Archive: PowerDVD Reviews

This is an archive of all reviews of Cyberlink PowerDVD. There is a separate article where you can read the latest review of PowerDVD.

Please use the page select drop down menu above, or the article navigation links below to select an archive PowerDVD review to read.

Note : This is an archived review for an older version of PowerDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.

NEW in 2.5.1028

Note : This is an archived review for an older version of PowerDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.

NEW in 2.5.1115

Note : This is an archived review for an older version of PowerDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.

NEW in 2.5.5 Build 0113

Note : This is an archived review for an older version of PowerDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.

NEW in 2.5.5 Build 0202

* For original GeForce 256 Hardware Motion Compensation support under Win9x,
  it requires 32MB of video Ram. However, it is now working for GeForce 256-based
  cards with 16MB video RAM only.

* Features like Hardware Motion Compensation, Dolby Digital/DTS S/PDIF pass-thru
  and multi-channel Dolby Digital output are driver dependent and are now supported
  only under Win9x by most audio and video chip vendors. Those features are 
  not supported under Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 in current stage.

* An user prompt is added for recommending installing bus master IDE driver under
  Windows NT 4.0 environment during setup time.

* Fix a problem that on SiS630 systems with video driver V1.01b or later installed,
  Macrovision function can not work properly.

Note : This is an archived review for an older version of PowerDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.

NEW in 2.5.5 Build 0620

Note : This is an archived review for an older version of PowerDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.

NEW in 3.0

New Audio Decoder

New Video Decoder

Dual Subtitles and Closed Captions

PowerDVD Toolbar

The rest

Navigation

- Now includes slow motion reverse playback, A-B repeat (the repetition of a user selectable segment - from point A to point B), playlist enhancements (added support for M3U playlist files) and a step backwards frame function (see below).





Skins

- Now includes 3 additional skins, including Submarine (screenshot on this page), Fly and Eyeball (screenshots on this page).



OS Support

- PowerDVD now features Microsoft WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Lab) certification with Windows 98, Millennium and 2000. In addition, PowerDVD now support 4 speaker audio for the SB-Live range under Windows 2000.



Note : This is an archived review for an older version of PowerDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.

POWERDVD 3.0 BETA PREVIEW

This preview is done so in a sort of "Before and After" comparison with PowerDVD 2.55 Build 0620. Note that this is a beta version, so the final version may look nothing like this - although this is unlikely.


Note : PowerDVD 3.0 has been officially released, and you can read the official release's "what's new" information on the this page. Please note that this is a beta preview, so if information in the official release's "what's new" contradicts information here, then you can assume that the information on the official release's "what's new" page is the correct and up to date one.

	PowerDVD 2.55	PowerDVD 3.0
	Performance :	On a Celeron 333a with no DVD acceleration and using DirectSound's "Dolby Surround" option, PowerDVD 3.0 seem to be a little slower than PowerDVD 2.55, but only by a very small margin of a few percents, perhaps accounted for by the small increase in quality (below).
	Quality :	On a Celeron 333a with no DVD acceleration, PowerDVD 3.0 seems to be a little better in quality than PowerDVD 2.55, but not by any significant differences. Overall, pictures looked less "blurry" - although some people I know actually prefers it this way (less harsh on the eye)
	Interface :	New forward/backwards step frame buttons added for easier navigation
	General Settings :	New option for toolbar (see below)
		New toolbar (at top) that can moved to all sides of the desktop for easier DVD control. It will be present even if PowerDVD is minimized - would have been nice if it had an "auto hide" or "resize" feature
	Audio Settings :	New Dolby Headphones support and also Pro-logic support with 4/6 channel audio
	Skins :	PowerDVD 3.0 now comes with 5 skins, including the "Eye" skin above - most of these skins are already available for download on this page
	I-Power :	New i-Power built in DVD portal has been enhanced. Although this is really just a simple HTML addition, it is still much better than any other DVD player's web support
	Digital Zoom :	PowerDVD 3.0 now supports digital zoom of up to 9 times
	Dual Subtitles :	PowerDVD 3.0 now has the ability to display 2 sets of subtitles on screen at the same time (see below)
		PowerDVD 3.0's dual subtitles in action
	Closed Caption :	PowerDVD 3.0 now has the ability to display closed captions (see below)
		PowerDVD 3.0's closed captioning in action

Conclusion :

Some interesting new features, especially Dolby Headphones and the dual subtitles support (a little gimmicky, but nice to have) - closed caption support is also a big plus. There are probably more changes "beneath the hood", but we'll all have to wait until the final release to find out what these changes are.


Note : PowerDVD 3.0 has been officially released, and you can read the official release's "what's new" information on the this page. Please note that this is a beta preview, so if information in the official release's "what's new" contradicts information here, then you can assume that the information on the official release's "what's new" page is the correct and up to date one.



Note : This is an archived review for an older version of PowerDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.

New in 4.0 XP

Click here to read the official PowerDVD 4.0 readme file for a brief of what's new in this release.

This page tries to list all the significant new features of PowerDVD 4.0 XP - if you want to see a complete review of the latest version of PowerDVD, please refer to this page.

Index :

• New Product Versions
• New Audio Features
• New Video Features
• New Playback Modes
• New Interface Features
• OS Support





New Product Versions

There are now two major versions of PowerDVD for sale - Standard and Deluxe. The Standard version does not include DTS/Dolby Pro-Logic II/SRS TurSurround XT/Dolby Digital Surround EX support and all other related functions that is included in the Deluxe edition.





New Audio Features

Following WinDVD 3.0's lead in introducing DTS decoding to the PC, PowerDVD 4.0 XP has also added DTS decoding, so we can all finally hear our beloved DTS Audio CDs and DVDs.



Those lucky enough to have 8-channel output sound cards can also now enjoy Dolby Digital Surround EX in full discrete 8 channels of audio - now that's what I call surround :)

Dolby Pro-Logic II decoding has been added (Dolby Pro-Logic was added for PowerDVD 3.0), which allows you to enjoy multi-channel audio from a standard 2-channel track.



The reverse is also true in that the new SRS TruSurround XT support means that multi-channel audio tracks can be outputed through 2 speakers, and the surround sound "simulated" by using audio effects (by tricking your brain into thinking the sound is coming from all sides - similar to what Dolby Headphone does with stereo headphones). Similary, this can be simulated by using the DirectSound3D or A3D, and there is a "virtual speaker" option that allows you to move the "simulated" speaker positions.





Following complaints from some users about the dynamic range of DVDs and how this affects overall volume when playing back DVDs, some dynmaic range control options has been added. LFE decoding has also been added, for those which the speakers to handle it.







New Video Features

While there does not seem to be any enhancement to the actual video decoder, some of the video related functions has been improved. The video adjustments has been improved, and now allows adjustments for a greater range of video properties (eg. contrast, colors, saturation). Users not wanting to tweak the settings too much are given ready-to-use profiles (eg. Theatre, Bright, Vivid) they can choose to suit their taste. You can also save your own profiles for later use.



The video capturing functions has also been enhanced, and you are now able to capture either at the current window's size, or the size of the original video.



Lastly, you can now switch on the "Screen is Always On Top" feature, which many users in the past have requested, and better support for video cards (Dual View) and monitors (proper support for widescreen monitors).





New Playback Modes

PowerDVD 4.0 has greatly simplified the file/disc opening system, which has confused users in the past (ie. File playback mode and Disc playback mode). Now all file/disc opening functions are accessed through the "Select Source" button. Not only that, but PowerDVD 4.0 has added hard-disk playback mode (IFO parsing), which should delight all rippers and those who "shift-view" their rental DVDs - this option was not available in PowerDVD 3.0, and you can only do it in WinDVD 3.0 if you use the "subst" trick (disclaimer : making copies of copyrighted material that you have not bought is illegal, so don't do it :)



There is also the new "resume play" function, which those with standalone DVD players should be familar with. Basically, "resume play" allows you to stop the DVD you are playing, perhaps even shut down the player, and the next time you insert the same disc, the player will allow you to resume to where you last left off. A manual prompt can be set to be shown everytime a "resumable" disc is inserted, or it can be automatically selected and used each and every time.







New Interface Features

One of the new interface features of PowerDVD 4.0 is it's new "minimized" skin support. What this basically means is that for the new PowerDVD 4.0 compliant skins, a "minimized" or smaller version of the skin can be used to save precious desktop space. The "minimized" skin will only have the most basic functions on it.



The other noticeable new feature is the enhanced toolbar. The toolbar first made its appearance in PowerDVD 3.0, and I wasn't too thrilled about it since it did not have an auto-hide feature. Well, it seems the engineers at Cyberlink has taken note, and auto-hide is now the default option for the toolbar. The toolbar can also be customized (like any good Windows toolbar), and you can add/remove buttons as you please. The screenshots below show the tool bar with the minimum and maximum number of buttons (it has been edited somewhat to fit into this page).



The "configuration" panels has also been tweaked, and only the most frequently used/basic functions are now located in plain sight, with the advanced configuration options now hidden in the advanced sections, accessible using the "advanced" button.

On-screen-display has also been tweaked, and the new "show information" feature is pretty neat too.



The new skins (especially Cystal XP) also look pretty nice :)





OS Support

With the moniker "XP" (PowerDVD 4.0 "XP") included in the latest version of PowerDVD, of course it is fully compatible with Windows XP (new look-and-feel of Windows XP windows and dialogues are fully integrated). It is also still compatible with Windows 98, Me and 2000, with limited functionality in Windows NT.





Note : This is an archived review for an older version of PowerDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.

Information/Review

Below is the specs for the test system used :

Pentium-III 1000
512 MB PC-133 CAS-2 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra
SB-Live Platinum 5.1
Pioneer A05 16X DVD-ROM drive
Windows 98 SE
PowerDVD 4.0 XP Deluxe

Index :

• Video Quality
• Decoding Efficiency
• Video Support
• Audio Quality/Support
• Captions/Subtitles
• Capture
• User Interface
• OS Support
• Zooming
  
  
• Acceleration Support





Video Quality

While older versions of PowerDVD was always considered to be a poorer quality decoder compared to the rest, PowerDVD 2.5/3.0 has changed the story somewhat.

The picture quality is clear, although less defined than than WinDVD, but the difference is quite small, and hardly noticeable on your standard monitor. WinDVD still seems to win the vote for the best possible picture output, but only by a slim margin.

Rating : A
(updated 9 December 2002)





Decoding Efficiency

Although not as efficient as soft-Cinemaster, it is as good, if not better than InterVideo's WinDVD. Good, but not the best. With modern CPUs, there is almost no difference between the performance of PowerDVD and WinDVD, so efficiency is becoming less of a problem all the time.

Rating : A





Video Support

Plenty of video cards/chips are supported by Cyberlink PowerDVD for acceleration, some of them still quite new on the marget (eg. ATI Radeon 7500/8500 and GeForce3 Ti500). Please refer to the Acceleration Support section to see if your card is supported.

Again, PowerDVD's video support is superior to that of WinDVD's, although things such as this can be easily fixed through patches as new cards are releasd. Accleration support is becoming less of an issue as CPUs gets faster and faster (much like decoder efficiency), and since acceleration adds unwanted picture quality loss, most would prefer to have it turned off.

PowerDVD 4.0 does promise support for Dual-View on most of the more popular video cards that supports this feature.



Rating : A
(updated 9 December 2002)





Audio Quality/Support

Audio has been the main focus of this new release - with DTS, Dolby Pro-Logic II, Dolby Digital Surround EX, SRS TruSurround XT and DS3D/A3D Virtual Speaker support being added in the more expensive Deluxe edition of PowerDVD 4.0 XP. Audio volume has been dealt with by including dynamic range control, and LFE decoding has finally been implemented (with WinDVD having it many releases ago).



All the usual Dolby Digital, MPEG, Dolby Headphones support are still in there.

Audio quality is clear and volume (with the proper dynamic range compression settings) is loud enough. I would say that Cyberlink has put a lot of work into improving audio quality and support, to do some much needed catch up with WinDVD 3.0, and surpassing it in many areas as well.



Audio Quality Rating : A+
Audio Support Rating : A
(updated 9 December 2002)





Captions/Subtitles

PowerDVD 4.0 like 3.0 supports both closed captions and subtitles - in fact, it even supports dual subtitles (2 different subtitles can be displayed at the same time, one on top of the screen, the other on the bottom) - and dual subtitles can also be displayed at the same time as closed captions, which means 3 subtitles/captions can be simultaneously displayed at the same time. Closed captions are displayed as white text on a transparent background, which isn't as clear as WinDVD's white text on a black background setup - WinDVD also supports more subtitles being displayed at once (up to 4!!), although you can argue this is an overkill, considering many DVDs don't even have 4 subtitles. There has been no apparent change between version 3.0 and 4.0.




Rating : A





Capture

With PowerDVD's implementation, you do have the ability to capture to clipboard, instead of a file, and you have the ability to specify a location to store the captured file. PowerDVD even includes a option to capture to your Windows desktop. PowerDVD 4.0 adds the option to capture either at the original resolution of the video source, or at the current window size. WinDVD's implementation is much more limited (there is only an option to capture to a BMP file), so PowerDVD wins clearly in this department.



Rating : B+
(updated 9 December 2002)





User Interface

The interface of PowerDVD 4.0 remains largely unchanged from that of PowerDVD 3.0. The main difference is the toolbar, which now "auto-hides", and the "Select Source" option, which allows for better opening of file/discs. Both of these have been covered in the What's New for PowerDVD 4.0 page, so please refer to it for more details. Another improvement is the re-organisation of the "configuration" panels, by hiding more advanced configuration options with an added "advanced" button, thereby making it more accessible to beginners. These improvements in interface solves some of the more confusing/frustrating problems of previous versions.

Below is the User Interface Review for PowerDVD 3.0 :

PowerDVD by far has the best interface of any software DVD players. The first thing you notice is the new interface. In fact, the interface is very flexible, allowing you to change the "skin" whenever one become available (currently there are 5 skins included in the retail package). Menus are easy to access, all the options are available with a right-click as well as on the main console. PowerDVD 3.0 also now a toolbar option, which overlays a toolbar at the side of your desktop screen that contains the most used controls (see this page and this page for more information and screen shots) - although the implementation of this toolbar could have been done better (eg. the inclusion of a "auto hide" feature).

There is also a wide range of shortcut keys, which is also nice to have for those with good memories and/or a dislike of multiple mouse movements/clicks.



Rating : B+
(updated 9 December 2002)





OS Support

PowerDVD is supported under a wide range of Windows version, including 98, Me and 2000, as well as NT 4.0. Because of the limitations of driver/multimedia support under NT/2000, not all of the enhanced features (like acceleration support) will be available. PowerDVD 4.0 XP is, of course, the first DVD player to be made specifically for the platform (other DVD players may require patching to obtain Windows XP compatibility, and may not have the Windows XP look and feel).

Rating : A+





Zooming

Zoom support has been added in WinDVD 2000 version 2.1 and in a way it is both superior and inferior to the implementation in PowerDVD. Whereas WinDVD offers you free control over zoom (you can drag any area on screen to zoom to), PowerDVD's controls are more accurate, and much better suited to make widescreen features play in full-screen (eg. it includes presets to make standard widescreen aspect ratio movies to play back in full screen). The digital zoom is of excellent clarity - no pixelations.

The biggest problem is with playing widescreen AVI/DivX files, since PowerDVD removes the "keep aspect ratio" option for playing these kinds of files, when zoomed to full screen, the proper aspect ratio is lost. WinDVD does not have this problem.

This feature remains unchanged from PowerDVD 3.0, with the same problems as before (ie. playing widescreen AVIs), so rating has been downgraded :(

Rating : B+





Acceleration Support

For the latest information on hardware compatibility and acceleration support, please refer to this page.





Note : This is an archived review for an older version of PowerDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.

New in 5.0

Click here to read the official PowerDVD 5.0 readme file for a brief of what's new in this release.

This page tries to list all the significant new features of PowerDVD 5.0 - if you want to see a complete review of the latest version of PowerDVD, please refer to this page.

Note that there are two versions of PowerDVD : Standard and Deluxe. All descriptions below are for the Standard version of PowerDVD, unless otherwise stated.

Index :

• New Product Versions
• New Video Features
• New Audio Features
• New Playback Modes





New Product Versions

As with the previous version of PowerDVD, there are two major versions of PowerDVD for sale - Standard and Deluxe. The Standard version does not include DTS and Dolby Virtual Speakers support, but includes all the other functions that is included in the Deluxe edition.





New Video Features

Being consistent with their trademarked technology naming convention, new video features for PowerDVD are appropriately named CLEV and CLPV.

CLEV stands for "Cyberlink Eagle Vision" and is PowerDVD's new filtering capability. It dynamically adjusts contrast/brightness/colors to bring out details in the picture.



CLPV stands for "Cyberlink Pano Vision". Now this must be a truly first in terms of software DVD player - the first non-linear zoom. Where CLPV comes in handy is display full screen content on widescreen monitors (and vice versa). It will take a 4:3 picture, stretch the picture around the edges more so than in the middle, and thereby turning it to fit into 16:9 displays. This way, the center of the picture is always less distorted than the outer edges, and assuming most of the action appears in the center of the picture, the overall distortions will be less alarming.



Still capturing has been improved with the option to capture at different pre-set resolutions.







New Audio Features

The biggest single new audio feature of PowerDVD 5.0 is the newly added CLMEI (Cyberlink Multi-Channel Environment Impression). In plain speak, this is Cyberlink's own "simulated surround" engine, which allows you to up-convert standard stereo audio into multi-channel audio.



Also new (in the Deluxe version of PowerDVD only) is Dolby Virtual Surround (DVS). This is sort of the anti-thesis of CLMEI, as DVS tries to give you the impression of multi-channel audio using only standard stereo speakers.





WinDVD 3.0 first introduced the concept of time stretching, and PowerDVD 5.0 now also includes this feature. Time stretching allows you to playback the movie faster, but retain the natural pitch of the audio.

And with the release of new sounds cards (eg. Sound Blaster Audigy 2) with higher definition audio output, 24bit/96kHz LPCM audio output will be something that you'll probably want, especially when playing back high resolution audio.



PowerDVD 5.0 also adds TruSurroundXT Headphone, based on existing TruSurroundXT technology already present in PowerDVD 4.0.







New Playback Modes

DivX playback is now integrated into the player, meaning that you no longer required to download the DivX codec for playing back DivX content. Note that most of the advanced features (such as zooming, CLPV and CLEV) are not supported during DivX playback.







Note : This is an archived review for an older version of PowerDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.

Information/Review

Below is the specs for the test system used :

Pentium-III 1000
512 MB PC-133 CAS-2 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra
SB-Live Platinum 5.1
Pioneer A05 16X DVD-ROM drive
Windows 98 SE
PowerDVD 5.0 Deluxe

Index :

• Video Quality
• Decoding Efficiency
• Video Support
• Audio Quality/Support
• Captions/Subtitles
• Capture
• User Interface
• OS Support
• Zooming
• Value





Video Quality

Previous versions of PowerDVD had a problem of the video picture being too soft and blurry. From initial testing, the new version of PowerDVD appears to be better, although it still does appear a little softer than WinDVD 5.0.

However, upon closer inspection, one could tell that the extra brightness/contrast and sharpness does yield just slightly more artifacts.



Notice in the comparison above the extra definition of the fur for WinDVD 5.0 over PowerDVD 5.0, but notice that when zoomed in, the same area presents more artifacts. It certainly looks like a sharpness filter (notice the bright edge around the two strands of hair in the lower comparison) has been applied in WinDVD 5.0's case. On a computer monitor, the extra sharpness and brightness of WinDVD 5.0 does give a better looking picture, but on a larger display, the artifacts would be quite noticeable. The artifacts are even more noticeable when there are patches of color, like the blue sky background. On this occasion, while WinDVD's sharpness impressed me, I prefer PowerDVD's lack of artifacts, as I am more inclined to playback DVDs on a large screen (where the sharpness is lost, but the artifacts are amplified). If you mainly playback DVDs on your PC monitor, than WinDVD's picture quality will not disappoint. Call it a tie.

With that said, the picture quality of both players are near perfect, and more than acceptable for computer based DVD playback.

Rating : A





Decoding Efficiency

Decoder efficiency was tested with 2 channel decoding turned on and all other filters/effects turned off. With modern CPUs, there is almost no difference between the performance of PowerDVD and WinDVD, so efficiency is becoming less of a problem all the time. PowerDVD does seem to have a more volatile CPU usage (eg. going from 26% to 38%, while WinDVD hovered around 33-35%) - this won't be a problem unless you have an older CPU (eg. a PIII-500). I doubt efficiency can be increased without sacrifising quality, not that it matters all that much with today's range of CPUs.

Rating : A+





Video Support

Acceleration support remains largely unchanged from the previous version of PowerDVD. The single biggest video support feature is CLEV (I'll talk about CLPV when I get to zooming). As described previously on the "What's New" page, CLEV (Cyberlink Eagle Vision) is a technology that promises to dynamically improve picture quality by adjusting the contrast/saturation/brightness. In other words, it aims to improve the picture quality by changing the scene's brightness/contrast/colors as appropriate. While it does seem to work (details in darker scenes are more visible, and color more vibrant), some scenes are meant to be dark, and applying CLEV (or WinDVD's similar Video Effects) on these scenes brought out grain and other artifacts.



There are two CLEV modes - full screen and split screen. I really don't see how the split screen view would help anyone (except for us reviewers, when testing the effects of CLEV), but it is included here (just as it was included with WinDVD's similar "Video Effects").



WinDVD's "Video Effects" (and in particular, the "Movie Effector" filter) and PowerDVD 5.0's CLEV both do similar things and both have similar effects. WinDVD does have a few extra "Video Effects" presets (such as "Negative"), but as I mentioned in the WinDVD review, I personally do not find much use for this feature.

The other major new video feature is time stretching, which was added in WinDVD 4.0. This feature allows you to playback the movie at a faster rate with audio that does not have it's pitch distorted. Again, the importance of this feature is debatable, although WinDVD does have "PAL TruSpeed" as a result of this feature (the ability to playback PAL content at the right speed of 23.976 FPS, instead of 25 FPS) - PowerDVD does not have an equivalent of this feature.

DivX support has been added as well (WinDVD also has DivX Support) - this allows you to playback DivX (5.x) content without the DivX codec.

Rating : A






Audio Quality/Support

Audio quality hasn't changed much, and is of a very high quality. With special effects (such as dynamic range compression) turned off with both PowerDVD and WinDVD, PowerDVD does seem a little louder and clearer, but the differences are small.

The last release of PowerDVD concentrated on bringing more audio support to the PC-DVD platform (including DTS, Dolby Pro-Logic II, Dolby Digital Surround EX, SRS TruSurround XT and DS3D/A3D Virtual Speaker support), so it's not too surprising to find that not much has changed in the latest version of PowerDVD. The main additions are CLMEI, Dolby Virtual Speakers (Deluxe version only) and TruSurroundXT Headphone.

CLMEI (Cyberlink Multi-Channel Environment Impression) is Cyberlink's own "simulated surround" engine. It converts stereo sources for multi-channel (eg. 4, 6 channels) use.



This functionality actually already exists in the previous version of PowerDVD, in the form of Dolby Pro-Logic II - but CLMEI offers more configuration options in that it allows you to adjust each speaker's output level.



Dolby Virtual Speakers was first added in WinDVD, and now PowerDVD also have this feature. This does the opposite of CLMEI, and reduces multi-channel audio to fit into 2 speakers, and uses techniques to trick your ears into thinking that there are in fact more speakers than that.



Again following WinDVD, PowerDVD 5.0 now also adds TruSurroundXT Headphones support, again similar to Dolby Headphones and basically does Dolby Virtual Speakers with headphones.



Audio Quality Rating : A+
Audio Support Rating : A





Captions/Subtitles

There has been no apparent change in terms of subtitles support between version 3.0 and 4.0 and 5.0.

PowerDVD 5.0 like 3.0 and 4.0 supports both closed captions and subtitles - in fact, it even supports dual subtitles (2 different subtitles can be displayed at the same time, one on top of the screen, the other on the bottom) - and dual subtitles can also be displayed at the same time as closed captions, which means 3 subtitles/captions can be simultaneously displayed at the same time. Closed captions are displayed as white text on a transparent background, which isn't as clear as WinDVD's white text on a black background setup - WinDVD no longer supports multiple subtitles.




Rating : A





Capture

With PowerDVD's implementation, you do have the ability to capture to clipboard, instead of a file, and you have the ability to specify a location to store the captured file. PowerDVD even includes a option to capture to your Windows desktop. PowerDVD 5.0 adds the option to capture at a custom resolution, as well as at the original resolution of the video source, or at the current window size. Overall, both PowerDVD and WinDVD's capture facilities are about the same. WinDVD has the additional ability to preview captures before saving, select between JPG/BMP and email integration.



NVDVD has introduced audio capturing, and so both WinDVD and PowerDVD will have to catch up in this area.

Rating : A





User Interface

The interface of PowerDVD 5.0 remains largely unchanged from that of PowerDVD 3.0/4.0, apart from the new skin. The main difference is the ability to hide parts of the right click menu, as to reduce the size of the menu.



Below is the User Interface Review for PowerDVD 3.0/4.0 :

The interface is very flexible, allowing you to change the "skin" whenever one become available (currently there are 5 skins included in the retail package). Menus are easy to access, all the options are available with a right-click as well as on the main console. PowerDVD 3.0 also now a toolbar option, which overlays a toolbar at the side of your desktop screen that contains the most used controls (see this page and this page for more information and screen shots) - although the implementation of this toolbar could have been done better (eg. the inclusion of a "auto hide" feature).

There is also a wide range of shortcut keys, which is also nice to have for those with good memories and/or a dislike of multiple mouse movements/clicks.



Ripped DVD playback support has been improved. In the previous version, you had to load in the "video_ts.ifo" file of the ripped folder in order to playback the ripped DVD. This was somewhat confusing, as many people didn't know which IFO file to open. PowerDVD 5.0 now, like WinDVD, allows you to open the ripped directory, instead of the "video_ts.ifo", which makes more sense.

PowerDVD could improve it's interface by introducing the docking concept (the main console can be docked to the playback window, to form one entity) that WinDVD now uses and to move more of the right click menu and configuration options to be available on the main console (eg. WinDVD's sub-panel idea). It should also move some of the advanced settings away from the configuration section, and make it accessible from the main console or the right click menu.

Rating : A





OS Support

PowerDVD is supported under a wide range of Windows version, including 98, Me, 2000, XP, as well as NT 4.0. Because of the limitations of driver/multimedia support under NT/2000, not all of the enhanced features (like acceleration support) will be available.

For mobile computing, power saving and other features are usually built into the OS. WinDVD 5.0 adds a Mobility Technology Pack which bundles mobile computing features (such as power saving profiles) into the DVD player itself, which is a good way of extending playback time, even if your OS does not have proper mobile technology support. PowerDVD loses points because it lacks this functionality.

Rating : A
(Updated 5th July)





Zooming

This section describes zooming and aspect ratio issues.

CLPV (Cyberlink Pano Vision) is Cyberlink's new zooming algorithm (for widescreen to fullscreen and more importantly, fullscreen to widescreen conversion/zooming). With CLPV, the center of the picture is zoomed less than the outer edges of the picture - assuming most of the action is near the center of the screen, this presents less distortions to the viewer. It sort of has a telescopic/panoramic look to it. This is actually quite a neat feature, and I was pleased to say that it works quite well, especially for fullscreen to widescreen conversion.



Unfortunately, none of the zooming options are available when playing back non DVD content, which is a shame.

Previously, neither PowerDVD nor WinDVD supports custom zoom (ie. allows you to set, on a scale, how much to zoom in the X/Y directions) - this feature could prove very useful for those that permanently connects their computer to their 16:9 home theater device (eg. projector or television). PowerDVD 5.0 tries to solve this problem by allowing you to set a custom aspect ratio (eg. 16:9, 16:10) for the secondary graphic device. While this helps, it would be better if the primary device's aspect ratio could also be changed, or more precisely, allow completely custom aspect ratios (eg. 17:8, or any other random aspect ratio) for both the primary and secondary playback devices. But it's a move in the right direction.



Rating : A





Value

As mentioned previously, there are two versions of PowerDVD, Standard and Deluxe. The standard versions retails for $39.95 and the deluxe version is $30 dearer, at $69.95. The only difference between these versions is DTS decoding and Dolby Virtual Speaker support. If you don't have lots of DTS DVDs, or don't mind listening to the 2.0 or 5.1 Dolby tracks that are mandatory for DTS DVDs, then the Standard version stands for excellent value, while the Deluxe version is still very well priced compared to the competition.

Rating : A
(updated 4 July 2003)





Note : This is an archived review for an older version of PowerDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.

New in 6.0

This page tries to list all the significant new features of PowerDVD 6.0 - if you want to see a complete review of the latest version of PowerDVD, please refer to this page.

Note that there are two versions of PowerDVD : Standard and Deluxe. All descriptions below are for the Standard version of PowerDVD, unless otherwise stated.

Index :

• New Product Versions
• New Video Features
• New Audio Features
• New Playback Modes





New Product Versions

As with the previous version of PowerDVD, there are two major versions of PowerDVD for sale - Standard and Deluxe. The Standard version does not include Dolby Pro Logic IIx decoding, Dolby Digital EX decoding, MLP decoding, DTS decoding, DivX Pro playback and DVD-Audio playback.





New Video Features

The previous version of PowerDVD saw the introduction of CLEV ("Cyberlink Eagle Vision" - video filtering) and CLPV ("Cyberlink Pano Vision" - non linear fullscreen/widescreen conversion). The new version of PowerDVD features the second generation CLEV-2. CLEV-2 adjusts a scene's chroma and luminance to enhance image detail in scenes that are normally too dark or too bright.



PowerDVD 6.0 also introduces "Smart De-Interlacing Mode" has three de-interlacing algorithms, Pixel Adaptive, Median and Bob. All three algorithms can be selected manually or a smart algorithm used to determine when de-interlacing should be used (can also be set to turn on based on the bitstream flag, a bitstream analysis or to always perform de-interlacing).









New Audio Features

Most of PowerDVD's changes are in the audio department this time round...

The biggest single new audio feature of PowerDVD 5.0 was CLMEI (Cyberlink Multi-Channel Environment Impression). In plain speak, this is Cyberlink's own "simulated surround" engine, which allows you to up-convert standard stereo audio into multi-channel audio. PowerDVD 6.0 now features the second generation implementation of this technology, suitably called CLMEI-2.



You can also use the alternative Dolby Pro-Logic IIx (available in the Deluxe version) to perform the same task of expanding 2 channel audio for multi-channel use.



The previous version of PowerDVD also introduced Dolby Virtual Speaker, which is the opposite of the above technologies as it turns an multi-channel audio source into 2 channel audio that sounds like it has multi-channels by using audio tricks. Cyberlink now has it's own version of the same technique called CLVS (Cyberlink Virtual Speaker).



DVD-Audio (MLP decoding) support is also now available in the Deluxe version of PowerDVD, bringing it in line with WinDVD's support for the same format.

And again following the trend, PowerDVD 5.0 added TruSurroundXT Headphone while PowerDVD 6.0 implements Cyberlink's own version of the same technology, CLHP (Cyberlink Headphones).



Audio equalizer presets have also been introduced. Available presets include "Classical", "Techno", "Country" - altogether 14 different audio presets. There is also audio pitch scaling.





New Playback Modes

WMV-HD support is a new playback feature for PowerDVD 6.0 - this feature is supported in both the Standard and Deluxe versions.



DivX Pro playback is now integrated into the player for the Deluxe version, meaning that you no longer required to download the DivX codec for playing back DivX Pro content. Note that most of the advanced features (such as zooming, CLPV and CLEV) are not supported during DivX playback.



DVD±VR support has also been improved since the last version. DVD-VR is now supported on DVD-R media and DVD+VR playback/random access support is not available. For those that don't know, DVD±VR is a kind of DVD that can be edited after is has been produced, making it an ideal format for standalone DVD recordable. You can find out more about DVD±VR here.





Note : This is an archived review for an older version of PowerDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.

Information/Review

Below is the specs for the test system used :

AMD Athlon XP 2500+
1GB DDR400 RAM
NVIDIA FX 5700
On-Board 5.1 Audio
Liteon 16x DVD-ROM
Windows XP Pro SP2
PowerDVD 6.0 Deluxe

Index :

• Video Quality
• Decoding Efficiency
• Video Support
• Audio Quality/Support
• Captions/Subtitles
• Capture
• User Interface
• OS Support
• Zooming
• Value





Video Quality

Doing a side by side comparison between WinDVD 6.0 and PowerDVD 6.0, there is for all practically purposes no difference between the video quality of both players. In previous versions of PowerDVD, it's picture tend to produce a softer picture, but with less artifacts, but the difference is small enough not to be noticed unless one is specifically looking for differences. With both players configured without video acceleration and with brightness/contrast at the original/default settings, PowerDVD 6.0 now actually looks a little sharper than WinDVD, although again, the differences are very subtle. I think both players have reached a stage where it is almost impossible to improve upon picture quality.

Rating : A+





Decoding Efficiency

Decoder efficiency was tested with 2 channel decoding turned on, video acceleration turned off and all other filters/effects turned off. The result was a bit of a surprise. WinDVD averaged around 20% CPU usage, which is quite normal, but with PowerDVD 6.0, the average was much higher, at around 70% and occasionally going into the 90's. Thinking this was a mistake, I tested PowerDVD 6.0 on another computer (this time a P4 3.2 GHz), and the results were more normal, with both WinDVD and PowerDVD consuming roughly the same amount of CPU resources. A Windows restart did not seem to help, although with video acceleration turned on, the performance was much better (at around 30%), but still higher than it should be. Right now, I am suspecting it's an issue with DMA busmastering on my test system, because ripped DVD files playback without the high CPU usage - but it's strange that WinDVD is not affected by this problem on the same system.

PowerDVD's does feels more efficient due to its faster loading speed and a less laggy interface.

Rating : A





Video Support

CLEV has been updated in PowerDVD 6.0, and with CLEV turned on, the picture looked brighter with more vibrant colors. But as with any picture enhancement (mostly just adjustments of specific contrast settings), details is lost and color bleeding and loss of color accuracy can occur. An example of CLEV enhancement is shown below (actual screenshot of CLEV in action):



WinDVD's "Video Effects" (and in particular, the "Movie Effector" filter) and PowerDVD 6.0's CLEV both do similar things and both have similar effects. WinDVD does have a few extra "Video Effects" presets (such as "Negative"), but as I mentioned in the WinDVD review, I personally do not find much use for this feature.

Smart De-Interlacing is the major new video feature in the latest version of PowerDVD. This is one of those set and forget settings, and whether this will improve your picture of not depends on the kind of content (ie. interlaced content) being viewed. Most DVDs now carry progressive content, and have interlaced content for extras and made for TV material. The "bitstream analysis" option is particularly welcomed, since many DVDs do not properly set the correct bitstream flag for interlaced content.



WMV-HD playback is now available, and playback was good within PowerDVD (because my test WMV-HD files were on the hard disk, the excessive CPU problem I noticed earlier made it more CPU intensive to playback a DVD than a WMV-HD file). I did notice some aspect ratio problems with the T2 HD sample trailer available from Microsoft's WMV-HD website.

DivX support has been upgraded to support DivX Pro features in the Deluxe version.

Overall, WinDVD just shades PowerDVD in this area because it has more video filters, and can do most if not all the things that PowerDVD can do (including WMV-HD playback, without the aspect ratio problems noted in the T2 sample trailer).

Rating : A






Audio Quality/Support

Audio quality was top notch in the previous version of PowerDVD, and it remains so here. There are many settings here to improve audio volume due to DVD's dynamic range, but with everything turned on to improve volume, it's still a little bit softer than WinDVD with the same enhancements. Excessive volume amplification can cause loss of audio quality, so it's a fine balance.

In terms of audio features, this is where most of PowerDVD 6.0's changes are. A trend by Cyberlink has been to implement their own versions licensed audio technologies, such as virtual surround and headphones technologies. This trend is very obvious in PowerDVD 6.0, as all the TruSurround technologies have been replaced by Cyberlink versions that works exactly the same.

Before we get to that, let concentrate on the improvements made to existing audio features. CLMEI (Cyberlink Multi-Channel Environment Impression - Cyberlink's own "simulated surround" engine) has been upgraded to CLMEI-2. It converts stereo sources for multi-channel (eg. 4, 6 or 8 channels) use.



This functionality also exists in the form of Dolby Pro-Logic II - but CLMEI offers more configuration options in that it allows you to adjust each speaker's output level. This is part of the trend I mentioned before about Cyberlink introducing their own versions of licensed technologies, and replaces the existing TruSurround version. Dolby Pro-Logic IIx is also available in the Deluxe version of PowerDVD.

PowerDVD 5.0 added Dolby Virtual Speakers, which does the opposite of CLMEI and plays back multi-channel audio using only 2 speakers (with audio tricks to trick your ears into thinking there are more than just two speakers - not a substitute for multi-channel audio, but works quite well). Again, the trend continues here since Cyberlink has introduced CLVS (Cyberlink Virtual Speaker). The available settings determine how big you want your listening environment to sound, just like Dolby Virtual Speaker, but here you get more meaningful option names like "Theatre" or "Stadium", rather than just "Wide 1" and "Wide 2".



The trend continues with CLHP (Cyberlink Headphone), again Cyberlink's version of a licensed Dolby technology. The same options ("Living Room", "Theatre", "Stadium") for CLVS are available here.



This trend will allow Cyberlink to reduce licensing costs, and it would be interesting to see a low budget version of PowerDVD that does not have Dolby Pro-Logic IIx, Virtual Speaker and Headphones, but only Cyberlink equivalent of the same technologies.

DVD-Audio (with video content) playback is now available as well in the Deluxe version, which is a welcomed addition. CPPM protected content is supported, but I was not able to continue pass the CPPM activation check. Other than that, DVD-Audio playback was flawless and all the normal DVD audio features (like CLHP) are available as well.

New in PowerDVD 6.0 are audio presets (DSP) - 14 preset like "Classical", "Techno", "Country" are included. PowerDVD is doing a little bit of catching up in this area because WinDVD already includes DSP, which includes 17 presets and a custom equalizer mode.



Audio Quality Rating : A+
Audio Support Rating : A+





Captions/Subtitles

There has been no apparent change in terms of subtitles support between version 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 and now 6.0.

PowerDVD 5.0 like 3.0 and 4.0 supports both closed captions and subtitles - in fact, it even supports dual subtitles (2 different subtitles can be displayed at the same time, one on top of the screen, the other on the bottom) - and dual subtitles can also be displayed at the same time as closed captions, which means 3 subtitles/captions can be simultaneously displayed at the same time. Closed captions are displayed as white text on a transparent background, which isn't as clear as WinDVD's white text on a black background setup - WinDVD no longer supports multiple subtitles.




Rating : B+ Update 28th June 2005: The release of WinDVD 7.0 has decreased the Captions/Subtitles rating for PowerDVD because of improvements made by WinDVD, particular in the area of DivX subtitle support.





Capture

With PowerDVD's implementation, you have the ability to capture to clipboard, instead of a file, and you have the ability to specify a location to store the captured file. PowerDVD even includes a option to capture to your Windows desktop wallpaper. PowerDVD 6.0 does not add anything new to this area. WinDVD has the additional ability to preview captures before saving, select between JPG/BMP and email integration.



NVDVD has introduced audio capturing, and so both WinDVD and PowerDVD will have to catch up in this area.

Rating : A





User Interface

The interface of PowerDVD 6.0 remains largely unchanged from that of PowerDVD 3.0/4.0/5.0. There is a new skin and some options have been moved to the main console in a left sided sub-panel, as I wished for in my PowerDVD 5.0 review. It's similar to WinDVD's sub-panel idea, but only the essential settings are present. This new sub-panel also works with the previous skins that are included.





The only thing I don't like about the new skin is that it moves the eject button to the navigational sub-panel.

Below is the User Interface Review for PowerDVD 3.0/4.0 :

The interface is very flexible, allowing you to change the "skin" whenever one become available (currently there are 5 skins included in the retail package). Menus are easy to access, all the options are available with a right-click as well as on the main console. PowerDVD 3.0 also now a toolbar option, which overlays a toolbar at the side of your desktop screen that contains the most used controls (see this page and this page for more information and screen shots) - although the implementation of this toolbar could have been done better (eg. the inclusion of a "auto hide" feature).

There is also a wide range of shortcut keys, which is also nice to have for those with good memories and/or a dislike of multiple mouse movements/clicks.

As noted earlier, the interface does not feel laggy and the program loads quite quickly, so it's slightly ahead of WinDVD in this area.

Rating : A
Update 28th June 2005: The release of WinDVD 7.0 has decreased the Interface rating for PowerDVD because of improvements made by WinDVD.





OS Support

PowerDVD is supported under a wide range of Windows version, including 98, Me, 2000, XP, as well as NT 4.0. Because of the limitations of driver/multimedia support under NT/2000, not all of the enhanced features (like acceleration support) will be available.

For mobile computing, power saving and other features are usually built into the OS. WinDVD 5.0 adds a Mobility Technology Pack which bundles mobile computing features (such as power saving profiles) into the DVD player itself, which is a good way of extending playback time, even if your OS does not have proper mobile technology support. PowerDVD now has mobile power setting options as well, surprisingly something that Cyberlink hasn't made a big fuss over, although mobile multimedia computing is very important these days.



Rating : A+





Zooming

This section describes zooming and aspect ratio issues, and mostly remain unchanged from PowerDVD 5.0

CLPV (Cyberlink Pano Vision) is Cyberlink's new zooming algorithm (for widescreen to fullscreen and more importantly, fullscreen to widescreen conversion/zooming). With CLPV, the center of the picture is zoomed less than the outer edges of the picture - assuming most of the action is near the center of the screen, this presents less distortions to the viewer. It sort of has a telescopic/panoramic look to it. This is actually quite a neat feature, and I was pleased to say that it works quite well, especially for fullscreen to widescreen conversion.



Unfortunately, none of the zooming options are available when playing back non DVD content, which is a shame.

Previously, neither PowerDVD nor WinDVD supports custom zoom (ie. allows you to set, on a scale, how much to zoom in the X/Y directions) - this feature could prove very useful for those that permanently connects their computer to their 16:9 home theater device (eg. projector or television). PowerDVD tries to solve this problem by allowing you to set a custom aspect ratio (eg. 16:9, 16:10) for the secondary graphic device. While this helps, it would be better if the primary device's aspect ratio could also be changed, or more precisely, allow completely custom aspect ratios (eg. 17:8, or any other random aspect ratio) for both the primary and secondary playback devices. But it's a move in the right direction.



PowerDVD now also has dual display settings for setting up cloning/mirroring of displays across two displays, although your graphics driver should already have these type of options available.



Rating : A





Value

As mentioned previously, there are two versions of PowerDVD, Standard and Deluxe. The standard versions retails for $49.95 (an increase of $10 over the previous version) and the deluxe version is $20 dearer, at $69.95. The only difference between these versions are noted in the review above, but to sum up, the Deluxe version has Dolby Pro-Logic IIx decoding, DTS decoding, DVD-Audio playback and DivX Pro support (Dolby Virtual Speaker has been added to PowerDVD 6.0 Standard). The Standard version stands for very good value, but the Deluxe version is only slighly more expensive, very well priced compared to the competition and now has quite a few additional features over the Standard version.

Rating : A





New in 7.0

This page tries to list all the significant new features of PowerDVD 7.0 - if you want to see a complete review of the latest version of PowerDVD, please refer to this page.

Note that there are two versions of PowerDVD : Standard and Deluxe. All descriptions below are for the Standard version of PowerDVD, unless otherwise stated.

Index :

• New Product Versions
• New Video Features
• New Audio Features
• New Playback Modes
• New Usability Features
• Other Features





New Product Versions

As with the previous version of PowerDVD, there are two major versions of PowerDVD for sale - Standard and Deluxe. The Standard version does not include the Notebook Power Saver, UPnP Sharing, Dolby Pro Logic IIx decoding, CLVS, Dolby Digital EX decoding, MLP decoding, DTS decoding, AAC decoding, H.264 Playback, DivX Pro playback, DVD-Audio playback, and support for CPRM and VCPS.





New Video Features

CyberLink Eagle Vision (CLEV)-2 was introduced in the previous version of PowerDVD. CLEV adjusts a scene's chroma and luminance to enhance image detail in scenes that are normally too dark or too bright. CLEV-2 has been improved in this latest version of PowerDVD, now called Adaptive CLEV-2, which as the name suggests, dynamically adapts the adjustments.







New Audio Features

A wide range of DTS decoding options have been added to the Deluxe version of PowerDVD and also in a separate audio add-on pack. DTS 96/24 Decoding has now been added to the Deluxe version, while DTS-ES Matrix, Discrete and DTS Neo:6 are available in a separate add-on pack (for both the Deluxe and Standard versions).



AAC decoding has also been added (Deluxe version), which is very useful for MPEG-4 playback.







New Playback Modes

MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) playback has been added to PowerDVD Deluxe (previously available in a separate add-on pack). H.264 has been chosen to be part of both Blu-ray and HD DVD standards, and so the native support for this format is the next logical step to having full high definition DVD playback support within PowerDVD. MPEG-4 AVC (.mp4) files are also becoming much more common, as versions of it is used by portable devices such as the PSP and iPod, and playback on the PC has always been an issue (the need to install codecs, etc...).



A new form of copy protection are also supported - VCPS (Video Content Protection System).

New Usability Features

If the previous version of PowerDVD can be described as one that focused on audio enhancements, then this version of PowerDVD is one where the user interface has been the main focal point.

Emulating the interface features that were released in WinDVD a couple of major revisions ago, PowerDVD now adds Docking, Mini and Wheel Control modes.



One of Digital Digest's most requested features has been the ability to change the positioning of DVD subtitles, mainly to allow the subtitles to be displayed in the black bars of a widescreen movie, as opposed to being on top of the picture it-self. PowerDVD 7.0 adds a features called "Read-It-Clearly", which does exactly this.



Normal Subtitles

Read-It-Clearly Subtitles




The "Say-It-Again" function automatically replays back the last bit of dialogue with a click of a button - the algorithm will playback to the point where a noticeable break in the audio is heard.



There are also several notebook related power saving features, such as "See-It-All" which speeds up playback so that the movie finishes before the battery runs out, a built-in battery meter and built-in mobility features to save power for the Deluxe version.

Other Features

The other main feature of PowerDVD 7.0 Deluxe is the support for UPnP media servers, which WinDVD has supported as well since version 7.0. PowerDVD can now act as a client for these servers, which are increasingly becoming standard parts of home network and home theatre setups.





Information/Review

Below is a review for the latest version of PowerDVD.

Below is the specs for the test system used :

AMD Athlon XP 2500+
1GB DDR400 RAM
NVIDIA FX 5700
On-Board 5.1 Audio
Liteon 16x DVD-ROM
Windows XP Pro SP2
PowerDVD 7.0 Deluxe

Index :

• Video Quality
• Decoding Efficiency
• Video Support
• Audio Quality/Support
• Captions/Subtitles
• Capture
• User Interface
• OS Support
• Zooming
• Value





Video Quality

Doing a side by side comparison between WinDVD 7.0 and PowerDVD 7.0, there is for all practically purposes no difference between the video quality of both players. In previous versions of PowerDVD, it's picture tend to produce a softer picture, but with less artifacts, but the difference is small enough not to be noticed unless one is specifically looking for differences. With both players configured without video acceleration and with brightness/contrast at the original/default settings, PowerDVD looks a little sharper than WinDVD, although again, the differences are very subtle. I think both players have reached a stage where it is almost impossible to improve upon picture quality.

Rating : A+





Decoding Efficiency

Decoder efficiency was tested with 2 channel decoding turned on, video acceleration turned off and all other filters/effects turned off. The result was a bit of a surprise the last time round for PowerDVD 6.0, as the CPU usage averaged a very high 70% (although it could have been due to my system, rather than PowerDVD). In comparison, WinDVD averaged only around 20% CPU usage, which should have been the normal result. It's good to see that CPU usage is much more normal now for PowerDVD, with an average of 20 to 25% (tested on the same system that was giving out how results the last time round).

PowerDVD's does feels more efficient due to its faster loading speed and a less laggy interface, although the difference to WinDVD is less noticeable now since PowerDVD has many of the same interface features as WinDVD and the result is a slightly more sluggish interface.

Rating : A+





Video Support

CLEV has been updated again in PowerDVD 7.0, and with CLEV turned on, the picture looked brighter with more vibrant colors. But as with any picture enhancement (mostly just adjustments of specific contrast settings), details is lost and color bleeding and loss of color accuracy can occur. A slider is available to adjust the amount of CLEV enhancement (see the What's New page for a Flash demonstration of CLEV). New in PowerDVD 7.0 is the "Automatic" option, which automatically adjusts CLEV for you.



An example of CLEV enhancement is shown below (actual screenshot of CLEV in action - click to enlarge):



WinDVD's "Video Effects" (and in particular, the "Movie Effector" filter) and PowerDVD's CLEV both do similar things and both have similar effects. WinDVD does have a few extra "Video Effects" presets (such as "Negative"), but as I mentioned in the WinDVD review, I personally do not find much use for this feature.

Smart De-Interlacing was the major new video feature in the last version of PowerDVD. This is one of those set and forget settings, and whether this will improve your picture of not depends on the kind of content (ie. interlaced content) being viewed. Most DVDs now carry progressive content, and have interlaced content for extras and made for TV material. The "bitstream analysis" option is particularly welcomed, since many DVDs do not properly set the correct bitstream flag for interlaced content.



High definition playback, including WMV-HD playback, has been available for a few versions. Playback was very good within PowerDVD. When high definition content was detected, PowerDVD gave an option to temporarily turn off CLEV-2 and smart deinterlace, and I thought that was a nice feature. The aspect ratio problems with the T2 HD sample trailer (available from Microsoft's WMV-HD website) found in the previous version is now gone as well.



DivX support is included (DivX Pro features in the Deluxe version only). There is also the new built in H.264 playback in the Deluxe version, previously available as an add-on pack.



Overall, WinDVD just shades PowerDVD in this area because it has more video filters, but this in itself is not really enough to put one player above another.

Rating : A+






Audio Quality/Support

Audio quality was top notch in the previous version of PowerDVD, and it remains so here. There are many settings here to improve audio volume due to DVD's dynamic range, but with everything turned on to improve volume, it's still a little bit softer than WinDVD with the same enhancements. Excessive volume amplification can cause loss of audio quality, so it's a fine balance.

In terms of audio features, most of the improvements were made in the previous version, and this version complete the range of supported DTS formats. DTS 96/24 Decoding has now been added to the Deluxe version, while DTS-ES Matrix/Discrete (7.1 audio) and DTS Neo:6 (2 channel to multi-channel expander) are available in a separate add-on pack (for both the Deluxe and Standard versions).



CLMEI (Cyberlink Multi-Channel Environment Impression - Cyberlink's own "simulated surround" engine) has been upgraded to CLMEI-2. It converts stereo sources for multi-channel (eg. 4, 6 or 8 channels) use.



This functionality also exists in the form of DTS Neo:6 and Dolby Pro-Logic II - but CLMEI offers more configuration options in that it allows you to adjust each speaker's output level. Dolby Pro-Logic IIx is available in the Deluxe version of PowerDVD while Neo:6 is part of an extra add-on pack.



PowerDVD 5.0 added Dolby Virtual Speakers, which does the opposite of CLMEI and plays back multi-channel audio using only 2 speakers (with audio tricks to trick your ears into thinking there are more than just two speakers - not a substitute for multi-channel audio, but works quite well). Cyberlink's version of the same thing is CLVS (Cyberlink Virtual Speaker). The available settings determine how big you want your listening environment to sound, just like Dolby Virtual Speaker, but here you get more meaningful option names like "Theatre" or "Stadium", rather than just "Wide 1" and "Wide 2".



CLHP (Cyberlink Headphone), again Cyberlink's version of a licensed Dolby technology. The same options ("Living Room", "Theatre", "Stadium") for CLVS are available here. (For some reason, I could not find this option in PowerDVD 7.0 - the Dolby and TruSurroundXT options are still there - this options is listed in the help file as well as on the website).



DVD-Audio (with video content) playback is available in the Deluxe version. CPRM protected content is supported, and the problem I had with the activation check failing in the previous version was not evident anymore. DVD-Audio playback was flawless and all the normal DVD audio features (like CLHP) are available as well.

PowerDVD 7.0 contains 14 DSP presets like "Classical", "Techno", "Country" are included. WinDVD includes 17 presets and a custom equalizer mode.



Once again, PowerDVD earns full marks in the area of audio quality and support.

Audio Quality Rating : A+
Audio Support Rating : A+





Captions/Subtitles

After being somewhat neglected in previous updates to PowerDVD, subtitles support has finally been updated, and it's an update that is quite interesting. PowerDVD 7.0 now adds a subtitle mode called "Read-It-Clearly", which basically re-positions the subtitles within the black bars of a widescreen movie, to make it clearer to read. To enable this function, a configuration option must be turned on first, and a warning about possible video corruption is given (more on that later).



Once enabled, I noticed video corruption in windowed mode on this test system (although on another test system with a GeForce 6600, there was no such corruption). Full-screen playback was fine, although the playback quality suffered a bit. Read-It-Clearly does work as described, with the option to select which type of widescreen movie you are watching so that the subtitles can be placed correctly. It will also allow two sets of subtitles to be displayed at the same time, both with Read-It-Clearly turned on (one set to "Top", the other set to "Bottom"), meaning that you can have two sets of subtitles and neither is overlayed on top of the actual video - nice.



Normal Subtitles

Read-It-Clearly Subtitles






Dual subtitles can also be displayed at the same time as closed captions, which means 3 subtitles/captions can be simultaneously displayed at the same time. Closed captions are displayed as white text on a transparent background, which isn't as clear as WinDVD's white text on a black background setup - WinDVD no longer supports multiple subtitles.

While not mentioned in anywhere in particular, DivX subtitle is supported by PowerDVD 7.0. The subtitle file I used was placed in the same folder as the AVI/DivX file (same filename), and it was automatically loaded. I could not see how to load subtitle files manually like in WinDVD. Nevertheless, it's a welcomed addition, and along with Read-It-Clearly support, makes PowerDVD's subtitle support slightly ahead of that of WinDVD.

Rating : A





Capture

With PowerDVD's implementation, you have the ability to capture to clipboard, instead of a file, and you have the ability to specify a location to store the captured file. PowerDVD even includes a option to capture to your Windows desktop wallpaper. PowerDVD 7.0 does not add anything new to this area. WinDVD has the additional ability to preview captures before saving, select between JPG/BMP and email integration.



Still no audio or video capturing, which is a shame (although copyright concerns may be partly to blame).

Rating : A





User Interface

Most of PowerDVD 7.0's changes are in the user interface. First off, you'll notice a brand new OSD (on screen display) system, which now features some nice graphics.



The new skin looks very good and can be expanded (with a nice 3D flipping effect) to the left and right with additional options for audio/video filters, a numpad and some navigation functions. All the most frequently used functions are found on this main console. Clicking on the display area of the main console will also change the "backlight" color of the console, the options black, green, orange, red and blue are available.





Probably as part of the move towards Windows Vista style user interfaces, the main console is also transparency when it is in stopped mode.



Taking a leaf out of WinDVD's book, PowerDVD 7.0 now also features a docked UI mode.



There is also a Control Wheel mode.



Last of all, there is a Mini mode, which is actually a taskbar toolbar which can be enabled (To enable the mini player mode, right click an open area of the Windows taskbar, select Toolbars, and then click PowerDVD 7), and when it is, minimizing PowerDVD will display the mini player controls.



The whole interface feels a little bit more "heavy" (sluggish) than previous version, no doubt due to the new interface features, but it is still a very clean and fast interface to use. The interface improvements are welcomed and does improve the usability.