premiere elements 4 question

[skicat]

I watched the eseminar about premiere 4 the other day. I think I would like to upgrade from 2 to 4. I know there are no premiere 4 experts out there yet, but someone may have a clue.. I have uploaded video from my daughter's wedding already, but have not started editing it. I liked some of the new features in 4 that I would like to use to edit my wedding video.
Here is my question...
Will I be able to use the already uploaded video in 2, for a project in 4? I guess I'm wondering if I should start working on my project now, or put it off till I get the new version.

I'm pretty sure that I can't start a project in 2 & finish it in 4, but do I need to "re-upload" the video?
Thanks for any input you may have!!

[ATR]

I do not know what you mean by reload, but I think that I found your answer in the Premiere Elements 4 ReadMe at Adobe:

"Compatibility with other versions of Adobe Premiere Elements and Adobe Premiere Pro

You can keep previous versions of Adobe Premiere Elements installed on your system, but you should not run them simultaneously.

Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0 can open projects from previous versions of Adobe Premiere Elements, but once you save them in Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0 you will no longer be able to edit them in previous versions of Adobe Premiere Elements.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 can not import projects created in Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0."

This was in the ReadMe link that I just posted in this Forum the other day.

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402532&sliceId=2

Hope this helps.

ATR

[ATR]

After I posted, another aspect of your question hit me....

Assuming that you downloaded the wedding pictures via the Downloader in Photoshop Elements which gets thumbnails into the Organizer reflecting your hard drive save location...AND....you are working from your Organizer....

Until Photoshop Elements 6 and Premiere Elements 4, Photoshop Elements (PC) had the Organizer and Premiere Elements did not. Now the standalone versions of Photoshop Elements 6 and Premiere Elements 4 each have an Organizer. But, if you have the two together (6/4 combo) on your computer, they share one Organizer (one database, one catalog). It looks like there may be some complications if you are a "more than one catalog" person, but that is another story that I still need to get straight.

So, what hit me was WHAT IF you had Premiere Elements 4 integrated with a version other than Photoshop Elements 6, like v5, 4, or 3. Still share one database? And would Premiere Elements 4 automatically display the contents of the preexisting catalog from a preexisting v5, 4, or 3? Or, other??

Is that what you meant by reloading?

To be continued....

ATR

[ATR]

At the Premiere Elements User to User Forum at Adobe, I found a topic set up by the product manager Mike I. In the topic he asks for questions. So, I posted my question about how the Organizer integration works if the combo is not Photoshop Elements 6 and Premiere Elements 4 and/or there is a pre-existing Photoshop Elements v3, 4, or 5 catalog when you go to install Premiere Elements 4.

I will let you know what I find out.

ATR

[efarnstrom]

Also suggested in the Read Me files was that Premiere did not work will with large catalogs; i.e., 10,000 images. Unfortunately, mine exceeds that.

I'll tell you my experience since Thursday when I installed 4 has not been good!

In Adobe's file you gave me, ATR, the intermediate instructions to fix whatever ails you states: Uninstall old versions of this program, uninstall the new version, empty the trash can and reinstall the new version.....didn't help any at all! I have not finished yet with the multiple fixes suggested in their file. I was able to tweak my system to avoid the low system memory error.

For testing purposes I am creating new videos using their star system in Elements 6 to bring in only the videos I want to place on the timeline. I was using old videos when I got generic failures that stopped the program. I thought it might be the files it didn't like, so started again using new videos. When I finally got about 25 minutes of video loaded without a failure I decided to try to apply themes. Some chosen themes do not even show up in their thumbnail. I applied one that I could barely see in the thumbnail and the transistion caused a blank screen for a few minutes. I removed that and tried the comic book, which showed up well in the thumbnail. As soon as I released the mouse POOF! The whole program was GONE!

I think I will erase all of the Elements 6 catalog and only add whatever project I am currently working on. Hopefully that will cause that incompatibility to go away. I will continue to use V5 in order to keep intact the catalog of 25,000+ images.

I am plugging along trying to get Premiere 4 to perform like it should. If you have any further suggestions, ATR, I'm listening!

[ATR]

I was thinking about you this afternoon and wondering how you were doing. Glad you posted.

In the Premiere Elements 4 Read Me, I saw "Organizer may exhibit performance issues with large catalogs (5000 - 10000)". I was surprised that this was under "Editing Projects" instead of "Known Bugs"! I would really like to know what those performance issues are.

Another thing that I found amusing...under Movie Themes, there is supposed to be one to make your video look "old" with flicker and all. Is not that what we have been trying to edit OUT? Have you tried varying the time and/or content of the video clip (maybe 10 minutes, instead of 25) to see if the time-content of the clip make any difference with the Movie Theme crashes.

Enough of that. As mentioned I have posted a question over at Adobe. When and if I get additional information about the Premiere Elements 4 Organizer and related matters, I will be sure to post them here. Right now I am having a difficult time getting into the Adobe forums. Their face lifting has just about leveled the place for forum users.

Right now I suspect your problems may be related to the pre-existing catalog from a pre-existing Photoshop Elements version. Do you work with one or more catalogs in the Photoshop Elements 5 Organizer? I am not an Organizer user so I do not want to mess you up with my speculations on this.

It sounds like you are attacking the problems in a systematic manner and minimizing variables as you progress. Keep up the good work. I will keep looking for solutions.

ATR

[skicat]

ATR, I knew you'd be able to help me.:D But, you are getting more complicated than necessary. My wedding event is a video. I have still pics as well that I may import in later, but I think your reply:

"Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0 can open projects from previous versions of Adobe Premiere Elements, but once you save them in Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0 you will no longer be able to edit them in previous versions of Adobe Premiere Elements."

answers my question. So I guess I can start editing my video & then it will open ok in 4 when I get it.

What I meant by "re-uploading" (probably the wrong term), was having to "capture" the video from my camcorder a 2nd time-when I had 4 open. I already have it captured & ready to work on in 2. Does all this rambling make sense?

Your conversation with efarnstrom worries me a little. I have over 10,000 pictures in my organizer as well, & I use it all the time. It sounds like I may be asking for trouble with the catalog issue!:(

[efarnstrom]

I'm sorry for highjacking this thread. Where else can I post?

ATR, I haven't tried varying the length of the project yet.

I'm still working on the issue of the catalog size. I started a new catalog with this update. I didn't want to disturb my old one. Good thing I did that!! At least I have a fall back position.

The new catalog had too many files as well, so today I removed huge amounts. Started over again on the creation and I didn't get the generic failure, but applying the themes tossed me out of the program.

Back to Adobe's suggestions to tweak my system to work with their software. One of the things I had not tried yet was to download the most recent version driver for my video card. Luckily I established a restore point before I did that because this screwed my whole system up. So back to square one on that one.

I wish I could make sense of the Adobe forum. It tells me to log in before letting me into the section where I might get some help. So I log in, go to the forum section, which tells me to log in!!!! EEEKKK!

I am to the point of trying to get the support group to help me. Do you have any suggestions for me at this point? Thanks for your continued interest in my travails!

[ATR]

efarnstrom

My best suggestion for now is to explore the length and content of your "Movie Theme" project to see if you can get the project to work.

What we might consider doing is starting a new Thread for troubleshooting these new Premiere Elements 6 problems from users to separate them from people just thinking about upgrading to or buying Premiere Elements 4.

Whatever you decide, I will find you.

ATR

[efarnstrom]

Well I think I've done it! Somewhere during the night I remembered the nightmare I had in installing V3, and decided to do what I did then: Uninstalled the program; copy the install disk to the desktop; then disable all the start ups; restart the computer; disable my security suite; reinstall the program from the desktop! I had tried Adobe's version of doing this but it didn't work. They said just to copy the .exe file to the desktop and to also disable all of Microsoft in the start ups. I couldn't get that to work because the response to that action said I couldn't do this action without Microsoft.

I've successfully created a video of about 25 minutes with video clips, stills, transitions, menus, and scene menus. I also tried it with a theme. Now to render and see if I can create a DVD.

A culmination of all the steps taken thus far seemed to fall into place. Thanks for standing by while I went through all this.

[ATR]

Congratulations on your stick-to-it-tiveness and success.

Special thank you for sharing that experience. I am sure it will help many in the process of upgrading.

ATR

[efarnstrom]

Congratulations on your stick-to-it-tiveness and success.

Special thank you for sharing that experience. I am sure it will help many in the process of upgrading.

ATR

That's the reason I continued to post here, so others can see that this is not a software to boot up right out of the box. Surely I am not the only one searching for a light at the end of the tunnel!

As I said before, this forum is terrific!

[khairulb]

I upgraded mine from PE3 to 4. I have some incomplete project that I was working on PE3, and am continue working on it with PE4. It works great so far.

[ATR]

khairub

That sounds great. I do not suspect that you will be going back and forth between the 3 and 4 versions, but just in case:

I think that I read that you can use a version 3 project in 4, but, once you save that project in the 4 version, you cannot go back to the 3 version for further editing it. I think that was in a Thread posted by skicat in this forum very recently.

ATR