Adobe Encore DVD 1.5 Media

...have as much faith in Adobe that most computer junkies have. They’re a company that seems to run hot and cold. While Photoshop is a stonking product and is quite rightly at the top of the tree in what it does, I’ve been less impressed by Adobe Premiere – a product that is getting on a bit and has long since been overtaken by its competitors. I hear that Adobe hit a winner again most recently with InDesign, which apparently knocked Quark Xpress off ...
...couldn’t help but try out Adobe Encore, especially considering the rave reviews it has received from some of the specialist DV magazines. So it seems that Adobe were running hot again … we shall see.

First of all, I should point out that Encore is aimed at the upper end of the video creation market and as such has a price to match. I will be looking at it more from the viewpoint of the casual user and my opinion should be treated as ... more

I don’t have as much faith in Adobe that most computer junkies have. They’re a company that seems to run hot and cold. While Photoshop is a stonking product and is quite rightly at the top of the tree in what it does, I’ve been less impressed by Adobe Premiere – a product that is getting on a bit and has long since been overtaken by its competitors. I hear that Adobe hit a winner again most recently with InDesign, which apparently knocked Quark Xpress off its perch as the number one DTP package.

With my recently found interest in movie editing and DVD burning, I couldn’t help but try out Adobe Encore, especially considering the rave reviews it has received from some of the specialist DV magazines. So it seems that Adobe were running hot again … we shall see.

First of all, I should point out that Encore is aimed at the upper end of the video creation market and as such has a price to match. I will be looking at it more from the viewpoint of the casual user and my opinion should be treated as such.

The User Interface
Adobe have stuck with the familiar panes and toolboxes layout that adorns the likes of their other products, like Photoshop. Like ‘em or loath ‘em just about everybody uses them these days so we’re stuck with them. In Encore they appear to be less cluttered than in other professional products of similar standard but that is primarily down to the fact that there’s not an awful lot you can put into a DVD authoring package.

The Features
Encore is equipped with the usual set of DVD authoring features, plus creating Photoshop compatible menus. So if you have Photoshop then the menus are interchangeable between the two products. This is obviously useful in that you can use the more powerful graphics package to refine your menus.

One of the more technically impressive features is the ability to copy protect your DVD. You can protect them so that no copies can be made, or that just one copy can be made. You can also enable Macrovision on your DVD so that it can’t be copied over to video tape.

But that’s really it. Compared to other products, such as the much cheaper DVD Lab, Encore doesn’t offer all that much more. The only unique feature is the ability to copy protect your work.

The Flaws
Adobe Encore has a major flaw. It can do something that many other DVD authoring packages, such as DVD Lab, can’t do and that is allow you to load and convert AVI files to DVD, as well as the usual MPEG formats. But this is also where Encore falls down badly. It is the only DVD authoring tool I have come across so far where the video files to be converted to DVD format must already be in a DVD compatible resolution. It will not convert files that don’t conform to the DVD standard resolutions. In fact, it won’t even load them up but just tells you that the file’s in the wrong resolution.

This is Encore’s biggest failing and one that seems quite bizarre considering the price. Two packages I use, the aforementioned DVD Lab, and InterVideo’s WinDVD Creator (which does handle AVI files) can BOTH be used to convert ‘misshaped’ video files to a DVD compatible width and height and yet they cost only a fraction of Encore.

So is Encore worth the price? Hardly. Unless you’re interested in protecting your work, there’s little to recommend Encore over the competition. It’s not particularly difficult to use and the menu creation system seems to be more powerful than DVD Lab, but DVD Lab is even easier to use.

They say that you get what you pay for. Whoever said that obviously haven’t seen Encore. You may well be able to create more professional looking results with Adobe Encore but if you're a casual user, you'd be better off going for DVD Lab or you could find that instead of burning your own DVDs you'd be unnecessarily burning your own money as well.
 

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