Adobe Launches DVD Editor

LAS VEGAS--Adobe Systems is expanding its line of multimedia management products to include Encore DVD, a Windows tool for high-end DVD authoring. The new program, unveiled at the National Association of Broadcasters show here, is scheduled to ship in the third quarter.

With Encore DVD, you can edit a video, create menus, and then use a rewritable DVD drive to burn the video onto a DVD disc. As its $549 price tag indicates, Encore DVD is aimed squarely at high-end and professional users who already work with video but want to output their productions to DVD as well as to videotape. It won't compete with products such as DVD Movie Factory 2 and MyDVD that target home and casual users.

Many other companies have already launched DVD authoring products to accompany rewritable DVD drives, which have been dropping in price; you can now pick up a rewritable DVD drive for just over $200.

"Adobe Encore DVD opens the door for video professionals to take advantage of powerful DVD features and deliver their video projects in the format embraced by both consumers and professionals," says Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president of digital imaging and video products at Adobe Systems.

Plays With Others

The new program also integrates with other Adobe products. You can transfer video projects straight from Adobe's popular high-end video-editing program Premiere, for example; and you can create or edit the DVD menus in Adobe's popular Photoshop program, which offers a huge range of image editing tools.

Users will be able to edit menus with Photoshop from within Encore DVD, instead of having to pass them from one program to another. This will make the process of creating a DVD movie quicker and easier, according to Adobe. Alternatively, the program can be used as a stand-alone DVD authoring program, but most users will probably use it alongside Premiere and Photoshop. It can also integrate with Adobe's video processing and special-effects program After Effects.

Premiere already includes a basic DVD authoring program in the form of a bundled version of Sonic DVDit LE. Adobe representatives say the company will continue to bundle DVDit LE with version 6.5 of the video editing program.

However, DVDit LE is a basic program that doesn't sit easily with Premiere's powerful and feature-rich video editing tools; for instance, DVDit LE offers very limited DVD menu-editing tools. Adobe's newest entry is intended to fill the gap.