Labs

Premiere Elements 4's interface is a radical departure from those of previous versions and no longer looks much like Premiere Pro, on which it was originally based. The new layout gives more space for the preview window alongside a tabbed area that houses controls and settings in a more logical layout than before. No features have been lost, and it didn't take us long to find the locations of our favourites.

There are few new features worth getting excited about. A media manager is built into the program and accesses the same database of video, photo and audio files as Photoshop Elements. Some users will love it, but most people don't keep huge libraries of video files as they do for photos, and the browser can be unresponsive at times. A new Detect Beats function attempts to recognise the downbeat of music to help you edit video in time with the track, but it failed to make sense of the music we presented it with. Movie Themes add effects and animated intro and end sequences to the timeline based on themes such

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as New Baby and Wedding Doves. Despite a polished execution, they're painfully cheesy. Non-technical users would have benefited much more from a preset library for the excellent effects.

You can now animate text on a per-character basis, though the choice of preset animations is limited. The task-based Sharing Center is the best of the new features, simplifying export to a variety of destinations, including direct uploads to YouTube.

The editing tools go way beyond the competition's. Effects look fantastic and provide incredible scope for precise control, including separate keyframes for every single parameter. There are unlimited tracks for complex montages, object motion can follow curved paths, and you can even vary the speed at which objects follow these paths with incredible precision. However, there are a few weak areas, too. There aren't any ripple-editing options; the default behaviour works well in most instances, but not always. Playback stops as soon you adjust any settings, which is frustrating when trying to fine-tune time-based effects. DVD authoring is competent, albeit over-reliant on busy menu templates, and it's also possible to author Blu-ray discs complete with menus. Format support is generally excellent, but a surprising omission is AVCHD.

Everything that made version 3 impressive remains and the new interface is a big step forward. Nothing else at this price matches it for editing power, and it's catching up with Vegas Movie Studio for ease of use. It's a little pricy, but buying it with Photoshop Elements 6 for around £100 makes it a great deal.