15-Minute Reviews :: Wondershare iPod Slideshow v1.0.0
Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is Wondershare iPod Slideshow version 1.0.0 by Wondershare Software – An application to allow you to make photo slideshows for your iPod or other formats.
Software Description
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“Wondershare iPod Slideshow is an innovative and easy to use tool to show off your imagination and create your entertaining slideshows on iPod. Tons of dazzling transition & Ken-burns styled effects, powerful photo/video editing,various photo/video formats to iPod mp4 files converting, and the program’s simplified three-step workflow enables you to make show-n-tell custom movies for enjoying easily on the go!”
Quick Pros
- Interface is easy to get started and easy to follow
- Isn’t just limited to iPhone
- 91 different transition settings and 22 different movement effects
- Ability to edit photo or video with various effects
- You can add music or other audio tracks with the slideshow
- Speed has improved in speed comparatively
Quick Cons
- Could have had the sound record functionality for photos as well as video
- All audio could deal with volume settings since it is possible to layer audio
- Got an error when trying to access files from a network source
- Wouldn’t accept two AVI files even though plays back fine on system
- Won’t handle inserting mp4 videos
- Can not browse timeline while preview occuring
- Crashed on test system
Expansion
You may be wondering, if you’re a regular reader of my reviews, why the above look oddly familar. That is because this is essentially the same application as Wondershare iPhone Slideshow v1.0.0 that I reviewed on August 13th. The essential difference is this one is aimed towards iPods more than iPhones, though any device that can play back MP4s can view this title. Most of the major points were touched in the previous review of Wondershare iPhone Slideshow and actually end up being exactly the same; Even down to the number of transitions and frame effects. Sure, the main screen’s preview area is in the shape of an iPod’s top half instead of the iPhone, but that is simple cosmetic difference. I will make a few notes however on a few other observations I noticed.
First off, the resolution selections are weak, capping out at 320×240. While this is good for most iPod products, this will look poor on the new iPod Touch (480×320 resolution). However, this setting will likely look really good on the new iPod Nano, if you can see the transition effects. They should support a wider range of resolutions and samplerates, but what would be nicer is the option to work on the bitrate.
The speed seems to have improved with this release and I have no idea on why this may be. My test system and workstation system are the same hardware, but might be slight differences. However, this time it took 2 minutes and 10 seconds to process 44 images and 1 video (In comparison, the last review was 5 minutes and 22 seconds for 28 images and the same video. I’m not sure if the resolution of the resulting video may have made this difference however.
On a final note; As mentioned above, I had to run today’s test on my main workstation; The reason is that this application would not run on my test system (The previous title did run on my test system). When I attempt to launch the title, I review the error: Application Error: The application failed to initialize properly (0×0150001). Click on OK to terminate the application. so I am not sure where things went wrong here; I spent a few minutes messing around but unfortunately could not figure it out quickly.
Final Verdict
As with my last review , they ring true here. There are bugs, but being first revision it does show promise. A thought I had; Why can not Wondershare simply roll these two products into the same title, since they are essentially the same, especially with the release of the iPhone Touch now? For free, if you have an iPod and want to do a little more with your photos on your iPod, this may be a solution for you if you don’t get the same crashbug. As for paying $29.95 for this title; As mentioned last time, this title needs to mature more before I feel it will be worth this much. The crashbug does concern me; Make sure you try a demo before you buy.
Posted by BladedThoth on Monday, September 10, 2007
