I just made my first slideshow using this program, but the quality when playing is not very good. Even when I play it back on my computer monitor its not very good. I had all the encoding setting at the highest possible, any ideas?? Is this normal?

I have had great success with their customer service. 1-800-37-PHOTO. You may have to hold for a while to get someone..but... they should be able to help you.

Laurie

I use pro show as well and have no problem with it.Not sure what to tell you, mine always look great???

i uesd it too but only once... it did have a couple "glitches" where the music had a small skip. I checked all 3 copies, so it wasn't my DVD, but overall I was happy with the end result

I am demoing this and the vcd option was not all that great.

I created a dvd and made sure to set every option to high quality and it was perfect. Looked really amazing on a 32inch lcd tv.

I have experienced poor quality also, but I think it may be a monitor issue. Most DVDs I have played on a TV are fine.

BTW, they are offering a great deal on updgrading PRO SHOW GOLD users to Producer. Depends on the length of time you have had GOLD. From $99 - $199 ( I think ). Producer is awesome.

It looks bad on both my monitor (Sony 23" widescreen LCD) and my TV (Pioneer 55" CRT RPTV). I have a DVD slideshow from my brothers wedding and the quality on that is much better on both my TV and monitor. Here are the specs of my sldieshow:

720x480, 60Hz, 4:3

Has anybody used this as a flash player on their website? I think it looks pretty good...I can't afford both ShowIt and ProGold, and I really want the DVD option, so I am willing to wait for ShowIt but want shows on my site...

If you do, what setting do you use so it doesn't take too long to load but doesn't look real bad either?

Dave, I will check my settings tonight and let you know what I used.

I use proshow also, and it is a finicky program. I checked my output, and it is 720X480. I don't seem to have a problem with sharpness. I have heard of this problem before, and I have heard people oversharpening to compensate. Here is a post from another forum about it:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00HFUy

Here is the follow up post, make sure you read it too...
http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00HLQS

I have also read somewhere (couldn't find the post... I tried) that the proshow program doesn't skip as much if you set the settings to "Standard Quality" and "Normal Play". The person who said this had called proshow about the skipping issues and this is what Proshow told them to do. They said that a regular computer and tv doesn't need the higher settings. I have also called them at one time about the skipping. They told me to use DVD -R instead of +R. Since I switch to the -R and set my settings for Standard Quality and Normal Play, I rarely have issues with the skipping anymore.

Just a heads up. Unless they have changed the format shows created by ProShow will not pay on web browsers on Macs. Something worth checking out.

Rick

Awsome, thanks Kari!! I will try the suggestions in those threads and see how it works. Do most of you resize your images to 720x480 before adding them to Proshow, or do you just add the full sized 300ppi jpegs?

I don't resize anything, and I used highest quality output dvd, and voila...beautiful.


Laurie

Laurie, do you sharpen the images within Proshow?

No. I did all my photo editing in Photoshop. When I create the slideshow (or it is in process) I just go back into Photoshop and do any editing that I find necessary, but I can't remember any sharpening that I had to do. I just can't tell you how happy I have been with the quality of the DVD's. I had previously used another product and made VCD's, and the images looked terrible, so I was really interested in how the images would look on the TV. They looked great.

I did have some tech issues that they helped me resolve. I had started the show in one version of Proshow, and then upgraded...part of the show didn't make the transition well, but once resolved...beautiful.

Laurie

This is so strange. I am not home so I have not tried sharpening within Proshow yet, but my images just looks really soft adn almost out of focus when I play the show on both my PC and my TV.

The dvd i created I used my full res, ready for print jpgs didnt change any image settings in ProShow. The only things I changed were the show settings; quality and such. Some images were even zoomed in VERY close and still were crystal clear.

Do you use ProShow for web slideshows as well? If so, flash or px? If flash, do they take a long time to start/buffer?

Thanks.

I also find my images look a bit soft in Proshow, no matter how beautifully sharp they are in photoshop. I do apply about 35% sharpening to every photo in Proshow, and I'm very happy with the result this gives.

I don't resize my images first...I just let Proshow resize them. I have always had fantastic results from this software. I'm sorry your having troubles....I hope you can get to the bottom of them soon.

dave,

These are my settings I used to get a very nice looking show.

DVD, DVD Type (DVD HQ),NTSC,MP2,Encoding = High Quality.

That worked perfect. Every VCD I created looked horrible but that might have been the settings I used.

No...haven't tried that, just DVD's so far.

Laurie

thanks to everyone trying to help! I will be home in a few hours and will try sharpening inside Proshow and see how that works. I just created a slideshow using iDVD on my Macbook Pro and the results are similar, images look soft and to me the quality is still unacceptable. All I want is a DVD slideshow with images that look identical to the images on my computer!

I use the px format and it loads just fine, check a few of them out on my site. www.perfectionphotography.net

This is a long shot, but what brand DVD are you all using? Seriously I believe this is a factor.

Karen

I have no problem with Verbatim DVD-R

btw -- any resource for great prices?

Karen

David,

That's never gonna happen. Here are a couple links that explain the differences between a computer monitor and a TV screen.

http://developer.msntv.com/Designing/tvsrnres.asp

Even a program like FotoMagico that can export a show in HD 1080P resolution is not capable of reaching that kind of TV resolution without a combination of a HD TV and a HD DVD player.

http://www.fotomagico.com/articles/dvdtutorial/

Rick

It is normal and it's a fine line between softening the images and having "jumpy" shows. If you have super crisp images in your shows then the zooming of images creates a jumpy look on some screens and I believe that's why many programs soften the images a bit.

...and yea computer monitor playback from a DVD made for TV will definitely not look very sharp.

Image softness is relative to the playback source. As the links in my previous post explain, the resolution of a DVD playing on a TV will always, except for the HD mode I noted, look inferior to the same playback on a computer monitor.

The degree of "Jumpy" effects in any video playback are related to the quality of the video card memory and other factors related to the video sourcing. It is NOT a factor of the softness of the image.

All professional video software can export at the highest video resolutions in the codecs available.

Currently the highest res. codec is the H.264 codec that QuickTime recognizes.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/technologies/h264/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264

Essentially, for every little movement of an image the video processor needs to totally redraw the entire image. The shorter the duration the image is viewed on the screen combined with the degree of panning or zoom will have a effect on the "jumpiness" of the playback. A short image duration combined with a lot of panning and zooming is when the jumpiness is at the most extreme because the viddeo processor cannot keep up with the playback demands. To be very simplistic, the video source, since it cannot redraw every image change "skips" to every other change this is magnified when viewing on a TV because DVD players use interlacing which reads to only every other line on the screen.

Here's a tip, if you want an extensive amount of pan or zoom in any image and avoid jumpiness you should set the display duration for a little longer time. Instead of 1-3 seconds, try 4-5 seconds.



That is true.

Rick

Ok my version of Proshow Gold does not have a sharpness adjustment....I am running 2.5.

On another note, I just played the iDVD show on my TV for the first time and it looks MUCH better and is very much acceptable, but like DJ said it "jumps" a bit from slide to slide, and the music skips at one part during the show. I didnt see a sharpness setting in iDVD, does anyone know if it is possible to change this in iDVD?

Thanks!

Can you tell me your settings for the px shows on your site? They are awesome by the way...I really like your opening.

I am still demoing the softwared...trying to decide between ProShow Gold and ShowIt...I really like the DVD option on ProShow. Do you run Gold or Producer? Last question...is there much difference between the demo version and actual one?

Thanks.

Pro Show is a good option for people who want to take more time and do a very custom show after each of their weddings....they almost seem to be going the video editing route and getting very close to the abilities of Final Cut or Premiere in terms of their slideshow output and the time necessary to create their custom shows.

It is also a good option for people who want to take the time to do their own DVD authoring, burning, printing.

Of course you can export a simple show quickly but you can do that for free in iPhoto so again I think Pro Show is great if you want to take the time to do a very custom show and then export it and author your own DVD.

ShowItWeb is the perfect example of contracting your focus and doing one thing great. It might not do DVD authoring, yet. But it creates web slideshows better than anything I have found.

Unless DJ wants to give somemore info on the DVD option avaliablity I will probably buy both.

Somewhere in the preferences is the option for internal rendering resolution. It's at 800x600 at default - which doesn't leave you much room for zooming or panning. I set mine to 3200x2400, and it made a huge difference.

Others have told me that according to their tech support, changing that won't solve any of their problems - but those same people have told me that making the change did solve their problems. Try it and see.

I think that ProShow is nice because it's so fast and easy. Drag and drop images, set default transition, set default transition and slide times, and do your zoom/pan on the images - and without much time, you've got an awfully presentable slideshow. You can spend more time and polish up a few things, but you can get a pretty decent show in a hurry.

Being on a Mac I don't have any first hand experience with ProShow but I have a lot of experience creating slideshows using FotoMagico. I have heard many good things about ProShow from other PC-based photographers.

You are correct that it is actually pretty easy to create a slideshow and burn it to a DVD. Even adding pans and zooms (Ken Burns Effects) and adding custom music I can finish a very custom slideshow in less than one hour. Let the slideshow program render and export the show to DVD (the total time doing this depends on many factors related to your computer (video card, RAM, CPU), the resolution of the show and the number of images and effects) but while the program is doing this you can spend time doing other things on the computer. Once that exporting is complete it's just a matter of burning the DVD.

For labeling I have two templates, one for the DVD face and one for the case. All I do is open them, change the names and date and the two images and then print. Time taken is about 5 minutes.

Total time to create a custom slideshow for the web and DVD play for me is about one hour.

Creating your own DVDs is not all that difficult if you have a good software program and there are many out there ranging in cost from $25 - $500. The more expensive programs like the Final Cut series are way overkill for still image slideshows and designed for video editing. The better "pro quality" full featured slideshow programs seem to be priced in the $75-$100 range and up.

MAXIMIZING YOUR DVD PLAYBACK

Here's a suggestion for sharpening those ProShow DVD shows. I got this info from an experienced ProShow photographer on another forum. I tried it and it works great. Really improved the look of the show when played on a regular television. The PS steps should be able to be used for any images in any slideshow program.

If you read my previous posts you know a little about the issues related to DVD play in the computer VS on a TV and why the TV play will never match the monitor. This moves the TV quality even closer though.

Sharpen the images for the DVD TV play as follows:

You can create an action that does this to the image folder.

In Photoshop:

1. File > Automate > Fit Image
2. In Fit Image set the dimensions both to 1440. (This will give you plenty of oversize to allow for pans and zooms.)
3. Filter > sharpen > sharpen (Do the sharpening twice)
4. Edit > Fade Sharpen > Choose 75% and set the mode to "luminosity"
5 Save and close.

That makes a substantial difference on the sharpening for the images. It'll probably be too sharp for play on your monitor but the show looks GREAT on a DVD on TV or on the web. I am sure that one could play with those settings a bit as well but the images look much sharper using the procedure above.

For ProShow users specifically then do this in ProShow (Since I don't use ProShow I have not personally tried these steps):

When you burn your DVD in Proshow use these settings:

In disc buring - ISO creation is checked.
Output options - Video outpput is HQ
PC autorun is turned off.

Try that. It rocks. Hope this is helpful.

Rick

I'm about to try ProShow Gold tonight. Thanks for your time and advice, Rick!

Aaron,

Always glad to help!

It really makes a difference on playback on a regular TV. I have not tried it yet on play on a HD TV. Since the program I use gives me the option of exporting the show for HD play I probably don't have to sharpen for that application.

Let me know how it works for you with ProShow.

Rick

Does anyone know if there is an option in iMovie/iDVD to adjust the sharpening? It seems to automatically add quite a bit by default and it makes the images "jump" when playing back on a TV. I think I am going to stick with Mac for creating slideshows though, I love the menu's you can use in iDVD! Those things are sweet!

David,

As far as I know there is no user defined sharpening option in iMovie or iDVD. Sharpen the images in PS before importing them.

In my opinion neither iMovie nor iDVD is a good choice for creating slideshows. That is not what they were intended for.

As for adding menus in iDVD there are other workarounds. For one, I have created the entire show and then in QT Pro (or iMovie) I have split it into sections. Saving each section I then drop them into chapters in iDVD. Works great and it is not really difficult to do.

Rick

Rick, what would you recommend as the best software to create slideshows on a Mac?

Dave I highly recommend FotoMagico from Boinx Software in Germany. It creates high resolution shows for the web, iPod or TV and HD TV. You can download their demo and try it. If you do s search on OSP for FotoaMagico you will find many photographers posting many positive thoughts about the program.

I want to be fair so I will add that I am involved in helping them market their software. I used the program for almost a year before they asked me if I could assist them to market here in the states. For what it is worth, I speak highly of and recommend FotoMagico first and long before they approached me because I think it is a superb program and only secondly because am I directly involved. Many photographers are sponsored by Canon and use Canon and recommend Canon but every one of them that I know personally used Canon gear long before the sponsorship relationship. They were not "bought" and therefore their recommendation is sincere. I hope that makes sense. I mention this only because one individual has been trying to discredit myself and FotoMagico by repeatedly stating on forums that my recommendation is only because I am a "paid spokesperson" for Boinx. The only compensation I receive is from someone ordering the program and the tutorials I created on it from my site. You are also free to order it directly for the same price from them and I am not compensated. I mention this to be up front and hopefully head off the insinuations by the other photographer.

You can see sample shows, download the demo and read a lot about the software through a link I created on my site:

http://www.rickrosen.com/fm

or go directly to their site at:

http://www.fotomagico.com

Here is a new video I created yesterday with Fotomagico. I used Canon's PhotoStitch software to create the panorama then used FotoMagico to animate it. It's a large file so it'll take 20-30 seconds to load but the wait is worth it, it's pretty cool!

http://www.rickrosen.com/catalina

Let me know if I can answer any other questions.

Best regards,

Rick

In my opinion iPhoto and Fotomagico make basic "Ken Burns" type slideshows...I think they are great programs for consumers.

If you're looking for a professional app and needing it to export quicktime files then definitely stick with ProShow because it has a whole host of pro options that the consumer programs don't offer.

There are quite a few photographers in this thread that apparently don't agree. Comparing FM to iPhoto is like comparing a Volkswagon to a Porsche.

http://www.opensourcephoto.net/forum/index...ic=6300&hl=



The ProShow are very good but not available for the Mac. As for features, it depends, which version are you referrinbg to? ProShow Standard ($29.95), ProShow Gold ($69.95) or ProShow Producer ($249.95)?

Producer is the "Pro" version and it is full featured. You can produce in many formats including flash and QuickTime and even in QT HD. It is, IMO, it would be the perfect program (except fro the issue below) for professional photographers that are on Windows that want to create slideshows for multiple applications; the web and DVDs for TV play. It also looks very intuitive and easy to learn to use but, as I said, it is not available for the Mac and slideshows it exports, even on the web, cannot be viewed on a Mac.

You need their proprietary Photodex plug-in to view on the web and it is not available for Macs. IMO, that is not cool at all.

"Online slide shows are viewed using the Photodex Presenter plug-in, which is included with all ProShow products, or available as a free download from the Photodex web site."

Rick