MS Photo Story 3 - Any experiences?

[sahmeepee]

Has anyone used this:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

 

(Microsoft Photo Story 3)

 

From what I can tell it imports images and audio files, lets you apply transitions/effects and then spits out Windows Media Video files at the other end.

 

Someone in English has asked if we can put it on their PCs, but I'd be interested to know if anyone else has any experiences. Obviously the video files could get out of hand if the kids create 20 minute long presentations with music, but from what I've seen the files are about 2MB for 90 seconds which is on a par with Powerpoint.

[eean]

A fantastic piece of software - very versitile and easy to use. I'm in primary and we use it for all sorts of things from age 5 upwards.

As for installing, you need media player 9 (there is a msi deployment for that on the ms website) and direct x (I think) installed first. I think I used the guide on http://www.appdeploy.com to help make a msi for directx. As for photostory, it's a straightforward msi!

 

File size could be a problem. Once they have finished, the compiled video file will be fairly small (because it is all compressed etc...); however, if you save a photostory file (so you can edit it later) the file size can be 40mb for a few minute file. Despite the file size, we have had no problems with 15 laptops saving over a wireless network.

We have also had problems running it on our slower machines (under 1ghz). When previewing, it can't render the video fast enough to keep up with the sound, putting things out of sync.

[Dos_Box]

It's lovely. Doesn't work on 64 bit versions though.

[Guest]

Great piece of software. Staff and students love it. Was painless to roll out too.

[deerwood]

It's a great piece of software for English (literacy) and almost any other subject, especially as it's free!

[SimpleSi]

Great software, all my active ICT Co-ords and ICT literate teachers love it.

 

regards

 

Simon

[sahmeepee]

Unanimous support for a Microsoft product: am I in the right place?!

 

Just to check: I'm looking at buying a piece of software called SIMS.Net, has anyone had any experience with it?

 

Thanks for the advice guys, looks like it's going on. Disk quotas should take care of any stupidly big files.