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Premiere Elements 8 Initial Impressions

LEGEND ,
Sep 24, 2009 Sep 24, 2009

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Premiere Elements 8 First Look: Part 1.

Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8 are now installed on my Windows XP SP3 with about available 1 GB RAM and 70 GB free hard drive space and the virtual memory controlled by the operating system…not great for a heavy duty project, but adequate to overview the programs.

1. Download & Installation. Both programs took about 3 ½ hours to download, using high speed DSL. Premiere Elements 8 downloaded and installed without problems. Installation went much quicker. But, Photoshop Elements 8 download did present challenges, first, it kept downloading Premiere Elements 8 instead of Photoshop Elements 8. Finally in the early hours of the morning, the download from the Adobe site was named Photoshop Elements 8. Great, except, once downloaded it would not launch. The launcher did not know what to do with the .7z  file. Download and use of WinZip took care of that. My default browser Mozilla Firefox was worthless for the download of either Photoshop Elements 8 or Premiere Elements 8, but no problems with my Internet Explorer 6. I had this same problem with the Photoshop Elements 7/Premiere Elements 7 downloads last year.

2. Premiere Elements 8

a. Organizer. I would take exception to Steve Grisetti’s picture of the Organizer in “What’s new in Premiere Elements 8?”, but maybe I was overly optimistic by “The most visible change to version 8 is that the Organizer is no longer a sub-program of Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements. It now lives as its own, separate, pretty much independent program – behaving more than ever like its professional big brother, Adobe Bridge.” He went on to say “In version 8, both programs have equal access to a single, full-featured Organizer.”

Here is my dilemma for some who want a separate video and photo catalog. If you had Photoshop Elements 7/Premiere Elements 7, you could create additional catalogs in Photoshop Elements 7. Premiere Elements 7 could use one of these catalogs, but could not create new catalogs. So then, you could have a photo catalog displaying in the Photoshop Elements 7 Organizer and a video catalog displaying when you opened Premiere Elements 7. You cannot do that anymore, and File Menu/Catalog is gone in Premiere Elements 8. You still cannot create catalogs in Premiere Elements 8, so, if you just have Premiere Elements 8, you have ONE catalog. If you have Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8, you can create additional catalogs in Photoshop Elements 8 that can be used in Premiere Elements 8, but these programs will display the same ONE catalog.

b. Project Presets. The “New Preset” button is gone. The categories of the presets for NTSC and PAL remain the same: AVCHD, DV, “Hard Disk, Flash Memory Camcorder”, HDV. However, two choices have been added to the “Hard Disk, Flash Memory Camcorder” categories. Now we have HD 1080i30, HD 1080i30 (60i), Standard, and Widescreen. Here I have a problem reconciling the names and the descriptions. It was my understanding, in Premiere Elements 7 for standard and widescreen in this category, this preset category reverses the Fields: from Upper Field First to Lower Field First in Premiere Elements edits. So, now with these new choices described as follows:

HD 1080i30: 1920 x 1080i; pixel aspect ratio = square pixels (1.0); camcorders like JVC GZ-HD7; 16:9 interlaced HD video at 29:97 frames per second.

HD 1080i30 (60i): HD video from 1440 x 1080i camcorders; 16:9 interlaced HD video at 29:97 frames per second HDV 1080i Anamorphic.

When thinking HD 1080i30 preset….the JVC camcorder captures to a progressive sensor, assumed at 30 frames per second, and can record to it’s built in hard drive as 1920 x 1080i with 30 frames per second each frame with 2 fields. So, what prevents us from calling this preset HD 1080i30 (30p) Square Pixel?

When thinking HD 1080i30 (60i))…the camcorder involved captures to an interlaced sensor at 60 fields per second, and can record to it media as 1440 x 1080 with 30 frames per second, using a HD Anamorphic. So, what prevents us from calling this preset HD 1080i30 (60i) Anamorphic?

When I start comparing preset choices, the only reason for using these “Hard Disk, Flash Memory Camcorder” new choices appears to be, like for standard and widescreen, to have the Fields reversed. Do you agree? Any comments on the nomenclature for these new preset choices?

3. Adobe Folder, folders and files

If you go to the default location of the Adobe Folder (My Documents\Premiere Elements\8.0), there are some differences there:

For Premiere Elements 7 and earlier versions there were:

Adobe Premiere Elements Previews Folder

Encoded Files Folder

Media Cache Folder that piled up with conformed audio files (.cfa and .pek)

Project Prel file

Styles Folder

And sometimes 2 .log files

Now in Premiere Elements 8, the Media Cache Folder is gone and we have the arrangement:

Adobe Premiere Elements Previews Folder

CA Object Track Results

Encoded Files

Layouts

Styles Folder

(You no longer see the endless conforming of DVD Menus (not even used) at the beginning of the project. But, I am still trying to figure out what they did with the conformed audio files (.cfa and .pek). More on that next time, along with Premiere Elements 8 Exports as well as Photoshop Elements 8/Premiere Elements 8 intergration.

ATR

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LEGEND ,
Sep 24, 2009 Sep 24, 2009

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ATR,

Thank you for Part I. I cannot wait for the remaining observations. Please keep up the great work and reporting.

Hunt

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Community Expert ,
Sep 24, 2009 Sep 24, 2009

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Lots of great details, Tony. But have you got an overall impression? Do you like the new suite or not? Is it worth the upgrade cost?

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LEGEND ,
Sep 24, 2009 Sep 24, 2009

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SG

To answer your last question before I go on to Part 2....

As I go through the different aspects of the program that you are seeing described by me, I am formulating my "final answer" as they say on that TV program.

But, no matter what I decide on whether or not I "need" the program and/or consider it a worthwhile advance, I will no double purchase Photoshop Elements 8/Premiere Elements 8 so that I can help troubleshoot problems for those who feel that they personally need/must have the new versions.

So far, I have not found too many things that I cannot do in prior versions. But, this is just the beginning.


On to Part 2 of my progress in decision making.

ATR

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LEGEND ,
Sep 24, 2009 Sep 24, 2009

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Premiere Elements 8 First Look: Part 2.

Miscellaneous

1. Track Arrangement. (For Standard 3 track setup)

For those wishing for the good old days of Premiere Elements 2 where the line up, top to bottom, was:

Video Track 3

Video Track 2

Video Track 1

Audio Track 1

Audio Track 2

Audio Track 3

(No Narration Track or Soundtrack)

The Premiere Elements 8 arrangement is the same as for Premiere Elements 7:

Video Track 3

Audio Track 3

Video Track 2

Audio Track 2

Video Track 1

Audio Track 1

Narration Track

Soundtrack

2. 5.1 Channel Sound vs Stereo (2 Channel)

In Premiere Elements 7, if you had AVCHD or MPEG2 with 5.1 channel sound, your video could go to Video Track 4/Audio Track 4 with a tiny “5.1” to the left of the audio track. That situation generated a lot of Sceneline users complaints in this regard. In the case of AVCHD with 5.1 channel, using the correct project preset could correct the situation. In the case of MPEG2 with 5.1 channel, you worked in the Timeline with your video and audio on those upper tracks. Now, right or wrong project preset (new project dialog), you can drag video with 5.1 channel sound to any track on the Timeline. However, the program continues to support the export of Dolby Digital Stereo (2 channel sound), not 5.1 channel sound.

3. Opening Premiere Elements 8 Scary Moment

The opening sequences goes:

Welcome Screen (one of the friendliest Welcome Screen that I have come across)

New Project

Then a Window opens with a menu bar across its top and everything else in the Window gray. I expected the gray in the Window to be replaced with options/graphics. No way.

So, next you click on File Menu to reveal the drop down with:

New

Open Project

Open Recent Project

4. Project Media Tab

As has been reported by Steve Grisetti, you need to click on Organizer to see the Project Media Tab, instead of Edit Mode as in Premiere Elements 7. Somehow the designers managed to leave access to the Properties Palette (via Timeline icon or Window Menu/Properties) the same as for Premiere Elements 7.

5. Cutting Tools.

The Split Clip (Scissor looking icon) to bottom right of Monitor is still in the same place. And, you still have access to the hidden Razor Tool by hitting c on the computer main keyboard to turn your mouse cursor into a razor (and hitting v to get yourself back to the safety of the Timeline Selection Tool) Trimming clips in the Preview Window with In and Out points and generating subclips remain the same as in Premiere Elements 7.

6. Pop Ups Dragging Media to Timeline.

In Premiere Elements 7, there was only one of this kind, namely the Videomerge one. Now there are two, the Videomerge one and one called Smart Fix that asks “Fix quality in Clips” Yes or No. Both of these pop ups has a check off for “Do not show again.” I am not yet sure if it keeps that promise.

Photoshop Elements 8/Premiere Elements 8 Integration with regard to Slideshows

1. In Photoshop Elements 8, under the Create options, you will see included:

a. Slideshow

That essentially stays the same as for Photoshop Elements 7, except that the Output option (non .wmv) is now called “Edit with Premiere Elements” instead of “Send to Premiere Elements”. This option results in the availability of the Premiere Elements 8 command “Break Apart Adobe Photoshop Elements Slideshow”.

b. DVD with Menu

This is an often misunderstood option which is the same as in Photoshop Elements 7. It accepts only videos as well as already created slideshows in the form of .wmv (Save As A File, Movie (.wmv) or slideshow project (slideshow saved to Organizer without Output; typically named with .psess file extension).

c. Instant Movie

This is a new option, and it had be wondering for the longest time. My interpretation of this is that the Instant Movie button is merely a launcher to Premiere Elements 8 where you select from the Premiere Elements 8 Organizer Media there (which is same as in Photoshop Elements 8) and then click on the Premiere Elements 8 Instant Movie feature to initiate the actual process. As best I can tell at this point, it looks like it is intended for the person who is working in the Photoshop Elements 8 Organizer and suddenly decides wouldn’t it be a good idea to create an Instant Movie in Premiere Elements 8.


Those exports choices looks like the next place to look into deeper.

ATR

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Guest
Sep 24, 2009 Sep 24, 2009

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Thank you for taking the time to publish your thoughts on the new software. Its much appreciated.

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LEGEND ,
Sep 24, 2009 Sep 24, 2009

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Premiere Elements 8 First Look: Part 1 Add ON

for "Adobe Folder, folders and files" section.....

I finally found the Media Cache Folder (.cfa and .pek) in Premiere Elements 8, which appears to have been removed from the Premiere Elements 7 Adobe Folder location in My Documents and tucked away and out of sight in Premiere Elements 8.....

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Application Data\Adobe\Common\Media Cache.

Brace yourself for the large number of conformed audio files that you will find piled up there!!

Also in that general area are the video counterparts, with the .mcdb file extensions.

ATR

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LEGEND ,
Sep 24, 2009 Sep 24, 2009

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ATR,

This sounds a bit like what PrPro CS4 does. It can be a real problem with a smallish C:\ and several larger Projects on the computer at the same time.

Is there any way to relocate in Preferences>Scratch Disks?

Just curious,

Hunt

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LEGEND ,
Sep 24, 2009 Sep 24, 2009

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Hunt,

In Premiere Elements 8, you can redirect many of those folders that appear in the Adobe Folder (My Documents/Default) to an external hard drive

See Premiere Elements 8, Edit Menu/Preferences/Scratch Disks

For

Captured Video

Captured Audio

Video Previews

Audio Previews

Media Cache

Disc Encoding

You can browse, for example, to an external hard drive location and direct these categories there, so that you end up with previews and media cache etc. there. The project .prel and the associated .log files will go to wherever you designate in the opening Premiere Elements 8 dialog. It is those CA Object Track Results Folder that I need to get a handle on (work in progress). That is another site for file pile up.

I decided to see what Adobe has put on its web site Support/Knowledgebase for Adobe Premiere Elements 8. This is what I have found so far:

Adobe TechNote for Premiere Elements 8

Troubleshoot system errors and freezes when you burn DVDs or Blu-Ray discs (Adobe Premiere Elements 8)

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/515/cpsid_51553.html

Troubleshoot damaged projects (Adobe Premiere Elements 8)

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/515/cpsid_51552.html

Troubleshoot system errors or freezes in Premiere Elements 8 (Windows)

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/514/cpsid_51427.html

The Message “A Reduced set of Content Instant Movie Themes, Titles and menu Templates, etc) has been installed” is displayed in Adobe Premiere Elements 8 on Windows

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/508/cpsid_50878.html

Adobe Premiere Elements 8 Help PDF

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/PremiereElements/8.0/Win/Using/WS09e4b3c48f3a79fc19b622510385d4355c-7ff9...

Everytime I head to take an in depth look at exports, I get detoured. The new locations for applying scene markers and using audio tools just caught my attention as well as this "background rendering". I need to focus.


ATR

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LEGEND ,
Sep 24, 2009 Sep 24, 2009

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The new locations for applying scene markers and using audio tools just caught my attention as well as this "background rendering".

Background rendering can be a double-edged sword. Pinnacle Studio has had it since about ver. 7 (think they still have it, but cannot confirm), and for most users, through version 10 was that it required so many resources, and editing was very slow. Now, computers were slower then, so maybe the average machine can keep up, but I can see this being an issue with a less than stellar workstation. I've already got the boilerplate text for all those, "PrE 8 is so-o-o slow!" My answer will be, "have you turned OFF background rendering?"

I need to focus.


ATR, WE need for you to focus. You are our ears on the street! Quit playing with all those neat new toys and get to testing...

Thanks,

Hunt

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LEGEND ,
Sep 24, 2009 Sep 24, 2009

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Hunt,

Funny that you should mention "Background Rendering". I was just about to put that on the "back burner", so to speak. But since you surfaced it...

How to turn it off???

Edit Menu/Preferences/General

Besides the good old standard check offs for "Play work area after Rendering Previews" and "Default Scale to Frame Size", there you will find a place to check or leave unchecked "Enable Background Rendering".

It looks like there are some new check off there which include:

"Apply Dissolve on Smart Trim"

"Show All Do Not Show Again Messages" (for those with a change of mind)

"Enable GPU Playback"

Back to work....

ATR

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LEGEND ,
Sep 24, 2009 Sep 24, 2009

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"Apply Dissolve on Smart Trim"

That could be an interesting development. This might help folk with "Handles," which seems to be an abstract concept for some.

In a few other NLE's, they automatically alter the In & Out Points set, by automatically sliding them to accommodate the Transitions. Most users do not realize what has happened, and are joyful. When one suggests that they alter the In & Out Points manually, as the footage requires - they are outraged, 'cause NLE-X "creates" Handles automatically. They never come to the realization that the end result is the same and there are no Handles "created," only reset vs the original In & Out Points. I guess that Adobe chose to keep these folk in the dark, but joyful?

Keep the reports coming,

Hunt

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LEGEND ,
Sep 25, 2009 Sep 25, 2009

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Special Add On....Bug or Other

Photoshop Elements 8 Slideshow Editor slideshow Output option (Edit with Premiere Elements) to Premiere Elements 8

In an earlier accessment of the above, I said that the process was essentially the same as what occurs in Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7. Further looks at the process in the new versions have suggested otherwise with the process rather than the end result.

In Photoshop Elements 7/Premiere Elements 7, after you outputted the slideshow with what is called Send To Premiere Elements in the 7 version, the slideshow would automatically be sent to Premiere Elements where you would find:

a. In Media Panel: a folder with the slideshow's assets and a file representing the slideshow in a video format

and in addition

b. Your slideshow in a video format on the Timeline

c. If desired for additional edits, you can use the Premiere Elements 7 Break Apart Adobe Photoshop Elements Slideshow command to do that with the Timeline content.

I cannot get that to happen as described above in Photoshop Elements 8/Premiere Elements 8. The only way I get to the Media Panel/Timeline end result is with Premiere Elements 8 opened when the functional Edit with Premiere Elements command is hit in the "Elements Organizer". At first I thought that it was related to the settings on the Welcome Screen when you commanded Premiere Elements to open. If you go to the Premiere Elements 8 Welcome Screen top right, next to the close X, there is an icon to set what you get when you start Premiere Elements:

a. Just show the Welcome Screen

b. Always Launch Elements Organizer behind the Welcome Screen

c. Always Launch Premiere Elements Editor behind the Welcome Screen

That was not the answer.

This is what I ended up having to do:

a. Created Slideshow in Photoshop Elements 8 Slideshow Editor

b. Click on Output, selected "Edit with Premiere Elements"....that did launch Premiere Elements 8.

c. In my trial version, clicked OK to Install Full Content dialog, and clicked Continue for the Trial Version dialog

d. I was now facing the window with the menu bar running across the top and everything else gray.

e. Now I clicked on the Elements Organizer panel in the Task Bar to bring that into view in the Window

f.  Selected again Output, Edit with Premiere Elements

g  At this point, I clicked on the Premiere Elements panel in the Task Bar which was flashing orange. This action brought up the Premiere Elements New Project dialog which I set accordingly. When I clicked OK to the New Project dialog, an Add Media dialog flashed across the screen as the Edit workspace opened with the Media/Timeline representing the Photoshop Elements 8 Slideshow Editor slideshow. And, yes, I could successfully use the Premiere Elements 8 Break Apart Adobe Photoshop Elements Slideshow command.

If this is not a bug and not an operator misdirection, then this process does seem a downstep in the version evolutions.

Anyone else run into this?

ATR

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LEGEND ,
Sep 25, 2009 Sep 25, 2009

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I have not gotten to Part 3 yet. This is an add on to the last add on.

I tried to find the Premiere Elements 8 Read Me file since those Read Me files usually contain "Known Bug Messages". I could not find that Adobe had put it online, but I did dig it out of the try out download folder. Here is the excerpt on Premiere Elements 8 known bugs/issues:

Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0 Known Issues

Importing Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 and 4.0 Projects

• Effect keyframes in Premiere elements 3.0 projects may not import correctly

Capturing and Importing Video
DV Device control will be disabled and capture will not proceed normally if sound card is not present or offline.

·         If capture is interrupted by a system event such as switching users, locking the system, or the screensaver, the duration of the captured file will be much shorter than expected. It is recommended to disable the screensaver before starting capture, and to avoid any actions that may interfere with the capture.

·         For live capture from DV camcorders, you must first disable scene detect.

·         When importing some Flash files a “Macromedia Flash Player security" message reading “Flash player has stopped potentially unsafe operation" may appear. Click “OK”, and the file will import normally.

·         When capturing form HDV camcorders you may see interlace lines in the preview window, The interlace lines do not appear in the captured video

·         Divx files may not be imported properly and sometimes import only audio or video part of it

·         After completing time-lapse capture, it may take some time for the organizer to update and display the thumbnails for the captured files. Still images captured using Stop Motion are not added to the organizer.

·         Importing media from some devices requires that the drivers provided with devices are installed

·         Stop Motion capture is not supported for HDV camcorders.

Organizer

       When reconnecting missing media, each grouped scene must be reconnected individually

Edit

·         If issues are seen with color in preview, switch to CPU playback mode by un-checking “Enable GPU Playback” checkbox in Edit>preferences>General and restart application after saving your project.

·         Generation of thumbnails for DVD scene menus may take longer than expected when using HDV content.

·         Organizer may exhibit performance issues with large catalogs (5000-10,000 files )

·         With some GPU cards enabling “Accelerated GPU Effects” may cause the preview to be zoomed in.

·         Voice over narration may not be recorded using a mono USB microphone

·         When previewing audio mixes, pops may be heard as the CTI passes form one clip to the next. These pops will not appear in your exported movie

Audio mixer sliders may become “sticky” when mixing clips that have been time stretched

·         [Japanese  & Chinese Simplified SPECIFIC] When application is installed to path that contains double byte characters path, GPU effects/transition will not function.

·         [Japanese SPECIFIC] Inputting ¥ symbol in Menu templates produces a backslash ( \ )


Photoshop Elements Integration

• In Photoshop Elements, choosing “Edit in Adobe Premiere Elements” may not bring the Adobe Premiere Elements window to the foreground.

• If a Photoshop Elements slideshow is sent to Adobe Premiere Elements, further edits in Photoshop Elements will not be reflected in Adobe Premiere Elements.

• Images saved in Photoshop Elements in BMP mode using the Advanced Settings cannot be imported into Adobe Premiere Elements. This includes images created using Adobe Premiere Elements Freeze Frame function and sent to Photoshop Elements for editing. If the image is saved using Photoshop Elements Advanced Settings, it cannot be returned to Adobe Premiere Elements, and as result, the original, unedited Freeze Frame image will be used.

• Send to Premiere Elements 8.0 will not work from older versions of Photoshop Elements


Exporting Movies

• Export of movies to the root directory of any drive (e.g. D:\) may fail.

• When exporting movies over one hour to MPEG2 format, the render dialog may continue to be displayed for a period of time after the render progress bar appears to have completed. Rendering is still occurring until the render dialog boxes closes. Clicking Cancel before the render dialog box closes will interrupt this process, and your export file will not be created

• For play back on a PSP, movies must include both audio and video. Movies exported with video only or audio only will not play back on the PSP.

• Archival of projects with Type 1 DV-AVI files is not supported.

• If standard definition menu templates are used when burning to Bluray, menu images s will appear of low quality

• When attempting to burn a Bluray disc to a previously burned disc, you will see an error message indicating that the disc is incompatible, instead of an error message indicating the disc is full.

• Movies exported in H.264 format may have a few white frames added to the end

• Movies exported in MPEG2 format may be a few frames shorter than the original movie

This seems to answer my question about Photoshop Elements 8/Premiere Element 8 integration regarding slideshows, but may be of more widespread interest to others for the other "known bugs" cited by Adobe.

ATR


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LEGEND ,
Sep 26, 2009 Sep 26, 2009

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ATR,

I do not want to sidetrack you from this very informative project, that you are sharing with us all, but have a question on PrE 8.

The OP in this THREAD, seems to indicate that the New Project mechanics have changed. You touched on a change with New Project, but I did not see comments on this, and would expect that you would have mentioned it.

If I read correctly, in that referenced thread, the OP is indicating that when one chooses New Project, fills in the dialog screen with Presets and other info (per normal), that PrE 8 opens with no Project. The user must then navigate to where that New Project was created to actually Open it. Can you confirm this behavior? I would find this a rather odd departure from how things have always been done and are still done on the PrPro side of things.

Thanks and sorry for the interruption,

Hunt

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LEGEND ,
Sep 26, 2009 Sep 26, 2009

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Hunt

I cannot confirm the details that you presented. I am not sure if there is some confusion on the part of the user between an early seen tab that says New Project and the New Project dialog itself. Because, once you have the New Project “dialog” itself as you want it and click OK to it, it is a one way street to the opening of the Premiere Elements 8 workspace.

Let me go over the step by step details to see if we can determine what is happening or not happening in the case of the user. I am working from the tryout, so the routine should be the same, maybe plus or minus some tryout associated dialogs.

1. Click on the Premiere Elements 8 icon on the Desktop.

2. The Premiere Elements 8 Welcome Screen opens with promotional stuff to the right. On the left is our functional area: Organizer Tab, New Project Tab, and Open Project Tab. Up at the top right corner of the Welcome Screen (near the close X button) is an icon. When you click on that, you get 3 options for how you prefer the Welcome Screen to open after you hit that Premiere Elements 8 icon on the Desktop:

a. Just show the Welcome Screen

b. Always Launch Elements Organizer behind Welcome Screen

c. Always Launch Elements Editor behind Welcome Screen

Whichever choice you make, you are going to get that Welcome Screen coming up after hitting the Desktop icon. If you had picked “b”, the Organizer Tab would automatically have a stream like icon running, indicating that the Organizer was loading. So it saved you the time clicking on the Organizer Tab. And, if you had picked “c”, the New Project Tab would automatically have a stream like icon running, indicating that the Elements Editor was loading. So it saved you the time clicking on the New Project Tab. I prefer to leave it with “Just show the Welcome Screen” and then click either the Organizer, New Project, or Open Project tab. (I have not found a way to liquidate the Welcome Screen entirely.)

3. Onward. In my case with tryout, I next get an “Install Full Content” dialog to which I click OK. Then comes the typical Tryout Setup (27 days left…) dialog to which I click Next.

4. Then you get that window that I described in a previous thread, the one with the menu bar across the top (File/Edit/Clip/Timeline/Disc/Title/Window/Help) and everything else in the Window completely a light gray color. Keep in mind that so far we have not seen the New Project dialog itself. So what you do now is go to the File Menu in this light gray window and click New/Project. That brings up the New Project dialog itself. After you have that set as you want and click OK, the Premiere Elements workspace opens in the new project that you have designated in the New Project dialog (the one and only).

The above is the longer version of what I wrote previously.

I will go back and re-read the thread that you cited to determine if I have any further thoughts on this. That Part 3 write-up, mainly dealing the Premiere Elements 8 exports is taking forever. I hope to have it done soon. I believe there was a significant amount of change in the video audio exports that was not cited by others yet.

ATR

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LEGEND ,
Sep 26, 2009 Sep 26, 2009

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ATR,

Thank you for the info and clarifications. Sorry to interrupt your project. Keep up the great work.

Hunt

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LEGEND ,
Sep 27, 2009 Sep 27, 2009

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Important Add On Regarding 5.1 Channel Sound Support Premiere Elements 8

In an earlier addition to this thread, I wrote the following:

2. 5.1 Channel Sound vs Stereo (2 Channel)

In Premiere Elements 7, if you had AVCHD or MPEG2 with 5.1 channel sound, your video could go to Video Track 4/Audio Track 4 with a tiny “5.1” to the left of the audio track. That situation generated a lot of Sceneline users complaints in this regard. In the case of AVCHD with 5.1 channel, using the correct project preset could correct the situation. In the case of MPEG2 with 5.1 channel, you worked in the Timeline with your video and audio on those upper tracks. Now, right or wrong project preset (new project dialog), you can drag video with 5.1 channel sound to any track on the Timeline. However, the program continues to support the export of Dolby Digital Stereo (2 channel sound), not 5.1 channel sound.

That last statement which I have placed in bold type needs to elaborated on.

Further inspection of the program indicates that there are some 5.1 channel export routes available in this new version in a new export  with the path Share/Personal Computer/Audio and  Share/Personal Computer/Windows Media. My comprehensive overview of Premiere Elements 8 Exports should be ready for posting here later today and will define where 5.1 channel sound is available for export and where it continues not to be available.

But, I thought this an important enough point to post this add on now for those reading the above before I get a chance to post my Exports Report.

ATR

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LEGEND ,
Sep 27, 2009 Sep 27, 2009

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later today and will define where 5.1 channel sound is available for export and where it continues not to be available.

ATR,

This will be interesting, and I will be looking forward to your research. Even PrPro, through CS4, requires the SurCode DD 5.1 SS to encode to AC3. Now, one can Export their 5.1 Audio, as WMA, and use a program, like Audition to Export to some other formats, but to encode to full DD 5.1 SS AC3 (for use in BD, or DVD-Video), they still need an encoder of some sort. SurCode does offer a stand-alone DD 5.1 SS encoder, and also a plug-in for PrPro. They also offer a DTS encoder, but DTS is an "optional" Audio encoding scheme, so it can ONLY be used on an "optional" Audio Track on the BD, or DVD-Video. It's that encoding that is an important step.

I have not heard of any changes in the upcoming CS4.2, or CS5, so do not know if, for instance, the ~US$250 SurCode encoder will be included.

Thanks for your reporting, and I await to hear of DD 5.1 SS handling on Export, as it is very important to many users, who'd love to use this format in their finished product.

Good luck,

Hunt

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LEGEND ,
Sep 27, 2009 Sep 27, 2009

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Hunt,


I am about to post my "almost" complete observations on Premiere Elements 8 Exports. But, before I do I want to address a fundational issue with regard to the way we (I) have been tossing around the concept of 5.1 channel sound. There are a lot of words to follow in my post on the Premiere Elements 8 exports, but I want to focus in on the fact that 5.1 channel sound comes with different compression types, for example, Dolby Digital, Windows Media Audio 10 Professional, and AAC to name three. Dolby Digital with the 5.1 channel is the one referred to as AC-3. Which is better? That is for another thread. But, it appears that Premiere Elements 8, like Premiere Elements 7, can import Dolby Digital 5.1 channel (AC-3), but does not export Dolby Digital 5.1 channel (AC-3). In the case of Premiere Elements 8, it now is exporting 5.1 channel with compression types such as Windows Media Audio 10 Professional and AAC.

Looking forward to your comments on the following.

ATR

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LEGEND ,
Sep 27, 2009 Sep 27, 2009

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Premiere Elements 8 First Look: Exports Part 3.

Edit Mode: File Menu/Export

Saving a Titler created Title as a .prtl file for future use in another project .prel is the same as in Premiere Elements 7. You highlight the Title file in the Project Media view, click on and use the File Menu/Export/Title route. In addition, you will have the original Title embedded in the project .prel in which was created.

But now exporting/saving Title is the only option under File Menu/Export; gone are the options for Movie, Frame, Audio, and Export to Tape. These appear to have been consolidated in the Share section. (Details to follow.)

Share:

Categories:

Disc (Burn DV and Blu-ray discs)

Online (Upload to video sharing)

Personal Computer (Export files for viewing on Computer)

Mobile Phones and Players (Export files for viewing on mobile phones and other devices)

Tape (Record to DV or HDV tape)

                                    ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­______________________________

Disc

Same as Premiere Elements 7, in that

1. Share/Disc/Disc offers burn to DVD disc or burn to folder (4.7 GB or 8.5GB setting). The audio of the export remains Dolby Digital Stereo (2 channel), even if your Timeline video imported with Dolby Digital 5.1 channel sound (also called AC-3).

2. Share/Disc/Blu-ray offers burn to a Blu-ray disc with no option for burn to folder. For an innovative workaround for that aspect, see Robert Johnston work on Phantom Burner

http://muvipix.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3896

                                    ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_______________________________

Online

Categories:

Photoshop.com (Upload video to Photoshop.com)

YouTube (Upload video to YouTube)

Podbean (Podcast Hosting)

Photoshop.com

This appears to have non changeable preset components.

YouTube

This also appears to have non changeable preset components. But it now has two preset choices:

Flash Video for YouTube

Flash Video for YouTube Widescreen

Podbean

This also appears to have non changeable preset components. But it does offer four different

presets of various quality levels.

                                    _________________________________

Personal Computer

Categories:

Adobe Flash Video (Use for posting on web pages)

MPEG (Use for Playback on this PC or burning to DVD)

AVI (Use for editing Adobe Premiere Elements)

Windows Media Player (Use for email and playback on Windows PC)

QuickTime (Use for email and playback on Mac)

Image (Use for exporting still image)

Audio (Use for exporting audio)

Adobe Flash Video

The interesting thing here is that in Premiere Elements 7 I could import .swf files, but not .flv and .f4v files. Now in Premiere Elements 8, I can import .f4v as well as .swf files into the Timeline, but not .flv.

Also of note, in Premiere Elements 7 Share/Personal Computer/Adobe Flash Video, if you wanted to maintain a transparency in the video, you used the Video On2VP6 with “Encode Alpha Channel” checked (or at least you tried to) with FLV choice selected. The end result was often an error message saying “Invalid Argument”. Most of the time, you had to go with the export with the “Encode Alpha Channel” unchecked to avoid the error message. If you tried to do this with F4V checked, there was no option available for “Encode Alpha Channel”. Now in Premiere Elements 8, the “Encode Alpha Channel” option is gone altogether (FLV or F4V).

A usually successful alternative to exporting video and maintaining the transparency was via File Menu/Export/Movie/Microsoft AVI with compression “None” and “Color Depth at “Millions + of colors”. This route is no longer available in Premiere Elements 8 now that all AVI export is now consolidated in Share/Personal Computer/AVI (what used to be Share/Personal Computer/DV AVI in version 7). That Microsoft AVI in the new location in Premiere Elements 8 does not have a Color Depth option. So, defining the procedure for maintaining transparency in a Premiere Elements 8 export needs to be done (work in progress).

MPEG

Everything remains the same in this category. Depending on the Presets selected, the Video codec is either MainConcept H.264 Video or MainConcept MPEG Video. For those using H.264 HD 1080i30 or MPEG2 1080i30 or their PAL counterparts, the file extension of the export is typically .m2t. In “MPEG” category, there can be found options for Dolby Digital (AC-2) Stereo audio, but none for Dolby Digital (AC-3) 5.1 channel audio or any other 5.1 channel audio with any other type of compression.

AVI (consolidated category to include more than just DV AVI as in Premiere Elements 7 with its File Menu/Export/Movie and AVI choices plus Share/Personal Computer DV AVI)

This is a new consolidated category as mentioned previously and contains subcategories for:

DV NTSC Standard, DV NTSC Widescreen, DV PAL Standard, DV PAL Widescreen, Microsoft AVI, and Uncompressed Microsoft AVI.

Further study is needed in what appears to be a loss of way to export video and maintain the video’s transparency areas. Video and audio codec for this Preset will be supplied on request.

There is no Dolby Digital (AC-3) 5.1 channel audio in this AVI preset.

Windows Media

This category contains video codec for HD1080i30, HD 1080i25, HD 720p25, HD 720p30, and four other categories that I will not go into. The audio offerings for this category merit looking into. Accompanying those HD video codecs are audio codecs:

Windows Media Audio 10 Professional

Windows Media Audio 9.2

Windows Media Audio 9.2 Lossless

Windows Media Audio Voice 9

ACEP.net

In Premiere Elements 7 only "2 channel choices" could be found depending on your audio codec choice. Now in Premiere Elements 8, you can find:

Windows Media Audio 10 Professional…choices with varied bitrate, kHz, and 2, 5.1, or 7.1 channel, etc.

Windows Media Audio 9.2 Lossless…choices with varied bitrate, kHz, and 2 or 5.1 channel, etc.

But here is the interesting point for me. Forgive me, audio engineers, for my limited working knowledge of audio. When Dolby Digital, the audio compressor type, exists with 5.1 channel, that is typically referred to as AC-3. So, since the Windows Media export is using the audio compressor type Windows Media Audio 10 Professional as the audio compressor (codec) with the audio format which includes 5.1 channel, it follows that Premiere Elements 8 is not offering Dolby Digital 5.1 channel (AC-3) in these options, but rather Windows Media Audio 10 Professional 5.1 channel. In the comparison of the two, I am not sure at this point which ends up on top. I did a quick search to see if I could find opinions. Here is one, maybe not the greatest, but it will give you an idea.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070913112058AAlJVxl

Audio

This also is an interesting new consolidated category in this location of the program. It offers Presets for ACC, AIFF, MP3, and Windows Waveform. Under the Advance button for each Preset are numerous options for audio format, codec, and output channels. And, yes, output channels = 5.1 channel can be found here, but we are not talking about AC-3. For example, for the Preset ACC (Advanced Audio Codec), one option is for audio format = AAC, Codec = AAC, and Output Channels = 5.1 channels.

.At this point, I think that I can safely conclude that Premiere Elements 8 is now offering some audio formats including 5.1 channel audio with some of its exports, but definitely not Dolby Digital 5.1 channel (AC-3). 

I will conclude this section tomorrow with QuickTime and Image categories.

ATR

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Guest
Sep 29, 2009 Sep 29, 2009

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An excellent account of your impressions!

From your description it looks like there's still no AVCHD DVD output option, which is remarkable when all the competitive applications have had that feature for one or two development cycles.  If so, I guess the workarounds using 3rd party tools will still work, but it's a bit blinkered of Adobe to not incorporate AVCHD DVD within the product.

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LEGEND ,
Sep 29, 2009 Sep 29, 2009

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Ozpeter,

Totally off-topic, but I bumped into some of your fans on another Adobe forum. I think that they know you from Audition, and they spoke so very highly of you. Were you not a MOD on the Audition forum? Are you still in that role?

Regardless, you have some fans, and they all wished you the best.

Hunt

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Guest
Sep 29, 2009 Sep 29, 2009

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Hunt - heh, I nearly missed your "off topic" comment - yes, I used to be a 'mod' in these forums but upon hitting 60, on the day the new forum software was introduced, I decided to hang up my badge and give some of the young 'uns a chance,  Greetings to all are returned from here!  My visits are now very sporadic.

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LEGEND ,
Sep 30, 2009 Sep 30, 2009

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I nearly missed your "off topic" comment

I just wanted to pass on some kind wishes from your fans.

As for the work that ATR is doing in this thread, the forum is so fortunate to have work like this being posted.

We await your inclusions and impressions as well. Press releases are OK, but it's reports from the "trenches," that help so very much.

I do not recall if it was in this thread, or another, but ATR voiced a concern of mine also. I'd rather Adobe wait until there is significant change, prior to the introduction of a new version. They rather "stepped in it" on PrPro CS4. There were changes from CS3, but much was not properly implemented, and some of the changes seemed to be for the sake of change only. At least they are starting to put it all together with CS4.1, and maybe CS4.2 will finally get it right. It will then be the program that CS4.0 should have been, had they only waited about 12 mos. +/-.

Good luck to you both, and thank you so much for the reports. They are, and will be for some time, invaluable.

Hunt

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