(Approx. 1,029 words)
Review of CyberLink DVD
Suite 5.0 Standard
By Terry Currier, President,
WINNERS - WINdows usERS, CA
http://www.windowsusers.org
Winnersug(at)aol.com
Obtained from APCUG with the
author's permission for publication by APCUG member groups.
A do-all suite of products.
It has 11 CyberLink programs put together into one suite so you can backup,
burn, play movies, and music.
PowerDVD 7 (Express) is really the best way to watch a movie on
your PC. I have been using it since version 4. Watching it on a PC gives the
viewer greater control than just watching it play on a DVD player connected to
a TV. The viewer has more speed options: Forward and reverse speeds are 1/2X,
1X, 2X, 3X, 4X, 8X, 16X, 32X. You can bookmark a scene to jump to it quickly.
If you have several bookmarks, pressing the F2 key takes you to the next
bookmark, or use the right-click popup menu. With PowerDVD you can also capture
(snapshot) what is showing on the screen. I use that feature to capture images
of home movies and print them onto printable DVDs. Note: my version came
with PowerDVD 6, the latest version now includes PowerDVD 7.
PowerBackup 2.5 lets you backup you data easily. I backed up 7.1GB to an external USB hard drive in 26 minutes, including
verifying. You can also backup to a Blu-ray Disc, or any type DVD. It lets you
schedule automatic backups and you can do full, incremental, or differential
backups. Filtering is available to include or exclude files (such as .doc
files.) You can also password protect archives. When you do a backup it offers a Restore Tool that integrates the
restoration application and your data, and saves the resulting file as an
executable (.exe) file. So if the computer crashes you can restore your data on
a computer that does not have the PowerBackup program installed.
PhotoNow!
is a photo correction program which allows the user to resize, crop, remove red
eye, and do some special effects on photos. It can also touch up color hue,
brightness, and make a color picture monochrome.
MediaShow 3 helps you create photo slideshows and is fairly easy
to do, with manual or auto playback of the show. Within MediaShow you can fix
photos and apply image effects with PhotoNow!. You can add background music or
record audio directly to narrate the slides. One nice feature is that you can
have it saved as a Screen Saver (.SCR), allowing you to save the file as a
desktop screen saver. You can also save a slideshow as an EXE file, allowing
playback on any computer.
PowerDVD Copy lets you duplicate non-CSS encrypted
DVDs. It will auto-shrink 8.5 GB of video to fit onto a standard 4.7 GB DVD.
There is a preview window to view your chapters and select to copy all, or
some.
Power2Go 5.5
is the disc burning module, whether it be data or music. Burn data onto Blu-ray
Discs, HD DVDs, DVDs and CDs and you can rip CDs to create MP3, or WMA files as
well as convert between file formats. I had a problem with this at first,
shutting down when I tried to get information about the album, but CyberLink
had a patch for it and I had no troubles after that. Which leads us into -
LabelPrint 2 helps you create labels, covers and jewel-case inlays. It can import
photo files for the labels, or even etch images directly onto LightScribe
discs. Two things I really liked was the ability to import MP3 song titles and
playlist information to put on the label. The second thing which was great for
me was it worked with my Epson printer to print the label directly onto the CD.
InstantBurn 5 gives the user the ability to use a CD, Blu-ray
Disc, HD DVD or DVD like a super large floppy disc. Using drag and drop you can
easily create an audio CD, Video DVD, or data disc. You can also copy files
from one disc to another.
PowerProducer 4 allows you to record high-definition video content
directly from a camcorder to disc. Bringing video into the program you can edit
by cutting it to a desired length or splitting it into chapters. Working with a
video you can edit, cut, rearrange and merge to get exactly want you want. You
can add photos to create a slideshow within the video, and add background music
to a video clip. PowerProducer will do just about everything you need, but if
you want to do more, click on the Advanced Editing button and it takes you to -
PowerDirector 5 (SEP version) is the big brother of PowerProducer.
It can do everything PowerProducer does, but the editing is easier. It also has
what they call Magic Fix to stabilize shaky videos and sharpen picture focus.
Magic Style helps create movies with pre-designed templates automatically. It
will put in effects, transitions, and create the movie using your timeline.
Just pick a template, preview it, and apply the one you want. Note: the Standard version of CyberLink DVD Suite does not come with a
full working version of PowerDirector. You have to purchase the Pro version to
get it. I have the full version of PowerDirector 5 which also has more features
such as the ability to put in Picture-in-Picture.
CyberLink Utilities lets you create a image of a disc onto your hard
drive and then burn it onto another disc.
Conclusion
This is a great selection of
programs for a good price $49.95 for the Standard, but I highly recommend you
opt for the Pro version for $89.95 which includes PowerDirector. The only
downside is on the PowerDVD and PowerDirector they include lite versions (SEP),
but these will do just about everything you could want to do.
This
article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by
APCUG member groups. All other uses require the permission of the author (see
e-mail address above).