Creating a Looping Video Slideshow Display

Whether you’re a real estate agent or other small business owner, you may find yourself needing to play a slideshow on a display for potential clients.  Maybe it’s for a tradeshow or maybe it’s for the walls of your office to play a loop of current ‘for sale’ homes.

Whatever your needs, ProShow slideshow tools make it easy to create custom, looping displays you can play anywhere on any screen.

Here are some tips to get you on the road to making a professional and polished video for your display.

1. Go Widescreen:  Pretty much all displays now-a-days are widescreen. Make sure that when you’re setting up your slideshow in ProShow, or any other slideshow tool, that you have the show size set to Widescreen rather than 4:3. In ProShow, you can find this under Show Options > Show Settings > Aspect Ratio. 

2. Keep it Simple:  When making a slideshow for a display where people will be walking past or viewing in passing, keeping the visuals simple is the best way to go. Yes, many modern slideshow applications have all sorts of cool effects and animations built-in but control yourself!  J  The end goal is to show off your listing. So, simple zooms, crossfade transitions and easy-to-read captions (try to avoid a script font since it’s hard to read from a few feet away) are the best way to go.

3. Audio and Soundtrack Considerations:  Usually a low volume soundtrack (that can be muted if need be) in the background of your slideshow is the best way to go. If you’re depending on a voiceover to help sell your product, you could run into trouble. People at busy events normally spend just a few minutes observing your booth or display so a voiceover explanation of your product or service just won’t have time to catch their attention and convey your message.

4. Loop It: In an office, tradeshow booth or window display you’ll want to make sure your video is able to loop. The easiest way to make your video loop in ProShow is to add a menu and include the option to ‘loop show’. You’ll see the loop option for any type of menu you create. Many TV’s also allow you to manually loop a video through the TV’s menu.

5. Output Format and Quality: What type of display will you be presenting your slideshow on?  A flat screen TV? A projector? Whatever your method of display, you’ll want to output an HD video to get the best quality possible. For the best results, burn a Blu-ray disc of your slideshow and playback on a Blu-ray player or Playstation 3.

Don’t have a Blu-ray burner? Create a 1080p HD MPEG 2 video and hook up a laptop to play the video directly from your laptop to the HDTV screen.  Of course before hand, test playback to make sure everything looks perfect and you have all the right components, wires and parts you need to make it happen!

So there are some of my top tips for creating and displaying a photo slideshow at your next event or for your office. If you're looking for a great slideshow tool, check out ProShow. It's free to try and creates professional video slideshows.