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On this page I'll try to give a brief intro on how to store your digital images. Main target here is the storage of your digital photographs either made with a digital camera or by scanning them using a scanner. Note: Read the disclaimer, information might be subject to change!

Overview

• Short Intro
• About Formats and Media
• Available tools
• Guides and Tutorials

Short Intro

Digital images are stored in files. Usually these files have a particular format like JPEG (JPG), TIFF or BMP. It all depends on how you scanned the images or what type of file format your camera produces.

JPEG is the most commonly used format for this purpose.

But why should you store these images digitally?

Well the most important reason; to have a nice collection of pictures that you can show to friends and family.
Commonly this is done by glueing prints in a photo-album,... but in the age of computer technology more entertaining ways are possible.

For example; a slide show which you display on your TV. The most advantages are clear some aren't, let's mention some.

One of the most important onces is that the images remain in the same kind of quality as on the day you made the pictures. So no fading colors on negatives and prints. The disc can be duplicated as many times as you want without loosing any of the quality. Did I forget to mention that looking at them doesn't harm the pictures? Like with normal paper prints where everybody feels the need to put fingerprints on the pictures!

Further more the pictures are nicely put together on a single disc, not only saving space but also keeping things organized. Pixtures will be easier to find with or wothout the help of a computer.

But that's not all.
Have you ever had friends over that wanted to look at your holiday pictures? Then you know the scene; you're explaining the context of the pictures to one, maybe two of your friends. When it's the turn of either of the others, the story will be shorter - you already told the story so you're automaticllay leaving things out. The last one just get's the book - he or she should have listened when you explained it all to the other friends.
Well, then this is your solution: Do playback the pictures on your TV, so everyone sees them and everyone hears the story with the picture. People can even interact on what they see and hear, making this a more fun experience.

You can also enrich your pictures with sound, giving the viewer a nicer impression, or add text to explain the picture. For example a date, place or time.

Naturally, you would like to save the originals for making re-prints.

About Formats and Media

So how do I store these files?

Well, one expensive way is to keep them on the memory-cards of your camera (if you did use a digital camera). For example Compact Flash cards, SD cards or Memorysticks.

Another way is to copy them to harddisk, but what if the harddisk crashes? And a harddisk is not that portable.

We can also use removable media like a Jazz, Click or Zip disk (Iomega) or use one of those USB thumbdrives, but then again, not everyone you know has one of these or equipment that can handle these.

So we finally get to storing it on CD-recordables or CD-rewritables. Their DVD variants can be used in a similar way, but are (still) more expensive.

In what format should we store the files?

Basically there these options: either a video-based media or a computer CDRom.

Advantage of the video-based media (ie. VCD, SVCD and DVD) is that you can playback the photo's on your TV. Haven't you ever been to some party where person A shows a photo-album? Well with a Video solution you can do a playback on your regular TV-set. Sitting around the TV, the tale-teller can tell the story up loud and everyone will be able to see the picture... hell you can even narate the entire CD with your own voice with most applications and/or even add some music.

Video based is either done by making use of the menu feature of (Super) VideoCD or DVD, like Nero burning rom does. This produces so called STILLS.
Another way is to render a movie out of these pictures, like most other applications do. My personal favorite on this is PictureToTV.

In the table below we mention "format" meaning the choice to use a Data CD, VideoCD, Super VideoCD or DVD format layout on the CD.
"Suitable media" shows you the required disc type.

Format	SUITABLE MEDIA		PLAYER Compatible		Quality	Ease of creating
	CDR CDRW	DVD ± R(W)	DVD	PC
CDROM Also known as Computer Data CD. The images are either stored in their original format or arranged so the user can view the content with a webbrowser.						Straight forward dumping files on the CD (optionally re-arranged using special software that can render a webpage of these photos). Cheap solution! Note: only a very few DVD players can display these images.
VIDEOCD (VCD) Usually used for creating a CD holding video/movies. However still-images (ie. Photos) are supported too. Resolution is be rather low, although some applications manage to produce excellent images. Most applications though, are capable of storing the original photo is a seperate folder for printing them later.						Requires you to create a VideoCD. However now a days most tools support you in doing this quick and easy. Cheap solution! Note: not all DVD players and PC DVD players are able to display this!
SUPER VIDEOCD (SVCD) Usually used for creating a CD holding video/movies. However still-images (ie. Photos) are supported too. Resolution actually is pretty good, and most applications are capable of storing the original photo is a seperate folder for later use.						Requires you to create a Super VideoCD. However now a days most tools support you in doing this quick and easy. Cheap solution! Note: not all DVD players and PC DVD players are able to display this!
DVD Also originally intended for creating a disc holding a movie. Advanced modern tools do allow you to work with stills though. Excellent quality and again, some applications allow you to store the original photos in a seperate folder too.						DVD authoring is not always very easy, however tools can help you with that. Can be rather expensive at the time of this writing.

Note: Media and format can be mixed. The indications shown here takes in consideration that the result should be compatible. miniDVD for example, mastering a DVD on a CDR or CDRW, cannot be read by most standalone players - that's why it's considered 'Not Supported"

Available tools

I did some research on the available tools that can help you create one or more of these media. Here you will find a list including some of the features I found important enough to mention.

Tool

Link

Trial Version

Ease of use

effects

Price

img Quality

Speed

Application STABILITY

Store Original

IMG TYPE

Pro

Con

Magix Pictures on CD or DVD Tool specific for this purpose. See: Pictures on CD or DVD

Magix

Video

Excellent effects

Quality Stability

Nero burning ROM Universal burning tool. See: PhotoVCD and PhotoSVCD

Ahead

Stills

to the point

No Effects Limited

PictureToTV Tool specific for this purpose. See; PictureToTV

PictureToTV

Video

Effects & quality

Logo in endresult

ULead DVD PictureShow Tool specific for this purpose. See: PhotoVCD and PhotoDVD

ULead

Video

Effects & quality

CD-writer support

Note: Keep in mind though that manufacturers might improve some of these point using updates or new releases. It's alsway worth to visit their website and see what they have to offer.

Guides and Turorials

Naturally, while testing these tools, I did some writing along so I could present you a guide or tutorial on the diffent ways to store you pictures.

CDROM	Nero: Creating a computer data CDRom with Nero
VideoCD	Magix: Creating a Photo VideoCD with Magix Picture on CD or DVD Nero: Creating Photo VideoCD with Nero ULead: Creating a Photo VideoCD with ULead DVD PictureShow
Super VideoCD	Magix: Creating a Photo Super VideoCD with Magix Picture on CD or DVD Nero: Creating Photo Super VideoCD with Nero ULead: Creating a Photo Super VideoCD with ULead DVD PictureShow
DVD	Magix: Creating a Photo VideoCD with Magix Picture on CD or DVD ULead: Creating a Photo DVD with ULead DVD PictureShow