Adobe Software Encore DVD 1.0 WIN

by Adobe

Product Features

• dvd labeling,disk label creation

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• ASIN: B0000AJXWX
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 29, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,050 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Adobe Encore DVD software takes professional DVD authoring to a new level of creativity. Import and convert source files automatically to MPEG-2 video and Dolby Digital audio. Create and edit menus in Adobe Photoshop format using a flexible interface and a comprehensive set of menu design tools. Output your project to all recordable DVD formats, ensuring a wide degree of playback compatibility.

Streamlined DVD workflow

• Integrated transcoding: let Adobe Encore DVD automatically convert source files to MPEG-2 video and Dolby Digital audio, or manually adjust settings to optimize DVD compression.
• Sample rate conversion: easily convert audio source files to 48 KHz using the integrated sample rate conversion capability in Adobe Encore.
• Project preview: review all aspects of your DVD project, including play and navigation actions, at any time during production.
• Comprehensive DVD output: write to all recordable DVD formats, ensuring the widest playback possible.
• Direct recording: write directly to your DVD or DLT drive without writing to your hard drive.

Creative DVD authoring

• Photoshop text tools: create and edit text using tools similar to those found in Adobe Photoshop software.
• Motion menu creation: combine powerful Photoshop editing tools with video compositing tools to create unique motion menus.
• Menus with audio: add background audio to menus by simply dragging and dropping.
• Familiar project assembly: work with Timeline and Monitor windows that provide a familiar nonlinear interface for assembling video and audio files and subtitle tracks.
• Familiar Adobe interface: learn quickly thanks to familiar Adobe interface elements like tear-off tabs and dockable windows.

Unparalleled Adobe integration

• Native Photoshop menus: Seamlessly import PSD files or create menus in PSD format directly within Adobe Encore. Buttons, text, and images are stored as layers and layer sets so you can edit later in Photoshop.
• Photoshop integration: edit menus in Photoshop and see your changes immediately in Adobe Encore DVD, with no rendering of effects, adjustment layers, or other elements.
• Adobe Premiere Pro integration: Import AVI and MPEG-2 files from Adobe Premiere Pro for use in DVD projects. Adobe Encore converts markers to DVD chapter points. Use Edit Original to make changes in Adobe Premiere Pro and import the changes into Adobe Encore.
• Adobe After Effects integration: Design motion menus in Adobe After Effects and import them to Adobe Encore DVD as AVI files. Use Edit Original to make changes in After Effects and import the changes into Adobe Encore.
• AVI workflow: work with AVI source files to build your DVD navigation and encode them to MPEG-2 video assets when you are ready to burn your disc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very flexible; poorly written help; somewhat buggy, January 10, 2004

By 

+++ (OR, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adobe Software Encore DVD 1.0 WIN (CD-ROM)

Adobe Encore DVD might well be the most flexible DVD authoring software in its price range. It allows you to do about anything allowed by the DVD standards - menus of any complexity, subtitles, multiple language sound tracks, you can make menu references to individual chapters, add clips which will play before the main menu, you can determine what will happen at the end of each clip, etc. It has a built-in MPEG encoder which can be configured either manually, or you can instruct it to calculate how mich room you have left on DVD and choose the encoder settings automatically to make sure that everything fits on the disk. Since it uses Photoshop files for menus, the user can take advantage of all that Photoshop is capable of to make the manus visually attractive.

And yes, Encore does only DVD authoring, i.e., it can encode your AVI files in MPEG (if necessary), create menus and links to individual video/audio tracks, and burn this all on DVD. It is not a program for editing videos; for this, Adobe has Permiere Pro.

I tried demo versions of several other products. My first impression was not in Encore's favor - Sony DVD architect, Sonic MyDVD, etc. all allow the user to put together a simple menu within a few minutes using a wizard, whereas in Encore I could do NOTHING before I got and read a book on it (poorly written help files are of little use). However, once I understood several key concepts, I discovered how endless are the possibility to make menus in Encore as compared to other similar programs. As a matter of fact, after all those trials I could not think about any other consumer-grade product which gets anywhere close to Encore in terms of its capabilities.

Adobe offeres a fully functional demo version of this product on its web site, which expires after 30 days. Downloading this demo might be a good starting point if you shop for a program for DVD authoring. Do not miss this opportunity to find out what you can do with it and to verify its compativility with your DVD recorder. However, you should simultaneously either buy a book on Encore or find tutorial movies on the web to be able to use the program. Although Adobe tried to make Encore very easy to use, and it certainly is once you understood how it works, but at first glance the meaning of some palettes and menu items is less than obvious and may even be totally confusing. Help file included with Encore is of little help. There is no wizard to help you get quick results, and attempts to get anything working without understanding of Encore's logic can only lead to frustration. However, once you grasp the picture of how it works and how to link clips and menus, everything becomes simple and clear. While all Adobe products require some time to learn due to their complexity and miriads of possibilities available to the user, one could certainly - at least - provide better explanations in the help. I hope Adobe will address this issue in the future releases. Retail (but not demo) version comes with a nice tutorial on a disk; additionally there is a tutorial movie on DVD that comes with the Video Collection.

It may be somewhat disadvatageous, for some users, that Encore heavily relies on integration with other Adobe products. Encore's own image/text editing capabilities are rather weak, and the users who do not have access to Photoshop would feel lack of means to make their own nice-looking menus within Encore (unfortunately, the number of standard templates in the standard installation of Encore is quite limited).

The only real problem with Encore is that it is unusually buggy for Adobe, which usually takes great effort to carefully test the software before its release. This is the primary reason why I rated this software four stars. The first release was known to crash regularly on the encoding/burning stage; Version 1.01 fixed a number of bugs, but even this version has some problems. For instance, I found it hard way, after damaging several blanks, and with the help of the User Forum on Adobe web site, that an antivirus program may interfere with the DVD burning process (nothing on this is the manual!); just the other day I found that I ccould not import an MPEG file encoded in Premiere into Encore and had to encode it again in Encore. Little by little I developed my own ways to avoid problems: I encode all AVI files in MPEG in Encore rather than in Premiere, create a DVD image (folder) on the disk, and only then turn off the antivirus and burn this image on DVD. I hope Adobe will eventually fix the rest of the bugs - in the meantime, the demo version is a good starting point to see how if program works for you.

Pricewise, it does not make sense to buy Encore as an along-standing product. Adobe Video Collection 1.0 offers much better value for nearly the same money as it includes Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Audition - a full suite to import digital video, edit it, mix the sound files, and burn it all on DVD. A higher priced video Collection 2 (Pro) additionally includes Photoshop and the Pro version of After Effects.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Extremely buggy, May 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Adobe Software Encore DVD 1.0 WIN (CD-ROM)

I use & love many Adobe products, especially Photoshop. But Encore 1.01 is by far the worst quality Adobe software I've ever seen. I find it almost impossible to finish a project, at some point it will eventually hang opening the project file and my work is lost. Also there are many obvious & "dumb" bugs which are really annoying, problems with transcoding & video import etc. It's as if nobody even tried to build a few DVDs with this before they released it.

To give you an idea, I had a dollar for every time this has hung and I've had to kill it from Task Manager, I'd have paid for the software by now (i.e. hundreds of times).

The nice feature is integration with photoshop, but that is not enough to compensate for the terrible software quality. For a product at this price point it's criminal, and very unlike Adobe.

I completed one project with this and then gave up using it. I'm hoping 1.5 is better quality, I don't care if they add ANY new features I just want them to fix the bugs!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Horribly Buggy Software, February 12, 2007

By 

Robert W. Gomez "r0bertg0mez" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adobe Software Encore DVD 1.0 WIN (CD-ROM)

They had their heart in the right place with this software, but apparently their brains were on vacation. This is NOT worth the price tag. If you try to build anything with a slight degree of complexity, the program will crash and destroy all your work. Google it, this is not an isolated problem. This is alpha software that was rushed out and is not ready for prime time. I have seen the same problems in versions 1,1.1, 1.5 and (to a slightly lesser degree) 2.0.