Adobe Premiere Elements sucks?

[llRekcusll]

I was talking to my friend (who's really smart, but a fuk&$% moron at the same time) who says premiere elements is the SAME exact thing as premiere pro with less features, and the interface isn't very different at all. He told me there was no point to learning premiere with elements which is a worthless piece of software, and I should go straight to Premiere Pro.

I disagree with him because I've played with both and I found elements a lot easier to use.

What do you guys think about the Adobe elements line of software? specifically premiere in this case

[JohnnyMalaria]

Certainly, Elements shows its strong relationship to Pro, as suggested here:

http://manifest-tech.com/media_pc/adobe_prem_el_3.htm

I can fully understand how you find Elements easier. I was a seasoned Premiere user for 14 years from the original version 1.5 (in 1994!) until Pro 1.5. I often struggled with the interface which became increasingly more confusing/less intuitive and so recently I moved away from Premiere.

Elements has a lot to offer for its price and if you find you out-grow it, you can upgrade to Pro for a discounted price.

[llRekcusll]

I see, thanks for the advice. would you recommend starting with elements though? or going straight to pro?

what kind of editor do you use now? like final cut or avid?

[JohnnyMalaria]

I just checked the prices on Adobe's website - Premiere Pro CS3 = $799, upgrade from Elements 4.0 = $699, Elements 4.0 = $99.

So you could get both for the same price. It may make the learner curve a bit easier.

I use Sony's Vegas 8.0 now. I've tried a variety over the years. It all boils down to which one fits you best. If you like Elements, you'll probably like Pro. If you don't like Elements, you may hate Pro. At least the trial versions will help you decide.

[kimco52]

You can download most any Adobe product to try it out for 30 days free. Download Elements and try it out. Then download Pro and try it out. See for yourself which you want/need and what works best for you.

I have used Premiere starting with version 4 in 1994/1995. I have upgraded all the time. I also have Elements (came with hardware). I have used it to see how it works and I can tell you there is a difference. I stick with Premiere Pro. Has Premiere always been great? No. But, it is what I started with and progressed with so it "fits like a good glove". Are there better products? Probably. I started with the Miro/Pinnacle DC30 card and went through it's problems and went the DC500 and it's things, including when Pinnacle dropped Premiere and introduced their own program. I tried it and had problems so I stopped. Others liked it better.

It all depends on what you start with and get accustomed to. You are at the stage where you can try different ones and decide which one you want to spend more time learning all the ins/outs of and which works best for you and your budget.

[Tman08]

Can someone please help me out.

I downloaded premiere pro cs3 trial and....i hate it!

I go to import my videos and each type i try to import, gives me a compatibility failure.

Am I doing something wrong? Its taken me almost a month to figure it out, and my trial is almost expired.

[guns1inger]

What is your source ?

Remember that Premiere and Vegas etc are designed for professionals, and editable formats such as DV. They don't like working with end playback formats such as Divx/Xvid and even Mpeg-2 to a degree.

[edDV]

All this comes down to input - output goals and the kinds of processing you want to do.

Many of the Pro programs lock to the types of jobs you want and what the employer is using. It is all about fitting into their workflow.

Premiere has been around for a long time and has resisted elegance at all costs. Adobe has been poor at ground up product innovation (other than postscript/acrobat) so relies on an acquisition and integration strategy.

I got fed up with Premiere Pro around v1.5 as they forced a move to the suite to get basic DVD authoring or audio processing ... and none of it worked.

I had been a user of Sonic Foundry's SoundForge and tried their ground up Vegas product intended for the one man band videographer. I started using it and now find it handles my core needs.

Now I only use Premiere Pro for heavily layered graphics projects that need tight Photoshop and Illustrator integration.

The average user should stay away from Premiere Pro. It is intended for corporate type media integration. If that is the career you want then go for it.

[kimco52]

I have read gunslinger and EdDV's posts over time and generally I don't disagree with them. I can't argue with anything they say here either. As said earlier, to each his own and what they get used to and use. I have been with Premiere for a long time and although I have had problems with it on and off, I stuck with it for what I do and it works for what I need to do. I still use version 6.5 on one computer because I still have "files" that originally only worked with it and I keep it for that. I am up to using PP2 mostly now because of the multiple cam editing. It works for me.

What we have here is another newbie that signs up and immediately asks questions without looking around to figure out how to get answers. For me, there is not enough information given about what Tman08 did and is trying to do. I know he is trying to input clips but gives no info about his setup, how he started PP3, what types of files he is inputting, etc. I have not seen the error he is getting but my base program is setup correctly for what I am inputting (DV) and I just do it with no problems.

You say that "import my videos and each type i try to import, gives me a compatibility failure."
What types are you trying to import and where are you getting them from? Not all avi's are the same. What is your setup? Check your audio and video setups and see that they match what you are importing. If you are importing via "capture" what are your capture settings?

If you are importing a file that you got off the internet or from somewhere else, that could be your problem as gunslingermentioned.
Working with files from someone/somewhere else is always suspect. I downloaded CS3 version a while back and tried it and could not see much difference between that and the CS2 version other than HD capabilities which I don't need yet and I did not have any problem with my current scenarios.

I agree with what EdDV said about the suite. However, I use the main ingredients from the suite so it is not an issue with me.

But then again, I use DVDitPro for authoring menu driven DVD's. Just what I was used to. For just putting the timeline to a simple DVD, I'll just burn it from PP.

[lordsmurf]

I use Adobe Premiere for editing.
SoundForge for audio work.
Ulead DVD Workshop or Apple DVD Studio Pro for authoring.

Not a believer in "suites" by any means. Pick the product that works best.
I will admit I own the CS3 Master Collection, but I want Encore for FlashDVD's, not standard DVD-Video's.

I jumped from Premiere 6.5 to CS3, and I still use 6.5 for a lot of quick projects. CS3 is a pig on resources, and works slower on my non-dualcore older system. CS3 is reserved mostly for streaming content needs, while 6.5 is what is still used for DVD video/menu editing.

You can pick up older full legit versions of Premiere for a song on sites like eBay.
Be careful to avoid fake pirated versions.

[poorlyhdlvr]

I use it , works decent but onvisouly lacks some features I would rather have

[stantheman1976]

I just checked the prices on Adobe's website - Premiere Pro CS3 = $799, upgrade from Elements 4.0 = $699, Elements 4.0 = $99.

So you could get both for the same price. It may make the learner curve a bit easier.

I use Sony's Vegas 8.0 now. I've tried a variety over the years. It all boils down to which one fits you best. If you like Elements, you'll probably like Pro. If you don't like Elements, you may hate Pro. At least the trial versions will help you decide.

Have you gotten to use the multi camera mode much yet? I absolutely friggin love it. I've shot two high school pageants with 3 angles recently and was able to complete them in a fraction of the time it used to take.

[kimco52]

"Have you gotten to use the multi camera mode much yet? I absolutely friggin love it. I've shot two high school pageants with 3 angles recently and was able to complete them in a fraction of the time it used to take. "

Depends on what you are doing. For a straight multicam shoot with nothing special, I prefer to use my analog/digital switcher. It is quicker. I do many one hour "programs" which use nothing more than dissolves and wipes and it is quicker to sync them up and mix them with the switcher in real time. I feed that into the computer and add opens/closes/graphics at that time.

You need to input all clips into the computer to use them in nle. In real time, it would take 3 hours to input three one hour tapes into the computer. Mixing them as they go into the computer takes only one hour. If you do many in a short time, that is quicker (I usually edit 14-17 one hour shoots at a time).

However, yes do use the multicam editing when it is appropriate. I usually do it for shorter segments. I play it in real time and "switch" between the cameras as it plays. Then I go back and add the transitions I want for each take and adjust them.

Multicam is just another tool in the arsenal.... one I have wanted since I started using Premiere 4.2 way back then. Back when the motto was "Save" and save often.