Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5

Last year saw something of a comeback for Adobe's flagship non-linear video-editing application. After the wilderness years of versions 5 and 6, Premiere turned its back on the Mac platform altogether and went 'Pro' on Windows, with a totally rejigged interface and a raft of new improvements and features. Since then, Adobe has further developed the program, combining all the latest improvements into this 1.5 version upgrade. Rather than a handful of incremental tweaks, we found that Premiere Pro 1.5 includes a number of useful new features that make the update worthy of consideration.

Like an old rock star who pulls off a good return to form just when it looked like things were all over, Premiere's latest incarnation has been warmly welcomed by desktop video editors - particularly those who haven't already jumped ship to take advantage of the dream team combination of a dual-processor G5 Mac and Final Cut Pro.

The addition of the word 'Pro' in Premiere's title is not without its significance, either. A direct reference to the 'Pro' in Final Cut Pro, Premiere's subtle name change is a not-so-subtle nudge in the direction of its main rival, showing us where Adobe wants to pitch the product.

It goes without saying that Adobe Premiere Pro is not the ideal application for those new to video editing. That section of the market is more than catered for by the Pinnacles, Uleads and Roxios of this world - all of which now offer some high-end features (timeline editing, colour correction, DVD authoring and the like) alongside automated functions and wizard-based features to help newcomers to the desktop cutting room find their feet. Premiere, on the other hand, is intended for advanced users, semi-pros, professional videographers and film makers of all levels.

Indeed, many of the new features in Premiere Pro 1.5 are aimed specifically at the highest of the program's high-end users. Something that not many home users will find themselves getting too excited about, for example, is the application's support for a new 24 frames per second DV format.

This feature only affects users of a couple of professional Panasonic video cameras (the AG-DVX100 and the AJ-SDX900), which both employ a proprietary frame rate called 24p Advanced that produces a more film-like look.

Premiere Pro can capture, import and export natively in the format and it's one of the cheapest applications around. Assuming you've got the right hardware, Premiere now also supports other industry-standard formats, such as High Definition (HD), Edit Decision List (EDL) and Advanced Authoring Format (AAF), all of which helps to cement its position as a pro-end editing platform.

NEW FEATURES

As mentioned in our preview of the Adobe Video Collection beta in our August issue, one of Premiere Pro 1.5's most useful new features is probably the Project Manager. Most editors have a hard enough time as it is focusing on what's going on in the timeline without having to keep an eye on which source files are being used. The trouble is that, depending on the length and complexity of the project concerned, it's all too easy to let the file management side of things spiral out of control, particularly when making copies of timelines, projects and clips or importing new audio and video into an existing project.

The Project Manager is a simple tool allowing an instant overview of how much space a project is taking up on your hard disk. It can also rename media files en masse to help make them more easily identifiable and can even copy a whole project to a different location. This last ability is particularly handy when it comes to archiving work for posterity, since it can collect all the files that are associated with a project and discard any footage or unconfirmed audio clips that are no longer necessary. Hey presto - an instant backup that's relatively economical on disk space.

Rounding off the new features are several other interesting odds and ends. A couple of useful audio filters (De-hummer and De-esser) help to eliminate any unwanted hum and hiss from poorly recorded sound directly on the timeline - so it's no longer necessary to export soundtracks to a separate program to clean them up. The program has also developed some more Photoshop-like behaviour, such as automatic colour and contrast adjustments and enhanced bezier keyframe motion controls.

Predictably, Premiere Pro's developers croon at length, as they so often do, about the program's 'unparalleled integration' with other Adobe applications. In this instance, however, the company might just have a point. Version 1.5's 'tight' association with its sister applications extends to such joys as the ability to work with Premiere keyframes and layers across specialised platforms such as Photoshop CS and After Effects 6.5 which, among other things, saves an awful lot of hassle importing, exporting, rendering and flattening.

And the working partnership goes even further. From within Premiere, for example, it's possible to select 'New Photoshop File' from the file menu, at which point a new image with the correct resolution for the current video project will open in Photoshop. And with Photoshop CS' new support for non-square pixels, getting aspect ratios right and creating anamorphic still images are no longer a headache. Similarly, the clipboard now works between applications, so it's possible to copy something in Premiere and paste it into After Effects and vice versa.

Admittedly, it can be argued that these particular innovations will only be of any use to those wishing to run other programs from the Adobe stable. Some critics may, quite understandably, sneer at the assumption that video editors will buy into the idea of running a suite made up of exclusively Adobe applications. But the truth is that both Photoshop and After Effects remain virtually unchallenged in their respective fields, so the notion of cultivating a close, harmonious relationship between the three programs goes well beyond a cynical marketing ploy for brand loyalty.

Never before has the combination of these programs looked stronger, and those serious about digital video may want to consider the Adobe Video Collection 2.5 Professional Edition (£1,335 inc VAT), which contains not only Premiere Pro, Photoshop and After Effects, but also throws in a decent audio editor, Audition (the program previously known as Cool Edit Pro), and a solid disc authoring package, Encore DVD.

Of course, hop-scotching between big powerful programs such as these requires a pretty athletic system. In fact, many of the benefits mentioned here will not be felt by users who run Premiere on systems at the lower end of the requirement spectrum.

To unlock Premiere's true potential as a non-linear editing studio, the application needs to be run on as fast a machine as possible - that means a Hyper-threading processor or two, gigabytes rather than megabytes of memory, and fast, gargantuan hard disks. For many upgraders, this will likely mean buying a whole new PC into the bargain, which detracts somewhat from Premiere's otherwise fairly reasonable price. Serious pros might want to think about getting further assistance from a hardware-based solution, such as the Matrox RT.X100 Extreme, which includes Premiere Pro (along with Audition and Encore DVD) as well as a range of realtime effects, features and analogue capture at the low price of around £780.

There's no denying that the progression to Premiere Pro 1.5 is less of an earth-moving event than last year's gear shift from version 6.5 to Premiere Pro and, as such, it's a pity that Adobe couldn't offer this update to existing Premiere Pro users for free (although there is a substantially reduced upgrade price - £81 from the Adobe Store - for those who are already running version 1).

Nevertheless, the enhancements that Adobe has implemented all make for a significantly improved editing experience, particularly for high-end users who intend to use it in tandem with After Effects and Photoshop. For several years Final Cut Pro users have looked down their noses at Premiere, but Adobe's Windows-only editor is doing a good job of clawing back its credibility.

Contact: Adobe 020 8606 1100
www.adobe.co.uk

System requirements:

• Windows XP
• Pentium III 800MHz processor
• 256MB of Ram
• 800MB of hard disk space
• CD-Rom drive
• Firewire/video capture device
• CD-RW/recordable DVD drive