Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 Ultra review

Microsoft finally got around to including DVD playback in Windows with Vista, but if you want to play back Blu-ray discs you still need some third-party software, which is where PowerDVD 11 Ultra comes in.

The last version, PowerDVD 10, added Blu-ray 3D support. Version 11 can still play any disc you throw at it, but can now link into online media repositories such as Flickr and YouTube, as well as Facebook. There are also apps available for iPhone and Android, which are free with the Ultra version of the software.

The main Movie tab controls Blu-ray disc playback, and the main window is filled with information about the latest film releases, along with ratings and summaries. The software works as expected when playing back Blu-ray discs, and it also integrates with Windows Media Center for Blu-ray playback. PowerDVD has a couple of features to enhance playback of standard DVDs. The TruTheater HD function sharpens up footage, while TruTheater Lighting increases contrast. There’s also a TruTheater Motion function, which interpolates frames to make footage smoother.

DVD video’s relatively low resolution can make it seem indistinct on a high-resolution PC display, and TruTheater HD worked well making standard-resolution footage look more detailed. Whether you like the Lighting and Motion features is really a matter of taste – those used to 24 frames-per-second cinema may find the smoother video provided by TrueTheater Motion just looks wrong.

The Video, Photo and Music tabs mean you can access all your PC’s media from one location, although it’s no substitute for a dedicated photo viewer or music player – you have to browse through your photo or music collection by folder, and you can’t sort your entire photo collection by date or all your music by artist or album at once. There are some neat extras, though – you can sign in to Facebook or Flickr to view your online photos, which is much easier than looking through them in the web interface, and there’s a well-designed YouTube video viewer.

The smartphone apps are a mixed bag. If the phone is connected to the same network as the PC running PowerDVD, it will list the PC as a server. Once you’ve connected you can use the phone’s touchscreen to control Blu-ray or DVD playback with onscreen controls, or use the screen like a laptop touchpad to control your mouse pointer. It all works well enough, but if a phone call comes in on the iPhone you’ll have to reconnect to the server, and the app’s Video, Photo and Music functions seem superfluous – all they do is bring up the pointer control feature so you can navigate to the appropriate tabs in PowerDVD’s interface on your PC.

We did find one feature particularly useful, though – connecting your smartphone to PowerDVD over the network means you can view any photos or videos on your handset from within the software on your PC, without having to plug your phone in first. You can’t use this interface to copy files across, unfortunately.

If you want to play Blu-ray discs on your PC, you’ll need to buy some kind of playback software. The main competition is Corel’s WinDVD Pro 2010, which also supports 3D Blu-ray playback. This is around £13 cheaper than PowerDVD, but has a clunky interface and none of the extra features of CyberLink’s software. Considering you can buy a standalone Blu-ray player from a major manufacturer for £70, you’d have to really want to play Blu-ray discs on your PC to spend this much on software, but if you do PowerDVD 11 works well and has some interesting extra features.