Ulead Releases CD & DVD PictureShow 3 Deluxe

December 2004 – Ulead Systems introduces Ulead DVD PictureShow 3 Deluxe, the newest version of its easy-to-use digital photo slideshow suite. The software lets anyone organize, enhance and transform photos into DVD and CD slideshows to watch on TV or a computer. With a long history of creating user-friendly consumer software, Ulead has upped the ante for ease of use with CD & DVD PictureShow 3 Deluxe. The software’s new three-step workflow and Instant-Show templates make it possible to turn photos into entertaining slideshows within minutes. CD & DVD PictureShow 3 includes Photo Explorer 8.5, the newest version of Ulead’s popular digital media management software, which offers a host of new features including Calendar View and Albums for better organizing photos according to date. Together these two best-of-breed Ulead digital image programs form CD & DVD PictureShow 3 Deluxe, a powerful and intuitive suite of tools for managing, enhancing, and sharing digital photos.

“As more and more people switch from traditional to digital cameras, they will need new ways to work with their digital photos,” says Colwin Chan, image editing product manager at Ulead Systems. “CD & DVD PictureShow 3 Deluxe is an easy and quick way to organize, enhance and view photos as slideshows. Now instead of building a slideshow from scratch, our customers can rely on CD & DVD PictureShow to do all the work, while taking advantage of powerful, under-the-hood technology that we’ve incorporated from our higher-end image and video software.”

According to InfoTrends/CAP Ventures continued high growth rates in the consumer digital camera market are astounding the industry. In its new forecast report entitled 2004 Consumer Digital Camera Forecast, North America InfoTrends/CAP Ventures predicts two more years of strong growth before sales peak. Consumer digital camera unit sales in the United States are forecasted to reach 22.8 million in 2004. This represents a unit growth of 42% over 2003, which showed 58% unit growth over 2002.

Easy & Quick Slideshow Creation
Transforming photos into slideshows CD & DVD PictureShow 3’s Instant-Show templates make it easy for anyone to turn photos into entertaining slideshows with themes such as Birthday, Wedding, and Celebration. Once a theme is chosen, the software turns photos into a complete slideshow with transitions, frames, music, and animated effects. To make slideshows more entertaining, users can now include pan & zoom effects to add dynamic motion to photos, and insert fun props and clipart onto photos.

Creating DVDs/CDs
The software automatically creates a Hollywood-like DVD menu with the same theme as the slideshow. A DVD menu includes graphics and customizable text and animated motion effects such as pan & zoom and lighting. The DVD menu background can be further customized by importing still photos or video for full motion DVD menus. It’s now possible to burn to double-layer DVDs for two times the storage capacity. A built-in CD label and index creation tool completes the package to create a polished slideshow disc.

Organizing Media
Ease of use is further reflected in the included new version of Photo Explorer. The Calendar view lets users click on a date to see all pictures or video taken on that day, while the new Albums features makes it possible to store images, video and music clips in one central location. A host of new auto-fix functions repair common photo problems with tools like Auto Level, Adjust, Color, Enhance, and Contrast.

Pricing and Availability
Ulead DVD PictureShow 3 Deluxe is currently available at www.ulead.com for $49.99 for the box version, and $49.99 for the electronic download. The software will be available soon in North American retail stores and catalogs for $49.99.

SOURCE Ulead Systems