CyberLink PowerDVD 20 Essential

Overview

What’s your preferred player movie playback? I’m sure that if it’s not CyberLink PowerDVD currently, then it certainly was at some point in the past. It’s one of the biggest and most fully-featured media players available, with many functionalities that rely on advanced technology. In this new release, CyberLink PowerDVD has many new additions that will make your home theater experience even more enjoyable. New features include enhanced 4K playback, Blu-ray/DVD ISO playback support , TrueColor technology and others.

Installation

The downloadable setup package is only 1MB in size; that’s because it is CyberLink Downloader, which will install the setup package to your computer first, and then proceed with the installation. So, run the downloader, and pick a download folder (not an installation directory) when you’re prompted. The download process will begin immediately; the downloaded content is about 150MB big, so it’s reasonable that you wait a few minutes before it’s done.

When the download is over, the installation will begin (press “Yes” in the popup message that appears after the download is over to initiate it). Follow the steps in the installation wizard to install the application. There are no difficult settings throughout the installation procedure at all.

No malicious software is included in the program, and no 3^rd-party applications are installed with it either.

CyberLink PowerDVD 15 is compatible with Windows Vista, Vista WMC, 7, 7 WMC, 8 and 8.1 (32/64-bit).

Interface

CyberLink PowerDVD 15 has a very intuitive, modern and rich interface that perhaps inexperienced users will find it difficult to get used with it at first. It’s not very complicated though, so everyone can learn how to use it after spending some time with it.

The main window is divided into the main area, which is where the contents of every selection are displayed, and a pane on the left, in which there are several different categories: Media Library, CyberLink Cloud, My Playlists, Online Video and Devices & Home Media (DLNA). At the bottom of the window there are some controls, tools and options that you can change/activate.

Pros

CyberLink PowerDVD 15 offers the following new key features:

• Smoother 4K movie playback
• New TrueTheater Color (makes the colors more vivid)
• Supports playback of ISO copies from Blu-ray discs and DVDs
• Hardware acceleration support for HEVC/H.265 video
• Edit tags in in audio files
• Rip audio from audio CDs
• Support for streaming playback from CyberLink Cloud
• support for WASAPI (Windows Audio Session Application Program Interface)
• And more…

PowerDVD has the “Cinema mode” which gives users the ability to control remotely the program by using iOS/Android apps that CyberLink provides.

In addition, you can now use Dolby Virtual Speaker and TrueTheater surround- unfortunately though those features work only with limited types of audio files.

In PowerDVD 15, processing power and memory are still being consumed like crazy, but to a lesser extent since it makes use of processing power provided by hardware whenever possible. Consumption of system resources has always been an issue with PowerDVD.

Cons

Still doesn't support DirectShow filters and legacy codecs.

Still uses a lot of system resources.

Alternatives

Even though no media player exists with all these features included, some of the best and most known software for audio and video playback are: Media Player Classic Home Cinema (free), KMPlayer (free), GOM Media Player (free) and VLC Player (free).

Conclusion

CyberLink PowerDVD 15 has many new features that make it undoubtedly the best media player when it comes to image output and performance. It’s not the media player that most users need, but the media player the most users want.