A whole host of problems

[keithdarby]

Can anybody verify that this software actually works at all? I received Pictureshow 3 Deluxe today after reading a glowing review. I installed Pictureshow okay, the PhotoExplorer 8.5 software crashed out twice. I rebooted, closed all other programs (again), and it worked eventually.

So now I think I'm up and running. I started using the slideshow creator, it was fairly easy to create a set of slideshows and I was happy applying varying transitions and music to my different slideshows etc when it crashed half way through, I had saved the basic selection of photos forming my slideshows as a project but all the work done creating and choosing the transitions and effects for each slide show had disappeared. Fine, just one of those things, I was getting the hang of it now and it only took 30 mins or so to catch up to where I was before.

So now my project is complete I go to the burn stage, I wanted to put my project on a DVD (the whole reason I was attracted to Pictureshow 3 in the first place) but have had no success whatsoever. I started the burn process which was going to be about 3.0GB or so and noticed the progress bar was barely moving, indeed it took about 10 mins just to show any progress at all. I thought perhaps it would speed up in a minute, anyway I used another computer in the house to access the internet and found this forum whereby I noticed comments on burn time and crashes etc. I also saw the comments regarding dissapointing DVD quality and the subsequent patch to help resolve this. I figured as I was only just at the beginning of what could turn out to be a massively long burn time I cancelled the process and downloaded the patch.

Starting the project again I waited for a few hours before the program crashed out while part way through converting the slideshow number 2 of 8 on the disc. I tried again, same result and another hour or so passed.

I noticed a comment in the forum that the transitions etc caused the delay in the process time as PS3 had to render all the transitions etc. Fine - I figured just to see if this will work I'll scrap all the transitions and pan and zoon effects etc - I just left it with music and menu effects. The processing time was much faster, all the slideshows converted except the final one which was a Quicktime movie - upon reaching this it crashed. Okay then, remove the movie and try again. This worked it now gets passed the conversion stage and got onto the point whereby it started to render the menu effects whereupon it crashed.

I forgot to consider the effects in the menu when disabling the slideshow effects so I went back and removed the menu effects. This now left me with 7 slideshows with just music and a basic menu. The file size was down to under 200mb now (a big reduction from the 3.0GB starting point). This still didn't work, it crashed at the creating image stage now. So as a further test I removed 4 of the slideshows just leaving 3, file size now not much over 100mb. Same thing it crased out when creating the image, I now thought perhaps I'll try it to a SVCD instead of DVD. Still no joy, crashed out again.

So in all I reduced my truly fabulous slideshow with impressive transitions and well thought out effects and music to a bare bones slideshow but to no avail. I tried burning to DVD, CD and just image files on the computer to no avail.

So I'm left wondering whether I'll ever get to a stage whereby I'll ever actually get anything to look at? And if so is it going to be so stripped down to the basics as to be not worth it - I already have a program which can create CD slideshows which play in DVD players but I was unhappy with the flexibility (very little) and the quality (not impressive) but at least it worked!

To cap all this I'm annoyed with myself for wasting a whole day, I started all this at 9.00 am this morning after the postie arrived. I'm meant to be working and earning myself some money but I've done nothing and it's now nearly 5:00 pm and I don't even have a flash DVD to show for my efforts - Great.

So if anybody has bothered to read through this far do you have any suggestions?

Computer Information is as follows:

Pentium 4 - 2.26GHz
RAM - 1.5GB
Graphics Card - 64MB
Windows XP Home - Sevice Pack 2 and all subsequent updates.
Ulead PictureShow 3 Deluxe with 5 in 1 patch installed. (I did not install the November patch also on the site as it appears this is included in the December 5 in 1 patch)

When installing software I turn everything off, Virusscan, Privacy Service, Firewalls, Internet, Messenger - the whole lot, nothing is running.

Normally when running the software, after rebooting, I leave all this on and expect whatever it is I'm running to work. Just to be sure I also disabled everything again while running PS3, especially as the rendering of transitions etc is meant to be so processor heavy - I didn't want to give it any excuse.

So is there anything else I can try - or should I just give up.

Despite my sarcasm and obvious dissappointment I was genuinely impressed with the idea of PS3 - using it proved to be quite easy, i.e. creating slideshows etc, and I am impressed at the level of options and items you can change and play with. Unfortunately it's all no good if I can't actually get the thing on a disk, and preferrably I would like not to have to wait 20 hours while it encodes everything - maybe if it informed you of an estimated time (however rough) then at least you'd know what your in for. You could start the burn process as you go to bed and hope it's done by the morning or something.

[sbarrack]

one thing to verify is that your working directory points somewhere with lots of disk space. i think it is under file/preferences.

[dfarman]

Can anybody verify that this software actually works at all?...

I can verify that it doesn't work ! Although I agree with you that the program seems like a nice idea.

I suggest you see if you can get hold of a copy of version 2. Also, try cutting your project down to about 50Mb Yes, I know that's not very impressive, but it should work & convince you to stay with the program until they release patch "6in1"

[Rick F]

I agree , something is wrong with the burning of PS3 I got to 100 % burn and it froze for hours and hours , no activity and i had done all the removing etc and new patches , Lots of burn complaints posted regarding PS3 , hope they are working on a patch and updated one that works . , I am glad i had not deleted PS2 I was able to burn to an image file and then use Nero to burn the image file to disc, that works as it has the ues disc player included in the program

[keithdarby]

Thanks for the suggestions people. What I am doing now is using the Ulead PhotoExplorer 8.5 program to create a slideshow, adding my music files to it and then exporting it to an MPEG video file. I have another program that will convert the video files into DVD format and burn to disc. This does actually work, I even get to apply a fade in/out transition between the slides.

Also, interestingly enough, the PhotoExplorer software allows you to have more than one movie file in a slide show. I have a digital camera that takes 10mb .mov (quicktime) movies and I have succeeded in stringing about 8 of these together and exporting that to one video file. (I had used this method to try and trick Pictureshow into believing my 8 .mov files were just one longer movie but never got far enough to see if that worked anyway)

I am assuming from peoples comments regarding PS2 that that software worked with far fewer glitches. I think therefore I am right to assume that PS3 will eventually have the problems ironed out - is this a reasonable assumption, if so I'll continue with my work arounds and wait for some updates which hopefully wont be too far in the future.

[J Barton]

I have had exactly the same problems, I have however found that to prepare all slideshow images in individual folders then amend photos, i.e. rotate /adjust colour etc before opening cd/dvd PS3 enables the program to prepare and write the DVD within a reasonable time (1hr- 3-4gb).

I have the problem with MP3s, if I use any other than ones supplied, they run at Pinky and Perky speed.

This program obviously has a few glitches which need to be ironed out, hope they fix it soon.

[tgab]

Hi Keith,

One suggestion, please remove 5in1 patch and re-run the project. It might work. However the DVD quality will not be good.

With 5in1 patch, remove multiple mp3s assicoated any slideshow and put one stream only. This way you can create show.

I have a 4.3GB project waiting for patch to fix 5in1 update problem. But I was able to create DVD using above method.

Thanks.

AB

[myulead]

Can anybody verify that this software actually works at all?

Keith, I share all your (and other poor souls) disappointments in buying the PS3. I was able to burn some of my projects(slideshows) partly using PS3. Since PS3 crashes everytime I build my slideshow image, I did use other competing products to build mpg/avi files from my slideshows then use PS3 to build animated menus - the pan & zoom feature which attracted me into getting PS3, I did not able to incorporate into my project since this is not present with the "other" products which I've been using. Yup, I was able to create an image of my project to disk with a size of about 4+gig and use Nero to burn the image to DVD disk. Despite of this I don't think I would recommend PS3 to anybody else until Ulead fix all the bugs in the program. How come ULEAD with its so called "creative intelligence" hasn't been intelligent enough not to release this piece of crap into the market!? -Gene

[tgab]

Yes. It worked after a lot of struggle. Please do following to get a successful finish:

1. Apply all patches.
2. Remove codec packs from your system (in my case K-Lite was the culprit).
3. Build show in NTSC for maximum clarity and reduced flickering.

I will try again with PAL and let you the outcome.

Thanks.

AB.

[htchien]

Some audio/video CODECs in the K-Lite CODEC Pack are not compatible with Ulead or Microsoft Windows Media Player, to remove them should solve the case.

They are:

* 3ivX [version D4 4.5.1] [Encoding] (conflict with Ulead GIF Animator 5 and some other Ulead products)

* MPEG-2 decoder [Elecard demultiplexor / Ligos decoder] (conflict with Windows Media Player 9)

* .OGM.dll (conflict with Media Player)

* Morgan Multinedia Stream Switcher (conflict with Media Player)

Hope this helps.

H.T.