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2GHz processor with SSE2 support; 3GHz processor required for HDV or Blu-ray; dual-core processor required for AVCHD Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2, Windows Media Center, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 For Windows XP: 512MB of RAM (2GB required for HD editing including HDV, AVCHD, or Blu-ray) For Windows Vista and Windows 7: 1GB of RAM (2GB required for HD editing including HDV, AVCHD, or Blu-ray) 4.5GB of available hard-disk space Color monitor with 16-bit color video card 1,024 x 768 monitor resolution at 96dpi or less Microsoft DirectX 9 or 10 compatible sound and display driver DVD-ROM drive (compatible DVD burner required to burn DVDs; compatible Blu-ray burner required to burn Blu-ray Discs) DV/i.LINK/FireWire/IEEE 1394 interface to connect a Digital 8 DV or HDV camcorder, or a USB2 interface to connect a DV-via-USB compatible DV camcorder (other video devices supported via the Media Downloader) QuickTime 7 software

Execution Rating

Concept Rating

Adobe Premiere Elements 8 is the latest version of Adobe's consumer friendly, consumer priced video editing package. With dSLR cameras offering video, with cameras like the Panasonic GH1 offering incredible video and still capabilities and the cost and capability of camcorders coming down video is a very hot topic these days.

But, unlike photo editing, video at least in my opinion is a much more time consuming, technically challenging and complex material to work with. Besides dealing with things like resolution, video compression formats, codec's, progressive vs. interlaced, and other such issues you have a medium that is much more time consuming to edit and to get in to a final format that is pleasing. After all just because you shoot 2 hours or video doesn't mean you share that 2 hours with everyone. Well, you can if putting them in to a coma is your plan. But, if you want something that is going to be fun and engaging that is going to take a lot of editing. Editing to remove the slow boring bits, figuring out what order works best for telling the story you wan to tell, using effects and music and stuff like that. Then once you are done with that you have the whole output process which even when you get past all of the technical details of that can take many minutes to many hours to output even with a fast computer.

No still photography is a snap compared to video. This is why we need programs like Adobe Premiere Elements 8, a program that takes this process and can either make it a snap for us through automation or when we are ready make the process easier to do manually.

In the area of full automation you have the Instant Movie feature which allows you to choose your unedited video clips, choose a theme and then have Premiere Elements 8 go through your video clips analyzing them and then do the cutting, editing, adding the special effects, music, etc. giving you a complete finished movie in the end. With Instant Movie the only things you had to do was choose your video clips and choose a theme and maybe if your in the mood choose options like now many effects, what type of music, how long you want the finished movie and things like that. But, from start to finish it takes all of the work out of making a high quality movie from your unedited video clips.

In the area of doing things manually you have all of your editing tools like cutting your clips up, deleting the parts you don't want. Adding transitions, special effects. titles and more. All of this is at your control with a lot of the stuff having options that allow you to tweak it further.

If you have used Premiere Elements before this new version 8 I am sure you are wondering what is new and improved. New and improved features include:

New

• Do you have hundreds, thousands or hundreds of thousands of images? Do you like sorting through them looking for just the best ones? Well what if you didn't have to? What if the organizer that you catalog your images and videos with could go through and analyze the images and videos tagging the good ones, tagging the bad ones and even do such wonderful things as telling you which ones are blurred, which ones have exposure issues and more? Well, your in luck the organizer that comes with both Premiere Elements 8 and Photoshop Elements 8 can now do this and it does it surprisingly quickly and easily.
• If you sign up for a photoshop.com account or a photoshop.com plus account you can share your videos and photos across all of your computers. That is until you run out of online storage. Using the automatic sync features your photos and videos will be available on any computer with or without Photoshop Elements, though you do have a lot more options and features with Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements for the video. If you don't have either one you can access your account through a web browser, great for when your on the road. You get 2GB of storage with the free photoshop.com account and 20GB with the $49.95 photoshop.com plus account.
• The Organizer now offers full screen previews of your photos and videos, no more trying to decide if a photo or video is what you want based on a tiny thumbnail version of it. See the full size photo or video, see it large, see it with detail.
• Premiere Elements 8 fully supports the new Windows 7 and is even logo certified.
• The one area that I have always felt was lacking with not just Premiere Elements but in video editing in general is the software's ability to automatically analyze and improve video. To automatically correct for color casts, low resolution, blockiness from compression, noise/grain, exposure and things like that. Computers are supposed to save you time and having to figure out how to do all of this yourself just seems like more work than needed. Fortunately Premiere Elements 8 has started moving in this direction thanks to its new SmartFix feature that can automatically diagnose and if not completely fix greatly improve shaky footage, color and lighting problems. I would like to see this taken further in the next version of Premiere Elements so that it can increase resolution, handle blockiness from compression, fix or reduce noise/grain, etc. But, this is a good first step.
• One thing we all have too much of when it comes to video is garbage footage. For me one of the most tedious and boring parts of video editing is going through all of the footage for a project and cutting away the trash. Well in Premiere Elements 8 you can let the SmartTrim feature do a lot of the work for you. It will go through your video clips and trim out the least interesting (based on how much action is in the footage), the lowest quality (parts with lots of blur, parts that or blown out, etc.) and just leave the good parts. What I like about this is you can either have it do the trimming or show you the areas that it recommends you get rid of. Proper trimming of your video to keep just the good parts is perhaps the single biggest thing you can do to have a quality final product. This features makes that much easier.
• Enjoy a perfect balance of audio -- Add music and sound effects without overpowering your dialogue or background audio. SmartMix automatically balances audio elements to give you professional-quality sound throughout your movie.
• With Premiere Elements 8 you can now have graphics follow the motion in your video. For example you could have a cartoon dog follow the movements of your child in your video or have a bird follow an airplane (talk about an air race!) and things like that. While if not used carefully this can be a bit cheesy it can be fun and interesting when used right. But, that can be said for just about any creative tool.
• Spice up your videos using artwork and animations. Now included is a nice selection of fun frames, objects and animations.
• Over the last couple of years Hollywood has experimented with unique visual looks like the black and white with a splash of color in the movie The Spirit, the cartoon look of A Scanner Darkly and things like that. Well, now you can apply these kinds of styles to your movies. Premiere Elements 8 includes effects like motion blur, cartoon effects and more. You can even lock them to the action using motion tracking.

Improved

• The included organizer not only helps you organize your photos but videos as well and the organizer is now included with Premiere Elements 8 so once you have your photos and videos cataloged both Premiere Elements 8 and Photoshop Elements 8 can access it. While this may seem like a small thing video capabilities with still cameras is a hot new technology or rather a technology that has been available in point and shoot cameras for sometime, but hot and new to dSLR level cameras and one that is becoming ever more important. It is nice having one organizer for both programs, this makes it easier to manage your files without having to deal with duplicate files and catalogs as well are different management programs with different features and workflows.
• The Instant Movie feature has been improved in version 8. Using creative techniques from Hollywood directors Instant Movie can take your raw video automatically edit it cutting out the trash, keeping the good parts and then combine them with coordinated music, titles, effects and transitions in to a final movie. If you have a photoshop.com plus account you can download new themes for use with the Instant Movie feature. I have to admit that so far I have been rather disappointed with this feature. I think it is a great idea, but everything I have thrown at it as far as video clips seems to be turned in to a cheesy almost juvenile mess. Certainly nothing I would consider anywhere near a professional level and while you do have control over the process like more effects, fewer effects, music and things like that it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference. Your mileage may very, but I give the idea of this feature a 10 but the end result a 3.
• Premiere Elements 8 includes effects like Duochrome, Dreamglow and even film looks. If you have a photoshop.com plus account you can download even more.
• Similar to the Instant Movie feature, but on a smaller scale you can apply themes to your movies, These include music, transitions, effects, disc menus and title screens. You do the editing and the rest is handled by Premiere Elements 8. If you have a photoshop.com plus account you have access to more themes.
• Premiere Elements 8 includes more transitions including Color Melt, Oil and Mosaic to name a few. You can even create your own transitions.
• Don't know what you are doing? Not a problem. Premiere Elements 8 has tutorials available to help and more are available with a photoshop.com plus account.
• Want to share your videos with others? Friends, family? Well not a problem. Just sign up for a free photoshop.com account or buy a photoshop.com plus account for $49.95 and you can share your work with others online, all right from within Premiere Elements 8. You can use one-of-a-kind online albums with your choice of dynamic animated templates. Have private or public albums and more. More templates available with a photoshop.com plus membership.

Premiere Elements 8 has come a long way since version 1. It has gotten more powerful and feature rich without becoming more complex and harder to use. This is something of a miracle in my book. However, the one area that it still seems to be lacking is in launch day stability. For some reason Adobe has yet to ship a new version of Premiere Elements that doesn't have stability issues and require a patch to fix. Version 8 is not exception. In fact during my time using it for this review I have to uninstall and install it 6 times. While some of these issues were fixed with the uninstallation of a problem causing shareware program, I have still had some problems with version 8 afterwards, they just aren't as often. The problems I have had after the uninstallation of the shareware program are all be in the organizer. It simply crashes to the point I have to restart and I am unable to get any work done because of it.