Hey folks, Valkor here. Back when TOV first began, one of my many
top 5, 10, 20 list was a top 10 list of my most favorite software
residing in he Val-cave’s computer. Software that I loyally
use and never having second thoughts on using a competing product.
Right up there was Cyberlink’s Power DVD. (number 5 if I
am not mistaken). To this day it’s the only DVD software
that I use. Cyberlink reps were on hand at Pre-CES and the Val-man
walked away with a tasty treat in the form of Power DVD 7.
Basically what Power DVD is, to those who don’t know, is a software DVD player companion that you use with your DVD drive. Everything is controlled onscreen. While it looks pretty simple, it actually has tons of features that make watching DVDs on your computer a better experience than watching on your television. And if you’re like me and you purchased an HD flat screen monitor, hey even better. You can chuck that DVD player good bye and let your PC handle all the functions.
Installation of the software is quite simple and once it’s done you just pop in your DVD and go, go, go. DVD playback is smooth and dependent on your system you may or may not see some jerkyness not normally associated with stand alone DVD players, but infact are based on slower system resources. If you have one of those dual core babies your fine, but if you have a Pentium 2, eh good luck. The first thing I noticed once the software started up was the look of the task bar which now stretches across the bottom of the screen, rather than squeezed into this one control panel. It makes for easier navigation as everything isn’t compressed in one tiny box. With a right click you then access all the features Power DVD 7 has to offer. A few features worth pointing out: First is the “Say it Again” feature. You ever have one of those moments where you’re watching a movie and all of a sudden you either nod off, get distracted by a shiny object, or some strange noise pulls you out of your movie watching experience and you just missed a key line or explosion? Then click on “Say it again” and it will repeat the last scene so you won’t miss a beat. Another nifty feature is the “Read it Clearly”. This is a function I desperately need as I watch a lot of anime and it turns out that whomever does the subtitling, sometimes use a whiter then white font that melds into the background of the film and I’m totally lost because I can’t read what it says. Now with “Read it Clearly”, Power DVD will position the subtitles towards the bottom in the black area (if it’s there) so that I can read the text more easily.
Oh and we’re not done. Power DVD 7 comes with a notebook maximizer so you can watch more of your movie on your laptop, even if you have a short battery life. Sorry to say I did not try out this function because I rarely ever have my laptop unplugged. My Vaio is an older model and thus has an extremely short battery life. But with new model laptops this feature will definitely come in handy. Another Huge feature that Power DVD 7 offers, is HD playback of HD-DVD and Bluray. So if you own either of these drives (Sorry the Val-cave is not yet equipped) then Power DVD should be your player of choice.
And I haven’t even scratched the surface of what Power DVD 7 has to offer. We’re talking improved picture quality, 7.1 surround sound support, and a slew of other options that makes Power DVD 7 small yet very, very powerful amongst other software DVD players. I can’t stress enough just how perfect this software is and it is a must have for any enthusiast who enjoys watching movies on their PC. Own it today! It’s been Valkor tested, TOV Approved!