Photodex is a multimedia software company created in 1987, with popular software ProShow lineup (ProShow Gold, ProShow Producer and ProShow Web) focusing on slideshow creation. The software was loved by millions of users worldwide for over 30 years, and there are still active communities and forums online these days.
However, Photodex decided to pull the plug on the service. Its servers were shut down on January 31, 2020. Their official website photodex.com no longer provides any product or service, instead, the website owner recommended Photopia as an alternative slideshow maker to the ProShow products.
The History of Photodex.com
Photodex was founded by Paul Schmidt in 1987 with a vision to create good software. Focusing on multimedia, this software company released its first slideshow software in the 90s, named Graphic Display System (GDS), and that experience was later incorporated into their tagline products, the ProShow lineup.
Photodex created CompuPic lineup, photo management software that allowed people to easily browse and organize digital photos. The tools were released during the mid-1990s, when the first digital cameras were available to the public. Their official site http://www.photodex.com/ was registered on August 11, 1995 in Arizona.
In the early 2000s, Photodex set out to develop software that can help people to turn their photo assets into enchanting slideshows. The result was the first version of ProShow, released in November of 2002.
The Proshow product was expanded to include ProShow Producer, a slideshow maker providing professional features compared to ProShow Gold in 2005.
ProShow Web was launched in 2010 on photodex.com. This online service integrated the slideshow making feature of the ProShow software, and offered downloadable effects and other creative packages to level up video creation.
The Products and Services of Photodex.com
Photodex product lineup consists of ProShow Gold, ProShow Producer, and ProShow Web. Below are the detailed introduction of each software (or services).
The latest version of ProShow Gold is 9.0.3797, released on Apr. 20, 2018.
The latest version of ProShow Producer is version 9, the specific build is unknown with limited information online. Version 9.0 was released on Aug 23, 2017.
ProShow Gold
ProShow Gold is Photodex's basic product of the slideshow maker lineup. It is aimed at beginners and everybody having an interest in turning photos and videos into a slideshow. While ProShow Producer targets more advanced users, ProShow Gold offers basic tools to create music slidershow, photo slideshows and family videos, making the video fully customized and attractive.
The UI of ProShow Gold is timeline-based, though its early versions don't have multiple tracks on the timeline. Users can import photos and videos onto the timeline, set their respective duration, and add transitions and effects. Background music can be imported to a dedicated audio track, with wave form displayed.
For photos, there are some handy editing features and effects. You can blur a photo in video, and adjust its brightness, white point, black point, contrast, hue, saturation and more right inside the software. There are photo fix tools such as red-eye removal, photo sharpening, etc.
To stylize the photo slideshow, ProShow Gold also allows you to add vignettes, colorize images, create text animations, and add motion effects. For instance, you can create the trendy Ken Burns effect to animate the photos.
Proshow Gold has a large library of transition presets. Besides using them in 1-click, creators can also tweak the transition settings for personal preferences.
As a product that had been existing for over 3 decades, ProShow Gold grew into a modern software. For instance, its older versions don't have a stock music library built-in. The interface underwent radical changes, from archaic Windows XP style to flat designs.
Pricing
Photodex Proshow has a price tag of $69.95 (it has been charged for $80 for some time in the past).
This slideshow marker also offers free trial and demo download options, but there will be a watermark on the output file. Purchased users don't need to re-make the video though, as the watermark will be removed from the project file.
System Requirements
| ProShow Gold | Minimal | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
Processor |
500Mhz+ higher |
1Ghz+ processor |
RAM |
512MB |
1Gb |
DirectX version |
DirectX 8.0 or better |
DirectX 9.0 or better |
Hard Drive Space |
70MB |
70MB for installation |
For DVD burning |
DVD+R/RW/-R/RW writer |
DVD+R/RW/-R/RW writer |
ProShow Gold Supported Input formats:
- Image: JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, GIF, PSD
- Video: MOV, AVI, MPEG, MP4
- Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV
- Import from Instagram, Flickr, SmugMug, Facebook, Picasa, zenfolio, etc.
ProShow Gold Output Options
Proshow has a plethora of output options. Besides exporting the slideshow into an MP4 video – like most of today's slideshow makers do – it also supports creating the slideshow as a PC Executable file (.exe), screensaver, or burning to DVD, Blu-ray, and CD for users to playback (custom menus supported). Besides exporting, users can directly share the slideshow via email, to YouTube, Vimeo, SmugMug, Flash video, or Web show for personal sites.
For better device compatibility, ProShow offers several profiles for devices such as iPhone, iPod, MP3 players, and Nintendo Wii. During its heyday, Photodex also can host slideshows on the official website, so that users can share and communicate with one another.
Tech Support:
Photodex Proshow used to offer great tech support. Users enjoy a lifetime support via free phone call and email support.
ProShow Producer
ProShow Producer is the big brother of ProShow Gold. If ProShow Gold is designed for newbies, then Producer is intended for skilled hands. It includes more features that require some learning curve for beginners. For instance, there are keyframe adjustments, customizable transitions, and masking options in ProShow Producer. Using the keyframes, users can create animations to add more dynamics to the slideshow, and control more flexibly over the motions. With the masking and multiply layer option, users can place more items on top of the video content, making the overlays more attractive and interesting to look at.
Before the company nix its product, ProShow Producer reached its 9th version, with support for 4K videos.
As a professional slideshow and presentation software, ProShow Producer includes everything that ProShow Gold offers. Users can bring in photos, videos and songs, and add transitions, video effects, and captions.
There were video effects popular at that time, such as the page-flipping simulation, vignettes, photo walls, sparks, and fades. Besides 800+ motion and transition templates, users can also tap on the customizable settings to create endless variations.
ProShow Producer also includes a slideshow wizard to speed up the workflow. People can simply dump the photo and video assets, follow the instructions to create slideshows in less in 5 minutes. The built-in sharing option allows for quick uploading to YouTube and Photodex's own creator's hub.
Pricing
$249.95 one-time purchase, ProShow Gold users can receive a discount when upgrading to ProShow Producer.
ProShow Producer System Requirement
| ProShow Gold | Minimal | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
Processor |
2 GHz |
2.8 GHz or better quad-processor |
RAM |
4 GB |
8 GB |
DirectX Version |
DirectX 8.0 |
DirectX 9.0 or better |
VRAM |
512MB VRAM |
1GB VRAM |
Hard Drive Space |
2 GB |
2 GB |
Note: Windows RT and Windows 10 S not supported.
ProShow Producer Supported Input Formats:
- Video: AVI, M1V, MOV, QT, MPEG, WMV, DIVX, XVID, ASF, MP4, M2TS, MTS, CUE, PX, 3GP, etc.
- Image: BMP, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, PSD, CRW, CR2, NEF, ORF, etc.
- Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, M4A, etc.
- Supported disc: DVD, Blu-ray, AVCHD, VCD, SVCD, XVCD, XSVCD, CVD, MiniDVD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD-RW, DVD-R DL, CD-R, CD-RW, BD-R, BD-RE.
ProShow Producer Supported Output Formats:
MP4 video, MPEG video, HTML5 video, QuickTime video, Flash Video.
Videos that meets the upload settings for Facebook, Vimeo and YouTube.
ProShow Web
Another product from Photodex is ProShow Web. It is an online video slideshow maker, inheriting some of the basic features form the ProShow desktop lineup. Claiming to help users to create slideshows without any editing experience, ProShow Web included some of the presets and templates from its desktop counterparts, making it easy to add text, animations, transitions, sound effects, and video FX.
In 2020, the Web application supports hundreds of professional FXs, 80+ slideshow themes, and hundreds of royalty-free songs from its built-in music library.
The integration between ProShow Producer and ProShow web is a nice feature. Users can open ProShow Web shows in Producer, thus having more controls and features to continue enhancing the video. It also eases the transition when a beginner has outgrown ProShow web, and wants to set hands on the Pro version.
ProShow web support slideshow editing on the go, people can log in not only via a computer, but also from iPhone and iPad app.
Besides saving as digital videos, it also allows you to export and download as high definition ISO files for DVD-burning. Depending on your license type, the supported resolution ranges from 720p to 1080p videos.
Below is a screenshot of ProShow Web in its early stages in 2009.
The year 2020 saw a more modern design from Photodex ProShow Web, see screenshots below.
Pricing:
- Free Account: 15 images/videos, personal use only.
- Plus Account: $10/month, 720p video quality, personal use only.
- Premium Account: $35/month, 1080p HD video quality, commercial use allowed.
Photopia vs ProShow Product Lineup
After the shutting down of Photodex, its official site recommends Photopia as an alternative. Photopia is a dedicated video slideshow maker, and rumors have it that Phototia is created by some of the original developers from Photodex.
Unlike ProShow's lifetime license, Photopia adopts a subscription-based pricing mode, which charges $249.95 annually ($24.95/monthly). This strategy irritated some of the ProShow users, as the ProShow product line offers one-time purchase.
Below is a comparison among Photopia Products vs Photodex ProShow Products:
| Features | Photopia Director | Photopia Creator | ProShow Producer | ProShow Gold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Skill Level |
Advanced |
Basic |
Advanced |
Basic |
Keyframes, mask layers, adjustment layers, use templates, import effects |
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Create templates |
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Create slide styles |
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Create transitions |
|
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Groups, shapes |
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Layer slices, caption slices, layer blending modes |
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Communities and SNS of Photodex
Some of the communities related to Photodex products are still active these days. If you are one of the loyal customers of Photodex, and are still putting your creative hats on and editing in ProShow tools, you can seek help, share slideshows, and offer solutions to peer users in these communities.
Forum - Proshow Enthusiasts
Proshow Enthusiasts is a non-official forum for Photodex users, created on 2007 by Michael Gregg, this forum has 151K posts covering 19K topics, and is still active these days. The forum is home to nearly 3K registered users, though in recent years, there are only hundreds of visits each month.
The forum has dedicated categories for ProShow Gold (PSG) and ProShow Producer (PSP), and it also hosts miscellaneous subcategories for music, photography and video discussions.
Visit the forum here: https://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/
Update: As of Oct 30, 2022, the forum server is down.
Facebook Group
There are mainly two active Facebook Groups about Photodex:
1. Photodex Proshow and Photopia User Support
It is a private group aiming to help Photodex Proshow and also Photopia users with practical solutions and toturials. There are currently 1K+ users.
It is a private group created by Dixie Reid, who is also an active user in the Proshow Enthusiasts forum. The group aims to help millions of people who still use ProShow, and are left behind by Photodex as the company is out of business. The group encourages peer-to-peer support, knowledge sharing, and slideshow demonstration.
YouTube – Photodex
Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/c/photodex
The official YouTube channel of Photodex boasts 26.2K subscribers even if the company is terminated. Its latest upload is a Video Effects Demo released 4 years ago.
The channel is made up of these playlists:
- Tutorials: ProShow Gold & Producer Training playlist; ProShow Web Training playlist.
- Promotional videos: The Ultimate Story contest (Wedding theme, commercial theme, adventure theme).
- Slideshows made by Photodex Proshow lineup, focusing on Kids & Family, Nature & Travel, Sports, Wedding, etc.
Vimeo – Photodex
Photodex on Vimeo mainly posted the ProShow 9 lineup, with brand videos showcasing new features of ProShow 9, and tutorial videos demonstrating how to use masks, keyframes, layer filters, and audio syncing features.
What Then Happened to Photodex.com
It is still unknown why Photodex had decided to terminate their business. If you visit their official website photodex.com these days, you would only see an official recommendation to use Photopia as a replacement for slideshow creation.
Can you still use ProShow Producer?
If you have registered ProShow products before Jan 31, 2020, you can continue using the software. You can activate the software with registration keys before Photodex shuts down their server. Effects and packages that were purchased previously will remain valid in the future. But online content, such as music library and downloadable content will no longer be accessible.
Still, there were some user complaining in forums, saying that the system alterted that "Activation server unavailable".
According to Photodex official website, ProShow content such as transitions, templates, slide styles can be imported into Photopia Creator and Photopia Director.
