Re: Here are the problems I encountered during my Encore Blu-ray project

[Marc Brown] "With all due respect, I did preface by saying these were my experiences alone. "

Yes, you did preface it that way. And then in the remainder of your post made it quite clear editorially that you considered these Encore issues. And some are, and others may be. But many are not.

[Marc Brown] "For a specific example, load up a menu in Photoshop, make a few layers invisible, save it, and import that into Encore."

I just tried it, and several different ways. But no crash for me. I've done this sort of things hundreds of times, and never had a problem. Am I unique?

[Marc Brown] "Simple. Encore's own default color scheme for buttons has the non-highlighted opacity at 0%. This strongly implies that the developers of Encore knew that a user's typical desire for buttons would be to have them invisible when they are not highlighted or activated. But this foresight is defeated if the very pixels utilized by the buttons are, by default, drawn over by text. "

You're talking about the Normal state for buttons? The highlight layer is 0% by default in the Normal state, so you can see all the pixels...that's the point. Invisible buttons when not selected might be one method of authoring a menu (it's one that I would never use - how does the user know what to do if there's not a clear indication of where the buttons are?), but it's not the sole or even a common method. Check any Hollywood DVD for a clear indication of how to indicate button status. The conclusion you draw ("the developers of Encore knew that a user's typical desire for buttons would be to have them invisible when they are not highlighted or activated") from your expectation for this feature is deeply flawed.

[Marc Brown] "Point 8 can be tested. "Transcode now" an asset. "Save as" the project to a new name. Exit. Restart. Load newly-named project. Investigate transcode status of previously transcoded asset."

I just tried that. It's transcoded.

[Marc Brown] "None of the various selection tools were able to find the buttons, I assure you."

I can assure you with complete confidence that you are mistaken. Buttons on menus do not get lost.

[Marc Brown] "If we want to carry it that far, then obviously the true solution would be for Encore to give the user control over what gets muxed / burned in what order."

I agree with you here. This would be a good feature. But my first reply to this point was to demonstrate that you don't have to restart your project to customize stream order. I disagree that following the Flowchart is the way to order streams, since navigation hierarchy does not necessarily produce the desired stream order. It would be better to allow users (those that care, that is) to easily set stream order at any time.