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ProShow vs PE7 vs iMovie?

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ProShow vs PE7 vs iMovie?

Postby jmarlowe » Wed Dec 03, 2008 10:07 am

I am about to embark on a time consuming slide/video montage project and I want to choose the software that will make my life easiest and be sure that the final output will look and sound great on a pair of largescreen plasma monitors at a bat mitzvah reception. I am expert in Photoshop but haven't played much with Premiere Elements. I also have access to a Mac with iMovie and Final Cut Express, which I have some experience with. I am more of a PC person. I have the choice of buying PE7 or ProShow to produce the show on the PC, or use iMovie and FCE on the Mac. Any opinions about ease of use, learning curve and quality of final output? Thanks.
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Re: ProShow vs PE7 vs iMovie?

Postby Chuck Engels » Wed Dec 03, 2008 10:47 am

First, Welcome to Muvipix :meet:

You mention slide/video, we would need to know what video you intend to use in your project and what the source would be.
If it was a straight slide show I would definitely recommend ProShow, but if you are adding video the other two options most likely will be recommended instead.

Now, depending on the video format and source we could recommend either product.
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Re: ProShow vs PE7 vs iMovie?

Postby jmarlowe » Wed Dec 03, 2008 11:16 am

Thanks for the quick reply. The source files will be primarily stills (JPGs) but I plan to include a number of short video clips that are primarily AVI files. The JPGs are already on my PC but the video files have to be captured from old DV tapes. I will probably create some still photo montages in Photoshop because I am most comfortable that way, but it would be nice if the software had some automation or templates combing multiple shots or video on a background layer. Although FCE gives amazing results in this regards, it is fairly time consuming.
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Re: ProShow vs PE7 vs iMovie?

Postby Steve Grisetti » Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:11 pm

As Chuck says, so much depends on so much.

Final Cut Express will do amazing things -- but may require a greater skill level. iMovie does amazing things with little effort -- but you get very little control, since the program is really for rank amateurs.

Premiere Elements can match Final Cut Express on many levels, but not without some compromises and a few challenges.

I can't really tell from your postings if you're eager to dig deep and do amazing things or if you just want to throw it all into a blender and have it all look great automatically. But, clearly, Final Cut and Premiere Elements are for people who like putting hours and hours and even days and weeks into creating a masterpiece. People like me (and Chuck) love that kind of artistic challenge. Some people want the program to do all the magic.

Which do you think you are?
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Re: ProShow vs PE7 vs iMovie?

Postby Chuck Engels » Wed Dec 03, 2008 1:16 pm

And Premiere Elements has been going down the 'More Automation' road in the last versions.
The addition of movie themes is quite good for this kind of stuff, check out Steve's articles on version 4 and 7.

You can take a look at the contest videos in the gallery to get an idea of what can be done with Premiere Elements.
Taking a look at the free video tutorials might help you also.

One thing I can tell you, FCE, iMovie or ProShow don't have the kind of support you can get with Premiere Elements and Muvipix :)
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Re: ProShow vs PE7 vs iMovie?

Postby Peru » Wed Dec 03, 2008 2:49 pm

Chuck Engels wrote:One thing I can tell you, FCE, iMovie or ProShow don't have the kind of support you can get with Premiere Elements and Muvipix :)


That's for sure! :TU:
I've learned a lot from Muvipix and its members.

Be prepared for a steep learning curve if you intend to do high quality, creative work.
Once you understand keyframing, especially, you will see how powerful Premiere Elements really is.

I've tried a few different slide show applications and have come to the conclusion that if you make an effort to really understand how Premiere Elements works (especially since you are using Photoshop Elements and DV tapes) that you can create almost any type of project you wish. Some folks also use some of the available plug-ins to achieve different results.

I also recommend Steve's latest book (see the preview in the "free" section).
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Re: ProShow vs PE7 vs iMovie?

Postby VernonRobinson » Thu Dec 04, 2008 5:58 am

jmarlowe wrote:I am about to embark on a time consuming slide/video montage project and I want to choose the software that will make my life easiest and be sure that the final output will look and sound great on a pair of largescreen plasma monitors at a bat mitzvah reception. I am expert in Photoshop but haven't played much with Premiere Elements. I also have access to a Mac with iMovie and Final Cut Express, which I have some experience with. I am more of a PC person. I have the choice of buying PE7 or ProShow to produce the show on the PC, or use iMovie and FCE on the Mac. Any opinions about ease of use, learning curve and quality of final output? Thanks.


I do not have a Mac, so I can not comment on iMovie. But I do use ProShow Producer and PE7. Basically, if you have tons of video, you will need to use PrEl. The ProShow software is wonderful when it comes to slide show creation. But their handling of AVI is weak at best. While PrEl can do all of the tricks in ProShow, it takes considerably more work in most cases.

So what I find myself doing, is creating the bulk of the slide show in ProShow, then exporting the AVI to use PrEl. This allows me to take advantage of each tools strength. If what you are doing is 90% slide show and 10% video, I would be recommend ProShow, but be ready to face some frustration with the non-existent editing capabilities that are second nature in PrEl.

HTH,
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Re: ProShow vs PE7 vs iMovie?

Postby jmarlowe » Tue Dec 09, 2008 8:22 pm

Thank you Vernon. My project is probably 80/20 photo/video so that feedback about ProShow is really helpful. I think I will download the trial version and make a sample slideshow to see whether it is worth it to use.
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