Adobe Systems Premiere Elements 2

Premiere Elements 1.0 was a great first effort from Adobe. However the embarrassment of riches it had to draw on for its first serious foray into the entry level video editing market, namely the powerful and professional Premiere Pro, may have led to problems in determining how much hand holding the first time video editor needed.

As it turned out, the first time video editor needed a lot more hand holding than what was provided in Premiere Elements 1.0. Adobe Premiere 2.0 has rectified this issue of assuming too much within the interface and workflow, providing stronger task based processes and a better help structure, much in the same way as Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 has developed on the home photo editing front.

However the good news for more experienced video users is that it is quite easy to interrupt the task process and add your own personal touch to a project, while not disrupting the workflow.

By default, Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 breaks the video making experience into a series of task based actions, whereby you capture video, work with your video and export the final movie ready for your audience.

Therefore, Premiere Elements 2.0 makes no demands on the user to fully understand the finer points of editing video if that's how the user wants to work. At the top right of the screen is a section showing capture, edit, titles and DVD. If you work through this section in the correct order, you should end up with a finished movie at the other end. The left side of the screen provides access to the Media downloader and the Export tab, to output your video project to anything from a DVD to a mobile phone.

When it comes to downloading video, or anything for that matter, Premiere Elements 2.0 is remarkably agnostic - the Media Downloader handls everything from MPEG4 video from tapeless camcorder to MPEG-2 from a first generation DVD camcorder with ease. Of course the normal DV camcorder transfer processes are supported, with IEEE 1394/Firewire support as well as USB/USB 2 support. Basically, if you can hook it up to a PC and download it, Elements 2.0 will let you put it on the timeline.

Keeping everything in its native file format is also a big time saver when it comes to the final render and output stage. Preview the edited footage on a TV straight off the timeline to make sure the resolution and colours are accurate and you're ready to make your first DVD. Select a DVD template, establish the appropriate links, write your titles and pick the background music. Finally, put a blank DVD into your PC's DVD recorder and create some movie magic.

A bundling option is available where you get Photoshop Elements 4.0 and Premiere Elements 2.0 for $245, which is probably one of the best photo/video deals available at the moment. Adobe's second effort at a video creation solution for the non-professional is commendable and will satisfy the camcorder user wanting to make DVD movies that are fun to make and entertaining to watch.