Tired of being a beta tester for a multimillion $ corporatio

[rjones]

Premiere 8 is not ready for primetime. On my latest project it crashed at least 20 times requiring restart or total reboot of the computer. Now when I try to open it it says its loading but there's nothing on the screen. Nothing. Even though the task manager and the task bar says the program is running, I can't see it.

When the program crashes I get a window that asks me to tell Adobe why it crashed. I should be getting paid $150 an hour to do this. Instead I paid (stupidly, it appears now) to beta test this software that should have never been released to the public. I'm a long-time Adobe user and have spent hundreds of dollars on its software, but Premiere 8 has really burned me out and I'm ready to jump ship on Adobe's video production programs. I was considering going to the Premiere Pro eventually but there's no way I'm paying that kind of money to be abused like this.

Meanwhile, I'm going back to Premiere 7 in hopes it will hold together enough for me to get my work done.

[Chuck Engels]

Hi RJones,
You are not alone in your dislike for Premiere Elements 8.
Hopefully we can help you work through any problems you may have but be sure to send Adobe a nice note about how much you enjoy their product

[JohnnyO]

be sure to send Adobe a nice note about how much you enjoy their product

I remember when PRE3 cam out there was also a big uproar regarding its stability, track 1 performance (remember that one?) and various bugs all over the place, which were difficult to live with.

Adobe responded by issuing the 3.0.2 patch, which came out in January after the initial release of the product either in late September or early October.

Adobe never formally admitted there was a problem. They just claimed they were issuing a Vista patch.

I hope Adobe is listing right now. They really need to issue a patch with this version. On my system I cannot even run it. I have purchased every version since the beginning, and I have never had a problem like this.

I am not that uset over this, but there are tons of folks that purchased this product and it seems that it is money down he drain. It makes you think twice about ever upgrading again.

Inthe meantime, like so many iothers, I am hapily using PRE7. I also use Magix Movie edit Pro 15 Plus.

[roadsideron]

They made a very bad corporate decision. They timed the release to match Studio 14's release so they wouldn't lose any sales to Pinnacle. It was a very bad corporate decision because PE 8 was not ready for release and Adobe knew it. But they did it anyway. Doing that not only hurt future sales, but it also hurt their reputation. Bad, bad, Adobe.

[Bobby]

They made a very bad corporate decision. They timed the release to match Studio 14's release so they wouldn't lose any sales to Pinnacle. It was a very bad corporate decision because PE 8 was not ready for release and Adobe knew it. But they did it anyway. Doing that not only hurt future sales, but it also hurt their reputation. Bad, bad, Adobe.

RSR, do you know this for true, or just guessing? If so, v.bad v.bad v.bad

[roadsideron]

Let's say I'm guessing. PE 8 was released almost the same day S14 was released. I think it was the same day. Again, let's say I'm guessing...I do believe(guess) that Adobe knew the PE 8 wasn't ready to be released. I don't see how they couldn't know(guessing).

[Bob]

Premiere Elements is on an annual release schedule. Versions 1 through 4 were released in September, while versions 7 and 8 were released in October. Nothing unusual there.

I do have to wonder about their release criteria and testing procedures. It's absolutely mind boggling that they would release a product with this degree of problems.

[George Tyndall]

Premiere 8 is not ready for primetime. On my latest project it crashed at least 20 times.... Meanwhile, I'm going back to Premiere 7 in hopes it will hold together enough for me to get my work done.

So that's why Amazon.com was recently reportedly offering PRE8 for only $39.95!

Here in LA, I am so enamored of the 7 suite, and so likely to stay with it for a very long time, that I just bought an extra new-in-the-shrink-wrap copy on ebay.*



____
*BTW, is there a reason you can't get your money back? I've forgotten what version it was after PSE4 that I did not like, but I followed the Adobe store's online procedure for returns, and I had a credit within a day or two AND I was told not to bother returning the product. Instead, all I had to do was certify that I would not use it.

[eleanor]

Having bought the new Canon 7D I was really anxious to work on video after 10 years of doing only still photography. Jeepers, things were a lot more simple editing Hi 8 with Videonics equipment and great Sony VCRs.

I used PE4 to edit still images into video for youtube for a few years and thought it would be easy to upgrade to PE8. What a joke! I still don't know if PE8 really supports the video from this camera. After a week of reading forums and everything else I could find, waiting over 10 hours on hold on various phone calls and getting no information, I demanded my money back and uninstalled PE8 for the last time!

Pinnacle, here I come!

[Chuck Engels]

Hi Eleanor, Welcome to Muvipix

Too bad you didn't find us first, could have saved you some trouble and time.
Pinnacle might not be your best bet, probably want to try Vegas Studio instead, or maybe Magix.

[Bobby]

Also a lot of use use third party free programs for capture - WinDV for Standard Definition and HDVSplit for HD, for example.

Did the camera come with a rudimentary capture program? If so you might be able to use that to create standard files on hard drive and then read them into PRE.

[dberthia]

Version 8 has finally pushed me over the edge. I've been using PrEl since the very first version. I haven't always been happy with it- I've had my share of crashes and WTF moments over the years, but I always managed to make it work enough to do what I wanted to do. I've dutifully upgraded with each new release.

Version 8 is a horrible mess of bugs and bloatware. It slowed my computer to a crawl with all the background processing, and the choppy video playback was simply unacceptable on my more than adequate hardware. I thought about going back to version 7, which ran great on my system. I read about all the various tips and tricks to improve performance, and tried every one. But then I realized that a company that cared out its customers wouldn't allow things to get to this point, and I thought now would be a great time to reassess and see what other options were available. Adobe is basically begging me to drop their product these days, so I thought I may as well oblige.

I did a little research, and have moved on to Cyberlink's Power Director 8 (http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector/overview_en_US.html). The interface takes a little getting used to after years of PrEl, but I've been happy with it so far (one week) and am probably not going to look back. It's not perfect, but so far I can do what I need to do without the application getting in the way.

I'll keep an eye on Adobe to see if they can ever get the train back on the rails, but I'm not optimistic. In my view they've increasingly traded stability and usefulness for showy new features that are of limited value. They need to go back to the basics and concentrate their development efforts on creating a lean, mean core editing system that is rock solid and reliable. Perhaps they could split-off all the bells and whistles into add-on modules, but the core needs to be dependable.

I haven't been a frequent poster on the forums, but I've always appreciated the help and support provided here. I've been right with you folks on wanting to make this application work for me, but it's just become too much of an effort to battle the application instead of putting it to use.

[Chuck Engels]

Hi Dave,
Wow, sorry to hear that things are that bad.
Most of us are sticking with version 7 as far as I can tell.
I still use version 3 for a lot of my standard definition work

[Steve Grisetti]

I wish I could say something in Adobe's defense, but I can't this time out. Version 8 works, on an adequately powered, well-tuned system using non-challenging media -- but it needs a good two or three times the power of version 7. And even then it sometimes takes a dump for no reason. And that's in addition to features that were simply left undone (like the Normalize button that's there but doesn't do anything).

I'm not sure what Adobe's strategy is here, but it certainly seems like version 8 is this year's "Vista." Its benefits just don't justify its liabilities.

Which is not to say that it's a total piece of junkware. As it said, it does run stably on a powerful, well-tuned computer. But there's no reason the few new features should drag down the average system so much!

As I've said before, I'd love to see Adobe really give this program a good reboot. And, next generation, instead of throwing in more bells and whistles, they should concentrate on create a rock solid, stable piece that can handle a wide variety of consumer video formats. That would be a program people would be crawling over each other to buy!

[George Tyndall]

Version 8 has finally pushed me over the edge. ....
Version 8 is a horrible mess of bugs and bloatware. It slowed my computer to a crawl with all the background processing, and the choppy video playback was simply unacceptable on my more than adequate hardware. I thought about going back to version 7, which ran great on my system. .... They need to go back to the basics and concentrate their development efforts on creating a lean, mean core editing system that is rock solid and reliable. Perhaps they could split-off all the bells and whistles into add-on modules, but the core needs to be dependable.

dberthia, it seems to me that Adobe, in an effort to make its software usable by the masses so they can post on YouTube and other sites, has tried to automate as much of the program as possible. The result, as you say, is a mess.