On Fri, 5 Jan 2001 00:19:01 -0500, "Phil M" wrote:

>Guys, cross your fingers because I think Premiere 6 is out.
>I just visited Adobe Premiere 6 website and the "Preorder" button switched
>to "Buy" for US$549.00.
>Hmmmm. I'll give it a try and see how it compares against editDV...
>But, is it out?

Yes, we got it a couple of days ago, and just loaded it.
After a VERY brief checkout this afternoon.....

Minuses:
- Couldn't import a P-5 project without problems.
- Crashed once (Win2k) while playing with filters.
- Still no soft-edged wipes ala MSPro (and few
additions to the transition list from P-5).
- Sizing of preview window is odd, and, as with
P-5, it ducks under the timeline window when it
is used, making single-monitor use with a full
resolution preview window a pain. (Not a P-6
problem, but a Matrox G-400 card will not do
hardware overlay with Raptor no matter what
drivers we tried [in Win98 or Win2K] - though
the software overlay is almost as good, and
doesn't require the camcorder or D->A/A->D box
to work). As before, two monitors are almost
a must-have for efficient screen layout.
- Audio and video tracks are linked by default,
so selecting one selects the other, making
deleting one or the other, but not both,
awkward - a menu must be opened and a selection
made to do this formerly simple thing.
- The numbering of audio and video tracks is
still silly: V1a=A1, V1b=A2 instead of A1b - but
you can still rename audio tracks to make them
easier to associate with the video tracks.
- The audio mixer did not work in my set-up.

Pluses:
- The audio waveform image is improved, and
it can be made black (and it is now centered,
making visual judging of clipping easier) - and
it can be disabled for large timescale values
to speed screen redraw.
- There are more and better audio filters, and
a pan "rubber band" has been added.
- The organization of filters, effects, and
transitions is more logical, and the controls
are sometimes better (though removing a filter
takes a moment to figure out the first time...;-).
- Keyframing is done on the timeline in a very
intuitive way that is simpler than in P-5.
- Plugins from other programs can be used.
- Render times appear to be the same as for P-5
(with a single processor - but P-6 can make use
of dual processors).

Altogether, P-6 appears to be well worth the
price, and, as P-5.1 was before it, it is a
feature-rich editor that allows for various
ways of working, on various types of projects.
With the addition of web streaming capability
and the ability to use OCHI FireWire cards,
its versatility has been expanded. I will
wait, though, until I have finished current
projects on my main editing computer before
installing it there...