Customer Rating: 
Summary: Magnificent for home or educational use - very happy
Comment: I purchased version 3.0 after newer version came out, and am VERY VERY pleased with it.
I am a Science teacher, and primarily use this to adapt my own travel video for use in my classroom. I have some artistic chops, so my video projects are on the ambitious side. I don't do hokey stuff -- my work comes out pretty stylish and very engaging.
This editing software will allow you to make extraordinarily elegant videos (DVDs I should say), including musical backdrops, voice-over work, replacing existing soundtracks, adjusting sound levels and all other details on a clip-by-clip basis, etc. etc. etc. If you have home video where some voices are hard to hear while others are very loud, you can easily break the clip, invisibly, into as many bits as you need, in order to make some sections louder or softer as needed. You can do all the fades, wipes, etc. just by dragging and dropping things where you want them. I've put in long sequences of subtitles on some clips where the person is explaining something but it is difficult to make out due to windy weather or ocean waves in the background.
My projects run from 30 minutes to around an hour, and the program has shown no signs of gagging on the size of the files or the number of effects and adjustments I make.
You should DEFINITELY go through the "live" tutorial that comes with the package -- it puts you through all the basic steps -- and after that, you're pretty much on your own to figure out all the things you can do; however, I've found the program logically intuitive and I was doing what I consider very good work on only my second project.
I've heard some complaints about version 4.0, and I can't comment on that. But if you can still get 3.0, I'd say it will be one purchase that you won't regret.
People will tell you your DVDs look good enough for TV -- this is going too far, but the results are certainly as good as I have ever expected to see in home video. At the price they're asking, it's a steal.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Purchased for use with my Canon Hv10
Comment: I bought this thinking that I needed to upgrade from premier elements 2.0 because 2.0 doesn't support HD. I found out afterwards that my camera (canon HV10) can play back in SD when downloading to the computer. Duh! Oh well... I am trying out this software and it seems pretty good. I think it is geared more towards the basic user. I personally like the layout more in 2.0 where everything is not readily available (i guess i just like nested menus).
It seems to run a bit quirky at times, but all in all its a pretty good buy and has a lot of potential for you to make some pretty professional looking videos. I never had it crash. But just an fyi, if you plan on working with HD video, make sure you have the computer HP to back it up. HD video takes a lot of processing power to work with.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Awesome Product
Comment: Have used other production software, but this is far superior to them. Not the newest version, but a great product to use with many of the same effects available on the newer versions. There is virtually no documentation with the product so it is in your best interests to buy a book such as Hollywood Special Effects w/ Adobe Premiere Elements 3. By using the sample files on the disk in the book, I was able to learn how to create great special effects. If you're looking for the Wow factor from family and friends, you'll get it with this program.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not good, not bad, BUT
Comment: Well, at first I installed it on my PC, but I guess you'd have to have a good amount of space on your com otherwise it'd be lagging for every clip you drag on to the scene line. I use to work with it on my pc, and I would want to save and export it after COMPLETING IT, the program shuts down on me... They constantly have these AUTO saving, but when you try to open it... Nothing you were working on appears to be seen anywhere. So I don't know why they constantly auto save. Other than that, directions just pains you. You go through the booklet expecting a good direction, but it's just not that simple to follow and figure ( BY NOT TELLING YOU MUCH ). You just need to mess around with it to figure yourself. If you install it on a new laptop with plenty free space ( what I did ) then the lagging is all gone, and you finally can do stuff with it that don't concern you every move you make, and every clip you take. So I got to learn more of the program when the lagging is gone, that nearly exploded my head every time I want to work with it. Just takes from like approximately afternoon to night time. In other words, FOREVER. Once I get to learn the program without lags, it was more acceptable. Still not the BEST program i'd go for, b/c they have tis 2 process when saving and exporting and stuff, which takes forever on a regular computer overloaded with crap. Still a too long process of saving, quality sucks. Even with the best megapix camera, things are not clearly detailed as it should. Overall, an ok program, nice video effects to play with. Words don't do cool jump and explode stuff like movie maker, but you can give it a different look and stuff. You'll just have to figure a lot on your own, so g luck with it. Not worth the EXPENSIVE costing, for a hard to use program partially.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fool
Comment: I bought Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 a couple of months ago and it works fine. I spent two months creating 8 slide shows with over 200 slides total after spending hours fixing up each photo. The slide shows are complete with text, narration, and music. Those slide shows work fine. They're just the way I want them and they look great in Photoshop.Then I found out that I can't export those slide shows to a DVD unless I buy Premiere Elements. So I did (3.0.2). Then I exported the slide shows to Premiere, only to find out that all the frame times and transition times and transition styles are all changed.This means another 6 months changing those in Premiere. I can't even see what I'm clicking on the time line to do that.And guess what. After I do all this, the resolution is so terrible that I would never show the DVD to my worst enemy. And I've spend hours checking the "Help" to no avail.One more thing: I find out that I can't get any help from Adobe unless I pay more money to join a "Support Program." I can't even get into a users forum unless I pay more money.It has got to be the worst program ever developed and sold. I can't even upgrade to the newer versions unless I pay full price. I've suffered a $90 loss.
Summary: Magnificent for home or educational use - very happy
Comment: I purchased version 3.0 after newer version came out, and am VERY VERY pleased with it.
I am a Science teacher, and primarily use this to adapt my own travel video for use in my classroom. I have some artistic chops, so my video projects are on the ambitious side. I don't do hokey stuff -- my work comes out pretty stylish and very engaging.
This editing software will allow you to make extraordinarily elegant videos (DVDs I should say), including musical backdrops, voice-over work, replacing existing soundtracks, adjusting sound levels and all other details on a clip-by-clip basis, etc. etc. etc. If you have home video where some voices are hard to hear while others are very loud, you can easily break the clip, invisibly, into as many bits as you need, in order to make some sections louder or softer as needed. You can do all the fades, wipes, etc. just by dragging and dropping things where you want them. I've put in long sequences of subtitles on some clips where the person is explaining something but it is difficult to make out due to windy weather or ocean waves in the background.
My projects run from 30 minutes to around an hour, and the program has shown no signs of gagging on the size of the files or the number of effects and adjustments I make.
You should DEFINITELY go through the "live" tutorial that comes with the package -- it puts you through all the basic steps -- and after that, you're pretty much on your own to figure out all the things you can do; however, I've found the program logically intuitive and I was doing what I consider very good work on only my second project.
I've heard some complaints about version 4.0, and I can't comment on that. But if you can still get 3.0, I'd say it will be one purchase that you won't regret.
People will tell you your DVDs look good enough for TV -- this is going too far, but the results are certainly as good as I have ever expected to see in home video. At the price they're asking, it's a steal.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Purchased for use with my Canon Hv10
Comment: I bought this thinking that I needed to upgrade from premier elements 2.0 because 2.0 doesn't support HD. I found out afterwards that my camera (canon HV10) can play back in SD when downloading to the computer. Duh! Oh well... I am trying out this software and it seems pretty good. I think it is geared more towards the basic user. I personally like the layout more in 2.0 where everything is not readily available (i guess i just like nested menus).
It seems to run a bit quirky at times, but all in all its a pretty good buy and has a lot of potential for you to make some pretty professional looking videos. I never had it crash. But just an fyi, if you plan on working with HD video, make sure you have the computer HP to back it up. HD video takes a lot of processing power to work with.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Awesome Product
Comment: Have used other production software, but this is far superior to them. Not the newest version, but a great product to use with many of the same effects available on the newer versions. There is virtually no documentation with the product so it is in your best interests to buy a book such as Hollywood Special Effects w/ Adobe Premiere Elements 3. By using the sample files on the disk in the book, I was able to learn how to create great special effects. If you're looking for the Wow factor from family and friends, you'll get it with this program.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not good, not bad, BUT
Comment: Well, at first I installed it on my PC, but I guess you'd have to have a good amount of space on your com otherwise it'd be lagging for every clip you drag on to the scene line. I use to work with it on my pc, and I would want to save and export it after COMPLETING IT, the program shuts down on me... They constantly have these AUTO saving, but when you try to open it... Nothing you were working on appears to be seen anywhere. So I don't know why they constantly auto save. Other than that, directions just pains you. You go through the booklet expecting a good direction, but it's just not that simple to follow and figure ( BY NOT TELLING YOU MUCH ). You just need to mess around with it to figure yourself. If you install it on a new laptop with plenty free space ( what I did ) then the lagging is all gone, and you finally can do stuff with it that don't concern you every move you make, and every clip you take. So I got to learn more of the program when the lagging is gone, that nearly exploded my head every time I want to work with it. Just takes from like approximately afternoon to night time. In other words, FOREVER. Once I get to learn the program without lags, it was more acceptable. Still not the BEST program i'd go for, b/c they have tis 2 process when saving and exporting and stuff, which takes forever on a regular computer overloaded with crap. Still a too long process of saving, quality sucks. Even with the best megapix camera, things are not clearly detailed as it should. Overall, an ok program, nice video effects to play with. Words don't do cool jump and explode stuff like movie maker, but you can give it a different look and stuff. You'll just have to figure a lot on your own, so g luck with it. Not worth the EXPENSIVE costing, for a hard to use program partially.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fool
Comment: I bought Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 a couple of months ago and it works fine. I spent two months creating 8 slide shows with over 200 slides total after spending hours fixing up each photo. The slide shows are complete with text, narration, and music. Those slide shows work fine. They're just the way I want them and they look great in Photoshop.Then I found out that I can't export those slide shows to a DVD unless I buy Premiere Elements. So I did (3.0.2). Then I exported the slide shows to Premiere, only to find out that all the frame times and transition times and transition styles are all changed.This means another 6 months changing those in Premiere. I can't even see what I'm clicking on the time line to do that.And guess what. After I do all this, the resolution is so terrible that I would never show the DVD to my worst enemy. And I've spend hours checking the "Help" to no avail.One more thing: I find out that I can't get any help from Adobe unless I pay more money to join a "Support Program." I can't even get into a users forum unless I pay more money.It has got to be the worst program ever developed and sold. I can't even upgrade to the newer versions unless I pay full price. I've suffered a $90 loss.