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ProShowProducer vs. PE2 Slideshow

Standard, Gold & Producer. Talk with our experts about this great slideshow creating software.

Re: ProShowProducer vs. PE2 Slideshow

Postby Doreen L. » Sat Oct 13, 2007 8:38 am

That promotional video is very cool. Doing it is a matter of mostly learning how to do keyframing in PSP. It's different from doing keyframing in PE and takes getting use to (I haven't played with the keyframing that much in the program). There are a bunch of text effects in both PSP and PSG and you can use different combinations to animate them.

Your best bet is to download the trials and play with them.
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Re: ProShowProducer vs. PE2 Slideshow

Postby flyrobynfly » Mon Oct 29, 2007 10:14 pm

I've been creating all my videos using PSG, its a great tool, it's definitely worth the cost! I've wanted PSP but I haven't owned PSG long enough to make it worth the purchase amount just yet. My question if I may is the motion backgrounds that I found here can be inserted in PSG but then they hide photos and video that are already on the slide. I'll give you an example, the red curtain, I wanted the curtain to open to a photo but it won't show even if I change the layers positions. Now the only reason I would buy PE4 is because I want to be able to use backgrounds from here and elsewhere? Am I making sense :???:

I am willing to invest money in a software, I just don't want to buy or upgrade to PSP knowing that I could have spent less money on PE4 and gotten the same results and I could use the motion backgrounds etc...

Sorry for hogging the post, its just that you guys hit on a question I have been wondering about.
"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." – Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
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Re: ProShowProducer vs. PE2 Slideshow

Postby Paul LS » Tue Oct 30, 2007 4:58 am

You can get a photo to show through as the curtain opens in ProShowProducer. I thought you could use the alpha transparency in the "Layers" setup but the alpha channel does not appear to work. Anyway, you can use the "Chroma Key Transparency" in "Editing". You need to drop your photo onto the slideline view, then "ctrl" and drop the video onto the same slide so it is the layer above the photo. Then in "Editing" check the "Chroma Key Transparency" box. The selected color should be black. When you play the clip the curtains should pull back revealing the photo below. You will need to tweak the "Intensity Drop Off" (and maybe "Intensity Threshold") control to eliminate any remaining black traces. But dont over do it with the controls or the dark regions of the curtain will become transparent.
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Re: ProShowProducer vs. PE2 Slideshow

Postby flyrobynfly » Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:17 pm

Thanks Paul, that helps me alot because I love ProShow Gold (which doesn't do what you mentioned) and I don't own the Producer. I am willing to purchase it simply because I like PSG alot. I've done really nice shows with it and if I could take it up a notch that would be even better. But are the motion backgrounds etc.. easier handled in PE4?
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Re: ProShowProducer vs. PE2 Slideshow

Postby Paul LS » Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:55 pm

Do you have the option for Chroma Key Transparency in Gold? Thought it would have been there.

PE4 can handle transparency... chroma key and alpha and of course PE4 is significantely cheaper. You can certainly do more with PE4 but it is not as automated as ProShow in producing a slideshow.
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Re: ProShowProducer vs. PE2 Slideshow

Postby flyrobynfly » Tue Oct 30, 2007 2:06 pm

Thanks again Paul, now I'm more confused as ever as to which software to invest in. I've got PE4 for 28 more days and I can download a trial of PSP as well and see which I prefer.

This is a great forum, quick replies and loads of help thanks!
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Re: ProShowProducer vs. PE2 Slideshow

Postby JRjr » Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:03 pm

The subject of Gold vs Producer vs PE vs PPro hasn't come up in a while, so I thought I'd share my opinion. It's not an easy decision as to which I think is best for me: ProShow or Adobe.

I've used all 4 of these programs, and I'm far from being an expert in any of them, and for all my time and money, I've little to show. But I have GREAT expectations! :-D . I am more proficient in the two Adobe products however, and I lean heavily toward PPro.

I've owned the Gold version long enough to have taken advantage of their Producer discount. I wanted Producer primarily because of its keyframing feature. I saw the demos and was impressed, but I've found the learning curve very steep.

There is a new Gold/Producer "how-to" manual which I've bought, and despite some bad press from the very useful ProShow Enthusiasts forum, have found the book to be more than adequate. I've learned quite a bit even if the book is somewhat hard to follow at times. I've run across a few errors, but very few, none which have caused me any real confusion.

BUT, despite the book, tutorials, and practice I find the Producer interface difficult, having to frequently go from one set of screens to another for differing functions. But it's keyframing that I am most disappointed in. It's extremely frustrating to use consistently, particularly between layers, and particularly as compared to the two Premiere products. In Producer, copying settings, though doable, is incomplete, especially when it comes to matching timings. Adding or removing time from a slide is very tricky, and it's easy to mess up hours of keyframing, without benefit of CANCEL. The undo has not always gotten me back to where I was, but if you save frequently, you can "revert" to a previous save, which is very useful.

As an exercise, I used Producer to create a slide with a background and two layers, with identical timings (moving, scaling, & rotating) but as mirror images to eachother. It took more than a couple of hours, in part because I am new, but in part because it's just not easy.

I managed to create the exact same show in PPro, and it took me about 30 minutes (I'm not really great at keyframing here either, but in comparison I felt like an expert). It's much easier, primarily because of the ability to copy and paste attributes. Matching timings is very easy.

My biggest concern with Producer however is the jerkiness (stuttering) of the final output. I tried various options: to DVD, to AVI, to exe, and all in normal, medium, and high quality. The results were uniformly bad, with excpetion of the DVD high quality mpg, which had minimal stuttering, but some nonetheless.

Exporting my show for PPro as an avi gave me a perfectly smooth show without even a trace of the stuttering I find so objectionable in Producer. I feel I must be doing something wrong, as not many others have made too much mention of this problem with their shows. (But it IS mentioned... I'm not the only one finding this problem).

So, my point here is really not to disparage Producer, nor to praise Premiere. It's simply to say that having tried hard with both, I find Premiere easier. Are there things I prefer in the other? Absolutely, but for me, the bottom line is ease of use, and most importantly, quality. In my case Premiere wins.

For those of you who prefer Gold/Producer, I applaud your decision, your tenacity, and your abilities. I would encourage anyone to stay with what works for them. But for people (such as myself) who are trying to decide which might be a better program, I'd say Premiere is, at least for me.

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Re: ProShowProducer vs. PE2 Slideshow

Postby Chuck Engels » Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:41 pm

A very nice review JR, thanks so much for taking the time.
I am sure that this will be of much help to people with questions about what software to use, great job :)
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Re: ProShowProducer vs. PE2 Slideshow

Postby JRjr » Fri Sep 12, 2008 11:05 am

A month ago I posted a brief review of my experiences with ProShow Producer, comparing it to Premier Elements and CS3. See my post above. Basicly my conclusion then was that because I couldn't produce a non-jerky show, I felt I was left with Premiere as my only choice. Now however, I want to do a followup.

Nothing I wrote regarding my preferences for the Adobe products has really changed, but I need to correct one main objection I listed for not liking ProShow. In an effort to create a smooth show, I tried a good many different output options, but I just couldn't seem to get something I found acceptable no matter what export method I tried. The output was always jerky.

I posted my objections on the ProShow Enthusiasts forum, and I received a good many helpful replies. It was suggested that the problems were often system-related, and that DVD output would be good. But I was advised to not export to DVD directly out of ProShow. Use the ISO feature first, then use a 3rd party to burn the DVD. I had not tried that, but I now have, and I'm happy to report that I got a very good show indeed.

I next exported two Producer shows as AVI instead, and brough those into Premiere. They came in well, one without any jerkiness at all and the other with only a few minor quality issues, some lack of smoothness and hesitation as I'd seen before. But it was much improved nonetheless.

When I tried importing an AVI from Premiere into Producer, it gave an "unsupported video or audio file" message. I tried any number of AVI options out of Premiere, but none worked. Finally I tried .MOV, and that imported well into Producer. Don't know why AVI failed, as it's supposedly supported. I'll have to check with their tech support.

Because I like using both Premiere and ProShow, I want to be able to go back and forth to some degree, mostly from Producer to Premiere, so the AVI issue back into Producer isn't that important to me.

In any case, I'm pleased to report that I'm getting much better results out of Producer than I had reported earlier. It's only fair that correct my previous post. Because other users have reported problems creating smooth shows out of ProShow, I hope maybe what I've learned with my tests will be helpful to others.

I'll followup as I learn more, but as I'll be out of town for a couple of weeks, it won't be for a while yet.

Jim
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Re: ProShowProducer vs. PE2 Slideshow

Postby VernonRobinson » Fri Sep 12, 2008 2:57 pm

Jim,
Glad to hear that you have been able to get good results. There are a few people here who use both products. I use it myself. ProShow saved me earlier this summer when I couldn't get PrEl to create captions without aborting. I was under a deadline and PrEl was not cooperating :???: So it pays to have more than one way to get something accomplished. Good luck.

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