Adobe Premiere 6.0 Video Editing Software Description and Reviews.

Amazon.com Product Description
Adobe Premiere 6.0 is a powerful and surprisingly easy-to-use professional video-editing tool. This latest version comfortably closes the gap between DV and Web, and has new support for DV on the Windows platform and cross-platform support for all of the leading Web video formats. Premiere 6.0 provides direct support for IEEE 1394 (FireWire/i.Link) on both Windows and Mac OS. By using only the DV port on your hard drive, an IEEE 1394 connection, and your DV camcorder, you get perfect digital video in Premiere 6.0 every time. Premiere 6.0 offers built-in support for all types of DV devices, ranging from consumer to professional. By simply connecting a DV device to the IEEE 1394 port on a Windows or Macintosh computer, you can capture DV clips and begin editing right away. On a computer with an IEEE 1394 port, there's no

need to install additional hardware, such as a video-capture card. Just select the appropriate DV-device manufacturer and model in the Device Control dialog box, and Premiere 6.0 assigns the video-input settings that are appropriate to that device--making the video-capture process more precise. Premiere 6.0's Movie Capture window now includes a Settings tab and a Logging tab. By using the Settings tab, you can view and edit video-capture settings, change the capture location, and set device-control preferences. By using the Logging tab, you can log video clips quickly, set In and Out points, name clips and reels, batch-capture multiple logged video clips effortlessly, and add comments about each clip.

Adobe Premiere 6.0 includes three (automatically installed) plug-ins for exporting an individual clip, a segment of the Timeline, or the entire program to a Web-optimized file format. When you have finished editing your video program, select one of the following Web-export options: Save for Web, Advanced RealMedia Export, or Windows Media Export (Windows only). By choosing one of these options, you will open the respective plug-in dialog box, in which you can specify format information for your exported file. The Save for Web menu command exports the Timeline directly into a special version of Terran Interactive's Media Cleaner software, which is customized especially for Premiere 6.0. With Advanced Windows Media Export, you can take advantage of a wide range of formatting options for the most precise output control in the Windows Media format. Advanced RealMedia Export provides precise output control, and thereby offers greater flexibility. RealMedia files (containing both RealVideo and RealAudio) can be streamed from the Web or downloaded to a hard disk, and played by using the RealPlayer application. Also included in this release is the ability to embed Web markers in your video files, which markers could include links to HTML pages, or to chapters in a QuickTime movie or DVD. By using these markers, you can develop streaming videos that automatically launch Web pages at precise points during playback. You can specify a frame target, to designate where the Web content will appear.

Other new features in Adobe Premiere 6.0 include a professional audio-mixing tool; a new Storyboard window, with an Automate to Timeline command; enhanced Monitor and Timeline windows; and improved project management. For added power and functionality, Premiere 6.0 offers better effect support, the ability to create customizable workspaces, and complete integration with other Adobe applications like Photoshop, After Effects, and GoLive.

From Winmag®
The new Premiere 6 splash screen says it all. You see the familiar running horses that have accompanied the opening screen for years. But more importantly you see a FireWire cable and the beginning of a Web page address. Premiere 6 is ready for digital video, the screen tells you, and it's Web friendly.

I installed and tested a beta version of Premiere 6 on a laptop, a Fujitsu Pentium-333 with 64 MB of memory, and on my desktop PC, a Micron PII-450 with 128 MB of memory. The program installed easily and ran quite well on both machines. System requirements demand a fast machine, but not unreasonably so. You'll slug along with anything less than a P-300 and 32 MB of RAM (minimum) and 128 MB of memory is recommended.

The first thing I noticed is that video capture is much improved. Premiere 6 now supports OHCI (Open Host Controller Interface), the Windows standard for working with digital video. What does this mean? If you have an OHCI compatible FireWire port, you won't need a video capture card. On my inexpensive laptop, I added a $60 FireWire PC Card, and I was ready to edit. With my digital camcorder connected to the notebook, I had a mobile video editor that was fast and easy to use.

Previous users will be familiar with the Storyboard window, where you organize audio and video clips for playback. One of the simplest and best new changes is the way Premiere handles transitions. You used to insert video clips, one before the other, on separate levels. Then you'd place the transition between them, and mess with them until everything clicked. Now you just place the transition between the clips and it handles the transition automatically (you can change it, if necessary). Less expensive and more novice friendly programs handle transitions this way, and Adobe was smart to move to a simpler system.

New export movie commands let you output to a movie file (for playback on your system or the Web) or output to videotape. These settings have retained the look and feel of the last several versions--yet there are important improvements. Most notably, Premiere is now more Web-savvy.

You can now export your movie directly to Windows Media or RealMedia. The software is integrated with Terran's Cleaner software too,for producing high-quality video output in QuickTime, Real, WindowsMedia, and other Web-friendly formats.

A welcome new feature is an audio mixer that features VU meters that let you check the audio levels on your video clips. You can adjust the volume on clips using software controls that look like knobs on a mixer. All in all, Premiere now has a rock-solid set of audio controls.

Complaints are few. The program lacks a simple set of often-used transitions, like fade to black. It's not hard to create, but it's not yet simple enough. And the main interface could use a face-lift. It still doesn't look as polished as its competitors, such as EditDV or Final Cut Pro, or even its sibling Photoshop (although it's beginning to resemble the latter). Premiere now uses an HTML help file, which I typically consider slower and less well indexed than the traditional Windows Help menu.

It will take a few months to see how Premiere 6 fares with tough jobs. But if first impressions are correct, Premiere 6 is a very impressive and stable release. If you weren't a convert before, Premiere's strong new audio tools, digital-video smarts, and Web features may impress you. And if you used Premiere 5, this update is well worth the upgrade and it goes to the WinList.