Photo slideshow software & Windows Movie Maker

For my in-laws 50th anniversary in a week or so, I have scanned old photos and have recent digital photos. I found Windows Movie Maker on my system and for all intents and purposes, it does what I want for getting the photos into order, doing some basic effects and transitions.

Windows Movie Maker appears to record in .wmv format only - but I'm not sure that my 2 year old DVD player will read that format (I've read its manual, but its not apparent that it can). Any comments out there? I may resort to creating a mini-movie and trying if necessary.

Is there a recommendation for something else. I intend to do this only once, so I'm not ready to roll out the credit card.

Cheers, Eric