REVIEW: One True Media– On-Line Slide Show Builder

I was updating this blog– adding “widgets”– and noticed something called “One True Media”. Enticed by the ostentatiousness of the name, I decided to try it out.

It’s an online “slideshow” and “montage” maker. A slideshow is defined as a series of images with no sound but lots of weird backgrounds and stylesets;l a montage is a slide-sound show with effects, music, and is timed– to an extent– to the music.

I have strong opinions as to what makes a real slide-sound show, and while this isn’t quite it, it is the first on-line offering that seems to get some of the sync-sound concept. (Go to SLIDE-SOUND.COM for more of my thoughts on this.)

It begins with uploading a slew of pictures. I uploaded 100, but there is a limit. My pictures had been “webified” so many were not as good a resolution as the system prefers. (You’ll see graininess in the sample, but I think that’s the fault of low-res pictures.)

Once the pictures are uploaded, you can slip and slide them in order. Then you decide whether you’re making a slide show or montage (which is my idea of a slide show.)

For each image you can specify zoom or no zoom, zoom direction, and a transition between images. You can choose the length of time the image is on the screen, and the length of the transition. This can be wholesale for the whole batch, or one at a time.

Now, the sound part. You don’t upload music. You choose it. You choose from various decent compositions done in a variety of styles by beat, genre, or type (wedding, anniversary, business, etc.) You can choose well-known pop songs which are rerecording of hits (so that OTM only pays for the composition, not the performance. This is a premium feature– more on that later.)

Choose as many songs as you need, order them, and then pick on which slide you want that song to end. The system assumes that the next song in your playlist will start with the next slide. Repeat, and when you tell the last cut to end on the last slide, you’re done.

One True Media is free with a limited feature set- no text, no pop songs, only three songs per montage, no downloading of your montage (you can share it on their sight or embed it on yours.)

For $3.99 a month you get those extras, plus extra themes, transitions, effects, etc.

Here’s my masterpiece:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Plusses: Easy, fast, free, some sync to sound possible.
Minuses: No uploading of voice or music; limited timing options, must upgrade to download shows, use pop songs, access more special effects and transitions