Cotondog Loc: Saskatchewan, Canada

Sad news. I have been a ProShow Gold user for about 6 years. I'm sorry to see it go, but for now at least, the door is not completely closed.

dpfoto Loc: Cape Coral, FL

I have ProShow Producer, and it does all I need. I'll just keep using it. $25 a month is WAYYY too much for me. I'm not a fan of any subscription software.

Lucian Loc: From Wales, living in Ohio

Nor me, I hate they way they hold you to ransom. I have been using producer for many, many years.

David Kay Loc: Arlington Heights IL

Well of course then if you think the company and the program is that bad then don't buy it. No need to bad mouth them if you have no proof. As far as I can tell, evidently proshow was not making the money and had to go out of business. This company came up with a way to do similiar slide shows and make money in the process. Kudos to them. Charging what they need to sell their product is not a criminal activity or extortion and could subject you to criminal charges for saying so without proof. If photodex, would have raised their pricing to $250. per year for their program, you probably would also be calling them a fraud too.
As my Mother said, "if you can't say anything nice..............."

DSPhoto Loc: South Carolina

👍🏻 Thanks for that reminder.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

Sorry, but the burden of proof is on the salesperson, not on the customer. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being suspicious of people who are trying to sell you something. Rather than telling the customer "if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all" how about you tell the salesman "if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen?"

You are badmouthing the potential customer while defending strangers who are trying to sell us something and are making misleading statements in their sales pitch.

It would be pretty damned hard to loses money in their situation. One $250 sale a month would cover expenses. What do you imagine "staying in business" involves in this case?

That a company "came up with a way to do similar slide shows and make money in the process" is highly suspect. It looks more like the same people are re-branding the same product, not because they were losing money or had to "go out of business" - whatever that might mean in this sort of business - but rather because it is a deceptive way to extract more money from people - for basically doing nothing.

Mike

David Kay Loc: Arlington Heights IL

from your posting, "I won't burn down your house if you pay me every month" is not a service, it is a criminal activity, an extortion racket.

The company never said that so I don't know where you quote comes from and say that they are criminal and providing an extortion racket is actually criminal on your part. There are many many slide sow companies out there to choose from. Photodex will still be usable until your copy quits. So if you don't like this company don't buy their product, but calling them criminal and extortionists, without any proof is uncalled for on your part.

srt101fan

As I said before, I don't like the software subscription model either and I think the new slideshow software is way overpriced for my needs. But I have trouble understanding your cynicism. I don't see any "scam", no deception, no "hustle", just a company offering a product. If you don't like the product or the price, go look elsewhere.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

I am overstating things, of course, but someone needs to!

Sorry, but I do see what they are doing as a hustle. Had they been upfront about it, had they explained what they were going to do for the customers in exchange for steering them into the subscription model, that would be different. But they are taking the same product, playing some "we are going out of business but check out this new company" game in order to more efficiently steer people into the subscription model - by deceiving them.

I am shocked at how quick people are to defend the predators and the turn around and attack any critics of predatory marketing. Can people it remember when honesty and integrity were the rule, and these sleazy practices the exception? I tell Canon that I wish their products would break down more often because their support is so good. I tell B&H that I wish they made more mistakes, because it is such a pleasure to see how quickly they resolve any and all issues for the benefit of the customer. But companies like Canon and B&H are becoming more and more rare.

I think we should speak out against the trend towards dishonest marketing rather than simply rolling over for every new scheme to hustle us. I hope you check your bills from the telecoms scrupulously every month. There are almost always errors, and always in their favor. But hey I love my new smartphone and the crappy garbage Netflix and Amazon are streaming to me. "Streaming" - there's another con.

As for your "if you don't like it go look elsewhere" suggestion, that is getting harder and harder to do as a handful of tech companies gobble up everything, then raise prices and degrade quality and service. If they are successful with this subscription model on this program, it will be gobbled up by one of the big companies. That means $$$$$$ for the owners, and nothing for us.

They are not selling an honest product at an honest price. They are trying to leverage the position of a product in the marketplace to make a big score, all out of proportion to any value they are offering you and I, and using deception to accomplish their goal. They are asking you to commit to ongoing payments, with no commitment from them that they will provide anything to you other than a promise to not go into your machine and turn off the program. No doubt the terms of serviced say "subject to change at any time without notice."

Mike

Sunnely Loc: Wisconsin

I started with ProShow Gold about 8 years ago then updated to Producer. Periodically, would purchase pack of special effects at $20 per. I think I'll keep what I already purchased from Photodex rather than switch to that monthly $$$ subscription from the same old company renamed, Photo(cra)pia. Don't want that much $$$ invested to go to waste not to mention the lots, lots of time learning the old one. Just venting. I'll get over it.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

I am just venting, too.

I really like ProShow Producer, too, and will keep using it, no doubt. You used it for slide shows of Ed's flower images, yes? Beautiful.

Mike

Sunnely Loc: Wisconsin

Yes. Really impressed with it. Thanks to Ed.

You probably saw some of them.

Why not once again, at least one. Should be in HD.

A Legrand special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CVEA3WMSMw

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

Well done! Watching in HD. Everything is great - the music, the images, the editing...

Mike

jgunkler

And, Mike, it's worse than that. They've removed all Proshow content from the internet: no more Help files, no more free sound library, no more free templates nor instructional videos nor access to the user group nor support of any kind. They've taken away anything that helps us use Proshow in order to force us to pay their exorbitant subscription. I'm outraged! There are laws for many products that require companies to support them for a period of time after they stop selling them. But not for this software. The least they could have done was provide a period of time for us to download whatever we were "owed" by their promises of freebies and sent the announcement to all registered users.
Protopia can rot in hell. I'm never buying it.