Some DVD authoring programs will give you the bare minimum to produce home DVDs and some give you the ammunition to rival most of the discs you pick up at your local video rental store. Adobe Encore is definitely in the second bracket of authoring programs.
Encore does not fit in the normal realm of DVD authoring considerations because it is of the next wave of authoring programs. It does most of the things that complete authoring programs like DVD Architect and DVD Studio Pro, like full menu preparation and Blu-Ray production. What sets it apart is its menu design interface, which lets you directly import menu templates that you have created in programs like Adobe PhotoShop. It will not alter what you have done in PhotoShop, which means you can create an even more advanced type of menu design system.
More than this it allows multiple video, audio, and subtitle tracks, as well as dual-layer disc production. All of these elements together show a professional program that has now been brought to a consumer market.
The program still only accepts fully rendered or compressed projects, which means you cannot just transfer your open editing project into the authoring program. The program itself is not nearly as user friendly as something like DVD Studio Pro, but a new user would not need the types of things that Encore offers.
The program by itself will retail for about $600, but this is what you have to expect for a program of this caliber. If you want the best for your home DVDs, Encore is the first program that will give you all the features that movie studios have at their disposal. If you already have a quality DVD authoring program you may want to think twice, though. The program is great, but the price is not worth it if you already have one at your disposal.
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