Premiere Elements 9 for MAC
 

Wondering if it can be an up-to-date replacement for iMovieHD (version 6.0.3)? Has anyone tried this on a Mac?

I've played around with it a bit, and it's pretty cool. If you're used to using iMovie, it shouldn't be too big a transition. I'd love Apple to put out a new version of Final Cut Express, which I think is stronger. But probably not as consumer-friendly.

Heath

has anyone been able to figure out if Premiere Elements transcodes H.264 or HDV to an intermediate format, or can it edit native files? I only need simple editing for most of my purposes, and I'd rather not be forced to transcode everything.

I took a look at the system requirements/supported formats here:

Adobe Premiere Elements 9: System requirements

And it does indeed support native HDV and H.264 editing. No need for an intermediate codec.

Heath

Adobe lists HDV and H.264 as import/export formats, but that doesn't necessarily mean it edits those formats natively. I don't see anything on Adobe's pages that actually says whether it is doing native editing or transcoding. I guess at some point it's worth trying the trial version to find out for sure.

HDV has been a popular format since 2003/2004, and native support in all NLE apps happened by 05/06. So it's safe to assume HDV is supported as a native format.

Since most consumer HD cameras use a "flavor" of H.264, it's also safe to assume. I think you can download a demo, right? If so, download and try it out, and let us know how it goes.

Heath