Minimum REAL hardware for ProShow?

Elsewhere in rec.photo.digital, I have a thread called "Alternatives to
PowerPoint for a photo slideshow?" (sorry, I don't know how to cite the
link that would point a newsreader to it).

After evaluating several great suggestions, I thought I'd use ProShow to
put together a slide show consisting of jpg images and mp3 music files.
Actually, ProShow Gold was recommended, but I thought that ProShow
offered the functionality I sought, for half the price.

So I downloaded a trial version, expecting to love it and just dive in
and buy a permanent version (the trial version is supposed to be fully
functional, but forces a large watermark into all images in the shows it
creates).

So far, I've been disappointed. My biggest gripe is the audio quality.
I tried combining a mere five image files (all about 80k in size) with a
30-second mp3 clip. The sound was so wretched that not only the tune
couldn't be recognized, but the sound wouldn't even be identifiable as
music.

I then tried one slide, no transitions, and a different two-minute mp3
music file. At least I recognized the music, but it played WAY slower
than it should have, with a lot of stuttering.

This was on a restarted PC, no other applications going, playing the
..exe file produced by ProShow (exe files are the way I generally intend
to distribute shows I do).

My computer specs a

- 550 MHz processor
- Windows 2000, SP4
- 512 meg of memory
- numerous gigabytes of free hard disk space

This is over and above the minimum hardware requirements cited on
Photodex's web site.

On my desk sits the 11/8/2005 PC magazine, which can't rave enough about
ProShow Gold. The web is chock full of others, passionately singing its
praises. So I'd like to hear from other people who use ProShow or
ProShow Gold what THEIR computer specs are. Does it really only seem to
work if you have 2 meg of memory and a 2 gig processor?

And in my own case, what to do (this all started because I was
dissatisfied with how music/photo PowerPoint shows, synched perfectly on
my computer, play differently and not synched on other people's
computers)?

- Do I try ProShow Gold? For all the praise rendered unto it, I've
really not read anyone's comments on ProShow, which is what I'm trying.
I've refrained from doing this because (1) I have been trying lots of
other software lately and I'm getting sick of downloading, installing,
coming up short, uninstalling...., and (2) presumably ProShow Gold would
be even a bit harsher on my computer resources than ProShow is

- Do I suck it up and buy ProShow, and hope that the non-evaluation copy
makes great sound? I think I'd be foolish to do so.

- Is there another good program that can either convert a PowerPoint
show to a cross-platform exe or movie, or that will do a good mp3/jpg
slideshow, that will work with my computer, and that is inexpensive (if
not free, maybe $70 or less)?

blah

TommyC wrote:
Elsewhere in rec.photo.digital, I have a thread called "Alternatives
to PowerPoint for a photo slideshow?" (sorry, I don't know how to
cite the link that would point a newsreader to it).

My computer specs a

- 550 MHz processor
- Windows 2000, SP4
- 512 meg of memory
- numerous gigabytes of free hard disk space

This is over and above the minimum hardware requirements cited on
Photodex's web site.

On my desk sits the 11/8/2005 PC magazine, which can't rave enough
about ProShow Gold. The web is chock full of others, passionately
singing its praises. So I'd like to hear from other people who use
ProShow or ProShow Gold what THEIR computer specs are. Does it
really only seem to work if you have 2 meg of memory and a 2 gig
processor?

Proshow is very video-card-intensive. You don't mention your video card,
which suggests it's like the wimpy little thing that came with a 4-5 year
old system(?).
If your computer struggles to keep up with video, it can effect other things
(like sound).
I get extremely high quality audio in my use of ProShow Gold, and now in
ProShow Producer.
You should never assume full, smooth operation of any program when you're at
or near the minimum requirements. "Minimum" means you'll be able to run the
program...with MINIMUM sized images, music, etc...as is true with all
program spec listings. For example: Photoshop will "run" on wimpy
systems...but that doesn't mean it won't slow to a crawl if you throw a
200MB image file at it.

If you're running a 550MHz machine, it's time to upgrade--unless you don't
plan to do much with current technology/processor-intensive programs.

Anyone wanting to create intensive video output should assume they need a
fast machine.

The other factor... SOME people use ProShow with TINY imge files...and NO
music (screensavers, e-mail slide-shows of tiny size, etc.)

DVD production means you need power.



And in my own case, what to do (this all started because I was
dissatisfied with how music/photo PowerPoint shows, synched perfectly
on my computer, play differently and not synched on other people's
computers)?

- Do I try ProShow Gold? For all the praise rendered unto it, I've
really not read anyone's comments on ProShow, which is what I'm
trying.

The only functionality added with the Gold version is DVD video rendering.

I've refrained from doing this because (1) I have been trying
lots of other software lately and I'm getting sick of downloading,
installing, coming up short, uninstalling...., and (2) presumably
ProShow Gold would be even a bit harsher on my computer resources
than ProShow is

- Do I suck it up and buy ProShow, and hope that the non-evaluation
copy makes great sound? I think I'd be foolish to do so.

No. Suck it up and upgrade your system...or...get used to new programs
struggling.

"Mark²" wrote:

TommyC wrote:
Elsewhere in rec.photo.digital, I have a thread called "Alternatives
to PowerPoint for a photo slideshow?" (sorry, I don't know how to
cite the link that would point a newsreader to it).

My computer specs a

- 550 MHz processor
- Windows 2000, SP4
- 512 meg of memory
- numerous gigabytes of free hard disk space

This is over and above the minimum hardware requirements cited on
Photodex's web site.

On my desk sits the 11/8/2005 PC magazine, which can't rave enough
about ProShow Gold. The web is chock full of others, passionately
singing its praises. So I'd like to hear from other people who use
ProShow or ProShow Gold what THEIR computer specs are. Does it
really only seem to work if you have 2 meg of memory and a 2 gig
processor?

Proshow is very video-card-intensive. You don't mention your video card,
which suggests it's like the wimpy little thing that came with a 4-5 year
old system(?).
If your computer struggles to keep up with video, it can effect other things
(like sound).
I get extremely high quality audio in my use of ProShow Gold, and now in
ProShow Producer.
You should never assume full, smooth operation of any program when you're at
or near the minimum requirements. "Minimum" means you'll be able to run the
program...with MINIMUM sized images, music, etc...as is true with all
program spec listings. For example: Photoshop will "run" on wimpy
systems...but that doesn't mean it won't slow to a crawl if you throw a
200MB image file at it.

If you're running a 550MHz machine, it's time to upgrade--unless you don't
plan to do much with current technology/processor-intensive programs.

Anyone wanting to create intensive video output should assume they need a
fast machine.

The other factor... SOME people use ProShow with TINY imge files...and NO
music (screensavers, e-mail slide-shows of tiny size, etc.)

DVD production means you need power.


And in my own case, what to do (this all started because I was
dissatisfied with how music/photo PowerPoint shows, synched perfectly
on my computer, play differently and not synched on other people's
computers)?

- Do I try ProShow Gold? For all the praise rendered unto it, I've
really not read anyone's comments on ProShow, which is what I'm
trying.

The only functionality added with the Gold version is DVD video rendering.

I've refrained from doing this because (1) I have been trying
lots of other software lately and I'm getting sick of downloading,
installing, coming up short, uninstalling...., and (2) presumably
ProShow Gold would be even a bit harsher on my computer resources
than ProShow is

- Do I suck it up and buy ProShow, and hope that the non-evaluation
copy makes great sound? I think I'd be foolish to do so.

No. Suck it up and upgrade your system...or...get used to new programs
struggling.

I think Mark may have pinpointed your basic problem when he mentioned
your video card. I had a Matrox G200 8-megabyte card in my computer,
but it wasn't man enough to give smooth slide transitions, so I bought
an Asus ATI A9250 card with 128 megabytes on board, which cured the
problem, cost about $NZ 86, and probably about $US 40 or so.

I should think a 500MHz processor would handle it, and apart from the
'demo' band across the images the program is identical to the paid-up
version. When I bought it, they just sent me a key to type into the
demo version, which removed the band, otherwise it's the same program.

I have to say that I am running a 3.00 GHz Pentium 4 with a gig of ram,
but I'm sure that is vast overkill for ProShow, but it's quick! The
computer was specced for Photoshop and large image files.

If you would like, I can email you an exe file of a short but poignant
segment of a show I put together for my in-laws' 60th wedding
anniversary, 11 slides, showing time 2 min 18 secs, about 5 megabytes,
to give some idea of what ProShow will do. This will test whether your
computer and vid card is up to the job. Up to you.

email me at cjdonoghue (at) xtra (dot) co (dot) nz

Colin D.

In article ,
Colin D wrote:

"Mark²" wrote:

[snip]

Proshow is very video-card-intensive. You don't mention your video card,
which suggests it's like the wimpy little thing that came with a 4-5 year
old system(?).

Touche. It's the original video card, early 2000 vintage.


I think Mark may have pinpointed your basic problem when he mentioned
your video card. I had a Matrox G200 8-megabyte card in my computer,
but it wasn't man enough to give smooth slide transitions, so I bought
an Asus ATI A9250 card with 128 megabytes on board, which cured the
problem, cost about $NZ 86, and probably about $US 40 or so.

I should think a 500MHz processor would handle it, and apart from the
'demo' band across the images the program is identical to the paid-up
version. When I bought it, they just sent me a key to type into the
demo version, which removed the band, otherwise it's the same program.

I have to say that I am running a 3.00 GHz Pentium 4 with a gig of ram,
but I'm sure that is vast overkill for ProShow, but it's quick! The
computer was specced for Photoshop and large image files.

If you would like, I can email you an exe file of a short but poignant
segment of a show I put together for my in-laws' 60th wedding
anniversary, 11 slides, showing time 2 min 18 secs, about 5 megabytes,
to give some idea of what ProShow will do. This will test whether your
computer and vid card is up to the job. Up to you.

email me at cjdonoghue (at) xtra (dot) co (dot) nz

Colin D.

As I said above, I'm sure it's my creaky video card. I'll probably
suffer with what I've got, near-term, then just get a more
state-of-the-art computer.

Colin, thanks for the great suggestions and significant patience.

TommyC wrote:

In article ,
Colin D wrote:


"Mark²" wrote:

[snip]

Proshow is very video-card-intensive. You don't mention your video card,
which suggests it's like the wimpy little thing that came with a 4-5 year
old system(?).


Touche. It's the original video card, early 2000 vintage.


I think Mark may have pinpointed your basic problem when he mentioned
your video card. I had a Matrox G200 8-megabyte card in my computer,
but it wasn't man enough to give smooth slide transitions, so I bought
an Asus ATI A9250 card with 128 megabytes on board, which cured the
problem, cost about $NZ 86, and probably about $US 40 or so.

I should think a 500MHz processor would handle it, and apart from the
'demo' band across the images the program is identical to the paid-up
version. When I bought it, they just sent me a key to type into the
demo version, which removed the band, otherwise it's the same program.

I have to say that I am running a 3.00 GHz Pentium 4 with a gig of ram,
but I'm sure that is vast overkill for ProShow, but it's quick! The
computer was specced for Photoshop and large image files.

If you would like, I can email you an exe file of a short but poignant
segment of a show I put together for my in-laws' 60th wedding
anniversary, 11 slides, showing time 2 min 18 secs, about 5 megabytes,
to give some idea of what ProShow will do. This will test whether your
computer and vid card is up to the job. Up to you.

email me at cjdonoghue (at) xtra (dot) co (dot) nz

Colin D.


As I said above, I'm sure it's my creaky video card. I'll probably
suffer with what I've got, near-term, then just get a more
state-of-the-art computer.

Colin, thanks for the great suggestions and significant patience.

Hi...

If you're going to be heavily into this, what you might consider is
picking up a used AGP card.

I got a 32 meg ATI all in wonder card for 40 (canadian) dollars.
It's incredibly fast! And does everything... watch and record TV,
transcribes old VHS tapes to DVD's for archiving, copies DVD or TV
to VHS... it goes on.

If you do look around for one, make sure that you get both of the cable
sets with it. Both are required, seem to somehow get lost, and are
really costly to buy separately from ATI.

Take care.

Ken