 Adobe Premiere is one of the longest established editing applications. With Premiere Pro CS5, it became a 64 bit editing program, which means it can access as much memory as you want to throw at it, giving you more stability, and can harness the power of today's multiple core processors. With its "Mercury Playback Engine" and the right kind of graphic card it can also do more in realtime than most other programs, and in better quality. Click here to read more about the MERCURY PLAYBACK ENGINE. Premiere Pro CS6 - introduced in May 2012 - is a significant update which expands on the success, speed and stability of CS5 & CS5.5, and concentrates on enhancing the core editing functions with improved trimming, a sleeker interface, better bins and organisation and simple addition like "just keep playing" where the timeline will carry on playing while you adjust effects and move around the interface. Premiere Pro works on both Intel based Macs and PCs, and the Mercury Playback Engine will work on both platforms with the right graphic card. Click here for the information on the new features included in Premiere Pro CS6. Premiere Pro CCA new version of Premiere is available from 17th June 2013. Premiere Pro CC has a lot of extra features and makes Premiere sleeker and more usable. In a big change from previous versions the new version will ONLY be available via the Adobe Creative Cloud. This is a system where, rather than buying the software in a one off payment you rent it for a specific card per month. If you stop paying you can no longer use the software. There are CC versions of nearly all the Adobe software. Click here to see what's new in the Adobe CC programs Click here to read more about the ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD & CREATIVE CLOUD FOR TEAMS For people who want a perpetual licence CS6 will still be available. CS6 will still be supported in the future and there will be bug fix updates available, but there will not be any new features added. A perpetual licence is a licence to use the software which does not expire - you can use it forever, or at least as long as you have a computer in which it will work. No boxed versions availableThere is no option to buy a boxed version. You can buy a perpetual licence - where you will be given a serial number and the option to download the software - or subscribe to the Creative Cloud, where you will have an Adobe ID which then lets you download and install the software. Upgrade Premiere Pro or the Production PremiumCurrently you can buy perpetual licence upgrades to the Premiere Pro or the Production Premium from CS5, CS5.5 as well as full versions. We do not know if the upgrade perpetual licence upgrades will continue, although they are currently available. Adobe have said they will definitely continue to sell the perpetual licence version of the full CS6. If you have any version of Premiere or the Production Premium from CS3 onwards you can get a discount on the first year's membership of the Creative Cloud and Creative Cloud for Teams. |
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 Adobe Creative CloudThe Creative Cloud is a subscription service for software where by you pay a fixed amount per month to use the software. If you stop paying then you can no longer use the software. "Renting" the software in this way is cheaper than buying a permanent licence, assuming that you plan to keep the software up to date. Adobe only let you upgrade to CS6 from CS5 or CS5.5 - which are versions that came out in the last two years. Anyone who has a prior version has to pay full price for the software. If they kept to this model where you buy the software and then upgrade every year, or buying the software and then buy the whole package again in 5 years time (when you have to pay full price since you no longer qualify for an upgrade) then the Creative Cloud monthly fee is generally cheaper. The subscription service has several advantages to buying the software: - All new versions of the programs are ONLY available by the Creative Cloud meaning if you want to keep up to date with the Adobe software you must use one of the Cloud schemes.
- Assuming you upgrade the software every time a new version arrives then the subscription works out cheaper than buying the software.
- You get updates to programs as soon as they are ready rather than when the next version arrives. For example, Photoshop has had an update which Creative Cloud users have already got, whereas people who buy the updates will need to wait until the next major update is available.
- Subscribers get some web storage space on the Adobe Cloud.
The disadvantages are:- If you stop paying you can no longer use the program.
- Your computer needs to be connected to the Internet periodically to validate the licence.
Currently Adobe are also running and offer where by if you have a CS3/CS4 version of the software you can get the first years Creative Cloud membership at a discount. You cannot buy the "regular" creative cloud from us at DVC. However, we are happy to install and support the Creative Cloud software on a DVC-built system. Adobe Creative Cloud for teams You can also choose a subscription service called Creative Cloud for Teams. This is a variation on the Creative Cloud rental scheme whereby you do not buy the software outright, but instead pay a subscription per month for the software. Regular Creative Cloud is designed for individuals. Creative Cloud for Teams is designed for companies rather than individuals and has a couple of advantages over the regular Creative Cloud: - The main advantage is that the licenses are assigned by a central controller at your company and can be re-assigned easily. Regular Creative Cloud is assigned to an Adobe ID and if the person with that ID leaves the company the software licence goes with them. With Creative Cloud for teams this is not the case which makes it easy for the company to reassign licenses when people join and leave the company.
- Creative Cloud for teams gives your more on-line disc storage space.
- You get access to two "high level" support calls per licence - which means you get to a more experienced support person at Adobe than with the regular Creative Cloud. Of course if you buy Creative Cloud for Teams from us at DVC you get access to our experienced support team as many times as you like.
You can buy Creative Cloud for Teams from us at DVC. You can only buy the "regular" Creative Cloud direct from Adobe.
Click here to read more about the ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD & CREATIVE CLOUD FOR TEAMS |
 Adobe Production Premium Premiere Pro also has brilliant integration with the other programs of the Adobe Production Premium. - You can send timelines of clips to Adobe After Effects for compositing and complicated effects, and the After Effects compositions are embedded directly into the Premiere Pro timeline for rendering.
- A similar DYNAMIC LINK works between Adobe Premiere Pro and DVD and Blu-ray authoring program, Adobe Encore.
- Adobe Audition is great for tweaking the sound, or finishing of a mix. You can either send just one clip to Audition or an entire Premiere timeline - once you have mixed in Audition send the mix back to Premiere Pro and replace the original sound.
- Adobe Photoshop - is Adobe Photoshop - do we need to say more?
- Adobe Media Encoder (AME) - a program for converting one type of footage into another. You can either encode timelines, compositions or assets from Premiere Pro, After Effects and Encore using AME, or just drop in a series of clips and transcode them all. You can also set up a WATCH FOLDER and whatever clips are copied into this folder are instantly converted.
- Adobe Prelude - a new way to ingest (in other words copy and import) footage into Adobe Premiere Pro. With Prelude you look at the footage on your card-based media, choose the clips you want, and then set Prelude to copy the clips from the card to the computer. You can make more that one copy, in different locations, and can even transcode them on import using AME if you need to convert them.
- Adobe SPEEDGRADE - Adobe recently acquired this excellent grading program and it now comes as part of the Production Premium. Premiere Pro CS6 can send timelines directly to SPEEDGRADE for advance colour and image manipulation. Since SPEEDGRADE is a new addition to the Adobe family the integration is not as advanced as that between Premiere Pro and Encore, or After Effects.
The basic interface of Premiere Pro has not changed - so if you know how to use previous versions of Premiere Pro you will feel at home with CS6. Some of the keyboard shortcuts have changed with CS6, but many have remained the same. Those that have changed have been done to try and make them easier to understand and remember. To learn more about the Premiere Pro interface click here. To read more about Premiere's range of effects click here. Premiere has excellent audio editing built-in which includes sub-frame editing and surround sound mixing. Click here to learn more. You can buy Premiere Pro with in a bundle with Adobe Encore and Adobe Media Encoder, as part of the Adobe Production Premium as outlined above, or in the Adobe Master Collection with ALL Adobe's professional programs included. |
DVC TRAINING on ADOBE PREMIERE PROWe have a large range of training DVDs available for Adobe Premiere Pro as well as Encore and the Production Premium. Some made in house, some from Total Training. We also offer one to one and group training courses in Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Encore. Click here from more information on DVC training. |
 What’s good
- Very comprehensive, lots of features, huge array of effects.
- Excellent audio editing - edit right down to the sample level, plus a comprehensive mixer, plug in support and 5.1 surround sound support.
- Third party support - including the Matrox MX02 range which greatly enhances the effects, as well as Black Magic's range of cards that offer cheap i/o.
- Integrates well with other Adobe applications - if you buy as the Production Studio then you can put After Effects compositions inside Premiere’s timeline. You can export chapter markers to Adobe Encore for DVD authoring and you can send an entire audio edit to Adobe Audition, remix it and then send the results back to Premiere Pro.
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 Capture & import
On its own the software will capture using the FireWire port built into your computer. This allows you to capture either DV or HDV footage from most cameras. You can add analogue i/o by using an analogue to digital converter or by adding a card from Matrox, or Black Magic. The Black Magic cards really just add extra inputs and outputs where as the the Matrox cards also improve the performance of Premiere adding full quality realtime effects and add a lot more effects, particularly better colour correction, better Chromakey and 3D effects. To learn more about the Matrox cards click here. To learn more about the different hardware available for Premiere Pro click here. To learn more about importing and capturing footage with Adobe Premiere Pro click here. |
 Formats supported by Premiere Pro
You can add lots of different formats to the Premiere timeline. With some footage Premiere will “conform” the audio - that is remake it from its original format into a new format that is easier to edit. This only happens with certain files, such a MPEG audio files, or files which don’t match the sound settings of your project. To learn more about Premiere's HD editing click here. |
 Editing
Adobe Premiere Pro has an excellent editing interface - pretty intuitive and with lots of useful features built-in. It has really good trimming on the timeline as well as a specialist trim window. Because Premiere has been around so long this side of the program is really well thought out. You can break your editing into several “sequences” or timelines and can even put one timeline inside another. This is an extremely useful feature for performing complex effects or breaking your edit into small chunks. Click here to read more about Premiere Pro's interface and edit here. |
 Effects
One area where Premiere excels is the range of effects - not just with the range of built-in effects, which is large, but also with the range of plug-ins available. We cannot list everything available so here is a sample: - Colour adjustments - there are a whole host of filters for adjusting video levels and colour balance. Particularly useful are the levels filter which gives a histogram display not unlike Photoshop, the auto colour, auto contrast and auto level, which do as their names suggest with sliders to adjust their sensitivity, and shadow/highlight which allows you to bring out details in underexposed areas without distorting correctly exposed regions. With Premiere 2 several new colour correction filters have been added with decent colour wheels which also give you secondary colour correction - where you choose to adjust only a range of colours in the image instead of all the colour.
- Blur and sharpness effects.
- Distortion effects - lens distortion, corner pinning, spherize and more.
- GPU based page curls, refraction and ripple effects. These 3D effects use the power of your graphic card for most of the hard work and work in proper 3D - so you can ripple the image and as you turn it in 3D you see your flat plane has now become a 3 dimensional object.
- Keying filters - blue screen, chromakey, image matte, track matte, together with up to a 16 point keyframable garbage matte - so you can limit the area being superimposed and even make the area move across screen.
- Noise - filters for adding or removing noise.
- Lens flares, animatable gradients, cell or checkerboard patterns.
- Brush strokes - simulate a “painting style” on your image, write on - draw a path which gets revealed on screen over time, “texturize” a layer, leave colour - leave one colour on screen whilst making the rest black and white.
- Echo and posterize time.
All are controlled via the “effects control window”. With this window all the parameters to change the effects are instantly available - you don’t have to open new dialogue boxes. As this is based on the After Effects version it means that even if you adjust lots of different parameters, if you transfer your Premiere sequence into After Effects for more comprehensive tweaking, all the adjustments made in Premiere are carried over as well. To learn more about Premiere Pro's range of effects click here. |
 Audio
Premiere has better audio editing than most programs. It can edit down to the sample level, has a comprehensive mixer and can even make a proper surround sound mix. You can also send your timeline off to Adobe Audition for more advanced audio editing Click here to learn more about Premiere's audio capabilities. |
 DVD & Blu-ray writing
One of Premiere's greatest strengths is its DVD & Blu-ray writing. Premiere Pro always ships with Adobe Encore for DVD and Blu-ray writing. This is one of the best DVD & Blu-ray programs available in our opinion, and one of the few that does Blu-ray discs with pop-up menus. You can add chapters in Premiere and they appear in Encore, send a timeline to Encore from premiere using the dynamic link - which means if you update the timeline in Premiere it is automatically updated in Encore and you can customise your Encore menus easily using Adobe Photoshop. Click here to read more about Adobe Encore. |
 Premiere Pro vs the rest
Is Premiere Pro the best program available? The truth is that all the major programs have some good points and some bad points and none are the definitive program. The most common question we get is how Premiere Pro compares to Grass Valley EDIUS. Click here for a comparison of Adobe Premiere and Grass Valley EDIUS. |
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