Generally, I have a decent tolerance for slower playback speed – mostly, I just want to make sure it exports properly. I’m sure minimum system specs will be listed – do you have any recommended system specs – especially related to PCs?

[DR - specs will be posted sometime tomorrow, but I will say that there's nothing that will appear as an eye opener for you. The same things apply - number of CPU cores you have, total memory, GPU and disk speed, probably in that order.

I think the memory is the big one people should look at. With 64bit operating systems, customers will be able to address greater than 4gb of memory. That will be significant for some of the CS4 applications.

Okay, now off to practicing some CS4 demos! ]

Once the cat is officially out of the bag, if you have time I’d like to hear your additional thoughts on AVCHD support. Several other products (Vegas, etc.) claim AVCHD support, but the reality is sometimes different.

I have a Canon HF-100, for example, and I haven’t been able to find a program yet that lists AVCHD support and actually WORKS the way it should (Vegas, for example, drops frames, doesn’t export properly at full resolution, etc. – I think they really only support Sony’s flavor).

I’m really looking forward to CS4 as I trust Adobe way more than others when they list something as supported. With that said, I’d still like to hear what you have to say about it.

Thanks again,
Brian

[DR - Brian, the problem with AVCHD and one of the reasons we took so long to get it done is that it is very CPU intensive for playback and editing. This is the next "MPEG2" thing that we have to deal with. If you go back about 7-8 years, MPEG2 was new on the scene and it was very difficult to playback on the systems of the day. The same problem exists with AVCHD. As for Vegas and others, I don't know their solutions, so can't truly comment on them.]