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.

I purchased this Cyberlink PowerDVD 22 Ultra software to play 4K UHD Blu-ray discs on my MSI TITAN GT77 4K laptop computer with an 11th generation Intel CPU. The PowerDVD 22 software NO LONGER SUPPORTS either Blu-ray or 4K UHD Blu-ray disc playback. Unfortunately, I learned this AFTER buying a new laptop, 4K optical drive, Sony OLED A95K TV, and this useless Cyberlink PowerDVD 22 Ultra software.... Caveat Emptor. FYI - I also tried the VLC player and DIVX player software with no luck.

I have used Powerdvd for many years…recently purchased a new computer and had in to install. I even use this to stream movies from my computer to my TV through the HDMI connection on the computer and it is still a great quality. I have found very few formats that won’t play if you just add appropriate components. Highly recommend.

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.

I got this software for only one reason… after getting myself a Blu-ray disk drive, I still could not watch my movies because the format was no able to be read on the native media software. With this software, I was able to watch my movies plus it gave me access to some other file formats which I previously could not view. Did the job well, highly recommended.

I think Cyberlink should discount their products as being add supported. After all, you get adds in the program all the time trying to sell more software. Another annoyance is the need to create a Cyberlink account to download software updates - which you need to do right out of the box. And any time the product needs updating, you have to wade through tons of adds to find the right link for the download vs an upgrade. If you make it through all of the annoyances, this player does play a variety of video files with an interface that is well thought out and easy to use. And yes, it does play Blu-ray discs. But there are free open ware players out there that play most any file. While they are not as user friendly to use without digging into settings, they are free. There may be some specific uses for this player that, for some select few, justify the price. Or perhaps if you really enjoy watching physical disc movies on your PC, this might be what you want.

Theres a reason I bought a Blu Ray player for my home theater instead of using a PC for it. And Cyberlink reminded me why today. I got this software installed without an issue. Tried playing a movie. No luck. Saw that there was an update. Had to register and give them my name and email. Had to log in which required setting a password (so dont give them a bogus email or youre out of luck for software updates). Updated the software. Had to hard reset my PC since the update blacked out the screen and I couldnt get it back. Tried to download and run the update again because it can only download in their special tool instead of as an executable that anyone can run. Got an error saying the download wasnt currently available. Figured Id try to play my blu ray again for fun. Got the same error saying my computer couldnt playback HDCP content. NVidias control panel disagrees. So does Cyberlinks own advisor tool. Oh, but Cyberlink says on the download page for their advisor tool that its a best guess and they dont guarantee the results. Googled. Saw that it might be because I had two monitors. Switched my settings to only display on one monitor. Still wont work. Cyberlink PowerDVD 22 is awful. Forcing me to register after I enter a license key is stupid. Either I have the license key and a valid copy of the software or I dont. If you want me to download the software directly from you dont give me a disc and license key in the box (btw, I was pretty happy to see a disc and license key - I much prefer that method of install since it works offline which is a huge benefit since I normally stream unless the internet is out). Hiding updates behind a registration and account wall and then only allowing those updates to run through your special software is horrible. This software is a waste of time not only right now but in the future when i have to unsubscribe from whatever marketing emails cyberlink sends my way. Dont bother

If you are looking for a media player that will play music and videos, this one will certainly do it. It can play from a flash drive, local hard drive, or DVD/Blu-ray drive. File types include FLV, mp4, and others, as well as ISO files (with a free driver download). So yes, this is really an all-in-one media player. However, I could not download any of my purchased YouTube movies to watch offline -- despite the claim that you can do so. Also note that you have to (fully) link your YouTube and CyberLink accounts to get this non-working feature to attempt to work. Also note that the 100GB of cloud storage is for 1 year only, then you will have to pay to keep it up. If youre married to CyberLink and have some cash to plunk down on a media player, you could do worse. But if youre just looking for a media player, there are a LOT of other options out there, most of which are cheaper and some of which are free.

I was hoping this would replace my native Windows Media player, but it did not. The software becomes unresponsive on a light gaming PC (2022 standards - AMD Ryzen 3750, 8GB RAM, Windows 11.) I am very surprised at the lack of testing here. It has a barebones video trimmer as well. The one feature that turns into a salvageable product is the YouTube feature. You can watch YouTube videos without ads, thus making this a free YouTube Premium account somewhat. I am actually surprised that this is allowed, but since it will save me a few bucks a month, that will be the only useful feature for me in this bundle.

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.