Boasting more than 200 major enhancements, Adobe's Video Collection is now out in Version 2.5 that will strengthen the package for video professionals.

The ".5" nomenclature comes about because shortly after 1.0 was released last year Adobe released a new version of Photoshop, which is included in the Professional edition of the collection. The revised Video Collection was designated 1.5, hence the first full upgrade is 2.5.

The bundling is the same as in 1.0: "Standard" consists of Premiere Pro 1.5 (the video editing software that is the cornerstone of the collection), Audition 1.5 (sound editing), Encore DVD 1.5 (DVD creation), and After Effects 6.5 Standard (graphic animation and special effects). Professional substitutes After Effects 6.5 Professional (more tools) for Standard and adds Photoshop CS. Street prices are $237.50 to upgrade from either version of 1.0 to the same version of 2.5, $950 for the full version of Standard, $1,425 for Professional, and $760 to upgrade Standard to Professional. Those represent significant price increases from 1.0, signaling that Adobe is positioning the products more at corporate and creative professional rather than high-end "prosumer" users.

All of the components programs also are sold separately. The pricing methodology here is that the Standard bundle is about the same price as  Premiere and Encore alone, while Professional essentially delivers all five of its components for the price of three.

The changes from the original are, for the most part specific to each program. Audition, for example, gains integrated CD burning, more tools for timing and syncing video soundtracks, and more "loops" (prerecorded soundclips to assist in production). Premiere and Encore get various interface improvements, support from more video standards, and tighter integration with Photoshop. As with the first version, you can apply a simple rule-of-thumb to judge the relevance of the package to your needs: if things such as "AAF, and EDL import/export" in Premier or "nested layers and non-square pixel support" are important to you, you want to upgrade. If not, not.

One major collection-wide enhancement is that 2.5 is optimized for Windows XP, according to Adobe. My testing bears that out. There were fewer annoying timelags between issuing a command and getting the video display to reflect it, which are the result of the heavy system resource load from video processing. For example, frame-by-frame video advance (important to precise trimming of video clips) worked more smoothly in Premiere 1.5 than 1.0.

While I generally am impressed by the new Video Collection, there is an issue or two with it. For one thing, it always gives me pause when a company releases Version 1.0 software, then rolls out a major upgrade less than year later. In this case, Adobe is treating early adopters well -- if you bought Professional 1.0 and then upgraded to 2.5, you pay less than you would have if you bought 2.5 now. Standard users have about a $90 hit, and most video professionals will find the advances worthwhile. Nevertheless, even those for whom such purchases can be written off as a business expense still would like to see product cycles with greater longevity.

In addition, Adobe really needs to march the Video Collection product team down the hall to where the Creative Suite folks hang out for a few lessons in product integration and accessibility. For one thing, it is ridiculous that a $1,500 product doesn't have a common installer as CS does. Video Collection requires a separate install for each component project -- with six serial numbers to manage and three reboots before you are done. Similarly, while CS also is product aimed at creative professionals, the product's interface and methodology is such that non-experts can do at least some basic projects if need be. This is a big deal for smaller shops, a small ad agency or graphics house, for example, where people may have to pinch hit for their colleagues. Video Collection has a way to go yet in the ease of use department.

Here's a simple rule-of-thumb for deciding whether to buy the Adobe Video Collection: if your digital video equipment costs more than the bundle, buy it; if not, you probably don't need it.

The Standard Edition is $800 and the Professional version runs $1,055. Not cheap but in the same ballpark as competing video editing software.

Adobe is targeting video professionals and also is looking at the prosumer market. In other words, if you have a budget videocam and are doing "what I did on my summer vacation" videos, mainstream video software probably will meet your needs. But if you are doing serious work, you will need the industrial strength capabilities of Adobe's collections.

The centerpiece of both versions are Adobe's Premiere Pro video editing software, Encore DVD creator, and the Audition sound editor. The Standard Collection comes with After Effects Standard, the animation and composition editor. Professional has After Effects -- yes, you guessed it -- Professional (more included effects), and also the Photoshop graphics editor (used in this context for editing menus and backgrounds).

Before going any further, a few basic points are in order:

• This collection is about digital video; video that's recorded in purely electronic format such as AVI or MPEG. Analog video -- what you would get from, say, standard videotapes -- has to be converted to digital form for the Adobe Collection to work with it. Moreover, professional digital video contains time and marker information that works to ease the editing process.
• If you are new to this realm, as I was, forget the traditional principle that Real Geeks Don't Read Manuals (Or Do Tutorials). The learning curve on these products can be steep, so do your homework. Spending time on the front end in learning the products, in fact, pays dividends in time saved doing actual projects because what you wind up learning is that the software is much easier to use than it seems when you first start it up. For example, I discovered from Encore's documentation that you can build DVD menus easily via drag and drop.
• And Adobe properly calls it a "Collection;" it is a boxed set of individual apps and while they draw on features from each other, it is not an integrated package like Microsoft Office or Adobe's own new flagship Creative Suite. This needs to be addressed in future incarnations as greater integration, especially of Premiere Pro and Encore DVD, would make for a more powerful bundle.

That said, the Collection is surprisingly easy to use. All the applications except Audition employ Adobe's standard "palette" interface, which groups icons for operating functions and provides boxes that monitor the content on which you are working.

Audition, the successor to CoolEdit Pro, already has been recommended by TNPC in a separate article, retains the interface from its former incarnation. Audition is included to let you produce elaborate multitrack soundtracks for your opuses and its operations will be familiar to Cool Edit users.

Generally the Collection' starting point would be Premiere Pro. Once you get accustomed to it, it is a very straightforward and powerful video editor that will let you slice and splice your digital video as your creative juices dictate. A multitrack timeline interface manages the overall shape of your projects while monitor screens provide for fine tuning. Transitions and other special effects are plentiful.

You can "capture" directly from a FireWire equipped video camera; others will require a capture card in your PC. Premiere also "imports" digital files that already are on your hard disk. These are not limited to video, but also include any audio you generated in Audition, graphics from Photoshop, and animations from After Effects.

Basically, the process is that captured and imported files show up in a "Project" palette, another palette contains transitions and other effects. You then  drag and drop these raw ingredients into the timeline to build up the sequences you want. Tools are straightforward: for example a "razor blade" icon turns your mouse pointer into a cutting tool to break up video footage.

Encore works in much the same fashion to put your oeuvres on DVD. As with Premiere, you import the content you want, which then appears on a palette. Then with dragging and dropping and other tools you build and tweak your project, including menus and navigational structure. In most cases you will want to use Premiere to prepare your videos for Encore, but it is not required. There is special integration with Photoshop for creating menus.

The striking thing about the Collection is that how accessible it is for such a high-end package. After Effects was the only component application that I thought was overly demanding for an average user; you really do need creative talent to make effective use of it.

For the video pro and the high end enthusiast, Adobe's Video Collection is a package that will let you assemble digital multimedia that will stand up to strict quality standards and will let you get in touch with your inner George Lucas. (In fact, now that I think about it, that last "Star Wars" badly needs a re-edit.)

In addition to his computer interests, Al Gordon is a principal in the Boston-area strategic consulting firm, Mary Fifield Associates, www.maryfifieldassociates.com

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You can reach Al Gordon at:

al@tnpcnewsletter.com

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