Two powerful tools, Dynamic Link and Bridge, applications in their own right, further integrate these programs. Dynamic Link allows After Effects compositions to be placed within Premiere Pro and Encore DVD as if they were like any other clip, without rendering. If you need to change the composited clip in Premiere or the motion menu in Encore, you change it in AE and the alterations automatically update in the target application. Impressive, as minor tweaks are the norm and not the exception when creating these elements. Our simple tests of Dynamic Link worked perfectly, a very strong tool.

With Adobe Bridge, users can easily organize, browse, preview and locate files. The tool uses the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) allowing the user to attach labels to files for future searches. Users can also search Bridge for stock photography and illustrations from more than a half million Adobe Stock Photos, and purchases can be made directly from the Bridge window.

However, the interactivity doesn't stop there. Edit Original is a tool that allows quick and seamless integration with After Effects, Premiere Pro, Encore DVD and Illustrator CS2 and Adobe programs that create its assets. For example, open a Photoshop created DVD template in Encore, right click and choose Edit Original and your menu is transferred to Photoshop with all of its layers ready to be altered. Make your changes, save and then go to Encore via your taskbar, and the changes made in Photoshop update automatically in Encore. Impressive. When we teach production classes, we often say that it doesn't matter which software you use because they all accept Photoshop files equally. Well, that has all changed.

And if this were not enough, probably the largest surprise came with the name Clip Notes. Adobe seems to have solved the age-old problem of sharing videos with clients and colleagues for review by embedded video and timecode-accurate note taking nested in an Acrobat file. You read that correctly: send password protected PDF files over the Internet with your video embedded in them. Others can review it, making notes at the frame they wish to comment on, and email it back to you. Brilliant.

In future issues we'll look at what's new in the new versions of Adobe's four main program's upgrades. Premiere Pro is now 2.0, After Effects is in version 7.0, Encore DVD moves into 2.0 and Audition is 2.0 as well.

Even our hard core Final Cut Pro editors on staff were impressed with this deeply integrated PC suites, and it's not an easy feat to impress these Macheads. Too bad the powerful bundle with Bridge, Dynamic Link, Clip Notes and tight Photoshop integration is only available for PC. Might it inspire those who switched to Apple to switch back?

Platform: PC
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 1.4GHz processor for DV (Pentium 4 3.4GHz processor supporting
Hyper-Threading Technology for HDV; dual Intel Xeon 2.8GHz processors for HD; SSE2-enabled processor required for AMD systems)
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition or Windows XP Home Edition, with Service Pack 2
RAM: 512MB of RAM (1GB required when running multiple applications and when using Adobe Dynamic Link, 2GB required for HDV and HD)
Video Display: 1280x1024 screen resolution with 32-bit color adapter
Graphics Card: GPU-accelerated playback. See complete listing at www.adobe.com/compatiblehardware
Audio Card: Microsoft DirectX-compatible sound card (multichannel ASIO-compatible sound card required for surround sound support)
Free Hard Drive Space: 21GB for Premium Edition, 10GB for Standard Edition (additional 10GB or more recommended for After Effects disk caching)
Other: DVD-ROM drive for installation, QuickTime 6.5 to import and export QuickTime files, dedicated 7200RPM hard disk recommended for DV and HDV editing; striped disk array storage (RAID 0) for HD

• Tightly integrated applications
• Extremely professional

• For PC only

An extremely powerful and tightly integrated bundle of comprehensive editing tools for the PC. You'll want a top-notch computer and time to learn these powerful apps.

Morgan Paar is Videomaker's Technical Editor.

$1,699 Premium
$1,199 Standard
Adobe Systems, Inc.
345 Park Ave.
San Jose, CA 95110
(800) 833-6687
www.adobe.com