CyberLink Power2Go 9 DVD Burning Software

CyberLink has gone through several successful versions of what I call the best “quick and easy” video editing program on the market.

CyberLink Power2Go 9

What do I mean when I say “quick and easy’ windows video editor? Quite simply put, it is a windows video editor that requires very little learning curve – it is a program that one would use in doing a project that needed to be done fairly quickly- when time does not allow much time for detailed analysis of each step in creating a project. To be more concise – a good entry-level program for beginners, and those who need to create a good-looking project in a hurry. CyberLink categorizes this as a CD/DVD/Blu-ray burning program with some video editing capabilities. This is true, but I kind of like my description just as well.
I have been using Power2Go for the past two years now – starting with Version 8 and making the transition over to Version 9 late in 2013. I have been very satisfied with the program – both versions and highly recommend it, particularly for those who are just beginning to edit video or create and author video CDs or DVDS.

What’s in the Box?

What’s in the box? – or more accurately – what is included in Power2Go? Power2Go is a multifunctional video editing program that edits video, creates DVD and CD presentations, burns CDs and DVDs in audio, video and data formats, and creates photo slideshows, just to name some of the functions. Quite impressive for an entry-level program, and it is a highly rated program, and justly so as I’ll explain in summing up in my conclusion.

System Requirements

It is always a good thing to know just what system requirements are needed to run any sort of program, and video editing programs have their system requirements which need to be met for the program to work at all. There are two sets of requirements that one must keep in mind here: the minimum system requirements for the program to run on your computer; and the system requirements that enable the program to run at its optimum best. What this means is simple: instead of the “less is more” principle, the reverse is true. More memory, faster processor and graphics card make for better performance. What follows here is the basic system requirements that CyberLink recommends for running Power2Go 9 on your computer:

Operating System
Microsoft Windows® 8/8.1, 7, Vista and XP
Windows Media Player version 9 or above installed
Internet Explorer 8 or above

Screen Resolutionn : 1024 x 768 pixels

Memory: 128 MB SDRAM for data and music burning
256 MB DDR RAM for video burning (512 MB recommended)

CPU: CD/VCD (MPEG-1) production: Intel Pentium II 450
DVD (MPEG-2) production: Intel Pentium III 800 MHz, or AMD Athlon 700 MHz
(Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz, AMD Athlon 2100+ or above recommended)

Hard Disc Space: 1 GB for making VCDs
5-10 GB for making DVDs
25 GB for making Blu-ray Discs

CD or DVD burner: (CD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW or DVD-R/RW) is required to burn VCD or DVD titles
Supported Burning Speeds (CD): 1x, 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 12x, 16x, 20x, 32x, 48x
Supported Burning Speeds (DVD): 1x, 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 10x, 12x, 14x, 16x, 18x, 20x, 22x, 24x
A Blu-ray disc recordable drive is required to burn Blu-ray Discs
Supported Burning Speeds (BD): 1x, 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 10x, 12x

Note: Available disc burning speeds are dependent upon your burning hardware.
File Formats
Music: Audio CD, .APE, .FLAC, .M4A,.MP3, .WMA, .WAV
Power2Go 9 includes an audio converter that allows audio file conversion to selected formats
(MP3/WAV/WMA).

Video: .AVI, .DAT (MPEG-1), .FLV, .MKV, .MPE, .MPG, .MPEG, .ASF, .DVR-MS*, .M2T, .M2TS, .MOV, .MOD, .MP4,.MTS, .TS, .TOD, .VOB, .VRO, .WMV, .WTV*
* Windows 7 & 8 only

Image: .BMP, .JPE, .JPEG, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, .TIF, .TIFF

Disc Formats: CD CD-R/RW DVD DVD-R/RW, DVD-R DL, DVD+R/RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-RAM

As I mentioned earlier, these are just the minimal requirements. Power2Go 9 does well with the minimum requirements. I ran the program on a Pentium Celeron machine – 2.0 GHz processor with 2 GBs or RAM and a rather low powered video graphics chipset, and the program did everything it was supposed to do without a problem. A little slower than I would have liked, but I created a series of projects with that machine, and while the machine itself could not play it back adequately, when I took the discs to the DVD player attached to the TV set or a more powerful computer, it was spot on.
There is the rub. It performed adequately enough on a slow machine, but there were drawbacks. That same project on my more powerfully equipped PC took less time to create and playback was no problem. Thus, in order to get the best out of the program, more is better!

Summary

 


To sum it all up, I repeat what I said out the outset of the post. Power2Go 9 is the best of the “quick and easy” video editor programs on the market. I have done countless projects with it. The interface is easy, as is installation and operation. It is quite straightforward to use, and a quite good-looking video CD or DVD or Blu-ray can be authored/created without much of a hassle. Digital media such as audio CDs can be created as well as video. I give it four and a half stars. What keeps it from the top rank is the fact that it is less capable as a video editor than the heavy hitters such as Nero 2014 or Roxio Creator, or CyberLinks own Power Director 2012. Nonetheless, if you need a program to do what Power2Go 9 does well – quick and easy DVD video projects plus excellent burning capabilities, this is the program for you!
To purchase Power2Go 9, click on the image above or the link below!