HEY, WANT TO watch my home movies? I have versions for DVD, Blu-ray, YouTube, iPod, and cell phone. Thanks to Adobe Premiere Elements 7 and Corel Video Studio Pro X2-the latest versions of those video editing proŽgrams-you can take your pick of format. Adobe conŽcentrates more on Web-related features in its latest version, while Corel focuses more on editing in high defŽinition. Corel's new HD feaŽtures appealed to me more thaq Adobe's online ones did, but the apps are pretty close in overall competency.

Premiere Elements 7 can upload dir.ectly to YouTube, with higher quality than the previous version. But Adobe is pushing customŽers toward its own online destination, Photoshop. com. A free account includes 2GB of capacity and a personal URL. You can set up Premiere Elements 7 to automatically back up files, and once files are uploaded, you can access them from any PC with an Internet connection. But you can view only pictures online-for videos, you must download the clip and use whatever video playback software your PC has.

Video Studio Pro X2 lets you upload directly to YouŽTube too, and with fewer steps than in the previous version. But the biggest update is an enhancement of its Smart Proxy mode for creating a lower-resolution version of your project to make edits, apply effects, and add menus, allowing you to edit high-def video on an underpowered Pc. Though you'll have to take a walk when the system pulls in the huge files for movie creation, it's still a nice compromise.

HD Formats and More Video Studio imports HDV, AVCHD, and BDMV (from Blu-ray camcorders-not yet available in India) and exports to BDAV, BDMV, and AVCHD formats. PreŽmiere Elements 7 outputs only to BDAVand BDMY.

A new tool in Video Studio Pro X2 called Painting Creator allows you to create and record amusing, in-motion overlays for your movies. Within a window, you click a button to start recording, and then paint on the canvas (a blank or a clip) while the tool records. Fun, but not terribly sophisticated.

Video Studio's dialog boxes and filter and effects controls have been enlarged, and are easier to see than Premiere Elements' controls. But I prefer seeing, say, a representation of keyframes in the timeline so that I know exactly where those levels change, as Elements provides; Video Studio makes you open a dialog box.
Premiere Elements' new Smart Tag feature analyzes your clips to identify ones that are too dark, too blurry, too shaky, or out of focus. I agreed with its evaluations, and it works quickly.

Another new Elements feature, Instant Movie, lets you quickly create a movie by selecting clips, choosing a theme, and letting the app implement transitions and . effects based on that theme. found it hard, though, to :Iocate a theme that worked well with my clips.

VideoStudio Pro X2 has a slightly better range of features than Elements, and VideoStudio's tools are easier to see than Elements'. But Elements still has superior timeline feaŽtures. Video Studio Pro X2 is the better choice for people who h3ve an underŽpowered PC, and Elements gets the nod for those with fast systems.