DVD to Flash – The New Killer Encore CS3 Feature?

Filed under Flash, Industry by Chad | 3 comments

I came across this cool new feature in Encore CS3 at Bob Donlon’s Blog. I don’t know if this is well publicized already, because I generally don’t pay much attention to video production news. This caught my eye obviously, since it involved Flash. Could anyone who knows about this feature please comment and let me know the generalities of how it works?

Does it encode all the video (motion menus and all) as FLV? Does it generate an XML playlist that powers it? Does it create a shell SWF to load all the assets then? I assume it publishes HTML, too? I have lots of questions…

From the screenshot on that blog, it looks like it creates some UI widgets/buttons to control the movies, too… can you remove them so it operates more like a standard DVD? Can you skin them so it will match your brand?

No one is stopping me now… More questions… Can you output the project so that it could use a streaming server? Since I deal mostly with short Flash video clips (3-5 minutes mostly), what does this mean for longer form clips? Does it cut them up?

Can we output the multilanguage functionality? Captioning? I can really see this being useful as a proofing tool for our video editors at work, but I also see possibilities, if certain ways that creates the files, etc… to use this as an alternative to the Flash IDE for heavily video based Flash microsites.

This all might just be wishful thinking. The original post promises more news at NAB. I guess I’ll have to wait. A coworker of mine is going to NAB, maybe I’ll hound him for details.

Posted on April 14, 2007

3 comments

1. Richard Leggett Apr 14

   Interesting feature if it turns out to be as you describe above. Also funny to me personally considering we’ve just released a site that “pretends” to do just that! (http://www.tridentgum.co.uk)

2. Jon B Apr 14

   This would be a cool feature – I keep think about the whole ‘flash on devices’ thing – the DVD experience on flash enabled PVPs etc. In my mind DVD video is a format that was never too PC friendly, great on a separate player tho. This could be a really nice way to distribute movies and shows online (legal of course) – even with the possibility of full web-based DVD experience with streaming video. I don’t know how large feature films have their DVDs produced – whether encore is too ‘consumer’ for them or not – but aside from some DRM issues web-based DVDs could be an evolution/sidestep of the current trend for On Demand web TV.

3. David Sep 3

   hey there,

   I was just looking around for info on customising the Encore flash output as I’d like it to be able to do some of waht you ask.

   So I can answer some of your questions
   “Does it encode all the video (motion menus and all) as FLV? Does it generate an XML playlist that powers it? Does it create a shell SWF to load all the assets then? I assume it publishes HTML, too”

   Yes it does do all the above and has a nice looking player which sits unedr the video when you play a chapter etc that has buttons that take you back to the root menu. It works very like a DVD and the export is a breeze.

   HOWEVER like most of Adobes attempts at upgrading their video stuff it is woefully inadequate for seemingly no reason. It won’t let you change that the flv encoding parameters which is just ridiculous. It also does not let you customise even the settings of the display size etc. As you can imagine with these rudimentary facilities unavailable your hopes for captioning, streaming server etc are way beyond the scope of whats on offer. This product like the rest of Adobe’s production stuff is ok for wedding videographers at best (After Effects excepted) but for anything even vaguely professional its just hopeless.

   Adobe really need to pull their fingers out in a big way if they want to ever dream of competing with Final Cut or Avid in any professional capacity. I just cant believe you still cannot export your (sound) time line from Premiere into a proper sound programme with all your edits intact like you can with Avid’s OMFI. And they have even got rid of Audition in CS3 and replaced it with Soundbooth which is utter rubbish!

   Yes I am annoyed with them for being so lame especially since they are charging so much for this crap and expect us in the UK to pay twice what you do in the States.

   Anyway hope that answers your question and be very careful before you get too excited about any of Adobe’s production stuff.

   All the best

   Dave

Leave a reply