I'm upgrading from Premier Elements 2021, to 2025, and the drastically changed/new/different interface is tripping me up. Three main Q's: 1. Is there any way to ask Elements 2025 to shift back to a "legacy appearance", comparable to the 2021 version, or other prior versions? 2. What command do I use to rotate a video by a controlled and limited amount, rather than in 90 degree increments? For example, if someone was holding the video camera at a slightly off-kilter angle, such as 4 degrees clockwise, how can I return the video to normal vertical? 3. How can I zoom in, using a controllable slider, rather than the 1.5x, 2x, and other fixed increments that show up in the list of zooming options? Any help on ANY of those would be truly useful, and appreciated. ... View more

Every time I boot up Premier Elements (2021), it makes me have to dismiss the screen shown below. How can I get that to stop, and go straight to the editor?   ... View more

I started an intro thread, for non-IT-experts, on the basics of moving from spinning drives, to SSD or M.2 units. That thread is here:   https://community.adobe.com/t5/Video-Hardware/Intro-for-non-experts-to-upgrading-from-spinning-hard-drive-to/m-p/10731673#M14140   A very interesting reply was posted, re: using separate SSD drives to handle scratch/temp files. I can see the logic in doing that, but a couple of questions arise, including, has anyone who has tried that approach ever done any actual speed comparison tests, when generating a large video file (such as, say 2 Gb or greater)?   And, is that approach recommended, or discouraged?   Please keep this simple. I really would rather NOT get into digressions re: RAID, or other accelerator options, or other software/hardware packages that can be added on. I don't work at that level, and I'm just trying to ask a basic, straightforward question, which I hopes merits a direct answer. If there are links to other good threads, which get into those other questions, fine; feel free to post those, preferably with a quick summary/explanation, written for us non-expert proles; but, no rabbit-hole openings, please, 'cuz my horse stepped into one and broke his leg, once, and he hates them. ... View more

I checked out a couple of threads on upgrading a system to an SSD and/or M.2 chip, and they all got fairly quickly into discussions of special accelerators, cache placements, and other stuff that went beyond and above what I suspect a lot of basic video users (especially users of Premier Elements) really need. So, I'd like to at least try to create a thread for non-IT experts, on the basics. If any experts want to chip in, and either post some corrections, or additional useful info, please do, but please accept and respect the basic premise, goal, and "target audience" of this thread. Briefly, computers have reached the following point:   Storage devices currently come in three main flavors: HDD: A Hard Drive Disc (Slow, cheap, mass storage) SSD: A Solid State Drive (Fast and a little expensive) NVMe   [NOTE -- NOW MAINLY CALLED M.2 CHIPS/DRIVES] Non-Volatile Memory Express (Super fast and expensive)   Typical SSD drives can be seen in links like this: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500GB-Internal-MZ-76E500B-AM/dp/B0781Z7Y3S/ref=sr_1_3 They are 2.75 inches wide, 4 inches long, and about 1/4 inch thick. They have standard SATA connectors (i.e., a narrow cable for data, and a wider cable for power). They can be put into any computer with a mainboard that can handle SATA transfers (i.e., any mainboard less than about 10 years old, when the faster SATA replaced the old and slower IDE systems). A top-quality 500 Gb unit (not trying to advertise, but the local computer store guys told me the Samsung "EVO" line is currently the best and most reliable brand) costs about $80, and a 1 Tb unit costs about $140.   By contrast, an M.2 chip (which handles "non-volatile memory express" data, NVMe) is about 1 inch wide and about 3 inches long, and it looks like this: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-EVO-Plus-MZ-V7S500B/dp/B07M7Q21N7/ref=sr_1_8   Although certain types of "cards" can be inserted into a desktop mainboard, to handle an M.2 chip, if you want REAL speed, you should never use one of those cards, and will need to buy a mainboard which has an M.2 socket built directly into it. We've reached a point where M.2 chips are only about $20 more than SSD drives of the same size; but, you also need to factor in the cost of a new mainboard, which will also need new and faster RAM chips. I went in to replace a failing system, and the new components (kept the old case, old spinning drives, old graphics card, etc) cost me about $750. But, it turned out to be a SUPER-fast system. Takes roughly half the time to boot up Windows 10, compared to a 7200 rpm spinning drive. Okay - that's enough for part 1 of this thread. ... View more

Since more and more people (including me) are getting 3D headsets, I'd like to ask whether anyone knows of any software for resizing a 3D "left-right" (LR) video, of the type that will play on an Oculus, Gear, or similar headset. Numerous such videos are becoming available via the net, but most of them are poorly staged and shot, etc. So, I'd like to be able to string together several sequences, into a watchable, enjoyable video. And, as part of that, I'd like to be able to resize and reposition those scenes, if and when appropriate. My sense is that it would NOT be a major challenge, to create a software that would allow a user to: 1. Make any adjustments necessary to let the editing screen know exactly where the vertical dividing line is, between the left and right segments; 2. Allow the user to make any adjustments desired, in resizing either the left or right portion, using exactly the same types of controls that Premiere already uses; and, 3. Do that same exact thing, to the other half of the screen. Are there any already-available software packages which can do that? They would be similar to, for example, Machete or Bandicut, both of which are useful for isolating desired segments from large mp4 videos (which makes it much easier for Premiere to handle the smaller files). And, if not, can the coders at Premiere please consider adding that function to one of the new versions, and/or perhaps creating a patch that can be added to some of the older versions? ... View more

Various threads complain about Premier's inability to import or handle mkv files (also known as Matroska files), and/or suggest Handbrake as the best software for converting mkv files to mp4 files. However, the "Handbrake" package recodes things, and confronts users with thousands of options, with little or no explanation of what those options are, and mean, and do. So, there is a much, MUCH simpler way to convert mkv files into mp4 files that can be readily handled by Premier, with >> NO << loss of quality in the video stream. I discovered it here: How to quickly convert MKV to MP4 file using VLC? and have tried it with several test files, showing that it works reliably and consistently. Basic trick is to realize that both mkv and mp4 files are "container" files, which combine a video stream, and an audio stream (plus any subtitle, metadata, or other streams as well), in a way that keeps them synchronized. The mkv files contain the "ac" class of audio files, while mp4 files contain mp3 audio files. The kind and clever folks at VLC (= Video LAN Co.) have incorporated a simple converter, into their free VLC package. For anyone not familiar with it, VLC is probably the best, simplest, fastest any-and-all-formats video player, anywhere, and it is available in both 32 and 64 bit versions, for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, etc, here: VideoLAN - Official page for VLC media player, the Open Source video framework! So, to convert an mkv file into an mp4 file, with no loss in video quality, here's a step-by-step. It might seem complicated, but if you use it once or twice, it becomes easy and intuitive. 1. Open/load VLC, with no media playing in it. 2. In the main menu select "Media", then  "Convert / Save" 3. When the new window opens, click "Add" button, and choose your mkv file. 4. Click "Convert/Save" button. and when the new window opens, choose, "Convert", name your destination folder and file, and select the profile you want, which probably will be: "Video - H.264 + MP3 (MP4)" 5. Click on the toolkit icon (i.e., the wrench and screwdriver). When THAT new window opens, click on the "Video codec" tab. Make sure "Video" button stays clicked, and click "Keep original video track". THAT step is the key to the LOSSLESS feature. 6. Click on "Save", then choose the audio codec tab, choose the "MP3" option for the codec. Choose any quality setting you want. If you match or exceed the bitrate of the original source, you should not have any annoying (or even noticeable) loss in resulting sound quality. 7. Save those settings, which will take you back to the "Convert and Save" window. 8. Click Start, and let it work. You can see the progress, in the small bar along the bottom of the VLC window. You can choose to watch a video preview while it grinds through the process, or not. I choose not to. When I ran it (64 bit Windows, 3.5 Ghz machine), it took less than a minute for 20-minute segments. 9. Check the result, in whatever folder/filename you saved it. If you absolutely cannot get it to work, I would suggest: (1) unclick the audio box entirely, so that you will get a naked "video only" stream, in one run; (2) unclick the video box, and get a naked "audio only" stream, in a second run, and (3) use Premier, to re-combine those two streams, if that is what you want. Feel free to make comments here, or at the blog page which is linked above. ... View more