CyberLink PowerDVD 22 Ultra | Award-Winning Blu-ray, DVD, & Media Player Software | Play Virtually Any File Format [Retail Box with Download Card]

Great product in its 22nd iteration. PowerDVD has been on of the best movie players for the PC. This version is no slouch.

Reviewing: CyberLink PowerDVD 22 Ultra | Award-Winning Blu-ray, DVD, & Media Player Software | Play Virtually Any File Format [Retail Box] This software (one time purchase) allows you to play videos using a PC. I dont use a dedicated media server PC hooked up to a TV, but I do play DVDs and other video files using my desktop PC. My impression is that its very feature-rich, and I like it overall, but it has a very high learning curve, and I think the interface could benefit from some redesign to be more intuitive. It seems targeted to a very high-tech crowd, and not the every day user who just wants something simple for watching DVDs/Blu-Rays/Media Files. I find that the interface is *somewhat* similar to other players out there, such as VLAN or AnyDVD, both of which are freeware, but that this also has a host of advanced features not found with any other freeware Ive used. To get to those features, though, you really have to spend time learning it. That may not appeal to everyone. There are many different controls and menus for enhancing the video and audio quality. I happen to have a 1440p monitor for my PC, so I was really able to notice how much higher the resolution was using this player software. I played a DVD using VLAN and AnyDVD, then I played it with this software, and there is no question that the video enhancements in this software make a major difference in picture quality. Sound is also much better. I only have a 2-speaker system hooked up for audio, but even with that, the advanced sound controls really made for nice audio. One temporary issue I encountered was that when I switched on my wireless headphones, I was unable to hear the sound while playing a DVD. I had to really look through the settings for several minutes to troubleshoot why. It turns out theres a setting deep within the True Theater Audio Settings that needed to be unchecked (it was called Exclusive Output). Once I unchecked that, I was able to hear fine using my headphones. My biggest disappointment with this software is that there is no way to build a digitized library of your copy-protected DVDs. As far as I understand, you are allowed to make digital copies of your own purchased DVDs when they are strictly for your own use, so that you can watch the digitized file version and dont need to use the DVD player every time. This software unfortunately doesnt allow you to convert any protected DVDs to digital files, even when for your own use. I usually use Audacity, which is free, but it also takes a long time to convert DVDs to video files. I was hoping this would replace Audacity and convert my DVDs quickly and with enhancements built into the output files. Not so. However, you can convert DVDs you own the rights to, or that are not otherwise protected, but thats all. Im not opining whether that is good or bad, but you may want to keep this fact in mind if you are looking to convert your own purchased DVDs to digital files for viewing on multiple devices. When you launch the software, in addition to PC Mode, there is also a TV mode option. I have not played with that yet and have no idea exactly what all it does. But I can tell you that when watching DVDs on my PC, I will definitely be using this software from now on. The picture and sound quality are amazing. Even when playing mp4 files, you can make them look immensely better than with other players. Im rating it 4 stars but only because I thing the interface could be improved so that its a bit easier to use from the get go. If youre looking for something uber simple, yet reliable, then you might just want to stick with VLAN or AnyDVD, or the like. But if you have some tech savvy, and dont mind taking a chunk of time to experiment and figure out a new program, then this may be worth considering. Once you learn to use it, its great. Its just the learning part thats a bit of a shove uphill.

This is just the same old, same old PowerDVD in a nice shiny box that includes an installation disc and the license key on a slip of paper. You can also download the software directly and use the key. It doesnt seem to have the annoying bug where the ui refuses to hide like some of my previous versions did. Basically, it plays blurays and is one of very few software that does. If you want to play them, you probably need this. There are a whole bunch of extra features that are probably useless to the vast majority of people. The software worked fine with Windows 11 and my hardware.

I have mixed feelings about this product, has a lot of features and probably so many that you want to use all of them but in my experience the teachers do work very well for what they do. I do use this as my primary media player and it does seem like it has increased the quality and resolution that I see in my movies and pictures so I’m happy with that. I feel that it could be a little easier as far as understanding the functionality but there are a ton of training videos at your disposal. I am using this on a medium a gaming PC with a 3060 TI video card so I should mention that as well. I do like that it comes with cloud functionality included one year which is pretty nice. overall I feel like this is a great video software that can replace a lot of the features that windows offers if you’re comfortable with the price.

Excellent software for playback of DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, and pretty much any digital video file in up to 4K resolution. Actually, it says it supports 8K but I haven’t come across any 8K videos thus far. It has nice media organization software as well. A good alternative to built-in players and media software if you want more control and finer quality. Five stars.

I purchased Cyberlink Power DVD Ultra to replace Windows media player on my new Windows 11 computer. I does everything I needed it to do and I am very satisfied with my purchase.

This isn’t an easy review. The reality is that many won’t actually need what this program offers, but for those that do; it does what it does very well – depending. This will be dependent on how powerful your computer is. If your computer is reasonably powerful, this program should work just fine. As far as those who will actually benefit from this program: • This is one of the only available pieces of software for playing Blu-ray discs on PC. If you want this functionality, this program can provide it. • The ability to make personal video files look better. By personal, I mean videos that are located on your personal computer. For this, the program does work quite well. In many ways, it’s similar to the results of editing a picture. It can make the image have greater clarity and sharpness with the default settings, but you can also go in and make further adjustments or even turn on additional filters if you desire. To make sure that there is no confusion though, this isn’t AI upscaling. It’s simple filters that *can* enhance the look of certain video files. That said, there is no option to use this program to modify or “upconvert” your existing video files. This program also doesn’t convert Blu-rays or DVDs. It can play them, but it doesn’t allow you to save them into video files. • If you are familiar with Plex, this program has similar functionality for creating a visual media library – but it focuses on managing all of your local media files on your computer. It kind of works, but it doesn’t work as well as Plex does for creating a network-based media server. This doesn’t bother me really. I already use Plex for accessing all my movies and tv shows on my home network, and I really just use PowerDVD as my video player when I want to watch something on my laptop instead of the TV. It does make watching my videos more enjoyable. Overall, I personally wish this program could do more, especially for the price. In specific, I would like it to have the ability to save Blu-rays and DVDs to video files, and to have the option to apply the visual enhancements to the saved video files as well. To me, it seems like this program is unnecessarily handicapped, and this makes it overly expensive (in my personal opinion) for what it offers.

Ive been using PowerDVD, in various versions, since v3, waaay back in the 90s. Were now up to v22, and things have changed over the years. The early versions were just software to play DVD movies on your computer. Todays versions are full-featured media centers, with vast arrays of internet-based features, streaming support, links to reviewing sites where you can link, share, read and write your own reviews and articles. Its capable of playing ALMOST every form of media out there, these days. I was very disappointed to learn that they REMOVED the 3D Blu Ray support code from the package, however. I have a 3D capable monitor and a large collection of 3D movies, and have been able to watch them consistently on my main workstation for a long time now. They give some lame excuse for why they removed this ALREADY EXISTING CODE from their package, but it really doesnt hold water, as far as Im concerned. Suffice it to say, v19 is the final version supporting 3D video playback, with it discontinued with v20, absent in v21, and now also absent in the newly released v22. So, if you want to play back 3D video, youll need to ignore this and go find an old copy of v19 or earlier (which you cant get from Cyberlink anymore, as dumb of a move as that seems to be!) I could understand not selling physical packages of the older version, but removing the digital version from sale for those who might want that feature? Thats just... weird. Its not like theres any real overhead that goes into allowing it to still be purchased digitally, is there? Thats a big knock a star off point as far as Im concerned. Apart from that, though, this is a good, user-friendly package that does pretty much whatever youd want it to do, and is pretty intuitive to use. Audio playback and video quality are, of course, dependent as much on your playback hardware as anything else... if you have a home-theater-PC setup, outputting best-quality audio over HDMI or DisplayPort to a compatible amplifier, and outputting that to a surround-sound speaker system and high-end video monitor panel, youll see about the best you can get from this. If youre playing it on your laptop display, using the built-in laptop speakers, well... youll no doubt be wondering what all the fuss is about. I use this as my main watching movies on my computer package. I AM keeping my older v19 version installed as well, however, explicitly so I can still watch 3D movies. The added features this brings to the table are not enough of a benefit, as far as Im concerned, to justify the removal of a feature I use. In fact, had I known that theyd removed this, I would not have chose to pick this up in the first place, I suspect, just out of frustration. That said... my v19 will continue to live on my main workstation (with 5.1 surround sound) in my office, and this will go on alongside the v17 version I have on my home theater PC (which is not 3D-capable at present, as my 3D TV has gone kaput and needs power supply repair). The frills and extras they provide? Especially the built-in movie social networking stuff, or the ability to use it to handle my local or local-network media? Those, I personally dont need... I use Plex to do local-network playback, and other software to handle on-machine media playback. However, if you dont have other software which does these things... say, you have Win11 and want to use something besides the soon-to-be-permanently-retired Windows Media Player (Windows Media Center was removed long ago, but WMP remains, for now)... this is a really good option. Note, also, that Win11 does not have the correct drivers to allow movies to be played back from a Blu-ray disk, but if you install this player, it will provide all the drivers and other support infrastructure you need to watch those movies on that PC. So, for those who are starting from zero, this is an excellent all in one package. Cyberlinks player software is the market leader for a reason, outlasting most of its competitors, and with the imminent demise of WMP, I can strongly suggest picking this up as a replacement/alternative.

Sell on volume and make way more money. I would have a hard time spending 39.99. 59.99 or 69.99 no way. Most of us watch movies off of our television or home theater. We dont need your product. This isnt ripping on you its opening your eyes to reality. It would simply be nice to have the convience of having your program on a PC. In other words we can live without it. And Millions of people do. So wake up and make a bunch more money selling at a larger volume or continue to make a killing once in a while at a ridiculous price.

I think its too expensive, but it works quite well.