Learn how to quickly create an AVCHD compatible video using the new video presets in the Video for Web, Devices, and Computers publishing option in ProShow. In this article you will learn how to create the video, prepare the necessary files for an AVCHD disc and how to burn these files to disc that can be played on almost any Blu-ray player. 

Creating an AVCHD disc

In ProShow Gold and ProShow Producer version 7, several new presets have been added to the “Video for Web, Devices, and Computers” window. The “High Definition Disc Authoring” set of presets allow you to create either Blu-ray or AVCHD-formatted video files meant to be used in a 3rd party disc authoring program. This article will focus on using the AVCHD profiles to create an HD video that can be burned onto a standard blank DVD and played in a Blu-ray player. [NOTE: This *will not* be playable in a regular DVD player.]

1. Open a show in ProShow that you’d like to burn to disc.
2. Go to Publish > Video for Web, Devices and Computers.
   
3. On the category list on the side, navigate to Video File > High Definition Disc Authoring.
   Next choose one of the presets. If you’re in North America, you’ll want to use one of the NTSC variants (PAL is used in Europe, South America, and other areas). I would recommend choosing 1080i60, as this provides the best balance of image resolution and motion smoothness.
   
4. Lastly, click on the Profile drop-down and choose AVCHD High Quality. Click Create and choose where to save your video file.
   
5. Once your video is done, you can use the free program tsMuxer to make a simple AVCHD disc structure. Download it here, then unzip the folder.
6. Open tsMuxerGui.exe from the unzipped folder.  Drag the file you created in step 4 into the “Input Files” section of the program” (or use the ‘add’ button to locate the file).
   
7. Change the Output type to “AVCHD folder”, then choose a folder location. Click “Start Muxing”.
   
8. Now that you have an AVCHD folder, it’s time to burn it to a DVD disc. We’ll be using the free program ImgBurn to do this. You can download it here.
9. Open ImgBurn and choose the “Write files/folders to disc” option.
   
10. Drag the contents of the folder created in Step 7 into the “Source” area of ImgBurn (or use the + icon to locate the folders). Note that we’re specifically adding the BDMV and CERTIFICATE folders.
    
11. In the Options tab, we’re going to set the File System to UDF and the UDF Revision to 2.50.
    
12. Make sure your blank DVD is inserted in your drive and click the “Build” icon at the bottom left.
    

Once your disc is burned, it should be playable in almost any Blu-ray player.

TIPS:

• The same process above can be used to create a high-quality H.264 Blu-ray disc. In step 5 you’ll want to choose Blu-ray folder instead. Alternately, you can choose the “Blu-ray ISO” option and burn it with any ISO burning program installed on your system, including the one built into Windows 7 & 8.
• If you’d like to use a dedicated menu authoring program like Adobe Encore, you may first need to “demux” (i.e. separate the video and audio streams) in tsMuxer. Just choose the “Demux” option shown in the screenshot for step 7.
• Multiple video clips can be added to a single AVCHD or Blu-ray disc with a simple menu using the free program multiAVCHD.

If you’re using Windows 10, or thinking about upgrading to Windows 10, you can expect to continue using ProShow just as you always have.

With the release of Windows 10, many of you are probably wondering what changes with ProShow 7. In fact, Windows 10 will run ProShow versions 7 and later without any compatibility issues. Any program that worked in Windows 7 or 8 before upgrading, should work fine in Windows 10 in most cases. Besides the visual changes of Windows 10, you shouldn’t experience any differences when using ProShow in this environment.

Let’s take a look at the various ways to start ProShow in Windows 10!

Start ProShow from the Windows 10 Desktop

The Windows 10 desktop works exactly like it did in previous versions of Windows.  Simply find the ProShow shortcut on your desktop and double-left click the icon to launch the program. This is the most common method for opening your most frequently used programs.

Start ProShow using the new Windows 10 Start menu

The new Windows 10 Start menu is a blend of the old with the new. It’s very familiar when compared to previous versions of Windows in regards to opening installed programs. Each program has a start menu folder and includes a shortcut to open the associated program.

To open ProShow, click on All Apps, locate the ProShow folder (Note: list is sorted alphabetically) and then click on the ProShow Shortcut to launch the program from the start menu.

Start ProShow from the taskbar in Windows 10

The Windows 10 taskbar has a couple of new goodies including search with Cortana. However, the general look and feel of the taskbar is relatively unchanged when compared to previous versions of windows.

To open ProShow, click the ProShow shortcut listed on the taskbar. If you don’t see the ProShow shortcut on the taskbar, you need to pin the program to the taskbar.

To pin a program to your taskbar, right-click the active program on your taskbar and select Pin this program to taskbar from the menu.

As you can see not much has changed in regards to opening programs in Windows 10.  For additional information on what’s new in Windows 10, click here.

If you have any questions regarding ProShow and Windows 10, contact us! We’re available 7 days a week to help you out with all your ProShow needs.

When using Parallels on your Mac, its best to move image, video, and audio files to the local path of the guest OS (Windows) to make sure ProShow works at its best.

There are a few ways to access your Mac content in the guest OS in Parallels. Let’s take a look at these options below.

Access content using Parallels Shared Folders shortcut

1. Locate the ‘Parallels Shared Folders’ shortcut on the Windows desktop.
2. Double left-click this shortcut to immediately access the shared content on your Mac.
3. Once you’ve located the content, right-click the folder / files and select copy so you can quickly paste this into a local folder in Windows.
4. Now open up the Pictures folder or create a new folder in Windows, and paste your content into this folder before you add this content into ProShow.

Access content using File Explorer in Windows

1. Left-click the File Explorer icon on the taskbar on bottom of screen
2. On the left column choose Computer
3. Choose the Home on ‘psf’ (Z:) network drive to view your shared content

or

1. On the left column choose Network
2. Then double left-click Home to view your shared content

Any content you plan to use in ProShow needs to be copied from the shared PSF location to a local folder on the Windows OS. This usually includes the library locations, desktop or any of the user folders (i.e. Documents, Music, Pictures or Video). Once the content is moved to this local path it’s ready to be imported into ProShow.

At Photodex, we’re obsessed with quality and making sure your video slideshows are the best they can be. That’s why Vimeo is our preferred method of output for sharing video slideshows online. See why below!

• High-Quality, No Ads

With Vimeo, your videos look their very best across tons of devices. Stream them on mobile, tablet, and TV in gorgeous 1080p HD with no ads.

• Powerful Privacy Controls

Choose who sees your videos and where they can be embedded, or add a password. Plus and PRO members can hide videos from vimeo.com, or choose exactly which domains their videos can appear on.

• Supportive Community of Creators

Vimeo’s community is second to none. Creators and video enthusiasts from around the world are constantly sharing projects and supporting each other. You’ll find tons of inspiration and support around every corner.

And now it’s easier than ever to export to Vimeo. ProShow Gold, ProShow Producer and ProShow Web now all export directly to Vimeo, giving you a seamless output experience to the best online platform for sharing your videos. Follow the steps below to learn how to export directly from ProShow products to Vimeo.

Export to Vimeo in ProShow Gold + ProShow Producer

1. In ProShow, click on Publish and select Vimeo 
2. Select the Video Quality (Choose from 360p, 480p, 720p, or 1080p)
3. Add your Title, Description, and Tags 
4. Click the Upload To Vimeo button to start the upload process to Vimeo

Export to Vimeo in ProShow Web

1. Click Share on the top-right of the watch page
2. Select Vimeo on the share screen
3. Click Share Now to start the upload process to Vimeo

To troubleshoot problems with ProShow running on Windows, you may need to show hidden files and folders or file extensions.  Use the steps listed below to show hidden files, folders and the filename extensions for your version of Windows.

Windows 8.1 and 10

1. In Windows 8.1 + Windows 10, right-click the Start button and select Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel dialog, single-click Appearance and Personalization.
3. In the Appearance and Personalization dialog, single-click Folder Options (Windows 8.1) or File Explorer Options (Windows 10).
4. In the Folder Options dialog box, select the View tab.
5. To Show hidden files + folders, select Show hidden files, folders and drives from the Advanced Settings section.
6. To show file extensions, uncheck the Hide extensions for known file types checkbox, and click OK.

Windows 7

1. Click the Start button and select Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel dialog, single-click Appearance and Personalization.
3. In the Appearance and Personalization dialog box, single-click Folder Options, or click Show hidden files and folders under Folder Options.
4. In the Folder Options dialog, select the View tab.
5. To Show hidden files + folders, select Show hidden files, folders and drives from the Advanced Settings section.
6. To show file extensions, uncheck the Hide extensions for known file types checkbox, and click OK.

You should now be able to see hidden folders and file extensions on all files in Windows.

To Troubleshoot problems with ProShow running on Windows, you may need to access the Virtual Store folder and remove unwanted files or folders. Use the steps listed below to help you navigate to this folder on all versions of Windows.

 

Windows 8.1 and 10

1. Right-click the Start button and select Run to open the Run command in Windows. (Keyboard Shortcut: Windows key  + R)
2. In the Run Command box, type %localappdata%\virtualstore and hit Enter on your keyboard.
3. You should now see the Virtual Store folder on your screen.

Windows 7

1. Click the Start button and type Run then hit Enter on your keyboard (Shortcut: Windows key  + R)
2. In the Run Command box, type %localappdata%\virtualstore and hit Enter on your keyboard
3. You should now see the Virtual Store folder on your screen.

ProShow 8 provides a wide variety of useful enhancements for making shows faster and easier than ever before. ProShow 8 focuses on text handling, quick show creation through the wizard, and improved output and publishing options, while offering tons of additional enhancements that fit into your everyday workflow.

New! Caption Bounding Boxes

• You can now drag the box around a caption after enabling horizontal or vertical constraining to control the size of the text area in any slide.
• Text can automatically wrap to fit inside the box. Wrapping can be easily enabled and disabled.
• Text can optionally shrink to fit, allowing longer captions to automatically use a smaller font size so that more text is visible.
• Bounding boxes give greatly improved control over the exact positing of captions, resulting in better slide layouts.
• Bounding boxes can be used to prevent text from running over photos and videos in complex slide designs.
• Many of ProShow’s built-in slide styles have been updated to use caption bounding boxes for improved text handling.
• Bounding boxes enable more sophisticated Slide Styles that used advanced caption motion.
• Bounding boxes are enabled by clicking the icons for Text Box Size in the Caption Placement section of Slide Options.

New! Redesigned and Improved Wizard

• The redesigned wizard in ProShow makes it easy to quickly create a show. Just add some photos, videos, titles, and music, and
• ProShow will automatically choose effects and build your show.
• The streamlined interface lets you manage your photos, videos, titles and music in one convenient interface.
• The new wizard window automatically changes size based on your screen, giving you more space to work on larger monitors.
• In addition to letting ProShow automatically pick effects, you can now select custom effects for any piece of content. Perfect when you have a few photos you want control over, but want ProShow to handle the rest.
• When you’re ready to see your show, just click the Preview button and your show quickly starts playing. Unlike the wizard in older versions, there’s no need to click through several steps just to preview.
• Once ProShow has chosen effects, you’ll see the choices it made right in the wizard window. Easily replace effects you don’t like by picking a custom effect, or re-run ProShow’s wizard engine to have ProShow try a different configuration.
• The new wizard works great with effects that use the new caption bounding boxes, helping to ensure that your title slides and captions look great even when you’re using lots of text.
• The wizard can be started from the New Show window or the Wizard button on the main toolbar. You an even use the wizard on part of an existing show by selecting the slides and using the Remix button on the main toolbar.

New! More Music

• We’ve added 35 new music tracks to ProShow’s royalty free music library.
• The improved music library now shows you which tracks are already used in your show.
• These new music tracks are available now in both ProShow 8 and ProShow 7!

New! Font Browser

• Visually browse the fonts available on the system to find just the right one.
• Easily scroll through a list of all installed fonts.Sample text is displayed for each font, and the sample text used can be easily customized in the preferences.
• The font browser can also show a preview of the current caption’s text, making it easy to find a font that works well for the specific text being used.
• A character view optionally shows the standard characters for each font, making it easy to compare how specific characters look.
• Frequently use the same fonts? The font browser shows you a list of your recently used fonts, making it easy to quickly grab your preferred fonts.
• Getting more consistent captions in your show by using the font browser’s Used In Show list to quickly apply a font that is already used in your show.
• Available from the Captions tab in Slide Options.

New! Symbol Browser

• The new symbol browser makes it easy to see all the characters and symbols available in a font and insert any selected character into a caption.
• Works great with specialty symbol fonts like Webdings and Wingdings, as well as custom fonts that provide unique symbols and characters.
• Using the symbol browser lets you quickly discover tons of great symbols you can use in your captions that have been hiding in fonts already on your system.
• Available from the Captions tab in Slide Options.

New! Vertical Caption Alignment

• Captions can now be top, bottom, or center aligned.
• Alignment controls which direction the text expands in when additional lines of text are added.
• Vertical alignment is especially useful when combined with bounding boxes.
• Found in the Caption Placement section of Slide Options.

New! Caption Line Spacing

• ProShow Gold can now control the line spacing of captions.
• Custom line spacing can create better text layouts, improving the look and readability of captions.
• Line spacing can be customized for each caption, allowing each one to be optimized for the specific font being used.
• Available in the Captions tab of Slide Options.

New! AVCHD Output

• Create high definition video output for your TV using your existing DVD burner and DVD discs.
• AVCHD is a widely supported video format that plays back on any Blu-ray player.
• Allows you create Blu-ray quality video even if you don’t have a Blu-ray burner.
• Get up to 6 times higher resolution for your shows, providing considerably better quality and clarity on the same DVD discs.
• Requires only a DVD burner, DVD discs, and a Blu-ray player.
• Available from the Publish menu.

New! Publish to USB

• The new USB Flash Drive output option makes it easy to get your show onto a USB memory stick for playback on your smart TV.
• Most modern TVs include USB ports and support playing back video from a USB thumb drive.
• ProShow’s new USB Flash Drive feature provides a quick way to create a video in the standard format for playback on smart TVs, and will automatically create your video with all the right settings.
• USB drives are automatically detected – just pick the USB drive you want to save your show on, and ProShow does the rest.
• Available from the Publish menu.

New! Improved Blu-ray Output

• ProShow’s Blu-ray output has been upgraded to use newer video encoding, resulting in increased clarity and quality.
• Blu-ray resolution and quality presets have been enhanced to help get the best quality possible.
• Improved Blu-ray options window now provides estimates of the length of video that will fit on a disc with each preset.
• Blu-ray output can be accessed from the Publish menu, the toolbar in the Publish view, or the Publishing Formats pane.
• Support for dual-layer Blu-ray discs have been improved, making it easier to publish extra-long HD shows.

New! Automatic Volume Leveling

• ProShow’s audio engine can now automatically analyze soundtracks and correct for differences in volume.
• Automatic volume leveling helps to create a more consistent volume level across the soundtracks in your show.
• Reduces the need to manually adjust the volume of individual tracks.
• Allows for the strength of leveling to be adjusted as needed, or even disabled.
• Automatic volume leveling is enabled by default on all new shows created in ProShow 8.
• Volume leveling can be controlled from the Soundtrack tab of Show Options.

New! Combine Shows

• Easily merge any number of different shows into a single new show.
• Perfect for taking multiple shows and combining them into one video for uploading to Vimeo or YouTube.
• Control the order of shows, the aspect ratio, and optionally include a blank slide between shows.
• Available from the Tools menu.

New! Add / Remove Time

• Easily add or remove a chosen amount of time from the selected slides.
• Perfect when you need to change the overall show length by a specific amount, like when you need an extra 10 seconds of visuals to fill out your soundtrack.
• Works with any number of selected slides, so you can modify just a few slides, or adjust all the slides in your show.
• Choose to add time to the selected slides, or remove time.
• Adjust by any amount of time.
• Optionally modify either slide times or transition times.
• Add the chosen amount of time to every slide, or let ProShow automatically distribute the time across the selected slides. For example, you can add 5 seconds to each slide, or add 5 seconds across the current slides and let ProShow do the math.
• Accessed from the Slide menu in the main window.

New! Improved Presets in Video for Web, Devices and Computers

• ProShow’s general-purpose video file output, Video for Web, Devices and Computers has an all new set of video presets and profiles.
• Improved defaults for today’s standard video format, MPEG-4 H.264, are listed right at the top, making it easy to output shows in the current standard for video files.
• All presets and profiles have been freshly optimized to provide a good balance between quality and file size. Performance of encoding to x264 video formats has been improved.
• New categories make it easy to find specific profiles for common uses, like mobile devices, online services, and disc-based formats.
• The new Intermediate / Lossless presets let you create video files optimized for importing into other video editors with a minimal loss of quality.

New! ProShow Gold Now Includes the Device Plugin

• ProShow Gold 8 includes the additional video output support that was previously available with the Device Plugin (which was a separate purchase).
• With ProShow Gold 8, you can now output videos in H.264 video formats with no additional plugin required.
• This enables output for modern devices like iPhones and iPads, and enables the HTML5 Video output feature.

New! Additional Preferences to Customize ProShow

• New preference in Miscellaneous / Startup lets you automatically load the last used show when ProShow starts.
• New preference in Show Defaults / Default Slide Settings lets you create new slides that start with the show’s default settings, instead of the traditional behavior of inheriting the settings of the neighboring slide.
• New preference in Appearance / Main Window lets you disable the ability to reposition panes in the main interface, preventing accidental issues with panes getting repositioned or undocked.
• All preferences are accessed from Preferences under the Edit menu.

New! Even More…

• ProShow Gold can now optionally open shows saved in ProShow Producer, and will automatically strip out any settings that don’t work with ProShow Gold. Perfect if you want to give Producer a try and accidentally overwrite one of your existing shows.
• When working with Slide Styles, you can now filter effects by recommended time. Easily find effects that work best with short durations or effects designed to last a little longer.Once you’ve found the perfect effect, you can now apply the effect’s recommended time to the slide instantly by clicking the Apply Timing button. The slide’s time will be automatically adjusted to match the recommended time for the effect.
• Always prefer to use the recommended effect times? A new preference sets ProShow to automatically ask you to apply the recommended time when you apply a Slide Style effect.
• The Slide Inspector pane (enabled from the Window menu) now lists the fonts used on the currently selected slide, making it easier to figure out which fonts are used where.
• New compatibility warnings appear when you access certain older output formats that are no longer widely supported. This helps avoid creating output in a format that may not be easily viewed. Each warning includes a recommendation on the best output format for today’s technology. Of course, you can always continue creating output in these legacy formats if you have a specific need.

Tons of Fixes and Enhancements

• Improved video formats used for online sharing service to improve compatibility and quality
• Improved video import to automatically correct rotation for videos taken on most cell phones
• Improved Collect Show Files feature to detect and warn when the destination path is too long
• Improved caption fly in/fly out effect behavior so that custom times are maintained when selecting a different effect
• Improved random transition selection to prevent incompatible transitions from being applied
• Improved Slide Style creation window now displays selected categories in alphabetical order
• Improved the message shown the monitor resolution is too low for ProShow to function to indicate that display scaling may be the issue
• Improved the scale of position values for layers and captions in the Customize Menu window to improve usability and consistency
• Improved visibility of the expand/collapse icons in the Video for Web, Devices and Computers window
• Improved wording in sharing service upload confirmation windows
• Fixed application of master volume option on video output
• Fixed incorrect tooltip for Preview Zoom in Slide Options window
• Fixed status indicator after installing updated package from Download Effects and Content window
• Fixed update problem in Slide Options after reordering slides in the Slide List
• Fixed issue where Edit Theme window could show the wrong icon for some transitions
• Fixed issue with incorrect highlighting of effect filters in the Edit Theme window
• Fixed issue where incorrect list of effects could be displayed when Show Enabled is used in the Edit Theme Window
• Fixed issue where page thumbnails in the Customize Menu window did not always update appropriately
• Fixed issue where toggling caption visibility in the Customize Menu window would not properly update the Loop All / Play All option settings
• Fixed issue with incorrect display of menu preview when using 4:3 menus for output
• Fixed issues with the display of the grid when using a 4:3 menu in the Customize Menu window
• Fixed issue where multiple files could not be dragged+dropped into the Timeline correctly
• Fixed issue where the Slide List could incorrectly indicate the open slide after deleting one or more slides
• Fixed issue where flagging and unflagging slides did not support Undo/Redo
• Fixed issue where select all/none buttons did not properly enable/disable when importing content from a third party service
• Fixed issue where shows opened from the Recent menu were not added to the current project
• Fixed issue where some images could be flipped when imported
• Fixed issue where toolbar for Lightbox could fail to appear
• Fixed issue with alignment of text of the Writing Disc window
• Fixed issue with incorrect tab changing in Slide Options when toggling caption visibility
• Fixed issue with incorrect warning when deleting a Transition Style that had previously been applied to a slide in the current show
• Fixed issue with missing entries in the Slide Options captions list
• Fixed issue with rendering custom video files when audio is disabled
• Fixed issues with extension used in Flash FLV output
• Fixed issues with size of output windows on low resolution monitors in Windows 10
• Fixed issues with zero-byte videos being created during Blu-ray output
• Fixed problem where dragging+dropping a file into a layer that contains missing content wouldn’t properly mark the content as found.
• Fixed problem where Find Missing Files could report that files are still missing after they have been found
• Fixed problems with audio tracks that use ending trim and negative offset values
• Fixed stability issue when creating Blu-ray output
• Fixed stability issue when the Music Library does not properly download thumbnails
• Fixed stability issue when undoing a change while the Soundtrack tab of Show Options is open
• Fixed stability issue with applying certain transitions after a blank slide
• Fixed stability issue with setting a custom thumbnail when creating a transition
• Fixed stability issue with toggling effect filters in the Edit Theme window

ProShow 8’s new redesigned wizard is more powerful and better than ever. It automatically picks effects and timing based on the theme selected, music, and desired energy level. A one-stop access to easily mix your content, music, and FX to create a professional slide show. Check out the new wizard in the video walk-through below.

Using the Wizard in ProShow 8 – Part 1

Using the Wizard in ProShow 8 – Part 2

Create one continuous video made up of separate shows with the ‘Combine Shows’ tool in ProShow 8. Simply select which shows you want to combine, make any additional changes, and publish.

Now you can output your shows directly to USB flash drives in ProShow 8. This gives you the ability to play high quality HD videos on your smart TV, without using any DVD or Blu-ray hardware. 

Get a quick overview of how to add and edit your video clips when using ProShow Gold or ProShow Producer. You can trim, colorize, set audio adjustments and more.

Learn to easily import content directly from your Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms. Add images to your show by simply clicking the main import icon in the toolbar or import directly into the Wizard by clicking the icon at the top of the content area.

Visually browse and preview through the fonts available to find the right one for your slideshow. You can easily customize the sample text to match the selected caption. Also, the new symbol browser lets you see the characters of a selected font, and you can browse specialty symbol fonts.

Looking for a quick and easy way to load your ProShow Gallery in Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 10? Use this quick tip below to push any page you’re viewing in your new Edge browser directly to the vintage Internet Explorer 11 browser with minimal effort.

 
 

Step 1

In the Edge browser, click the three (. . .) dots on the upper-right hand side of the browser and select Open with Internet Explorer from the drop down menu.

Step 2

When Internet Explorer opens, make sure you click the Allow button on the bottom to allow the Photodex Presenter plug-in to run.

Step 3

After you allow the plug-in to run, you should see your show load. Click the thumbnail to start the show from the menu

If no menu is enabled on the show, it should automatically start playing in your browser.

Learn how to split audio in your show soundtrack using ProShow 8. Fade, trim, adjust volume, and more to your audio.

Publish slideshows in HD quality to a DVD disc that’s playable on all Blu-ray players with the new AVCHD output in ProShow 8. Making an AVCHD disc is almost the same as any other disc output. The difference is that AVCHD does not support menus and is only compatible with Blu-ray players. However, you can add multiple shows and include extra content just like DVD and Blu-ray discs.

Follow along and learn how to output in AVCHD format for ProShow Gold 8 and ProShow Producer 8.

Learn more about the new AVCHD feature in ProShow 8 here: Burn HD Video to DVD with the New AVCHD Feature

For computers with newer Nvidia or Intel graphics cards, ProShow 9 has a new hardware accelerated encoding option for many MPEG-4 video output formats. Hardware acceleration moves the video encoding from the CPU to the GPU, allowing the CPU to focus on the actual rendering of the frames. This usually results in a significant improvement in rendering speed. This option will be especially helpful for those with a slower CPU with less cores.

This option can be found in the following publishing formats:

• Video For Web, Devices, and Computers (Not available for all presets)
• USB Flash Drive
• Vimeo
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Smugmug

Intel Integrated GPUs

A compatible Intel CPU is necessary and a display typically needs to be connected to the Intel video output on the motherboard or laptop. Using an Intel GPU with a separate graphics card may prevent this option from being available. See this list for all supported CPUs.

Nvidia GPUs

Although a direct list of cards is not available through Nvidia’s site, this page that may be helpful in determining if your GPU supports hardware accelerated encoding.

AMD graphics cards are not supported at this time.

Drivers

Drivers must be relatively up to date for this feature to be available in ProShow. Older drivers may result in a message that says “This system’s GPU or the current driver does not support accelerated encoding.” Please see your graphics card manufacturer’s website for the latest driver downloads.

Limitations

An important note about hardware encoding is that ProShow relies on the capabilities that are hardcoded into the graphics card itself. The resultant videos may not be as optimized in terms of the size-to-quality ratio as they would with the software encoder. This is more true for videos created with Intel GPUs than with those created from Nvidia GPUs. For most users, this tradeoff should be fine, but if achieving the smallest file size is important, you may want to uncheck the acceleration option prior to creating your video. Additionally, the limitations of the GPU’s hardware encoder mean that this option isn’t available for all formats.

CREATIVE

NEW! Layer Filters

• All new layer filters let you add photo+video effects easily
• Over 45 built-in layer filters
• Combine layer filters with other effects like Slide Styles and transitions
• Use the layer filter browser to quickly pick filters with a real-time preview
• Easily apply effects like sepia, HDR, film, and more

NEW! Follow Filter

• Create photos, videos and captions that move together
• Use the follow filter to have one layer or caption follow another
• Pick what gets followed – position, zoom, rotation or tilt
• Specify custom offsets to create collages and grids
• Keep captions pinned to their photos
• Create multi-image layouts easier than ever

NEW! Motion Filters

• Add quick animations to any photo or video
• Over 150 built-in, professionally designed motion filters
• Combine fly in, normal, and fly out motion filters for unique effects
• Fly In motion filters animate how a photo or video come onto the screen
• Normal motion filters animate the photo or video during the slide
• Fly Out motion filters animate how a photo or video leaves the screen
• Customize speed and duration of motion filters
• Combine motion filters with layer filters, Slide Styles and transition effects

WORKFLOW

NEW! Color Tool

• All-new color palettes let you pick from built-in, curated sets of colors
• Create your own color palettes with your favorite colors
• See complimentary colors to help you create the perfect color scheme
• Variations show you slightly different versions of the current color to help you pick the perfect shade
• Improved color tool gives you a bigger preview of the current color
• See the original color and your new color side-by-side for quick comparisons

IMPROVED Video Importing

• Adding video clips to your shows just got a whole lot faster
• Up to 3x faster importing for videos
• Improved video import quality for many formats

IMPROVED Vignettes

• New vignette presets let you apply pre-defined vignettes with just a click
• Several built-in vignette presets included
• Create your own presets using your favorite vignette styles
• The vignette tool now remembers the last used settings

PUBLISHING

NEW! Publishing History

• See a list of outputs created for any show
• Quickly see what you’ve created, and when
• Easily find where published videos are saved
• Open published videos, or open their location in Windows Explorer

NEW! Publishing Queue

• Prepare multiple outputs in advance and queue them up
• Run the queue when you’re ready, and let ProShow create all the output
• Perfect for letting ProShow create all your videos while you’re away from the computer
• Manage the queue anytime – add, remove, and reorder queued outputs

NEW! 4K Video Output

• Create ultra-high definition videos with new 4K video output presets
• Easily access from the Video for Web, Devices and Computers window
• 4K video is 4 times higher resolution than 1080p video
• Suitable for creation and use on faster, modern computers

IMPROVED Video Output

• Improved video publishing for many formats
• Faster video encoding, up to 1.5x faster than previous versions
• Improved support for PAL MPEG-4 videos
• New an improved profiles in Video for Web, Devices and Computers

NEW! Hardware Video Encoding Support

• Get up to 2x faster H.264 video encoding on supported computers
• Works with dedicated NVidia and Intel video encoding hardware found on many higher-end video cards

And More

• New preference to always use a default font of your choosing for captions, instead of the last used font
• Improved Remix tool for the Wizard now remembers and maintains single-image/single caption combinations
• Improved Wizard preview now lets you save your show from within the wizard, great for trying different versions of a show
• Caption Motion Filters have replaced Caption Behaviors, and are now found in the new Filters tab
• Easily opt-out of WebM output when creating HTML5 video, which makes creating HTML5 output almost twice as fast
• Improved defaults for Synchronize Show to Soundtrack enhances how audio is synchronized in your show
• Improved network support makes it easier to use files from network shares, or when folders are mapped to network locations
• Improved support for running in virtual machines with folders shared between Mac + Windows
• Many stability improvements across the software

Apply one of the 45+ all new built-in layer filters to your photos + videos with ProShow 9. You can apply layer filters on their own or you can customize your photos + videos even further by combining them with any of ProShow’s slide styles and transitions. From retro to sepia to simple black & white, you’ll discover a whole new level of creativity with these fun filters. Available in Both ProShow Gold and ProShow Producer 9.

Now you can output your shows directly to USB flash drives in ProShow 8. This gives you the ability to play high quality HD videos on your smart TV, without using any DVD or Blu-ray hardware.