Premiere Elements Reviewer's Comments

Premiere Elements 4, Adobe's version of video editing software continues to be an excellent video editing application but the stand-alone version lacks some of the advanced photo editing features that some other applications include. For that, you would also need its sister product Photoshop Elements. Premiere Elements is not limited to camcorder downloads; it can also download and edit MPEGs, AVI, Windows Media and Quick Time files. It works with many devices including cell phones, camcorders, digital still cameras or it can pull from unprotected DVDs. And now in version 4 you can upload your videos directly to YouTube.

 

Premiere Elements 4 includes a long list of editing tools with previews including scene indexing, audio conversion, transitions, drag and drop edits and many more useful and fun features. Also new in 4 you can view and sort video clips and still photos easily and quickly. 

Premiere Elements Screenshots. Click for more
       


Editing Tools/Options:  

Adobe Premiere Elements offers a large database of transitions and it is simple to drag and drop a transition into the timeline. You can also create your movie in the Timeline view, which lets you visualize the starting and ending point of every clip, transition, sound effect, and other event so you can more easily synchronize and sequence multiple events. 

 

We were also impressed with the large number of effect filters, the ability to create multilayered menus and the templates, tips and help menus to help you create custom, professional videos and burn DVDs or Blue-ray discs. You have access up to 99 audio and video tracks for sophisticated results. The "Movie Themes" templates make editing easy by applying the themes to a sequence of scenes creating a complete movie with transitions, effects and DVD menu. This product also creates title transitions with animated and scrolling titles. We liked the preview option that displays the chosen scene with effects so you can pick just the right one before committing.

Its photo editing section can rotate, resize and you can edit the properties such as hue but it does not have advanced features like automatic red-eye removal. The audio editing tools can trim, fade, mute, crossfade and record from a microphone.

Video Capture/Playback:  

The video capture and playback functions of the program worked smoothly without delays or cutouts. However, Adobe Premiere Elements 4 did freeze at one point during editing process. Save your work often while using this program and all video editing software. So, if it does freeze or crash, you won’t loose your work.    

The software walks you step-by-step through creating your DVD. You can also easily export your video to many formats.

Ease of Use:  

Adobe Premiere Elements is very easy to use. User-friendly tabs that allow users to Edit, Create Menus and Share videos. It displays a timeline view that will let you add video, music or audio clips and edit them to create a professional looking video.

 

As we did our edits, we didn’t encounter any glitches except the one time the program froze while adding transitions. The sound was clear during playback and the clips played seamlessly. The burned DVD had the same high quality.

Ease of Installation:  

We didn’t encounter problems during the installation or setup of this product.

Help/Support:  

The help and support of this product is excellent. There is a help section on the right hand side of the screen with tips and helps for every screen. In the How To section you can’t search by keyword, so we found the help section to be more useful. They also post an online FAQ section or you can contact them by telephone, email or through live chat.

Summary:  

Overall, we enjoyed our experience with Adobe—this product will help anyone create professional videos. Adobe Premiere Elements offers good collection of video, photo and audio editing tools. Combine this product with Adobe’s Photoshop Elements and you’ll have a complete media editing system.