Adobe Premiere Elements 7 [OLD VERSION]
by Adobe
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Software Reviews of Adobe Premiere Elements 7 [OLD VERSION]
Customer Review: Unstable
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought Adobe Premier Elements 7 with a new Dell XPS Studio with MS Vista, 12 GB RAM, 1 TB of disk space, and 1GB of video RAM. It came pre-installed. PE7 barely runs. Most times, I do not get to the "Share" phase because PE7 says there is an unexpected error and shuts down. I even get MS Visual Studio C++ Runtime errors. The dialog says MS is looking for a "solution", but it never responds that one was found. Other times, the Open Project fails, so that I cannot even open a saved project. Very frustrating. Normal (i.e. non-esoteric) program usage like adding scene transitions, or merely clicking on the scene scroll bar also causes the program to crash, but even that is not the worst. The worst comes after three hours of video crunching, the disk write fails causing all that time to be lost.
Even with my powerful PC, I've taken all the normal precautions-- I run nothing else concurrently, only on a fresh startup or re-boot etc., but none of this seems to have any effect.
I've given PE7 two stars because amazingly enough after many false starts and do-overs, I managed to squeak out two DVDs and one Bluray movie. The bluray feature lacks a burn to file (which the DVD share allows), so if after several hours of video crunching the disk write fails-- you've lost all that time.
When it does work, it works well and I was very pleased with the quality of the finished output. However today, I cannot open my latest project and if this is not resolved, I will have lost HOURS of setup time. I cannot imagine how or why a company like Adobe would release a program like this that is so not ready for prime time.
UPDATE: After hours of re-doing yet another project, the program failed while processing the video during pre-burn processing. After walking away from the computer, I returned to find it re-booted and now although Premier Elements itself will start, that project will no longer load, causing a fatal error that causes the program to close. If I could change my rating to one star, I would do it.
UPDATE: On a lark I started another PE7 project. Got to the "Share" tab without a hitch. After 4 hours of video crunching and less than five minutes remaining, I received the dreaded "Multiplexing has Failed" error. Back to Google and oh yes, this is a problem others are experiencing too. What a fool I was for giving this not-ready-for-prime-time program another chance. The breadth of the types of failures I have experienced with PE7 has truly been staggering for a production release.
Customer Review: Plenty of feature
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm a computer geek and am not artistic. This software gives me the power to look like what I am doing when it comes to video editing. It was easy to install and very straightforward to use. It had plenty of features for the neophyte (Templates were great and plenty of items one can add to a video...effects and such.) and there are great features for me as I grow. I used an earlier version and they have repaired the features I didn't like. Make sure you have plenty of memory and disk space, especially for HD. You'll end up with multiple copies of one video so you'll need the room.
If you are looking for something high-end, this isn't it.
Customer Review: No updates
Summary: 2 Stars
They are really dropping the price on this for a reason... it's not worth it! First off Adobe Elements never patches their software they send it out and then repair whatever is broken in the next version! I have been an elements user from version one and discovered this by verison 4... they them jumped to version 7 for synergy purposes. This version is still very buggy so be prepared to hit save, save, save... and get ready to shell out another $100 in sept for the next patch with two or three new bells and whistles... because they might have fixed the problems by then... I would advise to wait until you read they have fixed them because you certainly won't get it through their updates... it only updates Adobe Reader!Customer Review: Adobe Premier Elements 7 - Some Nice Features But A Few Critical Flaws
Summary: 3 Stars
Adobe Premiere Elements 7 is a very useful program for video editing on your PC. I took a great deal of time using the program over several months becaus I wanted to really get into the nitty gritty of what has been changed and what has been carried over from prior versions. While many alternative products have improved by leaps and points, Premiere Elements has actually regressed in certain ways, which is unfortunate. I still use it for several of my Windows workstations, but I am going to have to take a long and hard look at the next version. If there aren't significant improvements I may switch to another platform altogether.
FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE
The list of compatible formats is more than just a bullet-list for marketing purposes. It's great that AVCHD is supported. But the limited support for MP4 is VERY disappointing. More devices are using AVC natively, but MP4 is by far the most common video standard for web video. There is some support under Quicktime, but I do not want to be married to Quicktime's format, or any other format for that matter. The fact that I have to juggle which formats are supported by which programs is an unacceptable hassle. This program needs some serious work before it is truly going to be the program of choice again.
Now, I had heard about some software issues surrounding this version of PE. I configured a dedicated system with more RAM and computing power than should be necessary. The results were still pretty disappointing. This thing is slow and unstable.
That's not to say that it's not useful. The results can be impressive, but it's often painful to get to the finish line with this application. In terms of the video finalization process, this program was equally slow as some of the free programs that are available bundled with cameras or online, like Muvee.
Ironically, this program's feature set is really ideal for beginners in video editing. Yet the problems with software and configuration issues means you need some degree of familiarity in order to get the most out of the product. That's a terrible catch 22 and the main reason I can only give this an average to mediocre rating at best.
ALTERNATIVES
Frankly, if you have a Mac, iMovie may be a better program for you all around. It may not be able to do everything that PE does but it is much more stable and has a better interface. That's not something I could have said with previous versions of Premiere Elements.
Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum Pro Pack is the program that most often comes up when people discuss affordable video editing software. I need to spend more time with that program before I can make a judgement. While the pro version is slightly more money, the basic version is in the same price range as Premiere Elements.
I have used Corel Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus for the last few versions and I don't think that it has as many features, though using it requires less of a learning curve. Corel also has the more robust Corel VideoStudio Pro X2, which is apparently going to be their focus going forward.
Cyberlink PowerDirector7 Ultra (as well as Power Producer) also is a consideration. The basic version can do some of the things that PE can do, and seem better designed for user friendliness. I suppose I am less impressed with the power of the basic Cyberlink programs, but at least they work. Once again, the Ultra is worth a try as it seems to have many of the higher end features that people look for in video editing software.
Pinnacle Studio is the application that I have had the most general success with over long term use, in terms of usability and reliability. The problem is that, for a few reasons, I only have an older version of it installed on a machine that is dedicated for another purpose. I may even consider buying an additional copy of the newest version of that for my workstation depending on a few other programs I am trying out.
While there are a lot of alternatives, none of them is a slam dunk winner for me yet. I will update this as I am currently testing several other programs now.
CONCLUSION
This is still an OK program, and it will do the job. Not to mention, everything you know from previous PE versions is here. But Adobe has to improve some major upgrades, and fast, before this program becomes a backwater. Most alternatives also have their flaws, but competing programs have improved much more than this one. Soon they may completely overtake Premiere Elements unless some serious improvements are made.
Good luck with it.
Customer Review: Patience needed by the bucketload
Summary: 1 Stars
OK I admit I'm a newbie, never edited a movie before. In fact it was the first time we made a movie with our Canon HD video-camera. But 3 weeks later all we have managed to do is load the clips. Struggled for hours with making titles. This in not an intuitive program and there is no easy to follow guidebook provided with the software. Although there is a lengthy online manual but it was impossible to follow. Even some of the Adobe videos online weren't really helpful. I think we're going to give up and buy something simpler. I haven't got the time to become an editing professional, have you?