Encore
Phillips Respironics offers two flavors of Encore software:
Encore Viewer
Encore Viewer is read-only software that views whatever data is currently on your card. It has no capacity to edit card data and is geared toward giving access to patients using the machine.
The most current version of Encore Reader is always available at CPAP.com and through other venues on the web. Because the Viewer is available for the public to buy, it comes across as ethically more wrong to actually ask for the Viewer as a pirated download. If you are unwilling to go the full measure of using Encore Pro, please buy the software through a traditional outlet.
Encore Pro
Encore Pro is software more appropriately directed toward use by DME's. Though it had been available as recently as version 1.8 to buy in many countries by anyone with a credit card, it is no longer technically available for patients as end-users. The software is not officially available for download. This is most likely done not so much to keep the software out of the hands of patients, but instead to defer any liability that could be directed against Phillips Respironics for allowing end-users to actually change settings on their machines using the professional software.
Encore Pro uses a MSSQL database to house your data. Encore Viewer does not. This means that while Encore Viewer can show you what's currently on the card, Encore Pro can show you everything about a patient's records that you've ever uploaded to the database. All previous data is available from patient onset for viewing at your discretion whether the card is currently being read by the computer or not. Patient data is also exportable in xml format for transport to other machines or between doctors' offices. Many feel that because the data is so much more useful in Encore Pro, it is worth stepping over into the legal grey area of downloading software for medical use. ResMed has actually taken a different tack on this issue with ResScan. Forum members have been actively giving feedback to ResMed to help troubleshoot and find quirks, making the software better. Following ResMed's lead, many forum users feel that Respironics may non-actively 'allow' if not support users downloading the software because forum activity about the software better helps them troubleshoot bugs that DME's are generally either too clueless or too busy to find, and if something negative were to happen where the software became litigious, they could just say, "Hey, we only allow professionals to use this software". Shades of gray. The most current version of Encore Pro is 2.4.
If you are interested in finding out more about Encore Pro, consider PM'ing Pugsy
About Card Readers
If you own an older model cpap machine that uses a smart card, you will need to buy the smart-card reader. More modern Phillips Respironics machines use SD cards and will not need any special adapter if your computer already has a reader for SD cards.