Adobe Encore DVD: the PC DVD solution; Encore is an excellent balance of powerful DVD authoring tools in a simple-to-use interface - Review

Post, Feb, 2004 by Chip Eberhart

Since the inception of DVD, Adobe's Photoshop has been the menu design tool of choice for professional DVD authors on both PC and Macintosh systems. Adobe's After Effects, a leading compositing and motion graphics tool, has also been quite popular in DVD design. That said, it's clear that a professional DVD design tool, Encore DVD, makes for the perfect addition to Adobe's design toolset.

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With each day, the demand for DVD output increases. Professionals in the video industry need to create not only highly functional DVD titles, but also highly compelling content that is in line with their usual video and film productions. Adobe Encore DVD, a PC-only tool, can consistently produce high quality results and output to all recordable DVD formats, for the widest degree of playback compatibility. The integration between Encore and Photoshop allows for remarkable flexibility over the creative process, and in that regard doesn't force longstanding Photoshop users to use foreign tools and methods.

STREAMLINED DVD AUTHORING WORKFLOW

Adobe's workflow allows DVD authors to stay within Encore's user interface, while seamlessly integrating with other media tools. Although planning your project on paper should be the first step in your DVD authoring plan, encoding your video is one of the early steps in executing a new DVD title. Encore offers integrated transcoding for the conversion of video and audio source files into the MPEG-2 video format and Dolby Digital audio format. To be frank, while transcoding is fine for short-format, non-complex video, demanding sources and those of longer duration may be better candidates for dedicated hardware encoding (by complex video, we refer to contrast, shadows, motion and animation as factors). As for the Dolby Digital audio encoding, Encore ships with a limited Dolby license that allows for two-channel audio encoding. To encode 5.1 surround audio, or other multichannel formats, Adobe and Dolby allow you to upgrade your license at a nominal fee. Also of note, Encore (like all other DVD authoring tools) does not have the ability to create a 5.1 surround mix. However, Adobe's newest product, Audition, has full capabilities for creating surround mixes and integrates well with Encore.

As mentioned earlier, Photoshop is the most common tool for creating DVD menus, and Encore takes great advantage of this relationship. While Encore works well with Photoshop, it also contains many useful text-editing tools similar to those found in Photoshop. This way you can choose to stay within Encore to make simple changes to your DVD menus. If you're using Adobe After Effects to create motion menus, or Adobe's editing software, Premiere Pro, for your video, you'll experience the same simple integration.

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A POWERFUL GUI

Adobe's familiar user interface prevails in Encore and is not only powerful but also intuitive. Those familiar with other Adobe products will enjoy elements like tear-off tabs and dockable windows. One of the nicest features of the interface is the timeline. The timeline allows you to easily view how your project is set up and to easily make changes in a way that is extremely familiar to audio and video editors. While there's no shortage of pull-downs and check-boxes, most of your authoring in Encore can be accomplished with simple and intuitive drag-and-drop via the "Pick Wick" tool.

Once you've completed a portion of your project, or the entire project, you can easily preview your disc and check the look-and-feel without wasting the time or money to record a check disc (note, check discs are still critical but can be delayed during interim progress checks). Another great feature of Encore is the project verification tool. This tools checks to let you know if there are any menus, video tracks or slide shows that have been orphaned and are not properly connected to another item.

While there are a handful of PC-based DVD solutions, in my opinion, none are as feature rich as Encore DVD, at such a reasonable price. Speaking of PC-based DVD solutions, I'll quickly tell you how the others stack-up against Encore. Sonic Scenarist is by far the current leader in PC-based professional DVD authoring, but at a price. Both the purchase price and the time involved in becoming familiar with this world-class application can be a limiting factor for many video pros. Encore DVD is a fraction of the cost and easier to become competent at. Comparing Encore DVD to Sonic's Reel DVD brings costs into a similar range, but the learning curve of Reel DVD is still a bit steeper, without achieving the capabilities in Encore DVD. Finally there's Sonic MyDVD PE (Professional Edition). Again, a comparable price to Encore DVD, with almost no training required, but achieving a significantly reduced feature set. In short, Encore is an excellent balance of powerful DVD authoring tools in a simple-to-use interface that allows your projects to shine creatively without slowing you down technically.