Product Reviews

Adobe Premiere was once the obvious choice for amateur and semi-professional video editing on the PC, but more affordable, equally powerful competition from Avid Liquid and Sony Vegas has shaken things up. Premiere Pro 2 is a significant overhaul, with new features affecting almost every aspect of the software.

The interface looks much neater than before, with docked panels replacing the floating windows of previous versions. New effects include a colour corrector that goes beyond any others we've seen, although its precision is matched by its complexity. The Lighting Effects filter provides up to five spotlights with which to illuminate clips and combines fine control with high-quality results. This effect benefits from the new 32-bit internal colour processing, which helps maintain detail in highlights and shadows.

Our favourite new features will be familiar to Avid Liquid users. Bezier curves are available for all effects automation rather than just motion paths, providing precise control of the speed and path between key frames for fluid object motion. We also like the elegant handling of up to four synchronised streams for multi-camera editing; once set up, cutting between them in real time is achieved with keyboard short cuts. However, the setup process is cryptic.

DVD authoring comprises more than just burning a menu-less DVD from the timeline, but not much more. You can customise the menu templates to a reasonable extent, but disc navigation options are basic. Macromedia Flash Video has been added to the export options, while the Media Encoder window now includes cropping and Scale To Fit options. There's still no MPEG4 support, though.

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COMBINED EFFORTS

Premiere Pro now works better alongside other Adobe applications. Assets can be transferred between Premiere, Photoshop, Audition and After Effects from the right-click menu, with dynamic linking to keep any changes reflected in all programs. Clip Notes is a new feature that embeds video into a PDF, whereupon clients can add comments that appear back in Premiere Pro at the relevant position on the timeline.

Despite all these improvements, we're unconvinced that Premiere Pro is worth twice as much as Avid Liquid or Sony Vegas. It's arguably the best of the three; Liquid's interface is lumpy in places, while Vegas's motion control and effect automation is underpowered. Premiere Pro's greatest strength is simply that it doesn't have any notable weaknesses. However, Liquid is leagues ahead in terms of preview performance, while Vegas is the easiest to use and has the most comprehensive DVD-authoring capabilities.

As usual, you're better off buying Premiere as part of a bundle. Adobe Production Studio adds Photoshop CS2 and After Effects 7 Standard for around £1,080 including VAT. Production Studio Premium costs around £1,540 and includes Photoshop, After Effects Professional, Audition 2, Encore DVD 2 and Illustrator CS2. Either of these bundles is a sound investment for professional users, particularly considering the tight integration of the applications. But for amateurs, the increased value doesn't change the fact that these are phenomenal amounts to spend on software. Even the upgrade is overpriced at £200; for those who are new to advanced video editing, Liquid or Vegas are better value.