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Considering converting to Encore
I made the move to an Intel Mac and no longer can use DVD Studio Pro as I have for years(in conjuction with Avid) to make & author DVDs without buying the complete FinalCut Studio package. To save money, I am looking at buying Adobe Production Creative Suite in order to use Encore for authoring.
My platform is a MacPro(Intel,Harpertown) with plenty of ram and hard drive space. I edit on MediaComposer, currently use Photoshop to create DVD menus and Sorenson Squeeze for M2v compression.
My questions are, to any who have had any experience with or knowledge of both DVD authoring programs; is this a viable option? will the learning curve be steep moving to Encore? and are there any technical issues I should be aware of using this configuation(such as compatibility, compression tools, exiting layered menus, etc)? I really wasn’t sure where to post this question but I would appreciate any advice from this forum?
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3 Replies
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I’ve used both and in my opinion Encore is easier to use. It just seems to have a more logical layout/workflow. Both are powerful programs and have there own benefits and drawbacks. Photoshop integration is SO much better in encore. Also, Blu-ray/Flash export is a nice bonus. Encore does seem to be in early stages of development, not nearly as polished & stable as a program like photoshop, however if you are aware of what causes the occasional error messages, there is almost always a way to get around the problems. Squeeze mpeg files should work without a problem. Since Adobe is constantly fixing and working on the bugs, you should try and get the newest version possible. So I would recommend it. In fact, I design After Effects menu templates for use in Encore and DVDSP. My website is still under development (almost done), but you can see what encore/after effects is capable of doing if you look at the ‘Butterfly Bliss’ Menu on my site.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
Thanks for the info. I noticed in a tutorial video that the Encore interface looked similar to DVDSp’s which is comforting. It’s also nice to know that menus I have created in Photoshop over the years will still be usable. Blu-Ray is a big plus as we are just moving to Hi-def. I have Toast but no good way to do more complicated menus or complex interaction authoring for hi-def.
Will Encore work okay as a stand alone program ? How good is the compression software from Adobe compared with something like Squeeze?
Thanks again -
The compression software is by MainConcept, which is ok, but not as good as Procoder, TmpgEnc, Squeeze, or just about any other standalone encoder. Don’t let it do any scaling (such as HD -> SD) or it will look very bad (text gets very pixelated, looks extremely low res). If you just do a straight encode, without changing any resolution, cropping, etc, it looks decent.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com
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