Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

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Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby firedog » Thu Jan 02, 2014 2:43 pm

I have had problems in Proshow Producer 5 with "program not responding" Happens all the time when doing a variety of things (not specific to any one action) - just clicking anywhere on screen, playing show etc. They said I didn't have enough RAM - I have 16 Gig ! So I bought Ver 6 but still have the same problems. Also if I hit play show on full screen, the show plays behind the Producer screen - I can see the line move at the bottom but the show is hidden behind the building screen. Works better when not using full screen but often still makes program quit responding,

Sorry I can't be more specific but it just happens when I click different things - not just a problem with the same thing that I am doing.

My computer is fairly new, good graphics card etc with Win 7 and huge hard drive - no other issues with computer

Any help would be appreciated

Thank you

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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby gpsmikey » Thu Jan 02, 2014 5:59 pm

You don't say which version/build you have of Producer - I do remember someone commenting on the play behind the main window thing, but I thought that had been fixed. You don't indicate which windows version you are running (win7/64?), however, producer is only a 32 bit app and I think is limited to being able to use 3 gigs of RAM. That said, for most of us, it is quite stable (not saying it is not crashing for you, just that for most of us it is pretty stable). That tends to point to something unique to your machine. There are some files that tend to crash Producer - corrupted MP3 and corrupted GIF files being at the top of the list. Can you make a simple show with say 20 images ? Does that crash it just as much ? Random crashes can be really tough to track down. Start by looking in the Windows event logs - see if you find anything in there that looks suspicious. Oh, in re-reading, I see you did say Win7 - I assume 64 bit if you have 16 gig of ram? You might also want to re-download (or download if you have not done it) the latest version which is 6.0.3397 and re-install it to see if that fixes any issues. The trick to troubleshooting something like this is to work with it trying different things until you find something that seems to affect what is happening then see if you can track it from there. I believe you can also contact Photodex support and let them remote into your machine to see if they can track it down (I have not done that, but I have seen others say they have had that done).

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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby debngar » Thu Jan 02, 2014 6:36 pm

One thing I find helpful is to frequently hit the save button. I don't have too much problem with the program hanging when I do that. If the program starts noticeably bogging down, I hit save again, exit the program, then reopen it to continue editing. This seems to refresh the memory for me. There is no point to continue editing once it starts slowing down as it tends to hang at that point and you could lose some of your work if it crashes.

I have 12 Gb Ram. By the way, it may seem silly for Mikey to ask whether your machine is running the 64-bit version. But it's not. Stuff happens. When I bought my latest computer a few years back and started the set up process, which takes a while, I happened to notice that it said 32-bit. Well, I PAID for a 64-bit machine. Turned out that the manufacturer mistakenly installed the 32-bit version on the series of 64-bit machines it sent to the store where I purchased my computer. The store had to wait until the company shipped the proper 64-bit version and reinstall that to all the remaining computers they had in stock. Mine got fixed in the process. It was quite a mixup and embarassment to the store and the manufacturer. But the store made it right. It took me about 2 weeks to get the new computer up and running. What a test in patience. :shock:
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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby nancyrbogen » Thu Jan 02, 2014 7:15 pm

For what it's worth, I have the latest 5 on Win 7, and I don't have the problem you describe. From time to time, I do get a crash, usually when I inadvertently click on the uppermost left part of a text screen. But honestly, even tho I cuss like crazy, the virtues of Producer far outweigh these "vices." I save multiple copies of a show I'm working on, these on a fixed hard drive I call Donovan's Brain and a number of different portable hard drives--so I can sleep though the night.

I've got 16 videos and 2 photo collections up on vimeo, all made with Producer, down to the avi on desktop that I uploaded. Have a look-listen to one.

I haven't tried 6 yet, but will on a new laptop (with win 7) that I'm getting next week.

Be of good cheer for the New Year! Think positive.

Ciao,
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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby firedog » Thu Jan 02, 2014 7:52 pm

Thanks all for getting back to me. I have ver 6.0.3392. Just (upgraded) downloaded it about a week ago. When I talked to Photodex a while back they said I didn't have enough RAM and at the time I had 4 (maybe 6) Gig of Ram, that's why I upgraded my machine to get the 16 Gig of RAM. Yes I am operating 64 Bit. Again, it's frustrating because it's not the same thing each time - I can click on the screen any where and it stops responding but other times it works fine. My show is over 500 slides (photos), NO sound or music, a few very short videos with no sound and a fair amount of movement (like zoom in on a photo) Show time is 1 hr. 12 minutes. The size of my .psh file is 4.81 MB (5,053,104 bytes) Just customer photos. It does seem to help, as was mentioned to save, shutdown and reopen the program or even restart my computer. BTW when I open the show, it opens fast with no problems

Thanks again for your comments.

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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby debngar » Thu Jan 02, 2014 8:15 pm

Try breaking up your show into smaller segments to play one after the other. It's a rare audience that will stay awake for a show that long.
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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby gpsmikey » Thu Jan 02, 2014 10:19 pm

I would be suspicious of a driver issue. They tend to cause all sorts of strange things - a while back (not sure the current status), for Vegas Pro users there was the great debate as to just which Nvidia driver was the least bad. I had an issue years back with a sound card driver where in the game Myst, if you went down the stairs and clicked the button (like you were supposed to), the speakers made the appropriate click. Next thing you did was push the reset button because the sound card driver locked it up completely. I would suggest loading the latest version if you are within your 1 year.

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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby BarbaraC » Sat Jan 04, 2014 4:46 am

firedog wrote:...My show is over 500 slides (photos), NO sound or music, a few very short videos with no sound and a fair amount of movement (like zoom in on a photo) Show time is 1 hr. 12 minutes. The size of my .psh file is 4.81 MB (5,053,104 bytes)

The real size is more likely to be seen in the .pxc file, which is the show's cache. For instance, I'm just beginning a show and thus there are very few slides in it, but even though the .psh file is 255 KB, the cache file is over 12 MB. Even if the photos are no more than a tiny 50 KB each, multiplying that by 500 says your show is fairly heavy. Add in video, even if it's small, and the weight increases.

Speaking of the .pxc file, have you deleted it to see if things start working better?

Debbie's mention of the length is something you might want to seriously consider. The attention span of an audience is relatively short, generally under 10 minutes. Sometimes I think the attention span of the computer itself is even shorter, perhaps under 3 minutes. :evil:

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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby debngar » Sat Jan 04, 2014 6:27 am

Barbara's right, it's the pxc file that reveals the real size of your show. You mention it having some video clips. Short or not, they're huge in size compared to still images and having even one can increase the size of a show quite a bit. My most recent show for instance is almost 6 minutes long, has about 100 images, two short video clips and is 64 MB in size. I don't re-size my jpgs when exporting them from RAW format after post processing and my camera takes 21 Mp images in size.

Also there are some transitions that utilize short video clips that add to the size of a show as well if they're chosen to be used in a show.

You don't say what the show is for exactly. If it's a demo, then choose the best ones, remove the rest and set the show to loop. Keeping it short will more likely keep your audience's attention. In addition, they may more likely come back to watch it more than once. No one will likely come back to sit through a 1 hr 12 minute show to view 3 or 4 pictures they wanted to see again. A segmented show gives the viewer the option to watch it in pieces. If it was a cinematic movie with a story, then the length wouldn't be so much an issue.
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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby RoseW » Thu Feb 06, 2014 11:18 am

Barbara C Wrote: 'The attention span of an audience is relatively short, generally under 10 minutes.'

Beginning last year local horticultural clubs requested the Proshow slideshows I have put together to be part of their monthly meeting.
I noted in short order that if the 'show' was after a club dinner that 15 minutes was ideal.
But if its a monthly meeting where the members gather for a speaker/presentation as well as their usual business routine; then a 25 minute viewing fits. I have found that the background music is a feature that assists.
Clubs will request a specific content topic which can be a challenge but its a guideline for selecting the group of images.

Just purchased V6 at the latest update so dived into a 25 minute production; topic of my own choice. I decided on a theme of Sidelines i.e. roadside views and then get settings related to horticulture (flowers, garden decor etc) This theme was broken up into several subtopics with a simple title page AND a change of music per topic.
I broke the rule of 'no silence' and allowed the music to fade out on the title page and a little silence before the next music started. A drastic change of music tempo also was added. There is one section for 'Rocks in the Garden' a decor feature and I dug up an old 70's piece 'I am a Rock'....There likely will be members that even recognize the tune <LOL!>

The music timeline usage is much improved compared to my past experience with Proshow Gold.
I was avoiding Producer because I thought the keyframe factor would be a stressful exercise. It isn't. But I'm glad I had a year's experience with the Gold version because I experimented with slide effects and editing the styles etc and began to realize I likely could accomplish easier in the Producer version. Its not so obvious WHAT to edit in some of the Producer styles though <LOL!>
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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby BarbaraC » Thu Feb 06, 2014 11:55 am

RoseW wrote:I broke the rule of 'no silence'

There's no such rule! :D

The music timeline usage is much improved compared to my past experience with Proshow Gold.

Starting with Gold has very real advantages. We don't end up feeling immediately overwhelmed with mysterious possibilities, and so we can plunge in and learn how to do some fairly complicated things. By the time we switch over to Producer, we probably know how to do a lot of things already, and the learning curve isn't nearly so steep. Instead of feeling thwarted at every turn, it feels like a world has opened up for us. You did it the best way.
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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby RoseW » Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:49 pm

Barbara wrote:
(re RoseW wrote:I broke the rule of 'no silence')

There's no such rule! :D

Its a radio announcer or program host thing. For radio programming there is a rule 'NO lengthy SILENCE'....
Then I read somewhere similar words when fitting background music that avoiding silence when inserting several pieces.
I did a LOT of blending using Audicity this past year <grin> which meant 'learning as I went along'.
I just never did get a handle on manipulating the music time line in Proshow Gold although I did 'get' the offset feature in hand.
First try in V6 Producer and those fading handles are a treat.

Now I'm trying to figure out how masks are used....I think this as well as graduated filter masking can be affected by what is already known from the photo edit software.
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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby BarbaraC » Fri Feb 07, 2014 5:26 am

Yes, radio can't abide silence, given that there's nothing but sound to let us know the radio is even turned on, but some of the most effective captioning I've seen in film and TV has been done with utter silence or with well-spaced sound effects.

Relax. Silence is part of sound. :D

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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby im42n8 » Fri Feb 07, 2014 1:31 pm

It's not a rule ... it's a guide. Much like the Rule of Thirds. Silence can be golden . . . it depends on the situation and/or how it's used.

SlideShows are not radio ... you have visuals ... sometimes the visual is moving, sometimes it's static. What's important is how you use your resources to tell your story. Sometimes, the picture is all that's needed. Sometimes you have no image at all and there is sound . . .

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Re: Very Unstable Pro 5 and 6

Postby BarbaraC » Fri Feb 07, 2014 2:12 pm

im42n8 wrote:Sometimes you have no image at all and there is sound

Or how about a dead silent black slide and then an image blasts onto the scene with a loud POP? Nothing like scaring the wits out of one's audience to wake them up. :shock: :lol:

Barbara
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