Functionally the interface is much like iTunes, but it’s styled in dark gray and black tones–not particularly warm and friendly. A large pane to the right displays the actual data. The revised interface is logical, with a left-side navigating pane that lets you easily switch between functions as well as navigate the music, photo, and video libraries. PowerDVD’s other new features all pertain to organization, streaming media, mobile devices, and social media. Previously you could use this feature on DVD movies now, you can apply it to Blu-ray playback as well. In that regard, version 12 has only one new feature: TrueTheater 3D, which turns 2D movies into 3D (sort of). The core reason for buying PowerDVD is its Blu-ray movie playback. Version 12 takes PowerDVD further toward being a truly universal media player and organizer–but it has also developed into a large and resource-hungry application. Even better, the easy-to-use program plays a ton of file types, including 3D video and photos.

It makes movies look great and audio sound wonderful, and it’s entirely tweakable.

The $100 (as of March 8, 2012) PowerDVD 12 Ultra continues the tradition, establishing itself as the Blu-ray/DVD/music/video player to beat. CyberLink’s PowerDVD has long been a powerful media player.

Cyberlink powerdvd 14 review