So Many Errors So Little Time

Question

I've gotten so many errors with Encore 2 I don't know where to begin. I think this release wasn't ready. As I sit here typing I just had a project fail to create a DVD folder that was an exact copy from version 1.5 that I had backed up before installing Production Studio, this time is said "General Error." I've had nearly every error come up listed on this forum, in addition to those I've had Encore simply disappear in an instant, completely crash my machine, and fail make my DVD folder about a dozen times following changes I I've made in an effort to fix it. I tried using it on my other computer because this one has dual processors -I thought that might be the problem, but with the single processor machine it just froze up as well. Sorry to rant - I am just so irked because I stayed up all last night updating every menu on a DVD that has like 70 menus. I don't expect many to read this all, but if there are any techie people from Adobe reading I'll explain my project and my problems below in hopes that it may help leading to some updates that solve it. If this software worked as intended it would be a huge help in my work flow.
My projects are very elaborate - they are wedding planning DVDs that have short promotional videos for about 50 businesses. With Encore 1.5 I had each video clip on it's own time line. I have a nice set of menus that allow users to go to the category of business they want, then to a menu for each business where they can play that individual promo. There were also various play lists to see all of one category or the entire lot. With 1.5 the projects worked fine and the DVDs I made worked fine. My concern was that as I add more businesses. I'd run out of DVD tracks by having all clips separate. Unless I am wrong, I believe there is a limit of 99 tracks, and 999 for menus, play lists, etc.
In comes Encore 2.0 and chapter play lists. I was pumped. I re built my old 1.5 project last night with 2.0 - removing all the individual time lines and instead laying the clips down on just two. For each business I created a chapter play list, so users can click to watch just one video - it plays it from the play list and the end action and remote action return them back to that menu. Well - I had the whole project created and while working on it I updated all of the menus in photoshop. I had a few random errors during the process, but nothing major and I got to the DVD building point. I could not get this project to build without erroring out. While watching it transcode I realized that even though I laid clips on one time line in Encore, they still get transcoded separately - meaning they would again be separate tracks on the finished DVD.
With that in mind I went back to Premiere Pro, combined all of the short promos together on a sequence, put in my chapter points and rendered it out as one .avi file with embedded chapter info. It imported fine into Encore - and I began working to reconnect the play lists to their new respective chapter points. All seemed to be going well with just an occasional error or hiccup - try to make a DVD folder after the project was done - again major errors and inability to make a Disc or video TS folder.
It was at this point that I tried the project on another computer with no luck. And the last thing I did was to reload the backup I made of the last saved version of this project as created and burned successfully with Encore 1.5. I opened it with 2.0 and tried making a DVD folder, again an error cancelling out the build.
So - here I am. I have to have hundreds of DVDs done for the end of the week so I am going to have to work in Encore 1.5 for now to add new advertisers and get the discs out. Given that Encore 2.0 can't successfully build a DVD from an identical project that was made with 1.5, I'd say it has some serious programming flaws that need to be addressed in an update. I thought it was the complexity of my project, but again, Encor

Answer 1

Well, I have literally had at least 5 different error messages or events happen dozens of times in my attempts to make this work. I've had the .\Vobulator|TitlePlanner|CVOBUPPlanner.cpp,line331 error. I had another long error I didn't write down that also gave a specific line in it. I've had some just say General Error, Internal Software Error, Out of Memory (With 4 gigs this seems odd), and more. I've also had sudden crashes and the encore window just disappear. I also chose to edit some menus in photoshop, I edited them all and saved them - Encore had a fart, and all my changes were lost. So I ended up redoing it all, but saving a backup copy of my changes as .psd files in a separate folder - but they all worked second time around.
Up to last night I was working on a project that had previously been an Encore 1.5 project. So I gave up on that and started a completely new project from scratch in 2.0. Then I've been adding and connecting playlists and menus in increments and then trying to build the disc to see where I hit the wall. Well - that's the only reason I'm on the forum now. I got the project to the point where all of the menus were linked and working, the three timelines had video encoded, two of them were completely functional - one is an auto-play opening, the other has a six minute clip with a few chapter points and chapter playlists. I started connecting business menus to chapter playlists - which come from a longer 45 minute video clip. I added one category of businesses with like 5 playlists, it started building the project no problem. Then I added another category of business - so now up to a total of 24 chapter playlists in all. Tried a test build and it just says General Error when the build window comes up.
I'm gonna remove everything I just added and try remaking and connecting one playlist at a time to determine if it is a specific asset, or if it is a total number of assets or playlists that mess it up.
I know with all these problems with Encore one might think the computer has issues, but it is brand new with fresh XP pro install and I run all other software flawlessly - I'll even have AE, Premier Pro, Photoshop all open at once doing stuff without so much as a blip of trouble. So I've ruled out a system problem.
It's a true bummer - I'm so excited about this softwares features but it's killing me all the problems. I've never experienced anything like this with an Adobe product.