Product comparison

[ecps]

I notice that there is quite a bit of hype around at the moment about the release of an updated slideshow creation program by one of P2E's competitors. I am sure that all sorts of people will compare the virtues of the different programs - and they will all have their own opinions and preferences. There is, however, one difference that is a matter of fact rather than of opinion, and I do not think that it should be overlooked.

When each new version of P2E is released we are invited to upgrade and benefit from the extra features - and it does not cost us anything. Keeping up-to-date with one of P2Es competitors involves either purchasing the product again, or paying to upgrade.

In my opinion P2E is the best slideshow creation program around. As a matter of fact, it is the best value.

Eddie

[johndigi]

I second that! I originally purchased one of the competition's products (Pro Show) because I liked seeing the slides on the timeline. But then I sent a couple of shows to some friends and 2 of them were unable to view them. The response from the vendor was that the PCs did not have the required software. So when I looked at PTE again, discovered the forum, the free add-ons from forum members, the free upgrades, the incredible power of the program, the fantastic support, the ever-improving quality, etc., I uninstalled Pro Show, purchased PTE, and have not looked back!

John L

[jinjagoliath]

I third that!

I too have tried other products such as Medi@show, but have genuinely found that the responsiveness of the team from Wnsoft is beyond compare. I feel listened to, and any gripes (of which there are few! ) are resolved very quickly.

Yes, the continuing upgrades are fantastic, but the community of people prepared to give their own time free to people who are learning (such as my self) is truly awesome.

Another software house would probably overlook that most important asset we can all share.

Hats off

J G

[Azmi]

The program ecps was referring to is Proshow no doubt . Based on their latest release , the developer obviously had came out with a lot of new features which I feel Igor should take a look. The Pan and Zoom Capability ( "Ken Burns" Effect) is the latest feature besides the DVD creation function. Also video and audio compression options have been added to control the size of the final output depending on the users requirements.

But with all due respect to PROSHOW, PTE too has features which other slideshow programs do not have or match up to the standards set by PTE i.e. interactive buttons, run external programs, screen size control of images, start show from desktop etc besides not forgetting one of the best fade transistion available in the market today.

Having said that, in a globalised IT environment where digital photography and images are the norm of the day, new and better features are being churned out by slideshow developers around the globe to compete with one another and maybe for this reason members of this forum should continue to give practical suggestions and improvements to Igor and his team so that PTE could continue to be the top choice for slideshow creation.

Again , some forum members may not support the idea of product comparison due to the fact that this forum is solely for discussing PTE issues but I personally believe to continually improve PTE and to ensure that it is not left out behind competiton, topics about the new and latest features the competition has offered can be discussed in a healthy manner (maybe without mentioning the competitor's brand).

Azmi

Faithful PTE User

[Adda]

I downloaded a trial of the new GoldShowPro.

Nice Ideas. The progromm could be a runner,

BUT

there are a lot of bugs.

I'am not able to create shows.

Also bug-report fails.

My opinion: it's not jet ready. It's only in the beta-test-phase.

But they purchase the beta test version.

Adda

[Guest guru]

"...topics about the new and latest features the competition has offered can be discussed in a healthy manner" (Azmi)

I totally agree, Azmi. These discussions are suitable and useful to PTE. As forum moderator I oughtn't say this... but give a look also to Slide Show To Go, and tell us your opinion. I've seen few good shows made with this software, and its interface seems very good.

[joel]

As a user of three of these products I will make a few comments. I was a user of Slide Show to Go. It is a very good program, however once I found out about PTE, it became my slide show program of choice. PTE has many more features, both programs are very user friendly, but the support of this forum and the outside utilities that are available make PTE a much better choice. Photodex's Pro Show Gold just came out with a new version. The last version 1.32 was a fantastic program, also very user friendly and very quick and intuitive to make multiple slide shows very quickly. The new version 2 which was in beta testing for a long time and was suppose to be ready to go, is a disaster as far as I'm concerned. It is very buggy and does not make a useable show that I would give to anybody, the image quality is very poor and the audio rendering is even worse. I uninstalled it and reinstalled V 1.32 which was very stable. As far as value for your money PTE wins. Pro Show Gold is now $69 and you only get upgrades for one year. If you can get your hands on V 1.32 you should give it a try. I haven't used any of these programs to make a DVD, the only time I needed to make a DVD I used Roxio and I got a very nice show.

Joel

[quickflicks]

guru

I took a look at this program and run a sample show provided on their site.

What a horror of a New York slide show. This is disgusting for any sample of any program.

Compare this with any show on Beeckbrooks' site and I am not speaking of the shows from the developers or experts but any and there you have it. Day and Night

[Azmi]

I would also like to reply my opinion on the other program that Guru mentioned i.e. Slide Show To Go. I have used it but finds that PTE is a bit better in terms of its fade transistion. The size control of images is also better in PTE.

There is also another program which is as good as PTE where fades are concerned i.e. Album Viewer & Generator at www.xydot.com. It has 4 distinguish transistion that is not available on other slideshow programs i.e. spot fade, zoom in and out fade, paint drop and flare. These combination of transistions makes a WOW! presentation. I would again suggest Igor look at this transistions as there are cinematic in nature and would make a slideshow stand out from the rest. It also has the ability to automate a 2, 3 or 4 picture layout on one slide but its screen size control function needs further improvement.

In my opinion there are only 4 slideshow programs out there in the market which is worth taking a look and comparing their capabilities and from this healthy comparison and discussion, suggest to Igor which of the best features from the other 3 programs could be integrated into PTE to make it the overall number ONE

1. Pictures To Exe 4.20

2. Album Viewer & Generator 2.2.3.0

3. ProShow Gold 2.0

4. SlideShow To Go 7.10

Azmi

[Merlin]

Hello,

Upgrades are nice.

But me?

I just love the product !!!

Merlin

[mcarthur]

Azmi,

I sort-of agree with you. I'd add two more for people to check out - memories on TV being the first. I don't particularly like it but some people do. The second, and one which I think for workflow and the so-called "Ken Burns effects" (around long before that of course) is much better than any other one I've tried, is GlobFX Composer (www.globfx.com). What I'd like to see is that PTE takes the best parts of GlobFX and continues developing into the best there is! Things I'd like added are:

• multiple slides on screen at once, in-program (not photoshop'ed beforehand). Like a multiple projector show where two or more slides can be on the screen; each slide has it's own location on the screen, transition (include separate fade in and fade out timings!), and most importantly, time on the screen. This would allow, say, one image on the top left, another slightly overlapping on the top right, another on the bottom right, another on the bottom left, then a gradual fade-out of the top right one while it is replaced etc. Now, I know I can set this all up in photoshop but it really is a pain - the slideshow program should let me do this - I want to work with images, not screens.
  
• I use almost no transitions other than fade in/out. PTE has the best fade in the business - bar none. Hearty congratulations to Igor! I would like the ability to do two more sort-of transitions: 1) very smooth resizing of an image, akin to zooming in and/or out. Mostly our images are much larger than will fit on the screen, and we have to resize them for 1024 or smaller. I'd like to be able to keep my 6MP images and show a very clear 1024x768 version of them, them be able to zoom in to 100% pixel level (at the "normal" 75dpi of monitors). The image wouldn't degrade since I'm still showing 100%. 2) panning of images. GlobFX does a good job of this letting you choose a start point and end point. Even better would be the ability to define a spline path for the centre of the image to travel along. The ability to have the start and end transitions happen before or during the path would be needed.
  

These are both available with GlobFX (try out the demo).

I must admit I also prefer the workflow - ie. timeline views - of proshow and globfx. However, I understand why PTE hasn't (yet?! I can hope) gone that way. I find I can get a show tuned in a tenth the time on GlobFX and proshow compared to PTE. Unfortunately, neither have a nice fades and other features (noted in other items in this thread) that PTE has. If both the above could be implemented within PTE, I'd be a very happy chap :-)

Thanks Igor and everyone,

Robert

[PeteC]

Some months ago I purchased ProShow v1.32 because I felt they had finally provided the quality (resolution) of output that P2E gives, and I felt the timeline approach was what I wanted. I have to say, having used it for some time, I was very impressed. The ease of adding and positioning captions, positioning images on the background, setting timings and transitions and other things were all excellent.

BUT, the flaw is that you have no control of progress (fwd, pause, back, go to next immediately, go to a specific slide number etc.) in the final output You could do it in Preview in v1.32, but the timing is fixed in the .exe output.

I was about to write to them asking if it could be added in the next version when the next version, 2.0, was released just last week. I eagerly downloaded and installed, but I was sorely disappointed. There are bugs and stability issues to the extent that I've had to uninstall it and go back to v1.32

But it raises the issue of the relative merits of ProShow vs P2E.

I must say, I made more progress in actually getting my shows the way I wanted them in double quick time than I ever did in P2E. The big problem I have in P2E is only having one view window. All my slides are numbered, so the file list means almost nothing when trying to put them in order. I really, really like having the time line thumbnail view along the bottom. It's so much easier to visualise the flow of the show, something I can't do in P2E.

The ease of positioning and previewing your captioning is another thing I like about ProShow, along with the graphic display of the transitions.

The slide numbering (Image \p of \P), the fine control over every aspect of image size, placement, brightness/contrast, etc etc. This is a very clever program.

BUT it doesn't matter a jot if it crashes or locks up or trashes your slide quality.

So what I'm saying is, P2E is good and simple to use, and the non-linear (button Go To Slide Number...) is THE killer feature for me, but gee, I'd like to see the things I've mentioned about ProShow added.

Pete