OT: DVD-Lab vs. Adobe Encore DVD

GerryLeacock wrote on 4/28/2004, 11:05 AM

Going through the 30 day evaluation period of Adobe Encore DVD. Anyone have any thoughts on which is a better product for basic home DVD authoring? DVD-Lab seems to have more features at first glance, but I've been wrong before. Your thoughts...?

Comments

ADinelt wrote on 4/28/2004, 5:49 PM

Don't know about the Adobe Encore DVD, but DVD-Lab is a great product.

With it I have been able to ...
- create intro clips that play before the menu comes up
- add motion menus
- have individual clips that play from the main menu as well as a Play All that takes the clips and plays them one after another
- add chapters (I have added 30 chapter points so far, 6 per sub-menu with 5 sub-menus deep)
- create images to hard drive first, then burn to DVD
- DVD-Lab can replace your video with test clips so you can check to make sure your menus, buttons, chapters, etc. all work before creating your final product
- DVD-Lab can burn to DVD from DVD images on your hard drive

There are a lot of other features that I haven't tried yet, but the product has been very stable (never crashed), extremely flexible and powerful, and there hasn't been a huge learning curve with it. I have never had a coaster yet and never had a problem creating or burning DVDs.

One other thing, I have a relatively slow PIII - 650 with 384 meg RAM and running WIndows 98SE. If it can run here, it should run anywhere!!

Hope this helps...
Al

IanG wrote on 4/29/2004, 2:32 AM

There's a review of Encore in the DVD-Lab forum.

Ian G.

GerryLeacock wrote on 4/29/2004, 6:31 AM

Thanks for the info, Al, and good write-up, Ian. I suppose another factor is cost. DVD-Lab is US$99, and Encore is US$649 (or thereabouts). Still, if they offer a 30 day trial, I might as well use it up. Also, and I hate to admit it, but I've always found DVD-Lab to be a bit confusing. I've further located several video tutorials on the internet for Encore.