













CyberLink PowerDVD 22 Ultra | Award-Winning Blu-ray, DVD, & Media Player Software | Play Virtually Any File Format [Retail Box with Download Card]
-
Cary L. Brown
> 3 dayIve 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.
-
BlinkingSun
> 3 dayI 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.
-
DSA66
> 3 dayOkay just want to mention that $65 is not that much to spend on a quality software utility like this. True you may only need it to decode DVDs and Blu-ray discs but the software seems to work and install very well. One thing that I think it handled for me was some people reported region incompatibility issues with the particular player I purchased and perhaps this software solved that issue for me automaticlaly not sure but with this software my budget DVD Bluray played perfectly out of the box. There are other benefits as well though I mainly got it to play content on my Windows 10 laptop. There are educational discounts available if you are a student, teacher, or staff member of a school or university so you may want to consider that for additional savings. The interface is high quality and nothing cheesy about this software. My only gripe is that it would have been nice to also install this on my Desktop so that I could use it in my office when I am not using it on my laptop. As far as I know, the software only works on one computer. Please correct me if Im wrong. The installation process was a breeze. I was able to install it then I registered it and ran an update online from the website. FYI another good reason to get this brand is they will be around in the future. They also offer other software and are starting to get into the video recognition software market as well.
-
Perfect Moment
> 3 dayIve used Cyberlink Power DVD Blu-ray & DVD software for years. Each update gives you more quality uses, updated and ready to go. The pricing is always competitive, and the quality of the software is great!
-
Wilder K. Raven
Greater than one weekExcellent 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.
-
Eastongirl45
> 3 dayI just received this so far it’s great I’m new at this so it will take me awhile to forgive it all out
-
Jerry Campbell
Greater than one weekWorks great on my laptop.
-
TQ
01-04-2025I 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.
-
Griffin
Greater than one weekThis beast is the one. Easy install and does a great job with features that you need.
-
nh
> 3 dayThis 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.