Adobe Encore 1.0 OR DVDit PE 2.5

[DVDnewbi]

Which is best

[disturbed1]

If you use other Adobe products (Premiere, Photoshop, After Effects) Encore will fit right in.

Here's some DVDit! Pro's limitations. No Motion menu, 1 VTS, 1 Audio Track, no subtitles. It has problems parsing some longer mpeg2 clips, so chapter placement won't be correct. Very simple authoring. TMPEG's DVD Author has more features for less.

Encore has bugs too, read the reviews for some info, also check out Adobe's web board.

In the same price range is Sonic's ReelDVD. Highly praised by most. This is Scenarist's little brother. Also one VTS, can have 8 audio and 32 subtitles. It also has short comings, like not placing menus in the correct domain, instead creating them as a PGC inside the title domain.

[DVDnewbi]

ReelDVD sounds like it may be the best choice what do u think, Any other software besides these 3 I am willing to pay more if its a good program i just want the best even if its ove $1000 any suggestions?

[disturbed1]

The current top professional products still being developed are
Sonic Scenarist (if you need know how much, you can't afford it)
Sonic DVD Producer (starting ~$1000, can get packages with SDI encoder cards, and other packages upto ~$7500)

Apple's Studio Pro ($500, need a G4 mac)


Don't discount Authoringware's DVD Junior. Pretty impressive for $99. Handles most of the DVD Spec, minus GPRM, SPRM, and advanced command structures (which only Studio Pro, Scenarist, and Maestro can do). Only one VTS though.


You may be able to find a Spruce Technologies Maestro authoring system on Ebay. This is the company that now make Studio Pro.

The top two commercially used (Hollywood) authoring applications are Maestro and Scenarist. Disney/Pixar tend to use Scenarist. Popular titles also made with Scenarist are the Friday series (Friday, Next Friday, Friday After Next).

Maestro is used in most Lions Gate films (Cabin Fever for one).

Pinnacle's Impressions Pro ($199) is yet another semi pro authoring app. Though it either works great or not at all for most people. If you have a DC1000/2000 you already have the SE edition.

The higher the price, the more advanced, thicker the manual, and higher learning curve :P

On a side note-----

What DV board/app are you using now to aquire your skateboard footage? And are you looking to produce videos similar to the older H-Streat tapes? Fast action, killer music?

There are some great deals on Adobe packs. You can get Premiere, Audition, and Encore all bundled with an ADS firewire card for $500.

Matrox has DV boards with the same bundle as above for ~$600-$700. But the Matrox boards have real time 2D/3D effects.

For the software alone, either package is a good deal. Encore does have it's bugs, but no software is perfect. The Adobe forum has work arounds and tips for most of what's wrong. With the Matrox Board, if you don't like the software, you can always sell it on Ebay.

With the other apps, there's little information on them. So you'd have to search and search. Sonic took down their web forum, which had great tips for the working around the short comings of Reel DVD.

[Werble]

For me the best prog would be encore. It's the only prog I found that really lets you do creative things with menu's (when using photoshop) as well as other things. Haven't used dvdit but I would imagine it's not as flexible but should be more user friendly. True encore does have some bugs in the first version but there is a update that fixes most problems. Encore is not easy to use however. But in time you will learn to use it and value it for it's flexibilty. By the way, I have seen a link on dvdrhelp that has video tutorials on how to use the most common features in encore so that should be a big help. Just do a search of wriggley video productions either here or on google and you should be able to find the tutorials. Hope this helps.

[disturbed1]

Just do a search of wriggley video productions either here or on google and you should be able to find the tutorials. Hope this helps.

They have great Premiere tuts too.

[Zetti]

Encore DVD, definitely;

If you can afford Scenarist and have time to learn it (hard job....), get it;

Zetti

[Skynet107]

Encore is great in theory yes, but in reality it is so riddled with bugs it is barely usable. Yea I know people are going to chime in and say Encore runs great blah blah blah but the reality is Encore is the most bug ridden program Adobe has ever released.

[Werble]

As i stated before, if you downlod the update for Encore is solves alot of those issues. When I first tried encore I thought it really sucked when I tried to render video clips and got stcuk with stupifd error messages. After applying the update I have been making great, proffesional quality, DVD's ever since. Most people call it crap but alot of those are people who have never bothered to read the documentaion on how the program works. They eventually get frustrated but the answers to their issues was in the help files all along. Also, encore strictly follows the DVD standards so certain non compliant video clips will cause errors. Some things to keep iin mind as other programs are so limting that you are most likely going to make dull dvd's. Encore is a professional dvd authoring software and is meant to make pro quality dvd's, not just dvd's to archive old VHS video tape of the family.

[Skynet107]

Even after updating Encore I still had serious issues with it. Yes the update solved some errors but not all. On complex projects it is impossible to use because of error after error.

Go to Adobe's support forums to see the incredible problems people are having. Like I said there is NO DOUBT Encore is a flawed program, use at your own risk.

[Werble]

I am sorry to hear that you are having problems with Encore but all I can say is that these issues have not affected me from producing great DVD's. Of course this is the first version of what will eventually become a bug free and superior program. I am sure that most, if not all, the other DVD software out there suffers or suffered some come of issue(s) that require an update of some sort. DVDit and all the others are no exception. I have not yet seen a program yet that didn't require an update. Adobe is definitely on the right track with Encore regardless of it's flaws.

[lordsmurf]

Encore sucks. Biggest waste of code ever. Maybe they'll make a functional version with 2.0. I own it. It only does 720x480, and 352x480 tricks won't always work, pain in the ass.

I have zero complaints about DVDit! PE ... only thing it does not do is motion menus, of which I could care less about. I use this for 95% of all my projects.

DVD Studio Pro is the best authoring program I've ever used. But Mac only, and hard.

[Skynet107]

Werble you sound exactly like the tech support guys at Adobe.

TRUST ME I have authored hundreds of DVD's (medical presentations, training videos, home vids etc.) and Encore is NOT STABLE and cannot be relied on AT ALL especially if you have a deadline. The vendor my company purchased it from refunded us on Encore otherwise I would have demanded Adobe refund our money, it is a non-functional product.

[Werble]

Yeah I work for Adobe so I must be the only one who KNOWS how to use it. Can someone say USER ERROR?

[disturbed1]

I have zero complaints about DVDit! PE ... only thing it does not do is motion menus, of which I could care less about. I use this for 95% of all my projects.

I've never had any problems with DVDit! either. Just a little too limited in the features departmant.

I've done many projects with it though, the only issue I've ever had is with a few clips that are 2hrs+. BUT, this was a while back, 2 updates ago, so it could be fixed.

DVDit! LE came bundled with one of my burners, so I upgraded to the Pro version. Wasn't that expensive. At the time, there was no other AC3 encoding option available for under that price.

[Skynet107]

Yeah I work for Adobe so I must be the only one who KNOWS how to use it. Can someone say USER ERROR?

Yea okay because you work for Adobe you are naturally more gifted than the rest of us an any and all problems we have are USER ERROR. Thank you for that brilliant and insightfull advise.

[dcsos]

Here's the answer.. ENCORE runs fine if you build a machine around it..
If you have to install it on an existing machine, forget it!
Otherwise DVDitPE is your choice between the two...

I'd urge you to look at
DVD Lab
or
DVD Architect

[lordsmurf]

I'd urge you to look at
DVD Lab
or

I'd agree. It looks more hefty AND it appears to work for most people.

I still like DVDit! PE and it does what I need. If I ever moved to another app, DVD-LAB would be where I'd look first.

It all depends on what you are looking for. On that, you have been vague.

I also have ReelDVD that I use once every blue moon. It works well also. Have all those features that DVDit! PE is missing.

[disturbed1]

There's lots of complaints about DVD Lab not being 100% spec compliants.
Major reason why I never speak of it. Used it, didn't work.

This is from the mediachance forums about DVDLab not being spec compliant.

DVD-lab is primary developed for most home users who can't afford to pay close to $1k for authoring software but still want to play with the big buck features.
The compatibility issue is problem with all authgoring software.

......................snip......................

Of course the biggest problem is with the users who try to use a home software for larger business - this is where paying few thousand dollars is worth every penny.

Currently there is a problem with the muxer, that is being worked on.

DVDLab has been I'll keep an eye on it software since it came out. No improvements yet

[Skynet107]

There's lots of complaints about DVD Lab not being 100% spec compliants.

I'm surprised by this. I have authored many many DVD's in DVD-Lab and they have played perfectly in every player I tried including my very VERY old Sony that is picky beyond any reason. I'm not saying my experience the defacto word, I'm just surprised to hear DVD-Lab has compliance issues.

Listen, I love Encore when it works. The best looking DVD's I have ever made were with Encore. I just can't rely on it due to a heap of bugs.

I have used Encore from pretty much the day it came out. Back then I was told by Adobe's support that all the strange errors and crashes I was getting were USER ERROR. But NOW if you look at what the update addresses, pretty much EVERY bug, error and crash that I was getting is now in the list of issues fixed with the update!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is what makes anything Adobe tells me now 100% bullshit. And sadly the update does not fix some critical show stopper bugs.

[disturbed1]

I was surprised too, considering the fan base that it has.

The feature list, and ease of use is second to none. Those people that say it didn't work, and the fact that it didn't work properly on a couple of my standalones kind of scared me away.

But like I said it's on the wait and see list. I know Oscar won't stop until it's perfect.

Encore is bug ridden. I think some changes happened over at Adobe. Adobe used to be Pro Mac, and Windows was an after thought. When the Alti Vec CPUs came out, Adobe optimized for those before SSE, and recomended Mac over Windows. It's the other way around now. Wouldn't surprise me if some of the lead programers jumped ship. The product they put out today just isn't the same quality it used to be. Sadly they charge the same, sometimes more for it.

There are cheaper, and some would say better, alternate programs compared to what Adobe has to offer. Maybe they're just feeling the competive crunch.


I noticed no one mentioned any Ulead Products. I personally have not used the newest DVD Workshop. It's feature list looks impressive, but most Ulead products always crash or are unstable on my PCs.

[dcsos]

When he says its not spec compliant it doesn't mean it won't play on x or y player

but that the files it creates are technically not within the forum's spec..
In this way both DVD LAB and DVD ARCHITECT create DVD's that
play flawlessly but use their own method of ACHIEVING these results

The only time you need to worry about being in spec..If you are producing these titles commercially, a spec project's ASSETS could always be re-used easily off the resultant disc

[triphop]

DVDit PE => My First DVD Authoring (dont like it)
Encore => better product - I have used it and quite like it.
DVDLab => good product too.
ReelDVD => good but somewhat cryptic UI

Encore does have its share of bugs but since this seems to be par for the course for video apps (Pinnacle, *cough*, Canopus). My workflow includes very regular ctrl-s keyhits.