PSG 2 first impressions

Just installled vers. 2 and tried to replicate a slideshow I've made with Memories on TV.

My first impression is that it was much easier to automatically turn out a decent finished product with Memories on TV but if you fiddle with the settings a little, you have much more scope for a better slideshow with PSG2, specially when you learn to mix effects like rotate and fade at the same time. I haven't tried to burn a cd yet.
Looks promising, what's your first impression?

I did like the text fly in effect, but the text is just plain like MemoriesOnTV. I had hoped for nice looking 3D embossed text. It does have auto shadow text, which you have to do manually in MOTV.

I could not figure out if you can have multiple zoom and pan with PSG2 like you can with MOTV, but maybe you can do it using several slides. It did have ‘Match' to previous slide and next slide, so maybe you could create the multiple zoom effect using that setting and several copy slides.

The preview was kind of small too.

You can't do multiple pan and zoom, that I could find either. It's also not very accurate on motion stops. The spin motion never completes. "End Position" should be just that... the end position... not just a hopeful target to potentially reach. If you decide to remove a picture from the timeline, you get a black screen using the "remove" button. You need to Ctrl+x to cut it the rest of the way out. Even Apples iMovie has better Ken Burns control than ProShow Gold 2.

I guess I need to spend more time with it, but I'm not super impressed yet, at least not at all to the extent that the Hype would lead me to believe. Yeah its better than Movie Maker 2 but... well... its free.

This is my "first impression", [subject to change ]

TerryG said:

I did like the text fly in effect, but the text is just plain like
MemoriesOnTV. I had hoped for nice looking 3D embossed text. It
does have auto shadow text, which you have to do manually in MOTV.

I could not figure out if you can have multiple zoom and pan with
PSG2 like you can with MOTV, but maybe you can do it using several
slides. It did have ‘Match' to previous slide and next slide, so
maybe you could create the multiple zoom effect using that setting
and several copy slides.

The preview was kind of small too.

Click to expand...

I thought the same thing. After playing around I figured it out. Create a pan or zoom then copy the slide. On the copy use the match last slide feature. Create new pan or zoom. Remember to set transition to 0 in-between the two slides. I think like this process a lot. You have a lot of control and can to multiple effects. The text transitions are awesome.

Rob

Dale300 said:

I guess I need to spend more time with it, but I'm not super
impressed yet, at least not at all to the extent that the Hype
would lead me to believe. Yeah its better than Movie Maker 2 but...
well... its free.

This is my "first impression", [subject to change ]

TerryG said:

I did like the text fly in effect, but the text is just plain like
MemoriesOnTV. I had hoped for nice looking 3D embossed text. It
does have auto shadow text, which you have to do manually in MOTV.

I could not figure out if you can have multiple zoom and pan with
PSG2 like you can with MOTV, but maybe you can do it using several
slides. It did have ‘Match' to previous slide and next slide, so
maybe you could create the multiple zoom effect using that setting
and several copy slides.

The preview was kind of small too.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

2.0 removed the preview glitch in the audio. So far it doesn't hiccup on the audio of the first slide. I have noticed another problem: it sometimes does not play the audio at all when I make a new show, but I have not had this problem after I save it. Anyone else experience this?

What aspect ratios and safe zones are you all using?
Thank you,
Martin

rkb0378 said:

Rob

Dale300 said:

I guess I need to spend more time with it, but I'm not super
impressed yet, at least not at all to the extent that the Hype
would lead me to believe. Yeah its better than Movie Maker 2 but...
well... its free.

This is my "first impression", [subject to change ]

TerryG said:

I did like the text fly in effect, but the text is just plain like
MemoriesOnTV. I had hoped for nice looking 3D embossed text. It
does have auto shadow text, which you have to do manually in MOTV.

I could not figure out if you can have multiple zoom and pan with
PSG2 like you can with MOTV, but maybe you can do it using several
slides. It did have ‘Match' to previous slide and next slide, so
maybe you could create the multiple zoom effect using that setting
and several copy slides.

The preview was kind of small too.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I did figure out how to make the preview bigger, go to widow dropdown and click off ‘Slide list.’

I’ve been having fun with the 16x9 feature, as my slides have been squeezed by 1/3 already, I can expand them and do a full 16x9 picture with the correct proportions.

I also like the ‘Outline’ text style.

TerryG said:

I did like the text fly in effect, but the text is just plain like
MemoriesOnTV. I had hoped for nice looking 3D embossed text. It
does have auto shadow text, which you have to do manually in MOTV.

I could not figure out if you can have multiple zoom and pan with
PSG2 like you can with MOTV, but maybe you can do it using several
slides. It did have ‘Match' to previous slide and next slide, so
maybe you could create the multiple zoom effect using that setting
and several copy slides.

The preview was kind of small too.

Click to expand...

rkb0378 said:

I thought the same thing. After playing around I figured it out.
Create a pan or zoom then copy the slide. On the copy use the
match last slide feature. Create new pan or zoom. Remember to set
transition to 0 in-between the two slides. I think like this
process a lot. You have a lot of control and can to multiple
effects. The text transitions are awesome.

Rob

Click to expand...

Nice tip Rob, that does the multiple pan and zoom kind of nice. Not the most user friendly, but still able to get the job done. Is there a quick key or keyboard shortcut to bring up the "slide options" dialog?

Dale,

Once you bring up the slide options keep that window open. There are arrows on the top that let you move between slides. Also after you make a change in the options you can preview your results without closing the window.

Rob

Dale300 said:

rkb0378 said:

I thought the same thing. After playing around I figured it out.
Create a pan or zoom then copy the slide. On the copy use the
match last slide feature. Create new pan or zoom. Remember to set
transition to 0 in-between the two slides. I think like this
process a lot. You have a lot of control and can to multiple
effects. The text transitions are awesome.

Rob

Click to expand...

Nice tip Rob, that does the multiple pan and zoom kind of nice. Not
the most user friendly, but still able to get the job done. Is
there a quick key or keyboard shortcut to bring up the "slide
options" dialog?

Click to expand...

My first impression.
Installation went without any hitch. It didnt ask for serial number again.
The interface looks very similar to the old version but has many new buttons.

I just tried setting up a slideshow with few slides and it was very easy to do it. I tried adding some texts with effects and it was fairly easy to add them. I havent tried all the different effects yet.

Motion effects looks cool. I like the idea of having two pictures to show the start and end frame. Also it was very easy to shift and change positions. In MOTV I always felt the slider size was too small and wasnt convenient. Here it is very convenient to change and set to whatever you want. But to produce multiple effects you have to have multiple slides which could be a pain. In MOTV you can do all that in a single slide. But at the same time it could get confusing if you have more than 2 or 3 pan/zoom on the same slide.

I just tried it playing on the monitor without outputting the show to any format. The show was very jerky. It used to be smooth in the older version. I really couldnt enjoy watching. I have a decent computer(2.4Ghz, over 750MB RAM, 64MB video card, etc). I never had any problem with MOTV show. But ofcourse the MOTV show previews only one fourth the size of Proshow.

Later I thought maybe the default setting (2sec) wasnt enough. I have to try it out with longer settings.

Phillip Bonfiglio said:

Just installled vers. 2 and tried to replicate a slideshow I've
made with Memories on TV.
My first impression is that it was much easier to automatically
turn out a decent finished product with Memories on TV but if you
fiddle with the settings a little, you have much more scope for a
better slideshow with PSG2, specially when you learn to mix effects
like rotate and fade at the same time. I haven't tried to burn a cd
yet.
Looks promising, what's your first impression?

Click to expand...

--
Venkat
http://www.pbase.com/ktv

Nice for me, drag and drop works from IMatch,(and Windows Explorer) so I can leave the PSG2 file browser open to sounds and music files, and IMatch at the ready for Image files.

PSG2 needs the ability to calculate audio files in seconds! It doesn't show you how long the songs or effect sounds are. PSG2 should of included sound effects for the slides. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong, but the sound effects will not work with the slides, only background audio is available.

When doing multiple pan and zooms dont forget to set the transition time to zero. The next transition is the reason it appears not to stop where it is suppose to. Play with it. Using transitions with multiple pan/zoom can also create some neat effects. Dont be so hard on the program until you have really played with it. It does take a little while to get used to it, but once you do it gets really easy to make good shows.

Jason

Dale300 said:

I guess I need to spend more time with it, but I'm not super
impressed yet, at least not at all to the extent that the Hype
would lead me to believe. Yeah its better than Movie Maker 2 but...
well... its free.

This is my "first impression", [subject to change ]

TerryG said:

I did like the text fly in effect, but the text is just plain like
MemoriesOnTV. I had hoped for nice looking 3D embossed text. It
does have auto shadow text, which you have to do manually in MOTV.

I could not figure out if you can have multiple zoom and pan with
PSG2 like you can with MOTV, but maybe you can do it using several
slides. It did have ‘Match' to previous slide and next slide, so
maybe you could create the multiple zoom effect using that setting
and several copy slides.

The preview was kind of small too.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Whatever the format I choose, I always get a very poor picture quality compared to the old V1.32 version !

What about you ?

--
C P 5 7 0 0
FCAS Member
Visit my gallery at :
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/fox67

unless I can't find it there is no undo command.

This program really needs an undo command.

Fox67 said:

Whatever the format I choose, I always get a very poor picture
quality compared to the old V1.32 version !

What about you ?

Click to expand...

Although the "video output options" have the following settings:
resolution: high resolutioin
quality: high quality

the picture quality stay really poor. Much less than in version 1.32. This is unacceptable. Hope there will be a solution for this very soon.

rkb0378 said:

unless I can't find it there is no undo command.

This program really needs an undo command.

Click to expand...

I agree, as I would like to undo the coasters it now makes. 1.32 would only write to cue/bin files for me. but 2 promises to write to my DVDs, it does, and they all come out useless.

Grh!

I cant explain what is going on with you, but for me the quality if outstanding. Much better than PSG 1.

Jason

Fox67 said:

Whatever the format I choose, I always get a very poor picture
quality compared to the old V1.32 version !

What about you ?

--
C P 5 7 0 0
FCAS Member
Visit my gallery at :
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/fox67

Click to expand...

Hi Jason,

I am having the same problem with sharpness & clarity, even when I crank all the output quality options to "high". It gets particularly worse when I use the Pan & Zoom effects, even when I use sharpened 3072x2048 files.

When I compare the same exe shows I created with v1.32, there's a noticable difference.

Can you give us a run down of your settings?

Thanks.

• Carl

Jason Edwards said:

Jason

Fox67 said:

Whatever the format I choose, I always get a very poor picture
quality compared to the old V1.32 version !

What about you ?

--
C P 5 7 0 0
FCAS Member
Visit my gallery at :
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/fox67

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Phillip Bonfiglio said:

Just installled vers. 2 and tried to replicate a slideshow I've
made with Memories on TV.
My first impression is that it was much easier to automatically
turn out a decent finished product with Memories on TV but if you
fiddle with the settings a little, you have much more scope for a
better slideshow with PSG2, specially when you learn to mix effects
like rotate and fade at the same time. I haven't tried to burn a cd
yet.
Looks promising, what's your first impression?

Click to expand...

I've been playing with it for a bit. Burned a couple of test cd's (good thing they're cheap ). All's fine so far. Used random transitions and motions.
Still have a lot more exploring to do.

Have downloaded it and found it very very nice.
I created a small test show.
FOund out you cannot include a video clip. Mine was a .MOV
It showed as a MP3 file type...
Would be a nice feature to allow that.
Oh one other thing... I had the DVD +RW sitting on the tray but not loaded.
It gave me a message that the drive wasn't ready..this is good
I closed the tray.
It asked if I wanted to erase the disc... this is very good
I said yes..It started rendering...then crashed... I figured it out.

Because the DVD drive is auto play and the ProSHow Burner test was on it it cranked up InterDVD player...guess everything got confused...not a big deal just thought I would mention the situation as that may the cause of some of the crashes mentioned.

I was able to restart the program with no problems.

I successfully burned the DVDRW, slipped into the CD/DVD drive to see what would happen... it cranked up the new ProShow presenter...very nice previewer BTW.. and it cranked up InterDVD...
Anyone have any ideas how to stop this...
BTW I also included an Auto Run PC show...
How does one get to play that in place of the DVD?

Will be continuing the test with adding music and see if the editing is more precise..

I noticed there is an option (right click on a selected slides or group of slides, then click audio) to sync selected slides. HAs anyone tried this and can comment on this....seems very cool... I always thought you should be able to clip a song easily to fit a group of slides with in the show.

BTW someone commented that removing the slide leaveas a blank...try delete.. Maybe the text should read remove picture/leave blank..

--
Ira

Well I just burnt the slideshow on a cd-rw as a svcd and what a disaster, it skipped right through the show, just kept jumping side to side, the sound did not synchronise at all the way it was in the preview (probably about 5 seconds difference) and also skipped, the transitions were very jerky.

I'm sure there must be a problem somewhere, I couldn't see photodex going backwards from the quality of the previous version. Maybe a problem with the cd-rw or the svcd setting?

Carl Stillitano said:

I am having the same problem with sharpness & clarity, even when I
crank all the output quality options to "high". It gets
particularly worse when I use the Pan & Zoom effects, even when I
use sharpened 3072x2048 files.

When I compare the same exe shows I created with v1.32, there's a
noticable difference.

Can you give us a run down of your settings?

Thanks.

• Carl

Jason Edwards said:

Jason

Fox67 said:

Whatever the format I choose, I always get a very poor picture
quality compared to the old V1.32 version !

What about you ?

--
C P 5 7 0 0
FCAS Member
Visit my gallery at :
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/fox67

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...