What's new

What’s new (CS5.5)

For a complete list of what’s new and changed in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5, see this post on the Premiere Pro Work Area blog.

To see the new features of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 in action, see this video tutorial series by Video2Brain.

For more information about new features in Premiere Pro CS5.5, see the Adobe website.

Merged Clips
Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 features a method for synchronizing "dual-system" audio and video. This streamlines the process by which users can synchronize audio and video recorded separately. See Synchronizing audio and video with Merge Clips (CS5.5 and later) and this video by Video2Brain.

Mercury Engine Performance Gains
New GPU-accelerated features include speed changes, footage interpretation options, field-order processing, and video effects and transitions. More video cards are supported, as well. See this video by Video2Brain.

Usability Improvements
Lot of usability improvements have been added to Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5, as described in this video by Video2Brain.

Editing in Adobe Audition
A new workflow allows you to interchange with Adobe Audition CS5.5 a clip, or an entire sequence worth of video and audio data, including tracks, individual clips, and keyframes. See Edit audio in Adobe Audition (CS5.5) and this video by Video2Brain.

Accelerated Video Effects
More video effects and transitions are now GPU-accelerated for the Mercury Playback Engine. See List of GPU accelerated effects in Premiere Pro CS5.

Unified Audio Effects
Audio effects are now combined into a single, unified effect. See Audio effects and this video by Video2Brain.

Expanded native support for RED digital cinema workflows
The RED R3D Source Settings dialog has been redesigned, and offers intuitive controls to those working with RED media. Saves and loads the latest versions of RMD, creates presets, and allows you to adjust color with a histogram or with curves. Choose a desired Color Science, and apply settings to multiple RED clips simultaneously. See File formats supported for import and this video by Video2Brain.

Speech analysis improvements with Adobe Story
You can find and fix speech analysis errors more easily by making side-by-side comparisons of the text of the speech analysis with the text of the Adobe Story script. You can also attach an Adobe Story script file (.astx) to a single or multiple clips directly in Adobe Premiere Pro. You don't have to use OnLocation for this step anymore. See Improve speech analysis with Adobe Story scripts (CS5.5 and later) and this video by Video2Brain.

Closed Captioning
You can attach a closed caption data file to a sequence and display the closed captions in the Program Monitor and through Firewire DV output. See Attach closed caption files (CS5.5 and later) and this video by Video2Brain.

Integration with Adobe CS Review
Enables clients and teammates to take part in reviewing video sequences using a web browser and annotation tools. Reviewers can make frame-accurate comments that visually correlate to the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline.

What’s new (CS5)

For Premiere Pro system requirements, see the Adobe website.

For lists of various categories of hardware compatible with Adobe Premiere Pro, see the Adobe website.

See this page for what’s new and changed in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 (5.0.2).

See this page for what’s new and changed in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 (5.0.3).

See this page for what’s new and changed in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 (5.0.4).

See this page for what’s new and changed in Adobe Media Encoder CS5.

This blog post on the animotion website details the advantages and considerations of upgrading to Premiere Pro CS5.

Native 64-bit and GPU-accelerated performance with Adobe Mercury Playback Engine
Edit HD as fluidly as SD. The Mercury Playback Engine delivers native 64-bit support, GPU acceleration, and other performance and stability improvements. Open projects faster, refine effects-rich HD and higher-resolution sequences in real time, enjoy smooth scrubbing and play back of complex projects without rendering. See results instantly when applying multiple color corrections, the new Ultra Key, Gaussian blurs, and blending modes. Work with numerous other effects across many video layers. Work in real time on complex timelines and long-form projects with thousands of clips. Save rendering time with real-time playback, whether your project is in SD, HD, 2K, 4K or beyond. For more information. See GPU-accelerated effects.

Expanded native tapeless workflows
In CS5, Premiere Pro gains native support for XDCAM HD 50, AVCCAM, DPX, and AVC-Intra as well as enhanced RED. Premiere Pro continues support for P2, XDCAM EX and HD, and AVCHD. You never waste valuable production time transcoding or rewrapping, and always have access to the pristine quality of the original files. Edit video natively from the latest DSLR cameras like the Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 7D. For more information, see Importing assets from tapeless formats.

Script-to-screen workflow
Collaborate on writing scripts with Adobe Story, capturing key production direction as you go. Then, automatically create shot lists from your script in Adobe OnLocation to manage your shoot and capture logging notes. When you import the project into Premiere Pro, metadata from Adobe OnLocation makes it easy to create a preliminary rough cut. Use Speech Search to synchronize the script to footage, and then edit based on the dialogue transcript. With Premiere Pro, you reap the rewards of a well-planned project. For more information, see Working with Adobe Story, Adobe OnLocation, and Adobe Premiere Pro.

Round-trip editing with Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer
Leverage the unique tools in Premiere Pro in any production workflow. Final Cut Pro export completes round-trip editing workflows with Apple Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer to enable a collaborative production process. Bring the creative benefits of Adobe tools to the whole project. Explore new possibilities with After Effects, Encore, and other Adobe applications. Edit with Speech Search, which turns spoken dialogue into searchable text for faster editing. For more information, see Cross-application workflows.

Editing and production efficiencies from metadata features
Add intelligence to your assets using innovative metadata features. Turn spoken dialogue into searchable text faster and with higher accuracy. Synchronize content with your Adobe Story script, or by using reference scripts that are optimized for your content. Accelerate editing by marking In and Out points in the speech analysis text. Use face detection technology to locate clips containing human faces. Plus, metadata stays with the assets you create, making your content more discoverable online. For more information, see Understanding the script-to-screen workflow and Analyze speech for text XMP metadata.

Client and team reviews made simple with CS Review
CS Review is a new online service that allows you to share dailies and works in progress for review. CS Review eliminates the need for burning discs or swapping large files back and forth. Encode sequences and automatically upload them in the background for review and collaboration. Clients and teammates can comment on your video using just a web browser, and their frame-accurate comments automatically appear in the Premiere Pro sequence. Upgrading to Premiere Pro CS5 gives you a complimentary one year subscription to CS Review. The CS Review video workflows for Premiere Pro will not be available when Premiere Pro CS5 initially ships. Premiere Pro CS5 customers will automatically receive access to the CS5 Review video workflows when they become available.

Simplify everyday tasks with small changes that make large differences
Take advantage of the most requested editing enhancements. See large productivity gains and smoother day-to-day workflows. Use automatic scene detection to create separate clips from HDV tapes. Import assets from DVDs. Use new extend edit and find gaps keyboard shortcuts. Control keyframes with greater precision. Clean up your sequences quickly with new commands for finding and removing gaps. For more information, see Log clips with automatic scene detection, Make rolling edits with the current-time indicator, and Find gaps in sequences and tracks.

Streamlined encoding with revamped Adobe Media Encoder
Efficiently deliver your content in virtually any format with Adobe Media Encoder, now with a more intuitive user interface. Adobe Media Encoder saves you time by batch encoding multiple versions of your source files and Premiere Pro sequences. Set up multiple items for encoding, manage priorities, and control advanced settings for each item individually. Use any combination of sequences and clips as sources. Encode to a wide variety of video formats. DPX joins FLV, F4V, Windows Media (Windows only), QuickTime, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and H.264 codecs. For more information, see the help document for Adobe Media Encoder: Using Adobe Media Encoder.

Log footage from virtually any camera with Adobe OnLocation CS5
Use the powerful logging options in Adobe OnLocation when working with tapeless cameras. tell Adobe OnLocation which shot is currently recording. Then enter notes, comments, and additional metadata. When you copy clips from the tapeless camera, Adobe OnLocation automatically merges the information. For more information see help for Adobe OnLocation: Using Adobe OnLocation.

Ultra Key for fast, accurate keying—even on challenging footage
Key HD footage in real time with the new Ultra Key chroma keyer in Premiere Pro. Ultra Key is optimized for footage that includes uneven lighting, wrinkled backgrounds, and frizzy hair. Ultra Key preserves shadows and can achieve complex keys on smoke, liquids, and transparent objects. For more information, see Chromakey with the Ultra Key effect.

Native support for DSLR cameras
Edit video from the latest DSLR cameras. New native support means that you never waste valuable production time transcoding or rewrapping, and always have access to the original file’s pristine quality. Premiere Pro supports video shot on the following DSLR cameras:
  • Canon EOS-1D Mark IV,

  • Canon EOS-5D Mark II,

  • Canon EOS 7D,

  • Nikon D90,

  • Nikon D300S,

  • Nikon D3S

  • Nikon D5000

  • Panasonic Lumix GH1 using AVCHD sequence presets.

Create searchable web-DVDs in Encore CS5
Create a more engaging experience with web-DVDs that now automatically include a search interface, making it easier for viewers to jump directly to content of interest. When you use Speech Analysis in Premiere Pro to turn spoken dialogue into searchable text, the information is passed along to Encore. Encore uses the metadata along with subtitles and menu button text to make your web-DVDs searchable. For more information, see Help for Encore: Using Adobe Encore.

Dynamic Link is now bidirectional
Dynamic Link communication between Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects is now bi-directional. Previously, if you used Dynamic Link to send information from After Effects to Premiere Pro, you could not later use Dynamic Link to send information from Premiere Pro to After Effects. You had to restart the applications to reset the direction and use Dynamic Link going in the other direction. In Creative Suite CS5, that limitation is gone.