Photo Mechanic vs. IView Media Pro

Grischa_Ruschendorf · #15 11-01-2005, 11:44 PM

Virgile,
Portfolio also creates an offline preview image (that can be activated under preferences). I believe it's around 1000 pixels wide. Keep in mind: it will increase your catalog significantly as compared to just have your thumbnails offline.
grischa

RobertEdwards · #16 11-02-2005, 12:21 AM

Hi,

Portfolio can build previews up to 2000px, v8 may go one better?

iView stores everything in its catalog including thumbnails and previews. Portfolio stores its previews separate to the database, so in theory it should be faster to start up, close, save, backup and possibly even run.

Having written all that iView MediaPro 3 is no slouch. 3 is designed only for Windows XP and Mac OS X and does everything a lot faster than MediaPro v2.x.

-- Robert.

john_Beardsworth · #17 11-02-2005, 03:07 AM

Not sure about startup (iView's quick) though there will be an impact when you save iView's bigger catalogue file. Portfolio's external preview storage is handy for backup as its catalogue file is smaller and you can choose whether to backup the previews and do so incrementally, rather than backing up a bigger preview-inclusive catalogue. Portfolio v8 rtains the 2000px limit but now uses these larger previews "for creating CD's, DVDs, websites, and emails, making the process of sharing even offline files significantly faster."

BTR Robert, where is iView 3's option to set these previews? RG's article says it was under the main Edit menu but I don't see it.

John

RobertEdwards · #18 11-02-2005, 05:53 AM

Hi John,

To make preview images in MediaPro 3 go Edit > Full Screen Previews, choose the size and quality, then rebuild the thumbnails (ctrl+B). Using 1280px previews with normal quality almost quadruples the catalog size.

Previews appear to be a catalog wide decision, you can't choose which items to have previews (typically offline media) and which don't, such as items on a local drive.

There is a bug in the latest version (build 4273) of 3 where using Previews prevents iView using the large embedded JPEG in RAW files like NEFs. It seems to be using the low res JPEG preview which look very pixelated. Oh well, v3.01?

-- Robert.

john_Beardsworth · #19 11-02-2005, 06:03 AM

Hi Robert

I'll log this over at the iView forum. I simply don't have Edit > Full Screen Previews.

John

RobertEdwards · #20 11-02-2005, 06:50 AM

Hi John,

I simply don't have Edit > Full Screen Previews

It was never in any of the public betas for Windows. You need the full release version.

-- Robert.

john_Beardsworth · #21 11-03-2005, 04:07 AM

Hi Robert

I believe there was a beta-related bug. The About screen showed version 3 but said it was licensed to the beta trial, which I uninstalled before loading 3. Now 3 is saying my trial has expired - odd really as it's a new version, not 2.x, so I'd expect to get another trial. Whatever! I'll just have to believe in this feature's existence.

John