Following several weeks of intermittently working with the components of this collection, these are my observations:
I have so far found that Premiere Pro, Encore, and Audition seem generally to be functioning more smoothly than the preceding versions. In particular, moving between Pr Pro and Audition using Dynamic Link has been smoother and more reliable and Encore has performed better for output to DVD, without crashing. I like several of the new features of PrPro, especially hover scrubbing in Program panel, advanced keyboard-based edits, and adjustment layers.
I’m not happy that the presets are missing from PrPro’s and Encore’s templates, requiring and additional download with its attendant steps.
Recently, After Effects has started freezing upon startup- I’m currently exploring a fix for this other than re-installation…. when it was loading properly, it seemed to be functioning normally.
For my workflow, Firewords/ Illustrator/Flash are not especially useful but some of the new features in Photoshop are welcomed. I have taken advantage of the new video editing to output available there, as well as 3D capability, content-aware tools, and more speed via the Mercury acceleration I’ve grown accustomed to in PrPro.
The jury’s out as to whether I will work much with Prelude, but it may become a more usual part of my workflow if it proves easy to organize bins and truly contribute useful metadata in a way I would find more tedious in PrPro. Speedgrade seems promising for advanced grading, but I have not worked long enough with it to form a clear opinion as to whether it’s a major upgrade from PrPro’s capability for my projects.