I tried to get the Roxio version installed on this laptop to work for creating DVDs. It was bundled with the laptop as a very very limited edition of the full retail version. In fact, just about every menu selection required me to purchase the upgrade to use it (AARGH). Unfortunately, the few menu items that were supposed to work didn’t. So I went to their site and discovered they don’t provide an evaluation download version. Buy and take your chance. I didn’t. I had no confidence the full version would work any better than the one already installed. So….

I went to Nero. I downloaded their evaluation copy and it worked great…for a whopping 2 days. Then it started rendering videos upside down. Looked great while I was editing but as soon as I rendered, upside down and backwords. Short of turning the television upside down, pretty much useless. So I contacted Nero via email and asked for assistance. I got a automatic email acknowledging receipt and indicating I would be contacted with 48 hours. That was 2 months ago. No contact, no resolution. Checked Amazon and discovered what horrible support Nero is providing. Buyer beware is the tune most are singing….sad really because they used to (several years ago) provide a top notch product. So I started searching….

I found several slideshow programs by small companies but they were extremely limited. I wanted the ability to design my own themes. Then I found ProShow. WOW. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of Roxio and Nero related to CD/DVD utitlites. Frankly I find utility programs as needed from download.com. These programs do exactly what they’re intended to do, efficiently without taking up a lot of space on my drive.

What ProShow does do is provide the best flexibility for making video slideshows. I’ve had absolutely no problem with rendering. And trust me when I say Vista is finicky. You have the ability to develop shows for the web, flash, cd, dvd, emails, etc. It’s quite fun and the price is comparable to Roxio and Nero. I highly recommend it!

Keeping in mind I’m still a beginner, here are some videos of done with the program: My Quilts, My Crochet Afghans, and Lorraine’s Quilt. When I originally published these on the site, I used the Web Show option under the Create menu. But this option requires connection to the Photodex site and sometimes resulted in a shuttering video. So, I switched to using the Flash Show option. This resulted in having to upload a much larger file to my site but gave me more flexibilty on the skin and seems to run a little better. I recommend trying both options to determine which works best for you.

I also recommend viewing Creating a Slide Montage. I used this technique when creating my videos.

My

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆