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Photodex ProShow Gold for PC

Posted by gloria under Software

My New Baby Goldie Pros: Eye-popping shows ease of use more transitions options motion effectsCons: Rather expensiveThe Bottom Line: Finally a program that allows beginners to advanced user’s more choices and less sacrifices in making slide shows Making slide shows is something I love to do. Many old photos went into my productions’ as genealogy is a hobby of mine. It’s also fun to make shows of your children; taking them from babyhood all the way to adulthood and let’s not forget the grandchildren! Some of these productions have met with embarrassment but someday maybe the embarrassment will give way to laughter. My Roxio and Nero were constantly fighting each other which gave me horrible headaches. Slide shows were no longer fun to make. Adobe and MGI were played around with but met with little success. After consulting with an expert ProShow Gold 2.5 by Photodex was given a trial run purchased and now production is back in business. FEATURES AND SCREENSHOTS Taken from the Photodex ProShow Gold website www.photodex.com Create Amazing Shows • Customize timing of any slide individually down to .001 second • Rearrange slides with drag-and-drop • Easily arrange a large number of slides using the Light Box View • Add any number of slides to a show • Choose from over 280 transition effects • Real-time preview • Integrated photo browser lets you add content to your show faster • Add a custom soundtrack from a CD • Record a voice over for your slide show • Control audio timing fade in fade out and more • Add multiple captions to each slide set fonts sizes colors shadows and more • Add global show captions that appear on every slide perfect for copyrights filenames and more • One-click audio sync automatically times your show to music • Sync slides to a specific sound track • Intuitive timing recorder lets you set slide times as you listen to your soundtrack • Easily add blank slides for titles and credits • Customize backgrounds with colors and images • Include your own intro show to brand your shows • Easily fix mistakes using the unlimited undo and redo function Add Motion Effects to a Slide Show • Add motion (’Ken Burns effect’) to any slide • Pan zoom and rotate images • Add video clips to any slide and apply all the effects available for still images • Choose from over 70 caption effects to bring text to life Create DVD Slide Shows • Author DVDs right from ProShow Gold • Seamless creation - everything from video rendering to disc burning in one program • Output your show to video CD for playback in your DVD player • Supports DVD HQ LP SLP SP formats • Supports VCD SVCD XVCD XSVCD and CVD video CD formats • Superior quality for DVD and VCD formats • Support for higher-resolution VCD Stills Create Computer Slide Shows • Create self-contained EXE shows that play with no additional software • Build screensavers (SCRs) from your shows • Author PC autorun CDs that automatically play a show when inserted into a PC • Generate computer video files • Add PC autorun capability to any video CD • Integrated e-mail feature for sending an EXE show Publish Streaming Web Shows on Your Website Amaze your visitors with the highest quality online playback possible. • Create streaming shows that play from within a web page • Requires no additional server software or configuration • Many configuration options for image scaling protection and more Free Online Show Sharing Photodex takes the hassle out of sharing shows with our Free Online Show Sharing. Don’t worry about mailing off a CD - just point them to our website! • Fully integrated web show publishing • Produce shows that play exactly the same on the Web your PC or your TV • Automatic uploading from ProShow Gold • Free sharing for registered ProShow Gold users on Photodex.com • Friends and family can view your show without joining or signing up for anything SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Microsoft Windows XP 2000 ME 98 95. Pentium II or better CPU. 128 MB RAM CD-R/RW or DVD-R/RW DVD R/RW for disc output. 800×600 24-bit display. 50 MB available hard drive space for installation. Note: Processor speed amount of RAM and video card speed will affect performance of show creation and playback. MY EXPERIENCE After completely removing Roxio and Nero from my computer I installed the two-week free trial version of ProShow Gold 2.7 and started playing around with it. Since I know something about the slide show programs it wasn’t hard to figure out how to use it. If you are not familiar with the program I suggest you buy the boxed version which comes with a step-by-step manual. After using ProShow Gold for a week I knew I was going to buy it but I wanted the boxed version even though I knew the basics. The boxed version would have the CD (computer’s have been know to crash and having a CD in hand gives me peace of mind) along with the manual (and you gotta love those manual’s because when all else fails they come to the rescue). To use and purchase the downloaded version from Photodex the cost is $69.99. You will receive the registration code via email. The cost of the boxed version adds another $10 to your purchase price. As I gleefully rub my hands together I can now talk about the fun stuff! There are many folders on my computer with hundreds of pictures in them. The number of pictures added to a slide show seemed limitless. If you like music in the background you can add more than one song. With a large number of pictures you wind up needing more than one or two songs. My productions thus far have all been large. To start my slide show a file was chosen which contained pictures and by using the drag and drop options they were added. Drag and drop is my choice of preference as it gives me more control of where I want certain pictures inserted. If choosing to select multiple files they are shown in the order in which they appear in the File List (alphabetizing pictures in files helps me to keep up with them but adding them to a slide show in alphabetical order is not something I want to do). If you do chose this option it’s a simple matter of left clicking selected files and dragging to the Slide List (or holding CTRL or SHIFT while clicking on any slide). One of the features of this program I love is the Light Box. For those of you who don’t know what this is it shows more than one row of slides at a time. You can have three to four slides (one on top of the other) of thumbnail pictures to work with when it comes to transitions and other effects. My monitor is a large screen so this allows me to have more slides. With a smaller screen you would have a fewer number of thumbnail slides. This option is not visible by default (single row is your default). To use this option it is just a matter of clicking the Light Bar button on your main toolbar. Using this option does minimize your thumbnails but it gives you a quicker eye view of what you want to add or delete to your production with certain photos. Once all my pictures were in the right order it was time to “direct” my production. Transitions are necessary to my content! Without them my production seems bland with no flair so they are a must for me. The ProShow Gold has more than 280 transitions. My heart still pounds with the excitement of so many choices. You have the option of viewing the transitions before adding them between your pictures (or content). After viewing the transition you can decide if it is what you want for your picture or not. If not keep clicking on all the transitions until you find your heart’s choice. Move your mouse over the picture of the transition to preview it. You can drag and drop your choice but it is easier to click the transition icon you would like to add to the transition window. Another choice you have is random transitions. One type randomly selects the transitions for you and allows you to change them while the other randomly chooses transitions each time the shows plays back. Adding captions to your production is also optional. My sense of humor tickles my own funny bone so I tend to have a lot of fun with this. You can add these to individual slides or to all. There are many options with the text font size color placement and affect. When specifying caption affects you can bring your text to life by choosing three different types: fly in normal and fly out. You can go wild there and make yourself dizzy! The motion effects let you bring life to your production also. Using ProShow Gold lets you pan zoom and rotate photos. You can choose to have dramatic high-energy motion or slow subtle motion. On one particular “old” picture of my nephew as a young toddler the high-energy motion I opted for turned him into the Road Runner which was hilarious. Another option of the motion effects is adding multiple motions to one image. It sounds weird but it is so cool. You can zoom in on a particular subject or image pan over to another subject or image and zoom back out. It’s a three step motion that adds even more flare to your production. My oldest sister and I recently had a week of “sister” time together. While at the Hershey Factory in Hershey PA. several pictures were taken of us together by strangers. One of these photos was in a slide show. The focus was on the two of us together. The motion effects started by zooming out showing the entire image (both of us) then zooming in on her nose panning over to me eating a huge candy bar and zooming back out to the entire image (the two of us). There are many many options with ProShow Gold and lots of fun to be had with each one. Once the fun stops when using this type of program you’ve definitely wasted your money and with the economy as it is today that’s the last thing you want to do. Adding music makes a big difference in your production. It can set the tone of your show as well as putting your pictures in context. Some of my productions have a mixture of fast-paced upbeat high-energy numbers to slow tear-jerking country rowdy songs. This is all a matter of personal taste. After choosing the song(s) you want for your production it’s simply a matter of opening your music folder on your hard drive or choosing one from a CD and inserting it through drag and drop or double clicking on the song to add it. Once your music is added just sync it with your production. My story starts and stops with the music. Preview your production (watch it from beginning to end) and do any editing before you CREATE it (burn it to a disk). Once I’m satisfied I click on FILE and SAVE from the drop down menu and then click on the CREATE button choosing the DVD output. My formats so far have been for television and PC playbacks so I can’t give an opinion on the web distribution format. My productions are for personal use. It’s also possible to take the same production if saved do some extra editing transitions motion effects etc. and make another slide show. You can add some pictures delete pictures change the music and in a matter of just a few clicks you’ve produced another masterpiece to share with your family or friends. These masterpiece’s would also make an excellent (Christmas) gift for family members or maybe that special grandmother aunt uncle whoever with pictures of yesterday which are special to us all. My computer has the I/O Magic Internal DVD RW/ R 16X Dual Format Double Layer 8.5GB ReWritable Drive (I’m sure there are “probably” better ones out there but this one works great). I’m able to burn a production depending on the content in a matter of minutes. In my opinion Roxio and Nero cannot hold a candle to ProShow Gold 2.5 and while it was expensive (so was Roxio and Nero) it was worth every penny. I was in Scotland and Tenerife (one of the Canary Islands) this past June and July so my next production is waiting on me. COST$79.99 For further questions or information contact: Photodex Corporation 4201 W. Parmer Lane #B150 Austin TX 78727 Voice: (512)419-7000 Fax: (512)452-6825 TOLL FREE: 1-800-377-4686 Hours of operation: 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Central Standard Time Monday-Friday Email: support@photodex.com Thanks a lot nc10 for adding this to the database. Recommended:Yes