ExtremeTech by Loyd Case
It began, as most such things begin, with a simple idea.

That simple idea begat a descent into madness.

Really, all I wanted to do was create a slideshow of photos I'd taken during my oldest daughter's final varsity high school volleyball season. I'd built a similar slideshow last year using Avid's Pinnacle Studio Pro 11, but was left unsatisfied due to Pinnacle's quirky user interface and a host of annoying bugs, including one which prevented me from burning a DVD that would be playable in standard consumer DVD players.

So this year, I'd resolved to do the same thing, but this time around, I'd do a real DVD, not just an AVI file. Although I'd been offered the chance to use the latest version of Pinnacle, Pinnacle 12, I demurred, feeling a little wary after last year's experience. I flirted briefly with CyberLink's PowerDirector, but the application felt like I was wearing a straightjacket. I looked at several other entry-level applications.

Then Adobe delivered their CS4 suite of applications. I knew then I was doomed. I primarily use Photoshop CS4 and After Effects CS4 for benchmarking CPUs and systems. But the presence of fairly powerful, professional level tools sitting around in my lab was like a siren's call. I thought: "Gee, I've always wanted to learn Premiere Pro." read more...