ProShow File FAQ & Troubleshooting How To

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ProShow File FAQ & Troubleshooting How To

Postby DickK » Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:30 pm

A few notes about the various files ProShow will create and common questions asked here.
If anyone has additions or corrections, don't hesitate to chime in!
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What are these ProShow files and which of them can I delete?
I have a show that won’t open, what do I do?
I have problems running ProShow, what can I do?


These three questions actually have closely related answers, so they’re all addressed here.

What are these ProShow files and which of them can I delete?
There are two groups of files that are important—files associated with your show (here called “showname”) and files that are associated with the various outputs from your show (these will appear where you told ProShow to put them):

showname.PSH
That’s your show. Don’t delete it unless you’re really sure of what you’re doing.

showname.BAK
showname.Bnn
(nn = 2 digit number)
These are backup files for your show. You can delete them, but it’s a much better idea to keep them around just in case.

showname.PXC
That’s a cache of show resources. Safe to delete, will be recreated as needed.

file folder: showname_psdata
Can be large. This is a file folder with temporary files created while rendering a video output. Safe to delete; will be created again if you render the video again.

showname.ISO
Big file. This is a file containing the DVD “image” of your show. Keep it if you want to make more DVDs without rendering again but otherwise it’s safe to delete.

showname.EXE
showname.AVI
(etc)
Like the ISO, these are outputs from ProShow—each type has a corresponding file type. Safe to delete if you don’t need it--but be sure you won't want it.

Note: the key files are the PSH file and the backups. If you open one of these in Notepad, you’ll see that they’re just text files—they’re instructions to ProShow on where to find the show content and what to do with the content. This is where all of those hours of work went: with one of these, you’ve got a slide show ProShow can load, edit, produce output, without one of these, you don’t.

I have problems running ProShow, what can I do?
Occasionally you may have an issue where ProShow won’t run at all or crashes when attempting to load a show (if the issue is only with one show, skip down to the next question). Many issues that have shown up when running ProShow can be easily fixed with this process provided by PhotoDex:

With the program closed, delete the following files that manage your saved settings and stored thumbnails. It's possible that something inside these files may be causing an issue. Click on Start->Search- >For Files and Folders... then click on 'All files and folders' and in the top box that says 'All or part of the file-name' type in: "CPIC.OPT" and click 'Search.' The search results should display a file that is located in the C:\Program Files folders. Click on this file and delete it. Now search for a file called 'DEF.PHD' and delete this file as well. The next time you open ProShow it will recreate these two files automatically.

Experience has shown that it often better to just delete DEF.PHD first and running the program to see if that takes care of the issue. That will leave any interface customizations and option picks intact. But if removing DEF.PHD doesn't fix the issue then delete CPIC.OPT also. Deleting one or both those files will fix many issues, but if ProShow still won’t run after doing that, then the best approach is to deinstall the software and reinstall it.

---------------
UPDATE for Version 4:
---------------
In both PSP and PSG version 4 the files have been renamed but the answer is still that you delete them to fix many issues. The new names are: proshow.cfg and proshow.phd.

I have a show that won’t open, what do I do?
Sometimes ProShow software works fine but there’s suddenly a show that won’t open. When that happens, it’s normally fixed easily with one of the following steps.

    First, delete the show cache file (the PXC file) and see if it will open.
    Second, try opening one of the show’s backup files (BAK, Bnn). (File menu, Revert to Backup).
    Third, try deleting the program cache files (question above).
    Lastly, if the show is opens partially but crashes while loading there’s a possibility that one of the audio files (.WAV or .MP3) files is corrupt or ProShow thinks so. That’s addressed in the section below.

Corrupt audio file.
Occasionally, ProShow will crash when you attempt to use a particular MP3 audio file or may crash while later attempting to load or play the show. If you suspect this and you know which audio file is the culprit, the fix is to either use a different MP3 or to use an audio editor to recreate the MP3 (load it and just resave it with another name). If you don’t know what file is the culprit, move all the audio files somewhere so ProShow will do the “locate files” dialog—but have ProShow continue without the missing audio files. If the show loads and previews, that confirms the show is okay and the audio is the problem—save the show under a new name so you at least have the video portion. Now you can either manually add back each of the audio files to find the bad one or go back through the “locate files” process and locate each audio file in turn. Either way you can identify the file that is the problem and either replace it, or perhaps if you recreate it, the problem will be fixed.
Last edited by DickK on Fri Feb 27, 2009 3:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby coqui956 » Sat Feb 09, 2008 5:54 pm

Hi Dickk,

Great write-up...Makes things easier to understand and at least now we have a clue as to what the files are and which can be dumped.
Thanks for your post!

coqui956

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Postby marmart » Sun Feb 10, 2008 6:15 am

Thanks Dick! Boy, this place is one stop shopping!!

Mary

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Postby Jerry Cole » Tue Feb 12, 2008 5:11 pm

Dick,
Well done my man. You covered this well. This sticky will be invaluable to newbies and is even a good review for those of us who have been around for al while.
Jerry
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Postby HunnyB » Tue Feb 12, 2008 5:23 pm

Will surely add this to my "ProShow Folder".
THANKS!

HunnyB
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Re: ProShow File FAQ & Troubleshooting How To

Postby bdelucie » Mon Sep 07, 2009 2:44 pm

Dick,

Following up on an old note - my understanding is that when you render a show in Producer, it creates the VOB file in the showname_psdata folder. Can I a create a new DVD without re-rendering the show? I'm not making any changes to the show, I'm just looking for a quicker way to make a copy (assuming I don't have the original DVD to make a 2nd copy). Thanks.

Bob

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Re: ProShow File FAQ & Troubleshooting How To

Postby DickK » Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:07 am

Yes, I believe so. When you go to make another output to DVD it is supposed to see the directory there and the content and not render the video again. I've not done that so I can't say for 100% sure, I just know that is what is supposed to happen. Personally, I never make the DVD within ProShow, I create an ISO (DVD image) file. Then if I want another DVD I can just burn another copy with the ISO. Once I think I'm done with the show I'll delete that temp directory and the ISO but archive the PSH and show content to two different media.

Dick

Oh, it doesn't matter at all in this case but you're in the Gold section--there's a copy of this thread in the PSP section as well.
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Re: ProShow File FAQ & Troubleshooting How To

Postby Astra » Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:59 am

Dickk,
thank you for your Info and "How-to" .

You have a gift to explain "hard-to-digest" facts in a clear way.
(Especialy "troubleshooting part" is very valuable.)

I've printed it & put it in my "learning" folder.

Thanks again,
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Re: ProShow File FAQ & Troubleshooting How To

Postby GEQ » Sat Sep 25, 2010 8:09 pm

Very helpful - appreciate the info. Used it to fix a show.

Thanks,

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Re: ProShow File FAQ & Troubleshooting How To

Postby mrjoker » Sat Jan 21, 2012 2:14 pm

Thanks Dick a lot of great information here and through out this forum, many times can find answers to problems without even having to ask. A great Forum

Thanks to all the great contributors sure helps newbies to learn more

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Re: ProShow File FAQ & Troubleshooting How To

Postby smoshe » Fri Apr 26, 2013 1:41 pm

Hello,

I have PSG4 shows on my computer. I did collect the files of each show and they are all with the same name. audio, Video, Images. I failed to mark the folders to which show the belong. Now how do I fine the files to me show HELP!!!

Thanks,

Moshe

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Re: ProShow File FAQ & Troubleshooting How To

Postby BarbaraC » Sat Apr 27, 2013 3:37 am

If I'm understanding correctly, the only way you'll be able to straighten this out is to open each individual show and then run through the collecting process for each, this time collecting to a new folder to which you give the same name as your show.

Barbara
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Re: ProShow File FAQ & Troubleshooting How To

Postby debngar » Sat Apr 27, 2013 8:14 am

Barbara described it right.

Begin by first creating a new folder named with your show name. All associated files should be saved under that. There are a number of situations where the user is prompted to save a file. If the user does not proactively pay attention to where files are saved, the program will usually default to saving them in the very last place that type of saved file action was performed and likely in a different show folder! This happens when the user saves the show file, collects show files, or creates a customised menu for a show, or creates output files. It's recommended to take note as to the path displayed and change it if necessary else end up with a time consuming mess to straighten out later.
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Re: ProShow File FAQ & Troubleshooting How To

Postby Deadman » Fri Jul 25, 2014 8:29 am

Might not be the correct spot, but this GPU Benchmark is like all over the place.. Some days I am in the 300's and today like 190.. I7 with a AMD Radeon HD 6900 with 16 gig ram.. On the other mach quad 4 with a GTX 560 and 8 gig ram. 165 today. Both have been in the high 200's and the Radeon in the 300's .. When Proshow coming out with a 64 bit program.. if you can't use more than 4 it takes forever to do what I need to do..


Any one else have Benchmark issues?

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Re: ProShow File FAQ & Troubleshooting How To

Postby BarbaraC » Fri Jul 25, 2014 9:12 am

My numbers can fluctuate too. One thing (I think) I've noticed is that it's higher if I've just turned on the computer than it is later on when I've run innumerable things that may be leaving parts of themselves all over the place.

Many of us were really hoping that version 6 would be for 64-bit. Maybe version 7. :(

Barbara
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