help dissecting an E-Magine Proview slide show

[slowpoke]

A friend is trying to extract the audio from a self-executing slideshow that was created long ago using E-Magine's Proview (or ProViewer?) software. I've transferred the file to my PowerMac G3 running 9.2 and while the file opens in various programs to display a small 3"x3" image (presumably the first image in the slide show), that image definitely doesn't account for the total 500kb file size (which must consist of lots of images and the audio of interest).

I opened the file in ResEdit and it didn't even have a resource fork and I saw nothing after opening it. Is there a trick to preserving the file after it's been emailed to me? I had to pass it through an OS X platform onto a memory stick, though maybe a better choice might be to remail it or ftp it into my G3.

On my G3, it shows an icon consisting of a white page with a turned corner and the letter "PC". When opened, the file doesn't automatically execute it and the G3 tries to find a suitable helper program. Is there a tweak I can apply to make it execute?

Does anyone have this software? All the download links I found were pointing to the same defunct source. The filename has an extension of .pvr.

The slideshow is baby pictures and audio so any help would be greatly appreciated. All we are trying to do is preserve the audio file (the pictures still exist as original photographs).

Contact me and I can forward the file if you want to take a crack at it.

--g

 

[slowpoke]

After retransferring it, I see that ResEdit shows that it does have a resource fork with a few icons and that's it. Opening the original file using a text editor shows that the first few dozen bytes look just like a typical JPEG file but there must be a proprietary format after the end of the first image where the rest of the images and sound file reside. That's where I'm stumped...not sure how to get the sound file out.

Quicktime, MPEG Streamclip, Preview, and a few other programs can't see anything beyond the first image.

I have it posted online. Let me know if you want a URL to try downloading it and analyzing it.

 

[avw]

The Archive is your friend:

http://web.archive.org/web/200101120449/http://e-magine.com/data/PV21Demo_sit.hqx

 

[slowpoke]

Oh! Awesome idea!

But I'm not having any success. The URL redirects to http://web.archive.org/web/20090416163023/http://www-e-magine.com which takes me back to the top of their site and not to a file. I tried burying the original URL to the hqx into a html page and try a "save link as..." but that didn't work either.

I'll poke around some more on the archive.org site. I'm not aware that it kept downloadable objects. I thought it only kept web pages and most images. But if it does keep downloadable non-browser objects then maybe I'll find it there.

--g

 

[avw]

I have no problems at all. Not with Classilla, not with iCab, even not with IE 5.1 .

No idea whats wrong at your browsers, but I checked it right now again.

And yes the Archive does not store all files, but at pages that were up several years the chance is in existance, that there were the files stored once. But you have to check every archived page, one by one (what can be extremely annoying if there are 50 up, ... ).

 

[slowpoke]

I dug around and did find a downloadable executable of Proview 2.1 on archive.org and it installs and runs. Unfortunately, it seems that the only files that it can edit are "working" files. The final executable versions that it spits out as standalone players don't seem to be openable.

I even set all the type, creator, and other attributes of my file to match that of a new standalone player produced by PV and my file still didn't run.

I'm waiting for my friend to send me the original version of the file on a floppy. There must have been something lost during the process of electronically sending me the file.

 

[superpantoufle]

Hi.

I know nothing about Proview, but the fact that your file transited on an OS X machine and was sent by mail leads me to think it may have lost its resource fork in the process. Why not binhex it prior to sending it?