Dear Michael

The question is what are you currently doing with PE and what do you expect and intend to do with PD14 ?

Are you interest in particular features ? (4k, fast rendering, action cam....)

I consider that you will find good added value if you update to director suite with color director and audio director.

There is a trial version, but severely limited. There is a 30? day money-back warranty on the actual full program. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
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Hi Michael,

I can't give you chapter and verse on the comparison but for what it's worth I tried out Premiere Elements in the hope of finding a better DVD/Blu-ray authoring experience. Suffice to say I found PrE very disappointing in several areas and quickly switched back to Power Director. This wasn't anything to do with the learning curve - I completed a couple of projects with it - but I found the design of GUI very poorly thought out. Things like pop-up menus obscuring the timeline and a very strange approach to handling transitions with clips being extended by the repetition of frozen frames for dissolves are two that come to mind.

There are many things I continue to grouse about with Power Director but I'd say that in it's market sector it's probably among the best. I've even considered mortgaging my house and buying the full version of Premiere but in addition to the cost, which is hard to justify for the amount of work I do, I also fear the horrendous learning curve. Regards,
Mike

Home-build system:
Intel Core i5 Quad Core 3.3GHz, 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333MHz,
Asus Nvidia GT440 1GB, 2 x Western Digital WD10EARS 1TB, 1 x Seagate ST1000DM010 1TB,
Windows 7 Prof 64-bit, PD 9 Ultra 64, PD 13 Ultimate 64

Quote: There is a trial version, but severely limited. There is a 30? day money-back warranty on the actual full program.

I already own v13 but there is a learning curve that I do not have the time to invest in, just keeping up with PrE curve is enough. That's why I posted this question, to get feedback from anyone who has used PrE or has switched and why. Michael
Lr, Ps, PD365, Canon 60D and 70D, Speedlite 430EX II

Thanks for you comments Theolilou,

Quote: Dear Michael The question is what are you currently doing with PE and what do you expect and intend to do with PD14 ?

I simply edit video clips that I've taken with my 2 cameras. I spend a lot of time key framing, I create slideshows using pan and zoom function then editing the result by adjusting the keyframes. I work a lot with transitions and titles. But I am still a relative novice when it comes to the more advanced features so before I get too invested I want to make sure I'm working with the editor that gets the best results with the least amount of effort; that has the lowest learning curve.

Are you interest in particular features ? (4k, fast rendering, action cam....)

Not sure what the "4k" and "action cam..." features are. I'm particularly interested in are the only ones I know, like Rendering, which is a very time consuming process and has to been done way too often. What I have learned in PrE is that I can constrain the area of the timeline I want to render so rendering, for that area, can be accomplished in about 30 seconds. Speed mapping, key framing, pan and zoom, tracking, etc. most any feature that PrE has and that I've tried to impliment.

I consider that you will find good added value if you update to director suite with color director and audio director.

That would certainly be something I'd consider, if I decide to switch, but before I do that I need to figure out if switching is a good direction to go in or if I'd be better advised to stay with PrE.I could spend a lot of time learning how to use PD but I couln't possibly evaluate all the options of each progream on my own, I don't even know all the available options in PrE, because I'm still learning! I have the basics down but I couldn't really make an informed decision based on what I can do with the features I know. I need to hear from people who have advanced experience with both programs. What would be ideal is a side-by-side review of all the features of both programs, done by an advanced user, who knows and understands all the features of both programs and can compair them and make a recommendation. Michael
Lr, Ps, PD365, Canon 60D and 70D, Speedlite 430EX II

Thanks Fenman, great comments!

Quote: Hi Michael,

I can't give you chapter and verse on the comparison but for what it's worth I tried out Premiere Elements in the hope of finding a better DVD/Blu-ray authoring experience.

I haven't tried to do this, yet, but I'm sure that one day I will want to. At this point my greatest, publish, concern is the size of my files. The, "extinct" wmv format produces the smallest files but tend to act up down the line. I've created many wmv formated clips and put the on the SD card of my tablet. Recently 2 of them stopped working and PrE wouldn't let me import them again for editing. I had to go to a converting program, convert them to mp4, load them back into PrE elements and republish them as wmv files. I now keep a backup mp4 copy of all my wmv files.

switched back to Power Director.

That's the sort of thing I'm interested in hearing. Did you start with PrE?

I've even considered mortgaging my house and buying the full version of Premiere but in addition to the cost, which is hard to justify for the amount of work I do, I also fear the horrendous learning curve.

I feel exactly the same way, and have told Adobe as much! If my only option was to "rent" Pr Pro I'd switch in a heartbeat!

I suspect that Pr Pro may have the edge on PD but since, like you, I don't intend to morgage my home, I've gone with PrE. I'm thinking that it's only logical that PD would have the edge on Elements simlysimply because Elements is a stripped down version of the Pro version, and PD is a "full version".

This wasn't anything to do with the learning curve -

Would you say PD has a lower learning curve? Is it more intuitive, or more reational?

the design of GUI very poorly thought out. Things like pop-up menus obscuring the timeline and a very strange approach to handling transitions with clips being extended by the repetition of frozen frames for dissolves are two that come to mind.

These are the kinds of things I want to hear, examples of how features compair, etc. thanks

There are many things I continue to grouse about with Power Director but I'd say that in it's market sector it's probably among the best.

I've hear that too, but I wanted to make sure it was just hype.

I interested enough to have actually purchased it, I just don't have the time to invested in learning how these two editors compair; I'm always running behind in my projects as it is! Michael
Lr, Ps, PD365, Canon 60D and 70D, Speedlite 430EX II

Quote: That's the sort of thing I'm interested in hearing. Did you start with PrE?

No I had PD first. I've been using PD9 for around 5 years then upgraded tp PD13 last year

Would you say PD has a lower learning curve? Is it more intuitive, or more reational?

That's impossible to say because I'd been using PD for several years before trying PrE. It didn't seem to take long to pick up the essentials of PrE though, sufficient to decide I liked PD better.

The first NLE I ever used was Pinnacle Studio, editing MJPEG video from a capture card connected to an analog Sony camcorder. With a change to an AVI digital camera I then moved on to a UK-designed slightly quirky product called EditStudio which I liked greatly but the designers lost interest in developing it so when I bough a HD camera I had to move on again. I seem to remember I tried Pinnacle again and also Corel Videostudio and Sony Vegas then PD. I finally chose PD as the most intuitive.

As I said I tried PrE to see if it offered a better DVD/Blu-ray authoring platform as I find the PD Disc Creator module is one of its weakest points. For authoring ordinary DVDs I still use a stand-alone program that I used with EditStudio as that is far better but it doesn't support Blu-ray so I'm currently forced to use PD for that. The PD Disc Creator is still very buggy and atrociously clunky and non-intuitve in my opinion so I've been searching for a stand-alone Blu-ray authoring utility but with no success so far.

I have no doubt that Premiere Pro would blow PD out of the water but it's in a quite different market sector, being a true professional product with price to match. Incidentally from what I read on the Premiere Elements forum it seems that the problems with the GUI I mentioned were the result of a fairly recent 'refresh' of the design. I think it was originally based more on the Pro version and I feel sure that would be immaculate. Regards,
Mike

Home-build system:
Intel Core i5 Quad Core 3.3GHz, 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333MHz,
Asus Nvidia GT440 1GB, 2 x Western Digital WD10EARS 1TB, 1 x Seagate ST1000DM010 1TB,
Windows 7 Prof 64-bit, PD 9 Ultra 64, PD 13 Ultimate 64