Adobe Encore CS5 Review

August 19, 2010 by Robert Barnett Comments Off

What do you do after you have spent hours in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and Adobe After Effects CS5 creating your Oscar winning video? Well, you can output for the web to share with the world. But, what happens if you want to share it with family and friends? Maybe it is a non-stop thrill ride that was your Hawaiian Vacation, or it was the melodrama of little Johnny’s first birthday or the thriller that was your daughter’s wedding and you want to share that in an as goof-proof way as possible? What if you are a professional and you do videos for a living and your clients want a DVD or Blu-Ray disc. For all of these situations and more you turn to Adobe Encore CS5.

Adobe Encore CS5 is Adobe’s professional grade disc mastering application. It allows you to take video and put it on DVD or Blu-Ray complete with custom animated menus, fancy motion buttons and more.

Adobe Encore CS5 offers all of the features you want all wrapped up in a clean and simple to use interface… the Adobe interface. In a single operation, you can easily turn your DVD and Blu-ray disc projects into web DVDs that now include a search interface. The new interface gives viewers a more engaging experience by enabling them to search within a web DVD using keywords. During authoring, Encore automatically creates a search database using metadata from speech-analysis text, subtitles in timelines and slideshows, and menu and button names.

New and Improved Features include…

• Further enhance the viewing experience by creating web DVDs with a sleek, customizable playback interface that features easy-to-use playback controls and the option to watch HD video in full-screen mode.
• Create a smoother experience for viewers when they choose from options across multiple menus on Blu-ray Discs. Browsable multipage menus show options across multiple menu pages without interrupting the playback of audio and video background elements. Multipage menus can be easily created in Adobe Photoshop or directly in Encore.
• Working in the Adobe Premiere Pro timeline, you can take 4K projects directly to high-definition Blu-ray Discs using a workflow that maintains the original 4K content all the way to output, when it is finally encoded and scaled. This capability is especially meaningful to video editors and motion graphics and visual effects artists who work on projects at film resolutions.
• Experienced Encore users will appreciate the ability to share Encore CS5 projects without worrying about platform compatibility. Encore projects can be moved between Windows and Mac platforms freely, without conversion. Editors and motion graphics and effects artists can benefit from native 24p project support for Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and web DVD titles, complete with 24p timecode in the timeline. (Previously, Encore placed all assets in timelines with a default frame rate of 29.97, irrespective of the properties of the assets.)
• Continue authoring while you transcode your media assets. Adobe Media Encoder, a separate, 64-bit software application, encodes your files in the background, freeing Encore to process your authoring tasks. This separation of authoring and encoding is particularly important with 4K workflows, which can be taxing on your computer.

System Requirements: Intel Core2 Duo or AMD Phenom II processor; 64-bit support required ■ 64-bit operating system required: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 or Windows 7 ■ 2GB of RAM (4GB or more recommended) ■ 10GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on removable flash-based storage devices) ■ 7200 RPM hard drive for editing compressed video formats; RAID 0 for uncompressed ■ 1280×900 display with OpenGL 2.0-compatible graphics card ■ Adobe-certified GPU card for GPU-accelerated performance; visit http://www.adobe.com/go/premiere_systemreqs for the latest list of supported cards ■ Adobe-certified card for capture and export to tape for SD/HD workflows ■ OHCI-compatible IEEE 1394 port for DV and HDV capture, export to tape, and transmit to DV device ■ Sound card compatible with ASIO protocol or Microsoft Windows Driver Model ■ DVD-ROM drive compatible with dual-layer DVDs (DVD+-R burner for burning DVDs; Blu-ray burner for creating Blu-ray Disc media) ■ QuickTime 7.6.2 software required for QuickTime features ■ Broadband Internet connection required for online services.

Included With: Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium ■ Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection ■ Included with Premiere Pro CS5 Standalone.

Price: Full from $799 / Upgrade from $299 (Premiere Pro CS5 package, not sold standalone.)