Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

[OM] The antz in my pantz are pretty much gone now...thank you

Subject: [OM] The antz in my pantz are pretty much gone now...thank you
From: khen lim <khen@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:23:55 +0800
What a trove of great advice. Thank you, thank you.

I write to report that we have solved our problem now. But here's the story:

After posting my rant on the List, we continued to labour on Premiere Pro
2.0 (PP2) but knew that it was a wasteful process for us. It wasn't getting
us anywhere fast and we were already in the early hours of the morning. At
that time I was online with our 'Zone-10 western office' and that office's
insinkerator had to break for lunch. So I wasn't getting much help then.

The next day we went trolling in the dark alleys of clone software to look
around. No Adobe crud for us. We're now on the lookout for bizarre, unheard
of, small-time solutions. After reading the responses, here are some of our
decisions/responses:

1. Mac and Keynote: This combo is out. We don't know of anyone over here who
has crossed the line and jumped into the fiery gates of Hades. Oops. Joking.
Hardly anyone uses Macs here.  Even if I can find one, borrowing is a
different matter and picking up and driving it for us is something else
altogether. With 2 days to spare, this is not going to work. On a longer
term, we'll definitely be looking at Mac as a possible solution.

2. Picasa: Thought of this but other than being a fairly sensible organiser,
I admit I don't know enough of it to give it a try. My regard for Picasa is
a little on the low side. Blame my prejudice if you like but I didn't think
hard enough to push this option.

3. Premiere Elements: I hate Adobe. Photoshop CS3, then CS4, then Premiere
Pro CS4 and later 2.0 - all of them added layers of disgust in me. And you
think Microsoft is bad. These guys just don't know how to design user
interfaces. And then look at the prices they charge. It's criminal.

There are endless stores that sell stuff that'll take you an eternity to
scan through. If anyone of you were to make it to this part of the world and
like a guided tour, let me know.

Anyway one of the store owners suggested we give a particular CD a try. For
MYR20 (USD1=MYR3.6), why not. At the front of the CD, the title says, 'DVD
Photo Slideshow Professional.' The title sounds like a million of the other
me-too software that promises everything but delivers chintzy results fit
for Ma and Pa Kettle but we hadn't anything to lose. I always have a slight
aversion to software with the word 'Professional' in its title. Something
tells me that when someone says it's professional, it usually isn't. In fact
we ended up with only this CD and nothing else.

Went back home, cranked up the Lenovo, uninstalled every Adobe product with
a vengeance, installed this so-called 'DVD Photo Slideshow Professional'.
First surprise, installation was breezy. No complications. Very very small
installed size. Getting a bit worried about this now. And of course being a
cracked software, there's all that KeyGen nonsense. For me, I'm lost.
Fortunately Marianne knew what to do.

Having installed it, we began to explore. Let me tell you:

1. DVD Photo Slideshow Professional (DPSP) is quite remarkable. It took us
less than 40 mins to import all the images in their native resolution sizes,
added simple dissolve, add a music track, sync the whole thing, rendered it
and exported it to DVD.

2. The output quality was stunning. Every original bit of image sharpness
was retained. It was flawless.

3. The quality of the dissolve (something I am always very concerned about)
was beautiful. What can I say...unlike PowerPoint that continues to jerk and
jerk or shudder, DPSP was smooth and creamy. I like my dissolve to be on the
slow side; something like 4 seconds to complete but usually I find that
quite a number of other software either can't do it this long or they mess
it up in the output. DPSP was excellent in this regard and whether you're
dissolving in or out, it was exactly what we wanted.

4. At such a small installed footprint, I really have no complaints. It
starts up fast, takes up minimal memory overheads and runs like a cheetah on
Dual Core. I'm in heaven.

5. So far it seems to be very stable. Premiere Pro would hang every now and
then even on our new machine.

6. The user interface is so simple it's embarrassing. Even a kid knows what
to do. The control labelling is easy to understand. The whole thing is so
navigable.

7. And on to price. Now that we've tried the clone version and it's great,
we're going to trial it a little more, produce a few more serious
presentations and see if we can find anything amiss. If it's still good
enough, we'll go online and buy it. On that basis, I have checked the prices
and what a laugh. DPSP costs USD59.95. Say what?!? Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 is
USD799 and that is if you get it alone and not get conned into their suites
(CS4 Production Premium and Master Collection is USD1,699 and USD2,499
respectively).

This whole exercise really made me think a lot about where our software is
taking us.

I'm not sure what everyone else thinks but I'm keenly interested in making
some effort to continue discussions on slideshow presentations for List
members. I am personally benefiting a lot for everyone's input and I believe
that over time, I might be able to contribute too.

Like I have written earlier, slideshows are now part of our staple
deliverables. For those working to deliver results to customers, it's not
always albums and print enlargements. Now we have to offer slideshows. For
us, slideshows are worth earning and that's because we charge a premium for
them.

If any of you agree with the idea of developing some continuity in
discussing slideshow development, maybe the List isn't the place to do it
because of its email nature. Maybe we can use Zone-10's Forum to do
it...anyway it's just an idea...not really pushing it down anyone's
throat...

Thanks for everyone's help. I appreciate it very much.


K.




-- 
Khen Lim - Zone-10 LLC, Des Moines, Iowa, USA

"To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards of people” - Emily
Cox
"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them" - Walt
Disney
-- 
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz