anyone using ProShow Producer?

[icing photography]

i am using the program now and it has a few bugs, like it shuts down frequently when im in the middle of my project! it saves a different file on my desktop each time i press the save button.

the software is $$$ and this shouldnt happen right?

anyone else have these issues.
--
MacKenzie--
it's an emotional response to the world around you... find the emotion.

 

[Gary Allen Cambs UK]

At first I had lots of problems with crashing, after the first couple of updates it has been much more stable.

v2.51 Build 1723 is my latest version.

on XP SP2 - Athlon XP 3200, 2.5GB DDR, 2x 250GB SATA
--
Gary Allen
GWDesigns

 

[Carl Feather]

I bought Producer in September. In October it shut down and would not remove the Evaluation banner despite multiple reinstalls. They finally sent me a new hardware key and registration number.

30 days later it once again returned to the evaluation banner. They still haven't resolved it to my satisfaction. I got around it by reinstalling the software and using the original registration key, which it rejected. I then put in the number 1 and it accepted it! Go figure.

The program is very buggy, a beta version at best and NO WAY worth $400 (or as they list it, $500). And did you know that once your year is up, it will cost $159 a year for any additional upgrades? Unless they do some serious work on this program in the next nine months, it will need upgraded and I'll have to pay for it to do what it should already be doing as a $400 program.

I also have issues with the menus -- it won't build a thumbnail of anything other than the first five seconds of the show. It crashes/freezes after burning a DVD or making an ISO file. It crashes for no reason whatsoever.

Captions are a weak feature. You have no control over how fast they come on/go off. For $400, you should be able to control them better. And you can't do rolls without first making the slide in Photoshop and using movements.

Technical support is pretty worthless. They eventually just end up blaming it on your computer. I have a brand new AMD 64 3500+, ASUS board, 1 gb RAM, dual drives, XP2 Pro etc. Lately, tech support just ignores my calls and e-mails.

The layers feature is weak -- yeah, you can do layers, but the only control you have over them is motion. You can't apply any transitions to them, so you end up doing builds, which you could do without layers.

This program is not ready for prime time and certainly not worth $400.

 

[kelcom]

I too bought ProShow Producer. I thought it was very expensive for the level of improvements over ProShow Gold, but I needed the layers portion to do what I needed to do. I thought the program would also be much more stable, being a $400 program.

At first. it all seemed to go alright, until I started running previews. It would lock up some there. But the killer is after you finish the show, you've been through the video rendering process (which for me took about an hour) and then try to create a DVD and it seems to always freeze up. This means you have to close the program and when you bring it back up, it recognizes you didn't close correctly and brings up your autosave. I am now sitting with four DVDs in front of me that were started and never finished. I have to toss them in the trash can. Not to mention that I have to go through the rendering process each time to try to make a DVD, so, there is about an hour's worth of frustrated time invested for each attempted DVD. So, its now taken me 4 hours and I am down 4 DVDs and have to give it another try, all for the production of a 15 Minute show.

The instruction manual says video files are created so one won't have to go through the rendering process each time to create a DVD. However, they don't tell you how to use these to create a DVD. There is no menu option that allows you to look for the file.

I tried to contact Photodex on January 2nd and 3rd and here it is on the 7th and there has been no reply to either requests. I'll paste this review into my help request.

I have a Pentium 4, 3GHz, 512 RAM, 100 GB Hard drive with 25GB left and Windows XP Pro. I easily run Photoshop CS, even while producing slides on Proshow Producer. So, it isn't my computer causing the problems. But, I close everything down and reboot and open only ProShow Producer, just to try to create a DVD.

I will continue to seek a response from PhotoDex, as I still hold out hope they can let me know what the problem is within a year, so I won't have to set it aside for a year and pay $159 for a fix. I can't afford to do that. They need to stand behind their product.

Ken

 

[Lance70734]

i am using the program now and it has a few bugs, like it shuts
down frequently when im in the middle of my project! it saves a
different file on my desktop each time i press the save button.

the software is $$$ and this shouldnt happen right?

anyone else have these issues.
--
MacKenzie--
it's an emotional response to the world around you... find the
emotion.

I agree with the posts above. The program shuts down frequently casuing loss of unsaved work, seems to unstable for the price.
--
Lance
http://www.mytwocentsphotography.com/main2/

 

[Timzee]

I don't use Producer, but virtually every version of ProShow I've tried to use was very buggy initially and nothing I've read has led me to believe that this Producer program was going to be any better.

Photodex has some strong supporters here who swear by it and seem to honestly feel it's a "professional" program. I'm sure some have used it effectively.

Maybe if you can get by the dongle thing and wait it out for the next however many fixes/patches until they get it right. But I expect most users anticipating to pay that kind of $$$ rightfully expect a more stable, functional program.

i am using the program now and it has a few bugs, like it shuts
down frequently when im in the middle of my project! it saves a
different file on my desktop each time i press the save button.

the software is $$$ and this shouldnt happen right?

anyone else have these issues.
--
MacKenzie--
it's an emotional response to the world around you... find the
emotion.

 

[Timzee]

timzee wrote:
Meant to say:

Photodex Producer has some strong supporters here who swear by it

While I no longer use it myself, I still recommend ProShow-- just not the early releases.

 

[28to70]

I have pro show gold, and it works for me. I have been folowing the threads about producer, and to all concerned, all I can say is that Photodex follows and keeps an eye on us. I'm sure, as a matter of fact I know they are trying to fix the bugs. So hang in there, they will respond.

 

[Bob Petras]

I've used ProShow Gold - almost flawlessly however I have looked at ProShow Producer and I am hard pressed to see any differences between these two programs. The main interface is identical amd in the drop down menu selections and I can find only two minor additions over the ProShow Gold version.

I'm not sure what the rationale is in producing what appears to be the same program with a few minor changes.

Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
--
Bob Petras

 

[Timzee]

Photodex is fortunate indeed to have a faithful user base that seems willing to deal with-- if not even expect-- significant bugs in major releases. In effect, like having beta testers that pay.

I have pro show gold, and it works for me. I have been folowing the
threads about producer, and to all concerned, all I can say is that
Photodex follows and keeps an eye on us. I'm sure, as a matter of
fact I know they are trying to fix the bugs. So hang in there, they
will respond.

 

[Carl Feather]

It's not a pro-level product. I really regret spending so much money on a product that does so little and does it so poorly.

I hope Photodex responds to these issues. Producer still freezes every time I burn a DVD.

Suggestion: Try creating an ISO file and burning that. The program will still freeze upon completing the file, but at least you should have a file that can be burned.

It is very disappointing, a rip off.

 

[marpon]

If it 's not Producer, what are the pro-level alternatives?

--
Martín Arpón
http://www.pbase.com/marpon

 

[Carl Feather]

A while ago, a poster suggest Sony Vegas, a video editing program, as having much more potential and features, including superb audio production tools, for about $50 more than Producer.

 

[shekar narayanan]

After playing with the demo version with few images, I bought the Pro Gold version. But with many images, I was not happy with the ease of use and the viewer they offer. I don't use it any more.

--
Learning Photographer

 

[darkjay26_3]

guys can u pls help me about the ProShow Producer? i am looking for for the serial key.......and alll other imp't. data......... if anyone can ijust help bout it........ i'll be using it for the presentation during our family reunion........... thanksss alot.......... by the way i am jeff from philippines

 

[Kelly Shipp]

Ken - a quick solution to your problems would have ProShow create ISO's. Then just burn the ISO to DVD using Nero, etc. That way, you can burn multiple slideshows without worrying about ProShow crashing. This is the way I do it and it works very well.