Only 1st slide shows on DVD

[Kathbc Profile Private message]

The DVD I burned only shows the 1st slide. Seems to be stuck mid way thru the transition and just keeps repeating.

I did see all the slides uploading so not sure what I may have done wrong here.

Would the re-writable DVD be the problem? Is it better to use a writable?

Also uploaded to Youtube and found the quality sub par. Show is photos of a recent vacation so I'm looking for good quality to share with friends. Ideas?

Thanks, K

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Not sure what you are running into there. As far as writable vs re-writable, there is no difference in the data written to the DVD. That said, some players can handle re-writable better than others (or different brands). I have seen similar things before with cheap disks - either it freezes, jumps or pixelates (blocky) badly. That isn't necessarily your problem, but it is a consideration. One thing you can do to determine if it is a disk issue or rendering issue is to create an iso file instead of burning direct (from the burning menu, where you select your burner, one option is to create an ISO file which is simply an image of the disk). Then, the free VLC media player can play that iso file on your system just like it was a DVD. If you still see the issue, it was a rendering problem, but if it plays fine, then it is more likely a disk issue. You can also try the disk you created in different players - if they all act exactly the same, it is probably a rendering issue, but if the different players handle it different (some better than others) or if it does not repeat exactly the same each time, then it is probably a disk issue and the player is having trouble reading the data. There are a couple of other options, but that should give you some ideas.

As far as the image quality goes, that is another "funny" area - I still burn SD disks (have not gone BD yet) and if I put those in my Blue Ray player that is connected to the big screen TV with an HDMI cable (Hi Def), the images actually look very nice on the 60" TV. Somewhere between the data read off the disk and what is displayed on the TV in HD, upsampling happens where the standard def data is converted to high-def on the TV. Different TV's and different players do it differently with clear differences in the results. Some look very good, while others look like you are looking through cheesecloth or something at the image.

Well, past my bed time - a few things to investigate anyway

mikey

[Kathbc Profile Private message]

Thanks Mikey, I'll try some of your suggestions and let you know.

SD & BD discs went way over my head!! lol

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

SD = Standard Definition (what most folks are used to)
BD = Blue Ray disks - high definition, significantly more expensive and require BD player and burner to use.

mikey

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Also uploaded to Youtube and found the quality sub par. Show is photos of a recent vacation so I'm looking for good quality to share with friends. Ideas?

Go for the very highest quality, which will be 1080p (best). If you're still getting poor quality, then something else must be going on.

My own method is to render at top quality to my computer, which creates an AVI file. From there, I go to my YouTube account and upload from there. This method works consistently, and it also honors my settings such as Public/Unlisted/Private on YouTube, something that ProShow doesn't do.

Barbara

[Kathbc Profile Private message]

Thanks Barbara!

Solved the problem of the 1st slide repeating by simply re-rendering however again the quality of the photos on the DVD were no where near what they are on PC in ProShow. Have to wrap my brain around the iso & lmgburn thing so will stick with trying to get a decent quality show up on youtube for now using your method.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

By the way, I do the initial rendering to AVI using the YouTube thingabob. As long as you choose top quality, when you tell it to save the file to the computer, it'll all be good.

Barbara

[Kathbc Profile Private message]

Now my rendering won't work or freezes a few minutes in!!!! arrrrgh!! Was rendering fine earlier then just froze. Uninstalled my antivirus software but still no luck.

Should I ever get this rendered and off the ground can I expect the photo quality to be better than what it is in the create show mode as the quality is much better in picasa?

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Try this: Create a new folder, and then run the collect show files, collecting to that new folder. If that doesn't work, then go into the program folder and delete proshow.phd and proshow.cfg. Those files can get corrupted. The moment you re-open ProShow, they'll be created anew. If neither of those things work, then you can do what I resorted to recently, which was to totally uninstall ProShow and then install it fresh. Last possibility is that maybe one of the slides is corrupted, which can often be a bear to locate.

Barbara

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Troubleshooting rendering issues can be a bother however, a couple of things to help determine where the problem is. Usually, the antivirus is not the issue - that can cause problems when installing software, but usually not once it is installed. If the rendering stops at the same spot each time, then suspect a corrupted source file in your show - most often an mp3 audio file seems to be it. I have also seen corrupted jpg image files, but that does not seem to happen often. If the crash seems to be at random, that is harder to find although the first thing to suspect is a heat issue (rendering causes much higher than normal cpu usage). This is not just with proshow - people often run into this with other video editors etc when rendering. You may also be running into an issue with limited resources such as RAM or possibly disk space, but those are just a couple of possibilities - it just comes down to trying to find what combination of factors seems to effect what is happening.

As far as my comment about creating an ISO file earlier goes, an ISO file is simply an image of exactly what would have been burned to a DVD. The chief advantage of going to an ISO file is it breaks the rendering/burning process into two parts: the rendering and then the burning - this allows you to see if the rendering or the burning is causing the problem - the trick to troubleshooting is breaking the problem into small enough chunks to allow you to find out just what part of the process is causing the problem. (an added benefit of the going to an ISO file is that once you have the ISO, you can use a utility such as the free Imgburn to create as many identical DVD's as you want from that ISO file without having to go through the rendering again).

mikey

[Kathbc Profile Private message]

Thanks for your detailed responses, it helps to have things spelled out in layman's terms.

I'm going to step away from the project for a bit as it's getting too frustrating.

I'm working on a laptop and read in one of the threads that PSG customer service advised this person that PSG doesn't work so well on laptops!

Will I lose my show if I uninstall and install?

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

...I'm working on a laptop and read in one of the threads that PSG customer service advised this person that PSG doesn't work so well on laptops!

Will I lose my show if I uninstall and install?

I'm sure it all depends on the laptop. It needs lots of memory, speed, and a separate, dedicated graphics card.

As for losing the show, no you won't. When the software is uninstalled, it leaves all shows intact. When it comes to slide styles, however, I'm not sure where those bought from Photodex are stored. Maybe someone else can answer that question.

Barbara

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Laptops, like portable disk drives, at the expense of making them "slim and sexy" tend to be somewhat marginal on cooling, so heat may be an issue here. When rendering, make sure the laptop has plenty of free air around it (not sitting on your lap, bed or whatever). Some laptops also allow you to change the clock speed on the processor (and there are some utilities out there you can get). Try running it at a slower clock speed - rendering will take longer, but it will not be generating as much heat. When I built my desktop up, I threw the original heatsink that came with the processor away and installed an extra large one. So far, it seems to have paid off. Unfortunately, with laptops, there is no way to increase the heatsink size, the best you can do is make sure the ambient air is cool and that there is no airflow restrictions around the cooling on the laptop (and it is not clogged with dust).

mikey

[Kathbc Profile Private message]

Don't believe I have a separate graphics card and there's 28.6 GB remaining on my hard drive which may not be enough.

Am starting to think the whole idea of fancy slideshows is out of the realm of my computer.

Wouldn't have a clue how to slow the clock down.

Is it possible to somehow send the show on my hard drive to a friend who has PSG so I can render, upload to youtube & burn a DVD on his computer?

Thanks!

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

It does sound as if your laptop may not be up to the task. When we start getting ambitious with our shows, it's probably time to also start thinking ambitiously about building a desktop computer. That's fine for the future, of course, but it sure doesn't solve the problem you're having right now, does it?

I'm sure that, if you collect all files to a folder and then pass the folder on to your friend, he should be able to render and burn the show for you. It sounds like a super solution.

Barbara