Xequte has announced the release of DVD PixPlay, VCD Slideshow Creation Software for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. DVD PixPlay is a consumer solution allowing digital camera users to share their photos with friends and family, through the use of image slideshow CD's that can be played back on a TV using a DVD player. Generated CDs function like a standard DVD for easy usage. They are particularly suitable for those contacts that do not own a computer or have only rudimentary skills in their use, according to Xequte.??Using a thumbnail wizard, images can be retrieved from image folders, scanners, or digital cameras. These slideshow "frames" can then be edited and reordered, and together with a selection of background music tracks, are converted to VCD format and written directly to a CD-ROM. DVD PixPlay can output both VCD and the higher-quality SVCD format, both of which are supported by most popular DVD players.??Title page editing tools allow the user to create custom introduction pages containing text, images and clipart. Many common clipart objects are included, such as speech and thought bubbles and seasonal items, and these can also be added to images in the slideshow. ??DVD PixPlay offers control over the slideshow creation, including custom display times for particular images, optional overlaying of the image filenames, and 30 effects designed to enhance the transition from one image to the next. Slideshow frames can be generated from all standard image formats, including JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, BMP, and PNG.  MP3 and WAV files can be used for the background music accompaniment. Common video formats, such as AVI and MPEG, can also be written to CD-ROM in VCD format for DVD playback. ??DVD PixPlay is priced at $19.70.

(http://www.xequite.com)