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It’s time we had a close look at the “king” of the DVD Players, and that one is PowerDVD. With the new features like HD, HD DVD and Blu-ray DVD, the player promises a very exciting and crystal clear cinematic (visual and audio) experience.

The interface has changed a lot from what the user got used to into the 5th version. The interface started changing drastically from the 6th version – and continued to improve in the 7.3 one, the Ultra Deluxe. The overall enhancements are the fully supported feature of HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs, the high definition format support (H.264, HD Mpeg-2 and WMV-HD, the advanced display technologies (support for wide screen monitors, including the latest high definition content protection standard - HDCP - for digital connectors), and the empowering of the hardware acceleration through the HD graphics processors from ATI, Nvidia and Intel.

The advanced movie interactivity is stimulated through the animated menu features of the HD movies, with a next-gen type of navigation that includes overlayed menus, movie bookmarks and advanced content management (like the displayed movie commentaries in Picture-in-Picture mode).

Oh yes, it’s very true when I say you can turn your computer into a Home Theater, as the “king” of DVD players offers only the best options: HD audio technologies like Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, DTS, with support for up to 8-channel surround sound (7.1 channel Dolby Digital EX and 5.1 channel DTS).

You also gain advanced controls with options like Say-It-Again (dialog looping), Read-It-Clearly (moving subtitles on the screen), See-It-All (power-saving mode for notebooks) and Freestyle controls that allow you to choose from up to 5 skins and colors.

The ultimate movie experience is stimulated by the image performance given by the optimizations for the latest high-definition cards, with resolutions up to 1920x1080 in size, with comprehensive support for HD monitors. The second big advantage is that you get to enjoy more of HD content on HD DVDs or Blu-ray discs than from the standard discs.

Applicability:
The following advanced formats are widely supported: MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) - high-definition, MPEG-2 HD - high-definition, WMV-HD - high-definition, DVD-VR, DVD+VR, DivX Pro, DVD-Video, Mini-DVD. But do not think this short list implies just as few types of files, on the contrary – the formats above are included in a very large number of file formats.

Pro(s): PowerDVD has a name quite to the measure of its capabilities: it brings the image in the movies to a life-like, crystal clear bright level with the CyberLink Eagle Vision (CLEV)-2 feature. With the Smart Video Deinterlacing technique the player brings a smooth and enhanced video image. The CyberLink Pano Vision (CLPV) renders the video to the best and most appropriate aspect ratio according to your screen type (16:9 or 4:3).

Con(s): None! (now that’s a first in my reviews – nothing bad really to say about it) The PowerDVD does precisely what it was meant for and even more. I had absolutely no issues while working with it and the interface integrated very well with Windows Vista. And no, CyberLink hasn't paid me to say these things, but they should.

Official Site

Buy: $99.95

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