Is proscan really worth it over OEM programming software?

[KQ4VKM]

Greetings all, I am new(ish) to the world of radio scanners and got a Uniden SDS100 for Christmas recently. I have been attempting to program it with the Sentinel software from Uniden, with a good deal of success. I am able to program in essentially everything I want but I have found that Sentinel is rather annoying and unintuitive to learn/use. I've heard many people both here and elsewhere talk about "proscan" and how good it is for programming scanners of many various makes and models. I've tried to do my own research but I figured I'd ask here: is proscan really worth the money? What improvements would you say it has over the software offered by manufacturers like Uniden? Thanks for any help!

 

[noaim]

It's not realistic. It would take years to do, 10 to 15 years. ProScan is developed on .NET Framework. It's not easy to convert to a Mac version plus there are over a hundred Win32 specific APIs that would have to be redone and all the Win Forms. I wouldn't be able to offer upgrades while in development so it wouldn't be fair to the Windows users. Yes, I have a MacBook Air 13-inch Laptop so acquiring the equipment isn't a factor but TIME is.

Many people are using ProScan with Parallels. 1st link that came up in my search.
Proscan compatibility with Parallels 14 desktop on Mac

I am in IT and fully understand what you are saying. That's why companies get entire teams to work on other platforms. I would imagine it's too expensive to do that. WIth that being said I purchased a I7 laptop with 16gb of ram and 512gb ssd dell latitude off ebay for 250 to run the software for the scanners

 

[crippledchicken]

It's for sure worth the one time fee!

 

[Scan125]

Well I'll chip in here as the Scan125, Scan75 and other kit software author.

Yes Proscan is really worth the money.

Proscan supports a multitude of scanners and does so very well. It may, or may not, lack some features that are available it "single scanner model support" software but that is to be expected.

I can vouch that just writing for one scanner is not easy, is time consuming, not error free, etc. so if nothing else there is that long term support issue especially where somebody unearths and edge case issue/bug. Do that for multiple scanners and one has a steep hill to climb and keep climbing.

Add RadioReference data use ability and you already have some plus points to add to the case.

As for supporting other platforms like Linux or MAC then it could be done but what is the value in time etc. to the program author? Someone writing for Linux or MAC would face the same porting time and issues going to Windows.

As mentioned by another poster it takes teams od developers to create cross platform QUALITY software especially when programming for complex and multitudes of different hardware and their APIs and features.

 

[Chris0516]

Well I'll chip in here as the Scan125, Scan75 and other kit software author.

Yes Proscan is really worth the money.

Proscan supports a multitude of scanners and does so very well. It may, or may not, lack some features that are available it "single scanner model support" software but that is to be expected.

I can vouch that just writing for one scanner is not easy, is time consuming, not error free, etc. so if nothing else there is that long term support issue especially where somebody unearths and edge case issue/bug. Do that for multiple scanners and one has a steep hill to climb and keep climbing.

Add RadioReference data use ability and you already have some plus points to add to the case.

As for supporting other platforms like Linux or MAC then it could be done but what is the value in time etc. to the program author? Someone writing for Linux or MAC would face the same porting time and issues going to Windows.

As mentioned by another poster it takes teams od developers to create cross platform QUALITY software especially when programming for complex and multitudes of different hardware and their APIs and features.

Well I wouldn't say Proscan is really worth the money, I would say.......

PROSCAN IS REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, WORTH THE $$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!