Adobe Premiere Elements

steve-s · Post by **steve-s** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 8:15 pm

I am just about to purchase Adobe Photoshop Elements and realised for an extra £25 I can purchase Adobe Premiere Elements with it as a bundle. I currently use Videostudio 9 will Premiere Elements run along side it?? Has Premiere Elements any advantages or disadvantages over Videostudio 9. Does anybody else use Premiere Elements and Videostudio 9 Is the extra purchase worth it???

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:50 pm

They can certainly work side by side. Elements has some advantages, notably more video channels and, IMHO, much nicer templates to work with -- they look more 'professional'. There are also some downsides: the most notable is a very steep learning curve. Elements, as its name implies, is a cut down version of Adobe Premiere, which is a very sophisticated (read 'difficult') top end editing program designed more for professionals. Elements retains a lot of Premiere's complications. On the other hand, it has an excellent Help section/manual, if you can actually find the time to read it! The program is also not as 'instinctive' as VS9, and I find myself consulting Help for even the most simple actions. That being said, it produces excellent results.

The only other thing I don't really like about Premiere is its small preview window (though it is certainly better in performance than VS9's). You can enlarge it manually, but this obscures the video and audio timelines, and there is no automatic restore to normal (small) size -- you have to do that manually too and then squeeze it back into its box...

skier-hughes · Post by **skier-hughes** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 12:05 pm

Ken Berry wrote: The program is also not as 'instinctive' as VS9, and I find myself consulting Help for even the most simple actions. That being said, it produces excellent results.

The only other thing I don't really like about Premiere is its small preview window (though it is certainly better in performance than VS9's). You can enlarge it manually, but this obscures the video and audio timelines, and there is no automatic restore to normal (small) size -- you have to do that manually too and then squeeze it back into its box...

The first bit is very true, but once you understand it's way of working, like anything it is very easy to use. It uses the terminology of old fashioned linear editing, well sort of, in it's use, you have bins which you put your files in, which is how it used to be done, for example.

The second piece, Ken are you talking about Elements or Premeire full?
I've not tried elements as I use 6.5, though I should imagine it would be retained in the cut down version. If you want to reset the workspace windows to a size you like you can save your workspace,
Window > Workspace > Save.
Then you can either revert back to one of it's std workspaces or your own by using
Window > workspace > (your named one or one of the presets).

Premiere is definately better used with dual monitors, I also use a tv as a third large monitor for viewing the preview window.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 9:45 pm

Thanks for that, Graham. You learn something every day. Frankly, I had put the Elements screen size and restoring defaults or moving between different sizes, into the 'too hard' basket and not looked up the relevant part of the extensive Help files!

DiscCoasterPro · Post by **DiscCoasterPro** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 12:22 am

I just recently purchased PE2 with Photoshop Elements. It was $149 with a $30 rebate. I thought that was good till Best Buy had it on sale for $79 with the $30 rebate! So I brought in the receipt and ad from Best Buy to Staples,where I bought it, and they gave me a 110% price guarantee

lol, so I got it for $71 bucks minus another $30. For $41 dollars its tough to complain about the program. But ....

I feel the same as Ken. I don't like the small preview window, and resizing does get in the way of other windows. Although two monitors is a solution, or workaround really, I think PE can easily redesign a few small things and end up with a very nice preview window. The large tabs take up much room as do the controls in the preview window. All the controls could be on the bottom of the preview screen rather than top and bottom, leaving lots more room for viewing.

I liked the ability to shade the display from within the program to make it easier on your eyes. The color was a little bright for me. The Photoshop program unfortunatley does not offer the same adjustments so I find myself cutting my monitor brightness if I use it. (talk about steep learning curve, wow)

dcp