Cyberlink DVD Suite 7.0 Ultra
- Price: DVD Suite 7 Ultra £88 ($129.95
(Online)); DVD Suite 7 Pro: £68 ($99.95
(Retail)); DVD Suite 7 Centra: £54 ($79.95
(Online)).
- Supplier: Cyberlink
- Web:
www.cyberlink.com
System Requirements:
Pentium 4 2.4Ghz or AMD Athlon processor (Pentium
Core 2 Duo E6400 for AVCHD & MPEG-2 HD (BD
Burning)); Windows XP/Vista; IGB RAM; Minimum 10GB
free Hard Disk space (60GB for Blu-Ray)
Currently the only suite in its class to include
playback for Blu-Ray disc movies on the PC, DVD
Suite 7.0 comes in three versions: Ultra; Pro and
Centra. For this review we chose the Ultra version,
which is the high end version of Cyberlink’s
innovative multimedia software.
Fig 1: DVD Suite Installation menu
Offering easy to use yet powerful features DVD
Suite 7.0 Ultra comprises the following nine
applications:
- PowerDVD 8.0 (BD).
- PowerDirector 7.0 HE.
- PowerProducer 5.0 Ultra.
- MediaShow 4.0 DE.
- Power2Go 6.0 Deluxe.
- PowerBackup 2.5.
- InstantBurn 5.0.
- LabelPrint 2.5.
- PhotoNow.
Task Integrator
On starting DVD Suite 7.0 you are presented with
the Power Starter task Integrator. This gives you
instant access to all of the suite’s many features.
Just click on an icon and a sub menu appears giving
access to the individual features of each
application.
Fig 2: DVD Suite's Task Integrator
And Action!
The centre piece of this multimedia package is
PowerDVD 8.0; this enables the user to view Blu-Ray
discs, High Definition videos as well as standard
format DVD movies; and all from the comfort of your
own PC.
Not only does PowerDVD 8.0 provide excellent High
Definition (HD) movie playback (on compatible Video
and Audio cards) but with Dolby Digital Plus and DTS
audio the sound is pretty special too.
That’s A Wrap
Of course viewing movies is not the only feature
of this well designed suite. DVD Suite 7 Ultra
certainly has plenty of options for the budding
movie mogul.
PowerDirector 7, for instance, gives you all the
tools needed to edit and trim your home movies, thus
leaving any of those embarrassing clips on the
cutting room floor.
Fig 3: Power Director Interface
While editing and trimming movies using
PowerDirector 7 is relatively straightforward, for
the purpose of this review we tested the product on
a recorded TV programme with commercial breaks. We
found the software, in this instance, had a tendency
to regularly freeze after a second or third attempt
at trimming the commercial breaks – something that
did no occur in recorded TV footage without
commercial intervals.
At first we thought that the laptop we were using
as our test machine may have been the problem, but
when we transferred DVD Suite 7 Ultra to a higher
spec desktop machine we, sadly, encountered the same
problem. Unfortunately a suitable solution to the
problem was not forthcoming from Cyberlink prior to
this review going to press.
Full Production Team
If editing and watching your movies isn’t enough,
DVD Suite 7 has plenty more up its sleeve to keep
you going.
Fig 4: Power2Go enables you to burn files to
disc
While PowerDirector 7 gives you the opportunity
to edit your movie creation, once this has been
achieved you are going to want to burn the whole
movies to a DVD – well what’s the point of creating
a movie if no-one but yourself is going to watch it?
This is where PowerProducer 5 Ultra comes into its
own. This application allows you to author High
definition movies onto both Blu-Ray and AUCHD DVDs.
Verdict
If you are into High Definition and Blu-Ray then
Cyberlink DVD Suite 7 Ultra has plenty to offer and
is probably the only multimedia suite you are likely
to need.
With the exception of PowerDirector’s
intermittent freezing problem we were quite pleased
with the suite’s overall performance. Our only other
beef with DVD Suite 7 Ultra was the build 2217.50
update for PowerDVD 8.0, downloaded after the
initial install of DVD Suite 7, which immediately
disabled the Blu-Ray disc function on the Power
Starter Task Integrater on our Windows Vista
machine; something that did not occur on our XP Pro
machine. Considering this suite is all about HD and
Blu-Ray this apparently necessary update was
certainly, for us, a step in the wrong direction.
Rating:
- Ease of Use: 8.0
- Features: 10.0
- Value for Money: 8.0
- Overall: 9.0