These days, digital media professionals need to do it all -- production and delivery, video and Web and print -- and work in all media -- video production, and audio, motion effects, Web and DVD. Similarly, no one tool can do it all, which leads to integrated suites like Adobe Creative Suite 4 (see previous blog posts) and Apple Final Cut Studio.
But the power of a suite is more than a collection of tools, it's also about how easily you can move media and projects among the tools. For example, Adobe provides tight integration among its tools with Adobe Dynamic Link to avoid intermediate rendering when moving assets among After Effects CS4, Premiere Pro CS4, Encore CS4, and Soundbooth CS4. Premiere Pro CS4 also includes OnLocation CS4 for initial capture with direct-to-disk recording and monitoring, and Encore CS4 for exporting productions to Blu-ray disc, DVD, and the Web.
And a suite also has to open to integrating beyond its own boundaries in order to fit into a larger workflow, so it can import and export to other tools, and work with third-party hardware.
To this end, Adobe has released updates for Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 (version 4.1) and other Adobe Creative Suite 4 tools to further open up post-production workflow options, especially though interoperability with RED Digital Cinema and Avid Technology software workflows. So Adobe now supports software-only HD workflows from capture to output in tapeless formats including RED R3D, Sony XDCAM EX and HD, Panasonic P2, and AVCHD.
Updates in Premiere Pro CS4 version 4.1 include:
- File-based workflow for RED R3D files, without transcoding or rewrapping, in Premiere Pro CS4 4.1, After Effects CS4 9.0.2, and Adobe Encore, using RED’s beta plug-in. -- See Native support of RED R3D files in Adobe tools.
- Avid project import without recapturing media files -- Improved interoperability with Avid Media Composer software through AAF and the MXF-wrapped IMX format.
- Uncompressed SD and HD acquisition and accelerated HD workflows on leading post-production hardware including AJA Video, Blackmagic Design, and Matrox, through compatibility enhancements.
- Full support for 64-bit systems with faster performance and responsiveness to accelerate compute-intensive postproduction, though bug fixes and faster project load times. -- See www.adobe.com/go/64bitsupport.
The new Creative Suite 4 versions are available at no cost via the Adobe updater and from adobe.com. Trial versions are available online for download.
See summary of the Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 4.1 Update
See my full article, Summary: Adobe Creative Suite 4, for more on the CS4 suites and individual applications.
See summaries of video applications and versions in my Video Editing Software Gallery.
Find the Adobe CS4
Production Premium
and
Master Collection on Amazon.com