Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 [OLDER VERSION]

Customer Rating:
Summary: Now my videos can be enjoyed
Comment: I found that Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 meets my needs for video editing. I now intend to upgrade to Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0 [I think they skipped a few numbers.]

I had been working on editing of still images and was ready to advance to video editing because digital video is becoming a bigger part of my experience. I get videos from:

1. Conversion of old 8 mm movies to digital video¡V I have a large inventory of these
2. My children have digital video recorders and send me some of their work.
3. My digital camera allows me to take short videos

Editing these, and integrating them, would create videos more enjoyable to watch.

There are many video editing programs available starting with free ones such as Microsofts Movie Maker. Then there are many programs with costs in the $40 to $100 range. The top of the line includes Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 which lists at $800, Apple Final Cut Studio 2 at $1,300 and many others, some even more costly.

Adobe Premiere Elements costs $80. It is relatively easy to learn which is good for beginners and it contains a host of features which appeals to intermediate editors. I had been using lesser capable video editors so I took some time to get acquainted and comfortable with the more advanced Premiere. I am glad I stayed with it for I now can do some marvelous editing operations which make my final edited videos much more watchable. I am hooked on Adobes Premiere Elements.

Version 3.0 allows me to import slide slows from Elements and convert them to videos while adding synchronized audio, fancier transitions and active video titles. I can also do some pan-and-zoom which makes me feel like Ken Burns [produce of TV documentaries The Civil War I, Baseball and many others]. These videos are then more interesting to watch than the initial slide shows.

Premiere Elements 3.0 uses a Sceneline method for editing. Video files are imported and placed on a time line. They can then be rearranged and edited. The Timeline view can then be used to add special effects, titles and audio [I wish I had Ed MacManns voice and a better knowledge of music to add to my videos.] The screen is well organized and easy to use to bring up different operations. Editing includes back-light correction and color correction, both features are very useful for me. Special effects are available but need to be used with care, too many can distract from the video.

At present, I only need to save edited files so they can be seen on my computer. Next I will use the capability to export to DVD that can be watched on a TV with DVD player. That will enable more friends and family to enjoy my edited videos. However Premiere Elements also allows output to IPod and other external devices which are becoming more prevalent.
Adobes Premier Elements 7 is undoubtedly even more feature-rich and capable. I will upgrade from 3.0 to 7 and produce videos that my family will enjoy watching.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Technical Assistance left wanting
Comment: I upgraded to Adobe Primere Elements 3.0, since the company seemed to have a good reputation and version 1.0 worked flawlessly on my computer. From the beginning (May 2007) I kept getting error messages when reading in from my camcorder. They had me buy another Gig of memory, load minor patches, get upgrades from Apple, but nothing seemed to work. We checked by loading DVIO.exe and the camcorder would down load just fine, as it would via the windows application. Their technical help said they would escalate this and they would call back. Several months later I called and they had closed my request without a call to me. So we reopened it, re-tried a few things, then escalated it again. Several months later I called again and found out it was closed again without any contact with me. Again, we re-tried a few things, escalated it and NOTHING. It is now January of 08, I called again and the next day they called back and told me to delete everything ADOBE on my computer - then reload the operating system (which means I would have to reload all my software). When I called a talked to a supervisor, I asked if ADOBE really cared if there software ever worked on my machine and he indicated that they really did NOT care if I continued to be a customer. So if you buy an ADOBE product and you have problems that are not simple - you are on your own!

Customer Rating:
Summary: Good software, but a bit stripped down.
Comment: I really like the ability to scrub from frame to frame, but APE is only limited to 30fps, and I need to be able to scrub at a selectable framerate. The fact that I can't makes this software almost useless to me, and the fact that the audio placement feature is kind of buggy made the software useless the rest of the way. I've given it a fair shake, but it's not on my list of favorites.

Customer Rating:
Summary: MPEG 2 Deficiant.
Comment: If you have a Sony camcorder, plan on buying a plugin that costs as much, if not more, than this software. I love the interface, love the extras. This is definitely and Adobe product, it just doesn't natively edit MPEG2's.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Horrible Stability
Comment: Software is good but we have constant crashing problems. We have a 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, 3GB RAM, RAID 1 hard drives and Windows XP. My father-in-law attempts to use it on a Dell system with the same issues. I concur with the other person who questions whether Adobe performs enough testing or QA. It is also ridiculus that Adobe wants full price for an upgrade after just a year.