For all of you who think Encore messages are obscure & that Adobe Support is lousy - Read On

Question

I thought I would share a little story of woe with you all.
Not only will this give you a good laugh, but it will show you that you essentially don't know when you have it as good as you do with Adobe.
I create High Resolution DVD-Audio discs, and for this I have to use Sonic's DVD-Audio Creator system. It is not only the equivalent for Audio of Scenarist for Video, but it is almost as expensive as well. The point will become clear.
So, I am authoring this Widescreen project and the deadline is like tomorrow.
So it's a case of "hurry, hurry, hurry".
Error #1 - "cannot open file xxx_HL_LB.tif" that is it. So I am looking through, and thinking "there isn't one. Must have missed something here".
Yet to no avail. In desperation, I dig out the manual and buried away in an appendix is the information that for a Widescreen disc, the SPHL image is not scaled as this makes text degrade significantly, so a separate SPHL file with the naming convention of (filename)_HL_LB.TIF is required.
This has to be manually placed into the folder created when using the "Import Menu" tool, as it cannot be done automatically".
It then goes on to say that if Pan & Scan is also required, these need yet another file with the naming convention of (filename)_HL_PS.TIF.
Thank for making this obvious guys - you would have thought that the Command Editor tool would point this out to you when you set the Aspect Ratio to 16:9, but no.
So I get this sorted out - only 86 screens, all requiring new Highlight Layers.
It's compile time again.
Error #2 - "Cannot open source file "mainmenu ATS.TIF" - for those of you who know Sonic, you'll no doubt spot the problem immediately. If you do not know this, and try to call support, you will be told that unless you have a maintenance contract, online support is not available. A maintenance contract is several thousand dollars - per year.
(The answer, if you are unaware, is that the compiler cannot handle spaces in the file names, yet the importer has no such problem & again does not tell you you are importing a file that is effectively useless and will crash the compiler with an error message.)
I fix this & move on.
Error #3 - gets right to the end of the process.
All files converted & parsed.
All AOB created
All VOB created.
Starts laying out the UDF/IFO information, gets all the way to the end and errors with a "illegal filename - cannot use ?></\-, only _ 1-9 and A-Z"
Again, the command editor could tell you this, and not allow you to enter in the bloody name, but no - that would be far too easy.
It's the support that annoys me more than anything though.
Sonic still sell this product - it's $13,000 - and yet refuse to provide online support as it is a "dead format" (who told them that? I have done 5 this year already, and have another 23 on the books already) despite the fact that labels are still releasing in DVD-A (albeit few & far between) and that if I want to continue with support I should buy a maintenance contract. They go on to "helpfully" point out that I should get in touch with my supplier, as the new HD formats offer all that is on DVD-A & more besides - yeah, like the $150,000 price tag plus support contract, annual AACS Site license, and per-title AACS fees that are mandatory despite all Blu Ray DRM being broken wide-open.
And you lot moan about Adobe, and Encore's messages?
You do not know when you are well off.

Answer 1

Part 2.
Another thing that all Encore users ought to regularly offer up a daily prayer of thanks for is the PSD support for menus.
Let me tell you a little story, all about how bloody awkward it
i can
be, again using Industry Standard "Flagship" applications.
The little saga above about the additional _HL_LB image completely forgot to mention that there is a very nasty scaling issue awaiting the ignorant (like me).
It doesn't scale the letterbox image automatically.
SO, it's a case of as usual, preparing all Widescreen assets in anamorphic mode (create & design in PS using PAR correction, reshape image to Square Pixels)
Duplicate the _HL for the _HL_LB image.
Now, because of the rescaling issue, take this into PS, and resize the image to 720x360, then resize the
i canvas
to 720x480, making certain your background is white, as failure to do this will mean the Letterboxed SPHL are incorrectly scaled, although the button hotspots are in the right place.
Aargh - if it was not for the "Phone A Friend" option, I would still be stuck on this.