ArcSoft DVD SlideShow offers an excellent blend of ease of use, quality, and functionality. Though we encountered some feature gaps and minor irritations, DVD SlideShow is our first choice for producing slide shows on DVD.

SlideShow's design area is built around the DVD menu. You direct your workflow with buttons at the top of the menu and add content via buttons on the right, an instantly understandable approach. Pan-and-zoom features are the best among the reviewed products; the ability to rotate images and apply an effect for a portion of the slide's duration is unique.

Image-editing tools are modest. You can crop the image to fit a TV screen, a feature we like, and brightness controls work well. But red-eye reduction and color correction aren't included, so if your images need tweaking, you'll have to use a separate image editor.

The program's audio capabilities are generally fine. You can import multiple WAV, MP3, and WMA files into each slide show, and auto-fit slide duration to song duration. But the narration feature lacks volume control and feedback, making high-quality narration a hit-or-miss proposition.

Menu design is straightforward, with the best themes in the roundup and layout and background customizability. Though transitions and pan-and-zoom effects were choppy during preview, playback from the finished DVD was very smooth.