Ulead CD & DVD PictureShow 4 - More Than Just Slideshows

Ulead CD & DVD PictureShow 4 is a simple-to-use program, designed to do one thing: create slideshows on CD or DVD. Whether it be pictures you have saved, or home videos you have imported, PictureShow 4 was created to make the process of turning those into a CD or DVD as simple as possible.

The interface is intuitive and the learning curve is simple, but if you're wondering who needs a $40 slideshow creator, you're not alone. The folks at Ulead have realized that a perfect complement to this type of program is a full-fledged photo management tool, and have included their Ulead Photo Explorer 8.5.

While the price you pay is technically for the CD & DVD PictureShow 4, the addition of Photo Explorer makes the price much easier to swallow, and rounds out the application nicely (minus a few flaws we'll discuss). Add to that an initial free Club Photo membership that offers owners 60 free digital prints as well as simple integration with the Ulead photo software offerings, and PictureShow 4 becomes even more attractive.

What's Hot: 
Ulead is a fairly large company, and they justify their standing with a wealth of support options. There is free telephone support, web email support, and a frequently asked questions knowledge base. With so many software companies settling for no telephone supoprt, it's nice to see for no additional costs.


What's Not: 
Registration is required on the Ulead site to access the information, but that's a minor quibble considering you need to create an account when you purchase through their site. Also, the telephone number is not toll free, and does not have very east-coast friendly hours. It's only available Monday through Friday, 9:30am-5:30pm, Pacific time.

What's Hot: 
At an asking price of $39.99, you are provided with a wealth of utilities that assist you in not only creating slideshows with your photos, but also in managing your entire photo collection. In addition to that, with your purchase of Ulead CD & DVD PictureShow 4, you're granted a free platinum membershop to its Club Photo website, which will allow you to get 60 digital prints sent to you, as well as a free album CD, 40 specialized albums, unlimited high resolution downloads ;and more. All in all, it's a pretty fair bundle for the price.


What's Not: 
Considering that the other features are bonus features, the application itself would normally be overpriced at $39.99. While it is a neat application to have, the amount of use it would receive if it were only the slideshow application would make it very difficult to justify that price. Hopefully the bundle will be a permanent offering thereby making it a good deal.

What's Hot: 
Installing the application is a simple Windows installation, and configuring is equally simple. You select a folder, file or you can batch add your photos or videos, and they're automatically scanned and imported into the user interface.


What's Not: 
I love the fact that Ulead CD & DVD PictureShow 4 comes with the PhotoExplorer 8.5 bonus application for free. What I don't like is that the installation is completely separate. Had I not read the Ulead promo page for PictureShow 4, I wouldn't have noticed that I had an additional installation file in my downloaded folder. It really wouldn't have taken much effort to have a central installer making it simple to customize and install the complete package. This would have made for a much smoother configuration.

What's Hot: 
The speed of the application was quite a nice surprise. I have a very large collection of both photos and miscellaneous videos. Ulead CD & DVD PictureShow4 did not pause during the process. There were progress bars during all of the importing, making it clear what was going on. Also, the speed at which the tabs functioned and the pictures were edited was very quick.


What's Not: 
What was not as impressive as the speed, was how quickly the application crashed when trying to preview a DVD slideshow. No matter what combination of CD or DVD I was trying to create, if I made the mistake of clicking the "preview" button, I was greeted by a very unfriendly application crash message. From browsing the web, as well as other BrightHub reviews, I notice that I am not the only person experiencing this crash. There appears to be something faulty with the application. I was able to get around this by simply not previewing the DVD. However, if it's a feature of the application, it's inexcusable for a fatal crash such as this to occur.

What's Hot: 
The user interface design of Ulead CD & DVD PictureShow4 is fantastic. Ulead clearly understands that most consumers who purchase this application will probably be novice computer users. The application is as simple and intuitive as possible.

At the core of the interface is three tabbed pages listed at the top: Organize, Theme, and Burn. Within each of those pages are graphical icons for miscellaneous tasks, such as rotating or editing a photo or video file. Below, is a graphical bar representing how much disk space is available based on the media you have imported.


What's Not: 
Being an advanced user, I would not have minded a more complex interface, but the fact remains that there is a lot of power underneath the hood.

What's Hot: 
There's a laundry list of features with Ulead CD & DVD PictureShow 4, and you can visit their product page for a detailed breakdown of each. I'll highlight a few of the innovative features which really make this application standout. The multi-trim video feature is great for people who have a ton of video files, but want to simply choose smaller clips or highlights in order to combine them together.

The ease of editing photos was another great feature I used more often than anything else. Options such as adding text are as easy as the red eye reduction tweaks you have come to love. 

Of course, the fun part of an application like PictureShow 4 is creating a Video DVD or CD slideshow. Playing around with the DVD Menus is always fun too. There are features included to allow you to change the theme/background of the menu, add audio and sound effects, and even modify the CD/DVD label.

For a program that seems simple, PictureShow 4 brings a wealth of features.


What's Not: 
The main thing I would have liked to see was more of a variety of video output files besides the standard Video CD & DVDs. With the weatlh of multi-format DVD players, and more people with computers in their living room setup, maximizing space on a disk, or at least providing that option would have been nice. Also, no word on the future-proofing or eventually allowing HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. Not a huge gap, but keep that in mind if you're planning on investing on one of those in the near future.

More format support for exporting your slideshows; additional photo-editing refinement and/or features; add even more control over DVDs; add HD-DVD/Blu-Ray support.

Overall, Ulead CD & DVD PictureShow 4 left both a good and bad impression on me. It's clean, easy to use, and attractive interface make it a joy to work with. In addition to that, the inclusion of Photo Explorer 8.5 and a Platinum Club Photo membership make this an attractive package for only $39.99.

That being said, experiencing a crash while doing a standard operation of previewing your DVD is a taste I cannot get out of my mouth. Fortunately, Ulead allows users to try it before they buy, therefore, I would highly recommend users see how it works before plunging in and purchasing.

Overall, if the program had worked as it should have, it would have received a much higher ranking. For the most part, it does exactly what it says it does. It creates slideshows on CDs and DVDs very easily while still allowing a lot of control. ISince it's not the type of application you would use daily, the inclusion of the photo management software makes it that much easier to justify the purchase price.

Adobe PhotoShop Elements