Adobe Encore, Beyond DVD-Video

At first glance Adobe Encore didn't seem like much of an improvement over my copy of Apple DVD Studio Pro. But, I've found a new reason to consider using it over the aforementioned DVD production staple. Flash capability in an easy to use DVD interface with endless HTML editing possibilities.

I'm not a Flash programmer, but I compress, format and embed content using Flash standards every day. Adobe Encore allows me to build simple flash interfaces for the web or DVD-ROM without having to rebuild from an already existing DVD-Video interface. Case and point: I was asked to assemble a DVD-ROM with a collection of customer testimonial interviews for our sales team. They wanted to click through clips in a browser interface and have the option of downloading iPod ready QuickTime and Windows Media files of videos they choose.

With this set of requirements I knew I was looking at some kind of interactive interface. Enter Adobe Encore. All I had to do is populate my Premiere Pro sequences in the Encore assets panel using dynamic link. Next I used Photoshop to assemble a simple, but professional interface that included links to QuickTime and Windows Media videos. Encore allows the author to enter any HTML hyperlink you can program, including commands such as d://videos, which points to an asset at on the disk. Unfortunately, there's no way to preview hyperlink actions until you burn the project. Also using a d://videos location will prompt a warning stating that the hyperlink is invalid, but the link will work.

With the links established and the rest of the DVD built, you're ready to have Encore encode the Premiere Pro assets to Flash. Just tell Encore to build the DVD project in Flash and the end product is collection of files including an index.html file. The index.html file is the homepage for your Flash presentation, which you can edit in an HTML editor if you feel the need.

I assembled the collection of files Encore produced on to a DVD using Toast software. I then added the "videos" folder containing the QuickTIme and Windows Media files and a simple autorun script asking Windows to open the index.html file when the disk is found. Burned a few copies in Toast and sent them off to the sales team.

This format is simple to produce and provides a great experience for the enduser. There are other ways to deliver a web-like experience for the enduser, such as using an HTML editor or a program like Flash Professional. The advantage of using Encore is speed and lower production costs. There are a lot of possibilities for developing low cost web experiences on a DVD-ROM. I'll be using tools like Encore to explore more possibilities in the future.