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Videomaker's 2009 Best Video Editing Suite: Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium Software Review

View all of the best consumer video production products of 2009, selected by the editors of Videomaker

The Adobe CS4 Production Premium video-editing suite is a perfect combination of creative tools for the video-editing guru or post-production business. Enhancements to the CS4 Production Premium bundle include both the impressive "wow" features and the more practical updates that make video editing much more enjoyable. As with any expansive software suite, such as CS4, there is a great deal of ground to cover. In CS4 Production Premium, the bundle includes Illustrator, Photoshop Extended, Flash Professional, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Encore, Soundbooth, Device Central, Bridge and Dynamic Link. That's a hefty suite that's ideal for the professional video editor. For the hobbyist or casual editor, you might just consider Adobe Premiere Pro at $799.

The latest version of Adobe OnLocation has received a complete GUI make-over, and it is finally available on the Mac platform. Long gone is the quirky GUI that included knobs and buttons that mimicked authentic video calibration and monitoring gear. Now it adorns that classic Adobe look with sliders and neatly-organized windows. The interface is clean and even more user-friendly.

The best improvement is the addition of metadata that allows the editor to input additional information to individual video clips. The metadata stays with the clip as it moves into other applications (e.g., Premiere Pro). This enhances the capturing/acquiring process, as well as search functions. OnLocation is no longer a little utility for capturing video instantly to your computer, but rather a full-scale application that will have a big impact on efficiency while in tandem with Premiere. We'll talk more about the interactivity between applications when we discuss Adobe Dynamic Link.

Adobe OnLocation is perfect for the professional shooter who cares greatly about image quality. The live vectorscope and waveform monitor relay accurate visual information that helps the shooter make necessary adjustments. Another terrific touch to this application is the addition of the Good Take checkbox. Now, you can define whether a clip is good and even export all your good takes right into Adobe Premiere Pro.

Speaking of Premiere Pro, there are quite a few enhancements with this latest video-editing application. Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 is currently one of the few video-editing applications with native support for Panasonic P2, Sony XDCAM and AVCHD. That's right, Premiere Pro finally has native support for AVCHD. Additionally, the metadata from P2 and XDCAM formats are also supported, which continues that theme into the Premiere Pro application. These are great touches for the professional editor who relies on metadata.

Premiere Pro CS4 is also easier to use for every type of editor, thanks to some timeline usability improvements. Most notably, it's much easier in this version of Premiere to add transitions to multiple layers of video and audio. You can select a group of video clips and choose a default transition or select audio clips and choose a default audio transition. This reduces a great many repetitive editing tasks when transitions are necessary. Editors putting together photo slide shows will definitely benefit from this feature.

Another great time-saving feature in Premiere Pro CS4 is the media browser window. This is a simple yet clever addition to the program that enables an editor to explore and play back media from the hard drive without having to import the media to the project. The media browser window's default position is on the lower left side of the GUI. The window explores your hard drive and presents media files. If you're curious what the media file is, you simply double click it and it appears in the viewer window. Now, you can play back the media and view it to make sure it's what you wanted. The key to this feature is that it hasn't been officially imported to your project. You can sample media all you want from the media browser window without cluttering up your project bins. If you find a clip you like, you can drag it from the viewer window to the project window.