If you have a DVD player in your computer, chances are you will have a simple DVD software program to play the DVDs. So if you already have one, why would you want another? The answer of course is because it can do more. The PowerDVD program from Cyberlink does just that. It gives you more features/controls which are easy to use.
What I really thought was the best was the way it can step forward or backward in whatever control speed you want. With the controls included, you can easily move forward and backward at up to 32 times the normal speed1. Turn the spinner dial to go faster or slower, or use the slider bar to move it where you want to. There are buttons for stepping forward and backward. You can move an I-frame at a time2. People who use DVD know that the fast forward/reverse is so much smoother with a DVD as opposed to VCR tape. So if you can move it back or forward at 32x speed and still recognize what is showing, that’s fantastic. If you have a mouse with the center wheel you can also use that to go forward or back. When you find that exact scene in the movie you’re looking for, you can zoom in with the digital zoom in either 4x or 9x to see if that really was Steve Martin in the background.
It has Auto-Resume playback, so if you have to stop the
movie you’re watching, when you come back and reinsert the 
DVD it will ask you
if want to start over or resume where you left off. Not having to remember where
you left off and trying to find it again is so cool. Speaking of which—if you
have a particular scene you want to come back to later, you can bookmark it.
Press the F2 key and it takes you to the next bookmark, or use the right-click popup
menu. With the menu
you have a choice of adding a bookmark, using the browser,
or the viewer. The viewer is very handy. Bringing it up it shows you your bookmarks.
You can then click on one to have PowerDVD take you right to it. Of course, you
can expect it to advance to different chapters, but they also have a viewer which
shows you the start of each chapter. Talk about never losing your place.
Okay that’s the best. Now the rest. The sound setup is very rich. It comes with DTS Digital Surround and Dolby Pro Logic II decoders along with SRS TruSurround XT. It will read MPEG-1 & 2 videos. I loaded up some of the recordings I did with the AverMedia TV card and they played well. The screen size is adjustable. Images can be captured and saved as a BMP file, to the clipboard, or as desktop wallpaper. They offer parental controls. If you have a music DVD with karaoke ability it will do that—except in my house where my wife bans it). I think I sound pretty good, in the shower with the music turned up loud and no one home.
If you think the color or contrast of the playing is not
quite right they include controls for the contrast, brightest, saturation, and
primary color amounts. They provide three different interfaces/skins for you to
choose from. You can also go online to look at others. The user can set it to
repeatedly play a section of the DVD (AB repeat mode.) If the DVD has dual
language you can have it display both subtitles on the screen. Good to practice
another language, or for those unfamiliar with English. It also has closed
caption for the hearing impaired. To see more sceen captures of how PowerDVD looks go here http://www.windowsusers.org/powerdvdpic.htm/.
PowerDVD XP comes in retail and OEM bundled versions. Listed below are the various PowerDVD XP versions available.
PowerDVD XP Deluxe is a complete version of PowerDVD XP with
all available video, audio and navigational features included. Download, $69.95 boxed, $74.95 list
PowerDVD XP Standard offers all of PowerDVD XP features, but
only Dolby Digital (multi-channel output), Dolby Headphone and Dolby Pro Logic
II audio capabilities. Later if you decide you would like to have the
additional audio features, you can add them by purchasing the Audio Combo Pack
4. Download Version $49.95, Retail Box Version $54.95
PowerDVD Basic (Available for OEM only): This version offers
all of PowerDVD XP features, but only 2-channel audio output (Dolby Digital,
MPEG-Audio, LPCM). Additional audio features can be purchased.
Summary
A absolutely great program to use for watching DVD on a
computer. Yes its not free like the one that came with the DVD drive, but it
does so much more. You can download a 30 day trial version from their web site
(6.2 Mb.) They have a limit on it of 5 minutes of Audio (multi-channel) and 30
minutes of Video. CyberLink Corp., http://www.gocyberlink.com
System Requirements
*For using TruSurroundXT, Dolby Headphone, Pro Logic II or playing DTS DVD titles, 400MHz or faster is recommended.
1. Forward and reverse speeds are 1/2X, 1X, 2X, 3X, 4X, 8X,
16X, 32X |
From our June 2002 newsletter
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