Customer Reviews

Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 Plus Premiere Elements 2.0 [DVD]

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've been using PSE3 heavily for the past year, and now have PSE4. It's a nice improvement over PSE3 in some cool new features, plus several basic areas, notably documentation, startup speed, and scrolling speed.

First, the documentation has been completely rewritten. You know get a good-sized User Manual with many how-to's this year. I wish Adobe had more color in the guide, but least there is a full-color section at the end.

Second, the performance has been dramatically sped up. The slowest launch time of the Editor is down from 28 seconds to about 8 on my laptop. This should really sing on a much faster desktop drive! Also, the scrolling speed in the organizer is really smooth now...you get this really smooth continuous scrolling even in a very large catalog. (My catalog is >13,000 photos and videos.)

Finally, some of the new features are pretty amazing. While the File Browser is gone, I don't miss it because the Organizer is so cool. "Face Tagging" automatically finds the faces in your photos, and lets you tag by dragging tags onto the faces themselves, instead of onto a batch of images.

The Magic Selection Brush is pretty darn cool, letting you just mark "keep this" and "don't keep that" without having to do laborious selections. This is great when you want to take one person out of a picture, but you can also use it to select an area and then do all your color adjustments only on that area. It doesn't always work, but it's really cool -- especially since they linked it up to the great Quick Fix panel, and you can select with the wand, then edit just those pixels in the Quick Fix panel, instead of the whole image like in v3.0.

Overall, this is a really nice set of improvements, and I'm glad I got the new version!

For the price, I don't think these products can be beat anywhere.

I purchased this bundle in order to create a first birthday DVD for my daughter. It was extremely easy to import all the photos I wanted into Photoshop Elements. Organizing and editing the photos was very intuitive (and the tools are very powerful). I could have stopped here, using Photoshop Elements to crate a simple slide show set to music, but what fun would that be?

When I first started Premiere Elements, I was overwhelmend and didn't think I would ever be able to use it. So I took the (gasp!) tutorial and in about 30 minutes I had the confidence to do anything I wanted. I could not believe all the things I could do so easily (DVD menus with scene selectors, slide shows, incorporated video). One to the things I really wanted to do was have 4 video feeds all playing simultaneosly, with images superimposed on the video and set to music. This sounds difficult but was extermely easy with the software and a little imagination.

One note, I had a hard time buring from Premiere Elements directly to my DVD burner. The program would freeze before the actual DVD burn. As a workaround, I burned the movie to my hard drive first then used the software that came with my burner to burn the DVD. Even though this was an extra step It worked great for me. I would actually recommend this process as it allows you to view various iterations of your movie easily on your computer without wasting a DVD.

My movie turned out fantastic! I was a little overwhelmed by the entusiastic response I got from family and friends when I showed the video at my daughter's party.

I am very comomfortable using computers, but I had no previous experience in video creation or photo editing. I could not be happier with the results and I cannot recommend these products highly enough.

We are already planning annual sequals to this movie, a sort of video yearbook for our family.

For the non-professional artist and/or film-maker, this is as good as image-making gets. The combination of Photoshop Elements 4.0 and Premiere Elements 2.0 let you take your hobby to the very top without breaking the bank.
Despite running much slower than the 3.0 edition, Photoshop Elements 4.0 has a number of new improvements going for it: particularly when it comes to enhancing and arranging images. Flexible range of manipulative features were included in this regard. Still, I was disappointed that Adobe decided to remove the useful file-browser feature, (which was present in the Photoshop Elements 3.0 edition).
Also, Premiere Elements 2.0 is capable of handling any amateur video and audio assignment that you may want to assign to it, but be warned that it is memory-hungry. Running this video-editing application on any computer with less than 512MB of RAM may end-up testing your patience to the fullest. Unless your patience compares to that of the biblical Job, do consider it wise to upgrade your RAM (if it is less than 512MB). In terms of processor, any Pentium 4 (or its corresponding equivalent) will deliver a decent performance. The same applies to dual Pentium III equivalents. A single Pentium III processor (or its equivalent) is not the best option here!
Finally, another good thing about this software bundle is that they support a wide range of digital photo cameras and video cameras. The learning curve for both Applications is not that steep. For the average person, one week of dedicated studies (and practice) will get you mastering upto 90% of their capabilities.

This software is not really well suited for the novice with no aspirations of making truly compelling multimedia presentations. If you just want he basics, stick with one of the really cheap slideshow apps. This software will require some additional processing power (P4+) as you can see for some of the previous posts, so be sure to check the minimum requirements FIRST. However, if you have the technology and the time to invest in hobbyist-level video making, the PSE/PRE is by far the best choice for a total solution.

Integrated features include:
Organizing, Editing and preparing Still Images with PSE for use in a PRE movie.
Extensive DVD authoring, supporting motion menus and audio.
DVD Menu authoring using PSE.
Total creative conrol over all video, still, graphic, and audio elements using PRE.
AND MUCH MORE!
It will take some time and effort to learn how to use all these things, but if you make the investment you will find very few creative limitations when using this software to realize your vision and share it with friends and family.

I have not had much time to use Premiere Elements 2.0 yet, but my first impression is it's amazing what the level of control is!

I've used Windows Movie Maker and Sonic MyDVD 6.0 Deluxe and neither come close to Premiere Elements 2.0 as far as how much control and shear power you have over all your video and audio files. And the number of features and options so far seems to be much greater. I'm pretty blown away by it.

So far Premiere has been very stable and powerful. It does eat up lots of RAM. I'm very glad I went from 512MB to 1.23GB of RAM. At one point in my task manager I saw Premiere using up to 900MB of RAM! It generally hovered around 175MB-300MB. I'd recommend no less than 1GB of RAM for this thing. And this so far is without having Photoshop elements running at the same time. I did have both Photoshop El. (plus the photo browser) and Premiere El. opened at the same time but was not doing anything but checking out buttons and altogether it was eating up about 400-500MB RAM

I mentioned power and conrol in Premiere, and one example is a jog/shuttle slider. I had no idea this existed in consumer level video editing. And it worked great. All the video I tested so far was either MPEG or WMV, compressed stuff, and with no flaws. Can't wait to try DV footage. I have not captured DV yet.

I was impressed also by how you can step frame by frame thru video or audio using the wheel on your whee mouse. It felt like precise and accurate contol. I had not expected this and I love it.

the workspace is very customizable. Not only can you resize the default window areas, but you can actullay drag any tabbed workspace to any window! Oragnize however you like.

It is well integrated with Phothshop elements as I tried to create a custom DVD template. In Photoshop El. you run a wizard that steps you thru choosing buttons and text that you can resize, position anywhere, and format text. I still want to see if you can creat buttons from anything you draw or "photoshop."

Premiere gives you tons of data and precise control over everything. It has Adobe polish all over it. And then when I think of the price I'm blown away! And I have yet to mention how great Photoshop Elements alone is!

So far I have found only one thing in Photoshop elements 4.0 that it cannot do whereas Photoshop 5.5 can.

For both elements products, I'm am very please that they auto-archive all your projects, videos, photos, photobrowser data (like tags) etc. Awesome feature.

Premiere El. compared to Windows Movie Maker and Sonic MyDVD 6 Deluxe blows them away. It also may be too much for the average user! If you want simple stuff, beware. I love techie stuff and I'm gonna have to do a lot of reading to learn all the ins and outs of Premiere Elements! Just playing with the program alone is not enough to learn it (unless I have like a whole month off work to play with it).

Photshop Elements 4.0 compared to Microsoft Picture It Premium 9.0 is more powerful and feature rich. Though Microsfot's offering does have a somewhat simpler interface and maybe a bit more intuitive. And Photoshop's browser/organizer is killer! Face tagging works fairly well. Uploading pics from my card reader was streamlined and offered many control options like renaming the jpegs in a new sequence to any folder plus removing red-eye, all at once. Very nice.

This packaged product is Superb. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because I've used Photoshop Elements 4.0 a lot but I've only had a couple hours to play with Premiere Elements 2.0 to give it a good testing.

Bought this not too long ago just to try it out. Amazed at how well it works. Would recommend this to anyone intersted.

In Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0, It's nice to have latest formats (VOB, MOD, 3GP, AC3, ASF..) import supports basically I did yesterday some VOB editing and its working fine.

Overall it's easy and fairly quick to make a video with Premiere Elements; and it's really very easy to create motion DVD menu and burn them on DVD as well as on hard disk and now we can create DVD with Dolby stereo.

Thanks to Adobe for giving lots of features that I want for my need in single box so called Adobe Premiere Elements 2.

It's good to resize all panels in single click and no need to take care about other panels, they automatically arrange.

I recently bought Canon Optura 500 that support USB DV streaming and I can capture via USB without a glitch.

Feature wise I like much awaited feature customize DVD template so now I can change fonts, resize or move buttons, change their positions and add Video/Audio/Image in background of DVD Menu and can use as motion menus.

In Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0, It's nice to have latest formats (VOB, MOD, 3GP, AC3, ASF..) import supports basically I did yesterday some VOB editing and its working fine.

Overall it's easy and fairly quick to make a video with Premiere Elements; and it's really very easy to create motion DVD menu and burn them on DVD as well as on hard disk and now we can create DVD with Dolby stereo.

Pros: Lots of file format import supports, Resize Panels, Customize/Motion DVD Menu.
Cons: No HDV support but I don't plan to buy a HDV camcorder until their price going down or market grow :)

I probably should have only given it 4 stars because: 1) it's not perfect, and 2) this is my first video editor, so I have nothing to compare it to. But I gave it 5 stars because I'm just so impressed with what I've been able to do. I highly recommend this software, ...but ONLY if you have a computer than can handle it.

This software needs a lot of resources. I have a Dell E510 3.0GHz, 160GB HDD, 1GB RAM w/ separate video card. It has been adequate, but frankly, I wish I had more. Even relatively short (12 minute) slideshows take an hour to encode and burn onto a DVD. And I thought 160GB would be more than I would ever need, but I'm already looking for a second HDD just for video editing. You even need SP2 (WinXP). In short, you'll need a pretty decent computer to run this.

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 4.0 (PSE): I've been a big digital photography fan since Photoshop 3.0, all the way to CS. I recently switched to Elements at home mainly because of the price, and I have not been disappointed. PSE has virtually everything a hobbyist needs, plus several consumer-oriented features that the professional version doesn't have.

It has taken me some getting used to (from the professional version), but I really like what PSE can do. It is easy to organize and "quick fix" still images. I did my first slideshow completely in PSE, and it came out great - fades, titles, music, audio commentary, and pan & zoom effects. ...All without needing the manual or help section.

PREMIERE ELEMENTS 2.0 (PE): This is my first experience with a video editor. It is not nearly as intuitive as PSE is (at least to me), especially the pan & zoom effects. However, the more I use it, the more I realize just how much it can do above & beyond PSE. (NOTE: As some people mentioned, the Adobe manuals are virtually worthless, and help is only a little better. You have to go to the Adobe Forum to get your questions answered.)

I do not own a video camera. I simply wanted PE to integrate QuickTime movies (taken with my Nikon CoolPix 7600) into my slideshows. And now my slideshows will never be the same - movie clips, animated titles, music, and great control over tying everything together. Plus many of the features we've come to know and love (and need) in Photoshop (filters, adjustments, etc.) are now available for our videos in PE. I even used the posterize & spherize filters on a QuickTime movie. I've only just begun and my slideshows are already knocking people's socks off (OK, maybe just one sock, but I'm still learning. ...And I have MUCH to learn).

Finally, both programs integrate well with each other. I do the still image editing and organizing in PSE, then exported it to PE for the movie editing, soundtrack, pan & zoom, and titles. From there it's right to a DVD, then to the TV. No more slide projectors to lug around - a DVD is much easier to carry (and if someone doesn't have a DVD player, get one of those 7" portables to show it on). I was so impressed by the finished product, I found myself applauding when the "THE END" faded in. I think you'll love this software.

I've been a loyal Pinnacle Studio user for many years up to version 9. While I had fair performance from Studio 9, I finally got tired of rendering all night to see that it got "stuck."

A few months ago, I downloaded the Premiere 1.5 demo to see what Adobe had to offer. I was very impressed and was surprised how easy it was to use after a while. However, I wasn't ready to throw down that much money for the full version.

Enter Photoshop Elements 4.0 Plus Premiere Elements 2.0. While I will be using Premiere Elements more often, I couldn't pass up the deal to have two great programs in one.

I've not used the Photoshop side of this suite very much but from what I can tell, it is quite powerful for a scaled down version. You can crop, improve and manipulate photos in many ways. It was a better program than I expected.

The meat of this suite for me will be Premiere Elements. From capturing to exporting, this program is very easy, fast and reliable. If you use firewire, capturing couldn't be any easier. For me, I don't like it to do scene detect, so I have to manually uncheck that each time. Once the video is in, editing is even easier. The interface for PE may be a little intimidating but once you get used to it, you will see just how more powerful it is with comparably priced editors. You can do more than just add transitions by improving video quality or adding color or video effects. And rendering, while not as fast as I had hoped, still gets the job done. I did a 1 hour and 45 minute DVD and Rendering was under 4 hours on my P4 2.4 GIG with 1 GIG of memory.

This entire package is one of the best investments you can make. With the easy and speed of these two programs, you can' go wrong. Product of the year!

I did not actually know that this was available and had bought Photo Shop Elements and Premier Elements separately. With this available you save at least 50 bucks off the top.

And, these are actually pretty integrated with each other. I have been doing photo editing for a while but never did video editing before. I found a lot of commonalities in the interface between the two, and you can send photos to Premier Elements with one menu item click, and put slideshows on DVD from Photo Shop Elements using Premier's DVD menus. So, a lot of back and forth that make this more than just two products thrown in the box. It is obvious that they built these together.

Definitely a good value but more than that, this is almost like one product, not two, because there is one nice unified look.