In addition to working with still photos, you can also create your own movies by assembling photos, video clips, sound clips, and more, and then create your own video DVDs that you can watch on any TV -- no computer required.

Creating Movies with Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker has been around for several versions of Windows; however, it just keeps getting better. The version in Windows Vista is much easier to use and more feature-rich than any version before it. Movie Maker enables you to create your own multimedia shows using your home videos, still photos, music soundtracks, recorded voice clips, and more.

To start Windows Movie Maker, select Start > All Programs > Windows Movie Maker. Click Import Media to start importing the content into the program. After you've imported some content, drag the clip(s) onto the Storyboard area at the bottom of the screen, as shown in Figure 4-8. Test the result by clicking the Play button (blue circle with the right-pointing arrow in it).

Figure 4-8: Windows Movie Maker enables you to assemble video clips, pictures, and sound into your own movie creations.

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When you're satisfied with the result, select File > Publish Movie to save it. A Publish Movie dialog box opens. From there you can publish it to your computer, a DVD (for playback on a noncomputer DVD player, such as one attached to a TV), a recordable CD, an e-mail, or a digital video camera.

Burning Movies and Pictures to DVD with Windows DVD Maker

When you watch a DVD movie on a TV, a friendly menu usually appears from which you can choose among the various content on that DVD. You can create your own TV-compatible DVD discs using Windows Vista's Windows DVD Maker utility, including creating a menu system.

To start the utility, select Start > All Programs > Windows DVD Maker. On the opening screen, click Choose Photos and Videos, and then click Add items to add photos or videos to the DVD layout, as shown in Figure 4-9. Any videos you add will be independent items on the DVD; any photos you add will be part of a slide show.

Figure 4-9: Selecting the content to appear on the DVD you want to create.

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Next, you're prompted to create the menu and burn the disc. You can select among several menu styles, change the menu text, and more, as shown in Figure 4-10. After selecting a menu style, click Burn and then follow the prompts to burn to a blank writeable DVD.

You must have a writeable DVD drive in your system.

Figure 4-10: Creating a menu system for the DVD.

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Next, learn about the gaming features in Vista.