I'm considering an upgrade from Adobe Premiere Elements (APE) 1.0 to version 2.0. Below are the System Requirements for APE 2.0. I got these directly from Adobe.com

Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 "System Requirements:

Intel® Pentium® 4, M, D, or Extreme Edition or AMD Opteron or Athlon 64 (SSE2 support required)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional, Home Edition, or Media Center Edition with Service Pack 2
256MB of RAM
4GB of available hard-disk space
DVD-ROM drive (compatible DVD burner required to burn DVDs)
1,024x768 16-bit XGA display
Microsoft DirectX 9 compatible sound and display drivers
DV/i.LINK/FireWire/IEEE 1394 interface to connect a Digital 8 or DV camcorder, or a USB2 interface to connect a DV-via-USB-compatible DV camcorder (other video devices supported via the Media Downloader)

I understand most of the requirements, but the two requirements that I highlighted with blue text have me at a loss.

I simply don't know how to determine if my computer meets these requirements. Could someone please tell me how I could determine this?

Right click on your desktop->properties->Settings and you will see your screen resolution and colour quality.
I suspect that any monitor or video card released on the last 5 years will suffice.
Install the latest (working) drivers (for your video card) for DirectX 9 compatibility (any video card that works in windowsXP should suffice).
Run windows update to get DirectX9 (if you don't have it already).

Can check DirectX version if you start->run-> "dxdiag"

Sound card -> If it works in windows, it will be fine

I think thier might actually be some video cards newer than 5 years old that do not support directx9. My radeon 8500 cards are newer than that and only support directx 8.1.
check the specs on your card. In some cases it will work anyway (maybe with lesser performance). It just depends on if direct-x 9 features are mandatory or not.

Most cases I believe.
I can't imagine that a video editting software requires advanced 3D features.

At any rate, the OP requirements stated DX9 drivers, not fully compliant DX9 hardware

Yea its mostlly the newest games that are really demanding on specific hardware requirments like directx functions.

No gaming for me.....only video editing and burning.....at least that's today.

Hi,

Speaking about the requirement:

"1,024x768 16-bit XGA display"

This means: a video card and monitor capable to display: 1024 pixels horizontally and 768 pixes vertically and 16 bit colors (2^16 colors = 65.536 colors).

As Debro said, you can detect this trying to change resolution and color depht (quantity of colors) using the path indicated by Debro.

Now speaking about the other requirement:

"Microsoft DirectX 9 compatible sound and display drivers"

This means: a sound card and a video card having drivers (software) certified by Microsoft to be used with DirectX version 9. Producers of the sound and video cards supply these drivers and they inform about DirectX versions compatibility. You can see the drivers and certification (or no certification) using the DirectX diagnostic tool (DXdiag.exe).

If you need more explanation, I will be ready for helping.

Good luck.

Typing dxdiag in Start-> Run, I took a look at my current HP Pavilion model 7955 which has an inexpensive and just a basic video card (nVIDIA RIVA TNT2 model 64) and it appears that this old 2001 model computer is DirectX capable.

Unless I'm wrong, it (the dxdiag run) says I have version DirectX 9.0x(c) on this old thing.

Is this what you meant techfan?

The TNT2 should be fine.
You have Directx 9 installed ... if it's working, should also be fine.

Worst case scenario though, is that you may have to install a newer vid card .. perhaps PCI (eek).


But what this calls into question .. is what sort of hardware accompanied the original TNT2.

Are you sure your CPU is fast enough?
You might need alot of patience for your video editting.

Thanks for responding debro....

I don't understand what do you mean???

I've decided to build a totally new computer....my first....and here's the parts list (I already have certain items that you'll notice are missing from the list):

Athlon64 X2 3800+ Windsor retail
Asus M2N-E NF 570 Ultra retail
Corsair VS 1GB kit DDR2-667 retail
Asus Radeon X550 256MB PCIe x16 retail
WinXP Home Edition w/SP2 OEM
Antec SLK3000-B black steel case retail

Comments? This should do well with the video editing tasks....don't you agree?

Yes, that will work just fine.

The TNTM64 was popular back when there was a mix of P3, P4 & Athlons.

Seems to be fine.
*Edit* The motherboard has a few flags coming up in searches that it has a few quirks. Perhaps review the motherboard problems to determine whether they may affect you.
Possibly even check for some alternates like the MSI K9N Platinum.
*/edit*

*Note* The motherboard only has a single PATA port, so I'd recommend you also upgrade your HD to a new SATA HD.
An optical drive sharing the same IDE chain as the HD will slow your system down, or at least make it pause alot if you are using both at the same time (aka burning discs).
You will only be able to have 2 standard IDE devices (ie: 1 burner + 1 PATA HD, or 2 Burners only).
You have upto 6 Sata (newer technology) HD's / devices though in addition to your 2 PATA drives.

I'm a bit of a fan of these cases though -> The front is pure mesh (great airflow) and the case has space for a few large 120mm fans. It's approximately the same price.

On a side note-> The WinXP link you chose has been superseded by a newer version.

Also, before going the athlonX2 route, also have a look at the Intel offerings (maybe check out a few benchmarks for your particular application).
Compare the Motherboard & CPU combination with the Intel Dual Core equivalents

A quicky link for you

Great information debro.....thanks a lot!!

I like to have as many alternatives as I can....