Play from any source (Cyberlink PowerDVD)

Member Name: Asylum

Product:	Cyberlink PowerDVD
Date:	06/05/02 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: well featured, plays from hard drive

Disadvantages: none

There are quite a few software DVD players available, but they are not all created equal. Power DVD from Cyberlink is by far the best piece of software on the market for playing this type of media.
Just about everything about the interface can be configured to your own personal choice. The control unit can be altered to any of several supplied skins, the play area can be set as full screen and right clicking on the screen will open the menu which offers configuration.
The configuration options are quite extensive, allowing you to set the brightness and colour ratios, the audio standard and even has parental controls if required.
The overall playback quality is excellent and as with most software players there are options which do not exist on your DVD player in the living room. For example, if there are 12 tracks on a DVD then you can select which track to start from on your home system but you cannot play from midway in a track, whereas Power DVD will allow you to select any starting point that you wish by simply moving a slider to the position required.
Power DVD will also play DVD or Video CD files stored on the hard drive. With large hard drives rapidly becoming the normal standard this can be a useful feature. You can store selected DVDs or portions of them on your computer and play them by simply starting Power DVD and navigating to the saved files.

Summary: