Has anyone here had much success with this software? I have been using it for while and I like the way it works compared to my old slideshow software but I am not entirely satisfied with the output. I generate an exe. file to run on a laptop with a projector. When I am compiling the show, the preview looks fine but when I run the exe. file, my images, even captions and text are not as sharp as I would like. Am I missing something obvious or is that a limitation of the program?
By the way, most of the people that view my slideshows don't know the difference, but it bothers me. After my last show, an elderly lady said 'your camera sees things that we don't see with our eyes', which I thought was about the ultimate compliment and maybe one of the reasons we take photos.
I had the same sharpness problem when I was messing with it a while back. I generated an HD file and that solved it. File size got pretty large, about 2 gig for five minutes with music.
I was in 720P I believe Aaron. I just had a demo and didn't feel like waiting around for my puny computer to process anything bigger. I haven't used Foto Magico. I was was extremely happy with Proshow though.
Posted by Randy Wilson on June 11, 2010 at 8:55 PM
I'll take a stab at being helpful, because my initial experience was like yours.
Here's what helped me: When you select the "Create Output" option to create the executable file, select the options tab and make sure the "Image Size" check box is checked and set "limit image display size" to the resolution of the images you imported into ProShow. Then see that the Rendering and the Resizing check boxes are checked and also set those resolutions to the resolution of the imported images.
What this does is make sure Pro Show doesn't resize your image to a resolution greater than the images you used to create the slideshow. Of course, you'll want to import images with a resolution that matches the resolution of the desired output device, which in your case I suppose would be the projector.
Posted by Ken Bachman on June 11, 2010 at 11:08 PM
Thanks for your quick replys, guys. Due to my "lagging edge" technology, I don't have any HD capabilties with my projector.
Randy, your help was just what I needed. I could never figure out what all those settings did as far as resolution. I knew I needed my image resolution to match my projector resolution but I suspect that Proshow was probably still resizing my images leading to the softer output. Thanks alot for clearing that up for me.
Ken, I have also used Pro Show Gold with pretty good success. Randy's points are right on. Here is one thing that I have found helps if you are using the zoom and pan, the 'Ken Burn's effect. " You need to resize your images to be at least twice the resolution of the projector your have. This allows you to zoom to about 200% without loss of image quality. If you projector has an out resolution of 1024 x 768, you would need to resize you images to an output larger than this or you will risk a loss of quality when zooming.
Here is a pretty nice link to a web forum that deals specifically with Pro Show Gold issues. This helped me a bunch!
Discussion
7 repliesBy the way, most of the people that view my slideshows don't know the difference, but it bothers me. After my last show, an elderly lady said 'your camera sees things that we don't see with our eyes', which I thought was about the ultimate compliment and maybe one of the reasons we take photos.
Thanks for any help.
I remember when I helped Tim Ernst render a few clips for his slideshow DVD, one 15 minute clip was about 30 gig's.
Here's what helped me: When you select the "Create Output" option to create the executable file, select the options tab and make sure the "Image Size" check box is checked and set "limit image display size" to the resolution of the images you imported into ProShow. Then see that the Rendering and the Resizing check boxes are checked and also set those resolutions to the resolution of the imported images.
What this does is make sure Pro Show doesn't resize your image to a resolution greater than the images you used to create the slideshow. Of course, you'll want to import images with a resolution that matches the resolution of the desired output device, which in your case I suppose would be the projector.
Randy, your help was just what I needed. I could never figure out what all those settings did as far as resolution. I knew I needed my image resolution to match my projector resolution but I suspect that Proshow was probably still resizing my images leading to the softer output. Thanks alot for clearing that up for me.
Here is a pretty nice link to a web forum that deals specifically with Pro Show Gold issues. This helped me a bunch!
http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/