Why dont’ many use Premiere??

[Todd Kopriva]

My opinion is obviously biased. 😉

Premiere Pro CS5 is a great piece of software, but we’re the first to admit that it has a lot of work to undo some bad reputation gained from inferior releases in the past.

I think that people are giving Premiere Pro a new look now that Premiere Pro CS5 is proving to be such a useful tool.

I think that it also helps that we’re proving with frequent updates that we’re committed to making this the best possible tool for our users.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
Premiere Pro Help & Support
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[Paul Del vecchio]

Hi Milton,

Being an Avid and FCP editor, but someone who loves Premiere and would love to see it gain more ground, I’ll give you my opinion as to why I don’t go for Premiere.

Here goes:

I sure as hell would use Premiere over Avid and FCP for short projects like commercials, short videos, corporate, etc. because the Mercury Engine makes it that much quicker to get done without rendering fx, etc. AND it’s ability to go back and forth between After Effects with no problem.

I wouldn’t use it for film, not even short films. Here’s why…

1. For short films or any film work for that matter, Premiere’s bins don’t really have great organization options. I’m mainly talking about the ability to color clip icons to different user selectable colors. You can make all the same takes from a scene one color, and separate takes another color in Avid or even FCP (although FCP has a smaller selection of colors). Basically you can give all the same takes one color and different takes other colors.

Yeah this might sound small, but it makes organization easy, as it gives you a VISUAL mark of all the takes that are the same. You could essentially put them in separate bins, but then you’re digging through folders/bins and it slows you down.

2. The trimming capabilities of Avid destroy Premiere AND Final Cut. Using the keyboard to edit the way Avid has set it up is such a better way to fine tune edits and to make sure your timing as an editor is PERFECT (which it needs to be and any tool that makes it easier is going to win in my book).

2a. You can’t select an edge in Premiere, making it super MOUSE HEAVY. The ability to select an edge in FCP and Avid really help you fine tune an edit.

3. Long projects get screwy & slow down the interface. Premiere seems to crash or slow down and take forever to do something when your projects get large and the timeline gets long. That alone would make me never want to edit a feature in Premiere. Of course you can break it up between projects and/or timelines but that’s really not ideal.

4. Intermediate codec like DNxHD or ProRes – Not so much a big deal because you can use ProRes (if on a Mac w/ FCP installed) or better yet Cineform which will work on both PC and Mac.

5. Apparently, their interface is kind screwy for plugins. Colorista2 has major issues with not being as responsive as other platforms. Also, giving developers access to the Mercury Playback Engine to accelerate their plugins would be KILLER. Imagine all plugins working in practically real-time?

These are my issues with not using Premiere for long form or short films. You’ll notice that all of these (the most important ones anyway – #1-4) are CORE features, not extravagant “next level” features like the Mercury Playback Engine is. I believe Premiere’s weakness is in the CORE/FUNDAMENTAL stuff and not in the “state of the art” technology, because obviously they’re excelling in that area.

If they made the interface respond quicker (moving stuff around in the timeline doesn’t seem as smooth as Avid and FCP and why does the save bar take excessively long, especially as your projects get longer) and they implemented the changes I stated above, Premiere would be my go to editor hands down.

Who doesn’t want the high end, elegant trim tools of Avid with the amazing real-time performance of Mercury Playback Engine at the price point Adobe is offering from a company (Adobe) that CLEARLY wants to give users amazing tools and push the envelope when it comes to performance and technology? Not to mention the openness to 3rd parties like Blackmagic, AJA, and Matrox.

I think Adobe has the opportunity to really knock it out of the park and rid themselves of the “image” that has been created in the past about Premiere. Premiere could really kick major ass and make its inroads into Hollywood at a larger scale… and I for one would love to see that!

Paul Del Vecchio – Director
https://www.triple-e-productions.net
https://www.pauldv.net

[Mike Cohen]

We use Premiere – so do millions of other people and businesses.

I stand by my motto “use whatever tool is right for the job” and avoid being overly critical of competing tools because you will likely use them in the future, or work closely with someone who does.

I used Media 100 for 5 years, and now Premiere since version 5.0 first on the Mac using the Media 100 hardware, then 6.5 on the PC up to CS4 now. It took some getting used to Premiere which originally was pretty hokey. As the CS versions have evolved it has gotten much more elegant, and now works like a hardware based NLE worked in the past.

I believe that some of the problems people have had with Premiere over the years, myself included, had to do with using PC computers vs Macs which have always been more stable.

Now with 64 bit Windows 7, the stability is much closer to a Mac (for those using Premiere on a Mac disregard this part), and you are only limited by your hardware configuration.

Do i subscribe to the Premiere vs FCP vs AVID vs Edius vs Vegas arguments? No – you can’t expect every piece of software to have the same features. It’s not like comparing brands of Guitar or Washing machine since those products all do the same function and are required to have most of the same basic components. But Guitars and Washing machines also have special features. you could imagine the conversations on the Creative COW equivalent of the home appliances world:

Why does Maytag make such an inferior product? I mean, I did a focus group at the National Association of Washing Up Liquid Manufacturers, and it seems that Whirlpool and Samsung machines have a Super Grass Stain removal setting. Why does Maytag refuse to add this industry standard setting? They will never make inroads to the Professional world of washing in my opinion with such an inferior product.

See where I am going? It is Betamax vs VHS all over again.

Mike Cohen

[Bernhard G.]

Hello,

I’m 100% with argument 4.)

As seen now, Apple seems to dominate the market with ProRes.
Every major software and hardware is advertised being compatible with ProRes.

In my personal opinion Adobe should had overtaken the company ‘Cineform’ AT ANY PRICE
when PP was released for OSX years ago and placing it in the market very very aggressively.

Maybe the strategy using native codecs was right on a long term. Maybe not.
I notice the tendency that camera manufacturers will loose their monopoly
of defining recording codecs to software companies and 3rd party hardware vendors –
see AJA KiPRO, Arri Alexa, Atomos Ninja, etc.

And who dominates the codecs that are used in the field,
determines with software is used afterwards – see Apple.

Only my personal opinion.

Bernhard