  Additional photos beyond the first 50 are $.05 each.  I did not upload video clips, but you can do so at $.50 per minute of video.  SmileShow will save your online creation for 30 days if you wish to reorder.  I plan to utilize SmileShow for Christmas gifts this holiday season.

I was sent a survey after my purchase was complete that allowed me to voice what features I was happy with, where I had issues and what I would like to see from the program in the future.  I always appreciate being able to provide feedback from my experience with a product.

As with using any product, I did find a couple of things that I wished were different while utilizing the program.  One, while trying to upload photos to SmileShow's current product version, it will not allow you to upload photos that are titled with characters, you will receive an error message.  I am told that an upcoming version of the product will fix this issue.  In the meantime, make sure all of your photos are titled with (and saved as) letters and/or numbers, minus any characters, before you upload. 

Two, you cannot upload photos that are less than 320X240 in resolution.  I understand the quality issue within resolution.  However, I have digital photos from many years ago (when my first child was born) and would liked to have had the option of using them, no matter the resolution.  We were not using a high quality digital camera at the time, but I would still like to have the option of putting those photos onto my DVD with the understanding that the photo quality within that portion of the slideshow would be poor.

As to my future hopes for the product - A great future addition to the program that I think would make it more user friendly would be a drag and drop option.  Especially for those of us planning to upload a great deal of photos.  The program currently does not offer such a feature, but once you upload your individual photos you can drag and move the photo location within your DVD creation.  Another option that I would hope to see in the future would be additions to the available music themes.  I did not utilize music on my DVD creation, but would have done so with more options available and/or the option to upload my own music.

All in all I had a good experience with SmileShow.  I found my DVD creation a bargain, a great way to have my photos put into slideshow form and I am happy with the end product.  I do plan to utilize SmileShow DVD again and look forward to doing so.  While I am at it, I might also checkout the other available products and utilize some of those as well.  As soon as I have time that is. 

Comments

[Andi]

This is such a fantastic idea! A few years ago, we took my mother-in-law's old (and I do mean "old" reel tapes of the kids growing up and had them put on DVD for her for mother's day, and she loved it. This is a great gift idea, thanks for sharing.

[Sharleen (YesVideo)]

We are glad that you enjoyed your Smileshow and thank you for your ideas for improvement. Your comments are very useful as we are starting to plan the next round of features.

New music is actually in the works! What kind of music categories would you like to see?

[David]

"Check out www.pillowsforsoldiers.com and see how they are giving comfort to soldiers with believe it or not PILLOWS"