Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (
More info?)
"jem" <jmessick@triad.rr.com> wrote in message
news:NlXZd.31009$_i3.1442153@twister.southeast.rr.com...
> I notice that Adobe now has an Elements version of Premier. From what I
> know about Photo Shop Elements I would think that means good things. I'm
> now using ScreenBlast 3.0 and am pretty satisfied with it. Any
> compelling reason to make the switch?
>
I don't know ScreenBlast, but I've had several of the Ulead products, as
well as the trial version of Premiere 6, and I think Premiere Elements beats
them -- to me, it's one of the best bargains out there.
First, I'll admit to my prejudice as a long-time Photoshop user -- IMHO, you
can't beat Adobe quality.
Also, unlike Ulead, Premiere Elements has rather sophisticated audio
editing. If your home videos are like mine, this is crucial to producing a
decent DVD -- unless, of course, you want to separately export and edit the
audio in a dedicated audio editor. Which, by the way, I often do, but if you
don't want that hassle, it's nice to be able to do so much to fix the audio,
within your video editor.
Unlike earlier Premiere versions that cost 7 times as much, Elements can
take you all the way through the authoring and burning process.
Also, Premiere Elements works with the ProCoder plug-in (undocumented, but
it works for me), which gives me the option of encoding to mpeg with that
Canopus product directly (somewhat better, I believe, than the mpeg encoder
built into Premiere), without having to save with another encoder, then
re-encode.
The video and audio filters are great, and all of them allow instant
previewing, without a separate step for rendering -- a handy improvement
over other products.
Also, the interface intuitively shows when parts of clips have been cut out.
Of course, there are lots of other features that you can read about -- I'm
just commenting on things that I find to be a positive contrast to other
programs.
Its only shortcomings, in my opinion (and I have submitted both of these to
Adobe as requested features) are:
1) The DVD authoring menus aren't flexible enough -- PrEl provides a decent
number of templates, but its native menu doesn't let you use your own image
as a background, or change the text of the buttons. But in fact, if you also
have Photoshop and don't mind some improvising, you can customize the menus
with considerable flexibility in Photoshop. It's an undocumented feature (do
a search in the Premiere Elements forum at .Adobe.com). Until Adobe improves
this, Ulead is better for menus -- or, you can add menus later, as I do, in
TMPGEnc DVD Author.
2) I wish they would add sliders for full adjustment of Levels (as available
in the free VirtualDub!). But they do have autolevels, brightness/contrast,
and also a rather powerful shadows.highlights tool, as in the newer
Photoshop releases. With files that really need the levels sliders, I use
VirtualDub, then save with the (free) Panasonic DV-AVI codec, then use the
(free) Canopus converter to make them better for use in Premiere. It works,
but I wish Abode could save me all that trouble by adding the levels
sliders.
In all, I again say it's a great value. I look forward to the next release,
which I hope will fix some of its limitations.
Hope this helps.
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