The first version of Encore is not perfect. We've been working the app quite hard and have experienced a couple of crashes, but nothing that has caused us to loose any work. We were surprised to see a tiny bug in the release version that was not in the beta: the pixel aspect ratio button on the Preview window was broken. This minor problem has probably been fixed by the time you read this, but we mention it here to illustrate that this is the sort of imperfection that we'd expect from a first-generation application. Overall, the program is very stable, however, and we are really talking about rare and spurious events that are not in any way interfering with our everyday commercial production work.

Lack of templates seems to be the most serious limitation of this product for casual home users, but for professionals (or even part-time weekend shooters, folks with paying day jobs and wannabe pros), Encore is a tool worth learning. Adobe's astonishingly aggressive authoring bundling of Encore and Photoshop in the $800 Video Collection make this one scary software suite for the competition (Oh, yeah: toss in Premiere Pro, After Effects and Audition at that price, too).

Version: 1.0.0.38189
Platform: PC
Operating System: Windows XP
Processor: PIII 800MHz
RAM: 256MB
Hard Disk: 500MB
Additional Requirements: 1280x1024 display, DVD-ROM drive
MPEG Encoding: MainConcept
Audio Encoding: PCM, MPEG, 2-channel Dolby Digital
Printed Manual: 155 pages
Demo Version: 30-day trial, watermark
Upgrade: not applicable

STRENGTHS

• Tight Adobe integration
• Clean interface
• Smooth workflow

WEAKNESSES

• Windows XP only
• No templates

SUMMARY
Encore and Photoshop combine as an authoring dream for Adobe fans.

$549
Adobe Systems Inc.
345 Park Ave.
San Jose, CA 95110
(888) 724-4508
www.adobe.com