A question from a Newbie:Premiere Elements for Paid Work

[mediajunkie]

Hi,
I tried out Premiere Elements some time ago, I find it's got a very simple and user friendly interface but at the same time it comes with features you would associate with much more expensive solutions like Final Cut Express and Commotion Pro. This is why I would like to use it for video editing in my company. But a professional video editor I know says that because Premiere Elements is a 'lite' version of a more 'professional' program specifically intended for the consumer market (like Avid Liquid compared to its bigger brother Avid Media Composer), the Adobe EULA doesn't allow you to use it for paid work, only for home editing and personal fun.
Is it true? Is it really forbidden to use Premiere Elements for your job?
And, besides the missing HD and Dolby Surround support I don't need right now, are there other significant limitations in Premiere Elements? For instance, is there a trim window in the new version? Can the program hold up long-length video projects or will it freeze/crash often?
Thank you

[ATR]

Is it true? Is it really forbidden to use Premiere Elements for your job?

I have heard of issues arising from using copyright material in a project, using a program with the same serial number that is registered to you on more than two of your own computers, trying to sell your registered program copy to another, but I have no information with regard to the question that you ask. You need to contact Adobe to get the definite reading of the Adobe End User Licensing Agreement specific to your situation and what you have in mind for "use...for your job".

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/contact.html

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/195/tn_19592.html

http://www.adobe.com/support/service/eula.html

And, besides the missing HD and Dolby Surround support I don't need right now, are there other significant limitations in Premiere Elements? For instance, is there a trim window in the new version? Can the program hold up long-length video projects or will it freeze/crash often?

I am not sure where you are getting your information about missing HD, but Premiere Elements versions 3 and 4 support HDV and versions 7 and 8 support HDV and AVCHD. And, no matter what version of Premiere Elements you use, your computer has to have adequate resources to get the job done. Keep in mind that the System Requirement given for any version is "minimum" requirements, enough to get the program installed. HDV and especially AVCHD are very resource demanding formats so you need a computer optimized to do the job. Check out some of the questions/answers on that topic in this Premiere Elements Forum as well as other online forums. But, even with SD, you can get into trouble with not enough available RAM and free hard drive space coupled with a long project (with oversized photos and video with problematic video codecs).

End User Licensing Agreeing and copyright need to be addressed to the parties in the agreement and whose properties you are using.

Please update us on your progress. Once you get these details ironed out, if appropriate, you might want to download and look at the free 30 day Premiere Elements tryout from Adobe before you make any purchase.

ATR