CyberLink|PowerDVD13 Media Player

CyberLink introduced its top-of-the-line Media Player, PowerDVD 13 about a year ago. When it was introduced, it was touted by CyberLink as “The ultimate Media Player for Blu-ray, 3D Video and HD movie Playback across PC, Tablet, Smartphone and TV.”

Having used the program for almost a year now on my personal and laptop computers, I can vouch for CyberLink’s claim as far as PC playback goes. Before going any further with a review of the media player, let’s introduce, or since we are rebuilding this site from scratch, reintroduce PowerDVD 13 to our visitors.
CyberLink has been manufacturing (publishing would be a more accurate term) media player software since 1996. Blu-ray playback was available with the release of version 7, and the media player has been updated with new versions every year or so. The current version is PowerDVD 13. It comes in several flavors: Live (which is new); Ultra; Pro; Deluxe; and Mobile App. The “flavor” that I am presenting here in this post is PowerDVD 13 Ultra. Live is actually a subscription-based media player which one subscribes to for an annual fee. This includes the ability to upload and store one’s projects on CyberLink’s own Cloud Storage. We’ll report on this later, as the focus of the post will be on the Ultra version.

What’s in the Box?

What is it that makes PowerDVD 13 Ultra so good a program? In the previous incarnation of the web site, we used to call this section “A Look Under The Hood”. It accomplishes the same purpose – what are the features of the program, and the requirements that will make the software work? Basically, CyberLink touts PowerDVD as a universal media player. To me, the term “universal” covers a lot of territory. What this means is that the software will play almost any media format, from Blu-ray and DVD, to HD movies and 3D video. In addition, it functions well as an audio player – playing audio CDs or music tracks of almost any format. It even will accommodate your photo slide-show. Pretty impressive, wouldn’t you say? Having said that, for as well as it plays audio and phot slide shows, movie playback is what it does best, be it Blu-ray, DVD, HD and 3D. And it does so across so many devices – PC, Tablet, Smartphone and TV.
True Theater
One of the outstanding features of PowerDVD Ultra is True Theater. This is a feature that enhances the view experience with such effects as sharper detail, enhanced lighting, a much smoother motion, and excellent surround sound, just to name a few.
Here are some of the enhancements in more detail:

TrueTheater HD – Upscale video to HD quality and beyond
TrueTheater Motion – Up-convert frame-rate for smoother video playback
TrueTheater 3D – Turn 2D movies, photos and videos into 3D
TrueTheater Lighting – Experience superb colors and enhanced image detail
TrueTheater Stretch – Intelligently expand 4:3 video to 16:9 widescreen
TrueTheater Stabilizer – Minimize the shakiness of your videos
TrueTheater Denoise – Reduce artifacts from shooting in low light
TrueTheater Surround – Expand stereo output for home theater-style surround sound

Requirements
As with all software publishers, they release a list of minimum requirements needed to run the program in a reasonably optimal manner. CyberLink follows suit with its own list of minimal requirements. In order to make this program, or any good piece of video editing or playback software run at its best, the reverse of the maxim “less is more” is true. Our maxim should be, in this case – “More is better”. More memory – a more powerful graphics card and processor – these contribute to an optimal video playback experience. Having said that, here is a partial list of minimal requirements for PowerDVD Ultra:

Operating System
• Microsoft Windows 8/8.1, Windows 7, Vista and XP SP3* (Windows XP Service Pack 3 is required)

Processor (CPU)
Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and TrueTheater 3D Playback
•Blu-ray Disc playback: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (2.66GHz), AMD Phenom 9450 (2.10GHz) or above
•Blu-ray 3D playback: Intel Core i5, AMD Phenom II X4 or above
•TrueTheater HD and TrueTheater 3D for Blu-ray and HD video: Intel Core i5 (with 4 Cores), AMD Phenom II X6 or above
• DVD playback: Pentium 4 (2.4 GHz), Athlon 64 2800+ (1.8 GHz), AMD Fusion E-series & C-series or above
4K UltraHD with Hardware Acceleration
•Intel 3rd generation Core i5 or above ◦Note: PowerDVD supports 4K UltraHD video in H.264 / MP4 format at bitrates up to 60 Mbps

Graphics Processor (GPU)
Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and TrueTheater HD/3D Playback
•Intel HD Graphics, ATI Radeon HD 5000, NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT or above ◦Note: We strongly recommend that you update your graphics card driver to the latest version. 3D display devices are required for TrueTheater 3D playback.

Blu-ray 3D Playback
•Intel HD Graphic (Intel Core i5), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 400 series and GeForce GT 240/320/330/340, AMD Radeon HD 6000 and 6000M series with UVD 3 support
DVD Playback
•PCI Express graphic accelerator supporting DirectX 9.0 or above
•DisplayLink DL-3000 series USB Graphics Devices

Memory

Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and TrueTheater 3D Playback
•Blu-ray Disc playback: 2 GB required for Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8; 1 GB required for Windows XP
• DVD and TrueTheater 3D playback: 1 GB required for Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8; 512 MB required for Windows XP

Blu-ray 3D with or without Hardware Acceleration
•2GB

Hard Disk Space
• 400 MB for product installation

Display Device

Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and TrueTheater 3D Playback
•For Blu-ray titles with AACS and DVD titles with CPRM playback, PowerDVD 13 only allows output to display devices using DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort connector in order to be compliant with copy protection (HDCP).
•For other DVD and Blu-ray Disc playback: HDCP compliant display for digital output. TV or computer monitor for analog output
•TrueTheater 3D playback: 3D display and 3D glasses required.

Blu-ray 3D with or without Hardware Acceleration
•3D display and 3D glasses are required (NVIDIA 3D Vision, 3D Ready HDTV, HDMI 1.4-enabled TV, Micro-polarizer LCD or Anaglyph Red/Cyan Glasses). HDCP compliant display for digital output

*PowerDVD with NVIDIA 3D Vision is not supported under Windows XP

Disc Player
•Blu-ray Disc playback: BD-ROM/BD-RE or Super Multi Blu combo disc drive
• DVD and TrueTheater 3D playback: DVD-ROM, DVD+-R/RW, DVD-RAM or DVD Super Multi combo disc drive

Internet Connection
• Internet connection required for initial software activation, BD-Live, 7digital music store, UltraViolet and Social Media Services (MoovieLive, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube)

Kind of a long list, huh? For supported files and formats, check out the Power DVD 13 specs page for full details.

Summary

To summarize my first impressions (I had done this a while ago in the first version of this post, but I have since upgraded my PC significantly, so in a sense, this a “new” first impression), I give PowerDVD 13 Ultra four and a half stars. It is smooth. Video playback is very, very good and the Blu-ray and HD playback quality is super sharp. I have also tried the audio file playback, and found it to be more than adequate. I am certain that you will find this to be an easy-to-use and excellent media player.

Click on the image above or the link below to buy PowerDVD 13!