bjprovo Loc: Northeast CT

I use Proshow Gold, I think it is around $70. I can save the slideshow on multiple types of media, including USB drives.

http://www.photodex.com/proshow

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Use a video editing program. Convert stills to 1080P or 4K video. I use iMovie on a Mac to do that. You can pan and zoom, time your clips, add music and narration...

Final output is to video files, which can be uploaded to YouTube or played from flash drives.

BTW, optical drives will be around for quite a while. Archival discs are available now.

mallen1330 Loc: Chicago western suburbs

My Slideshow: http://www.anixsoft.com/myslideshow.html

Creates an .exe file that can run on DVD, CD, hard drives, thumb drives, etc. Supports music and transition effects, captions, etc.

htbrown Loc: San Francisco Bay Area

...or you could download LibreOffice for free, and do the same thing.

Buckeye73

I have been using power director 15 for about two years. I believe the new power director 16 is about $70 naturally there is a learning curve but I’ve had good results. Once it’s on my hard drive I can create thump drives from them. It exports as a JPEG. I do editing In Lightroom of all the photos and if there’s any video clips in power director and you can edit it just to the length that you want.

SX2002 Loc: Adelaide, South Australia

Thank you all for your help, I've decided on Photostage Slideshow Producer, looks like it will do the job just fine..
Cheers, Ron.

rck281 Loc: Overland Park, KS

I agree with gvarner. Spend the money for Pro Show Gold and own the easiest to use and most full featured. All the rest are work around compared to PSG!

rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)

Or use Libre Office, an M$360 "clone". It's FREE at:

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/

Graham1949 Loc: Nottingham, England.

I've been using "Magix Software" for some 12 years now and can't recommend it enough. Customer care is brilliant and very reasonably priced.
Good luck.

https://www.magix.com/gb/

Sunnely Loc: Wisconsin

Like some of the posters here, I too use ProShow (currently, Producer level) by Photodex. I started with regular then upgraded to Gold and now Producer level. There are more features and special effects as you upgrade. You can create a slideshow with accompanying music, special effects, layering, smooth transitions, captions/text, title, and all the other "bells and whistles" that come with the software. Once finished, the software allows you to make copy of your slideshow into format of your choice such as regular DVD, Blu-ray disc, USB flash drive or upload to Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, etc. For my personal/family use, I only make a Blu-ray copy. (Picture quality of the regular DVD is "good" but Blu-ray copy is "awesome.") You will need a Blu-ray recorder to make a copy. I have Pioneer but other respectable brands also available cost about $80-100. How long it takes to make a copy depends on the duration of your slideshow. My guesstimate is a 15-min slideshow takes between 30-45 minutes to copy to a DVD or Blu-ray. It seems shorter time with USB flash drive (10 min). I suggest you play the Blu-ray copy of your slideshow on a large screen smart TV with a couple of decent speakers for best viewing enjoyment. Of course, you will need a Blu-ray machine connected to your smart TV. Blu-ray discs are getting much cheaper (I use Amazon). You can also use the USB of either the Smart TV or the USB from the Blu ray machine to view. To learn more about ProShow, check out Photodex website. They have great tutorials and demos. I believe they allow trial period of 1 or 2 weeks. If it meets your approval, I suggest you buy the lower level first (starter or Gold about $80). You can download the program online. Like the other program involving digital photography e.g., Photoshop/lightroom, it requires time, lots of learning, practice, and patience. The great slideshow you will eventually create is well worth it. What do I think of ProShow by Photodex? Needless to say, love it. (DISCLAIMER: I have no financial ties or interests whatsoever with Photodex or Amazon!) Addendum: To avoid the clutter of having too many Blu-ray discs laying around and risk of misplacing or losing them, you can put them all in a high-capacity USB flash drive better yet, a portable hard drive (WD or Seagate 2 TB). You will need a Blu-ray "ripper" to copy to one of these media with no loss of image quality. But, that's for another topic. Hope this helps.