CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra v13.0.2720.57

Interface
CyberLink has done a nice job on the software's interface, which is clear and easy on the eyes, once you get everything set up. When you first start up PowerDVD 13, you'll see its Welcome screen, not only welcoming you to the software, but offering video tutorials and media library preferences. Hitting Continue takes you to a product improvement program opt-in. But you're not done yet: next the registration form appears, but you can skip this. Finally you're in the player software proper. It detected my connected Blu-ray external drive, and an ad popped up at the bottom for another CyberLink product.

The startup interface shows a left-side panel with all your potential sources of media, starting with the Media Library, which locates all your movies, videos, photos, and music. You'll also find entries in the side panel for devcies and the 7digital Music store, online media from Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr, and home DLNA media. You can customize this sidebar to just include the entries you want.

Playing Discs
Windows could play DVDs by itself since Windows 7, but PowerDVD adds Blu-ray support (even Blu-ray 3D in the software's Ultra edition), but some nifty viewing improvements for DVDs, with its TrueTheater technology that adds enhancements like HD upscaling, and corrections for lighting and colors.

When you first start playing a DVD or Blu-ray in PowerDVD, you'll be asked to enter your region, since the movie industry has rules about what countries can watch which movies and when. The player handles DVD menus with no problem, as you'd expect. An icon across the top in the shape of an old fashioned TV puts you in Cinema mode, which is for watching movies across a room using a remote.

If your PC has a graphics processor that supports Nvidia Cuda or AMD APP technology, PowerDVD takes advantage of that to accelerate video decoding for smooth clear playback. To get PowerDVD's TrueTheater enhancements, which sharpen, color correct, and smooth motion of your video playback, you have to turn off hardware video acceleration in favor of software rendering.

You can right-click, choose Settings… and press the TrueTheater/Hardware decoding button to change how the video displays. You can even see a side-by-side view of the video with and without TrueTheater. To me, the TrueTheater default settings looked clearer and brighter, if a bit oversharpened. You can go in and adjust its enhancements with slider controls.

The stabilization tool is only available for your own or at least non-commercial video content. I tried using it with some video I shot of a soccer game with an iPhone, and the results were smoother, though as all implementations of this kind of effect have to do, the edges of the image were cropped. Since the video content was HD, the software by default wanted to play it back with hardware decoding, but doing this would mean I couldn't use the TrueTheater enhancements, including the stabilizer.

A nice plus is the Rotate video button, since Apple video and photo by default plays upside-down on Windows PCs. I didn't find a similar capability in WinDVD 11. One thing both apps let you do is snap still images from video you're watching. Another is its clever ability to do time-stretching—this way, if you only have an hour and a half to watch an hour-and-forty-five minute movie, the software will squeeze it for you.

PowerDVD's TrueTheater enhancements also let you "smart stretch" content with a different aspect ratio to your screen. WinDVD has this, too, and it's something built into a lot of HDTVs. The center of the image is left alone, while the edges are stretched, for a more natural view.



While watching a movie, if you hit the Movie Info button, you'll be prompted to accept a MoovieLive membership. This online service lets you comment on or add the movie to your favorites. You can also create and share "Remixes."

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