Intervideo WinDVD 5 Gold Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)WinDVD 5 Gold is a great disappointment. It is a cumbersome program, compared to InterVideo WinDVD 2.1 that I have enjoyed for years. The only reason I decided to buy WinDVD 5 Gold is that I purchased a new computer, and wanted to install a good DVD player. After using this new version, I went online to find a used 2.1 -- and fortunately I was successful. The only redeeming quality WinDVD 5 Gold has is its provision for video production. But for DVD viewing, I'll take the old version anytime!!

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Corel WinDVD 9 Plus (Blu-ray) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)If I could give this product less than one star, I would. I have been a computer user since the early 80s and this is one of the worst software experiences that I've ever had. We're talking Windows Vista bad.
In the course of trying to get this software to work with my Blu-Ray / HD DVD drive, I've upgraded to 4GB of RAM, upgraded my processor from a 2.0 dual core to a 3.2 dual core, completely replaced my hard drive, un-installed and reinstalled the software 3 times, and spent countless hours on end user posting boards trying to get help from equally frustrated customers.
Why didn't I contact the company directly, you may ask? Well, there's no telephone support. I did send emails to their "support" address. However, they were about as helpful as trying to fix the software by pouring hot coffee on the computer tower. Once they sent me lengthy directions that didn't work and the second time I contacted them, they said that I should un-install and re-install my software.
While doing this, I discovered a downloadable patch, which made the software sort of work, sometimes. It played regular DVDs perfectly now, but it still got stuck on one still of a Blu-Ray movie and wouldn't advance the video although the audio track was still playing normally, and HD DVDs were a nightmare, most of them would load to the menu, play for 1 to 5 minutes then lock up and the computer would restart.
My third and 4th emails to support have yet to be answered 3 weeks later.
Do yourself a favor, if you want an easy program that lets you play Blu-rays with minimal hastle, DON'T buy this program.
In short, no telephone support, LOTS of compatibility issues, and enough frustration where I ended up buying a different software suite all together.

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WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray is DVD, Blu-ray Disc and video playback software that delivers quality and entertainment in style. Play spectacular Blu-ray and HD DVD discs on your PC, or enjoy standard DVDs with state-of-the-art HD-quality upscaling. Take your movies on the go with advanced battery optimization controls for laptops. Play home movies recorded on the latest high-definition AVCHD camcorders. Choose WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray for the ultimate DVD and video playback experience.

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Arcsoft TotalMedia Extreme - Windows Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I unfortunately got this program bundled with my Hauppauge HDPVR-1212. This program is absolutely terrible. I run this program on a Vista.
* It typically takes 3-4 minutes for the program to load
* Anytime you shut off the program you have to restart your computer to make it work again.
* If you use the program for any length of time the screen will go black and you have to restart your computer
* The device settings (brightness, etc) do not work.
* This player cannot play its own files correctly. Replaying the mp4 files on the player causes a green screen. But on the windows 7 Media Player the files work okay.
* Often when there is action on the screen, and attempting to take a screen shot, the screen is cut in the middle, slightly off from the cut top frame and the bottom.
* Often any recording longer than 1 hour and 15 minutes will not be saved.
I could go on, I have used this player for around 40 hours and have found numerous problems.

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Do something with all that HD content you have accumulated. ArcSoft TotalMedia Extreme is a complete software solution for working with high definition multimedia content. It is a suite of applications that allows you to play video, edit and author video and music discs and photo slide shows, and back up files, using a combination of HD DVDs, Blu-ray discs (BDs), DVDs, and CDs. The applications work together seamlessly, providing a fully integrated solution. Utilities - create and burn disc images, erase disc Supports Next Generation Audio Formats used in Blu-ray discs and HD DVDs -LPCM, AC-3, Dolby Digital Plus, MLP, DTS and DTS-HD. It also supports Dolby Digital and DTS through S/PDIF Advanced, high performance video decoding Fast performance Easy to use yet feature rich Rip your audio CDs to hard disc in a variety of formats, and copy CDs Supports HD DVD, including BD-Java and HDi, BDMV, BD Live Plays AVCHDs, CDs, and multimedia files -QuickTime, RealPlayer, DVD-Ms videos, VOB, ASK, M1V, M2V, WMV, DAT, VRO, DVR-MS, MOV, DV AVI, TS, TRP, TP, M2TS, RealMedia, DivX AVI Windows Media Center Edition Plug-in -provides a 10 foot user experience -automatic full screen mode and compatibility with your remote control

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Corel WinDVD Pro 2010 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The good news: the software performs beautifully...when it performs--picture quality is excellent, and, to my eye, tangibly superior to its competitors.
First, let me state that my desktop is state of the art: I am using an nvidia graphics card (>400 dollars), an i7 cpu, 12 gigs of ram, and a completely updated vista-64 OS, including the most recent drivers. I am not experiencing any problems with any of my other major software packages, e.g., cs4 (heavily graphics card dependent), office, or visual studio. So, I think it very unlikely that the source of the following problem resides any where other than the product under review.
With that said, here's the bad news: I average 1 complete computer freeze per day using the program, and it is a freeze requiring reboot, i. e., the freeze is pre-emptive: I cannot access any other menu, not even the task manager. The stalled program presents the usual "would you like to transmit details of the issue to the publisher of the program" form, but I cannot make selections in that menu. I have deleted and reinstalled the software several times, including a thorough, manual cleanse of any detritus left in the registry by the uninstall. My efforts proved a waste of time. I had surmised that complete lock-ups of my computer were events XP had made a residue of the past. Not so, friends! Corel has re-introduced them!!
On the cosmetic and customer usage side, many of the menu choices, and several of the stylistic elements that made the precursor, winDVD-9, so attractive to me have changed or disappeared. For instance, I like to run a video in a reduced window when I am writing code, playing mah jong, and the like. This version no longer permits me to toggle the playback's display control panel on and off, so that forces me to commit more display real estate than I wish--it is a small grievance, but aggravating. Another incidental aggravation is the help window. The user is presented with a control panel that blanks out the center of the display, and asks him to select a help link, which then opens another window, and both windows remain visible. Who implemented this program? The boss' niece?
I had great hopes for this software, thinking it would build on the previous versions' excellent picture quality and user friendliness. Alas, not to be. In fact, it completely misreads and misimplements the icc profile I have created for this monitor using color calibration hardware--I managed to tweak the picture using the nVidia control panel, but you might not be able to do this. I did not see these visual problems with windvd_9 on this same configuration. Why don't I continue using the previous version, you ask? That version doesn't play all blu-rays, since the standards for this technology are still in flux, and Corel is unwilling to provide the updates to maintain that program's usefulness. Now, doesn't that stand to reason?
The corker to all this, as I see it, is the virtual isolation of the technical support staff from the consumer. There is a 15 dollar charge for direct telephone assistance charged incrementally (hey, my 100 dollar program cost me 300 dollars in support to finally understand that it fails altogether! Now, that's what I call business ethics!!); and internet based email support is sub-standard, with lag times of 48 to 96 hours between posting your request and a reply. Add to this, that the advice is almost never useful, (it hasn't been for me, at any rate) merely advising the user to read, say, the FAQ on how to install, or how to turn it on, or some other equally trivial, irrelevant advice.
I cannot recommend this software to prospective buyers until it is revised and re-marketed.
Serious flaws.
tlt-

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Bring the movie theater experience to your PC with Corel WinDVD 2010, the world's #1 DVD & video playback software! Enjoy standard or high-definition DVDs and Dolby Digital sound. Play almost any video format, including DVD-Video, DivX, RealPlayer, QuickTime and Windows Media. Bookmark your favorite scenes and go back to them anytime. Playback videos directly from devices like your camera, camcorder or from DVD. Plus, watch entire movies on the go thanks to battery optimization for laptops.

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Tune Tools for iPod (Win/Mac) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)After several hours of thrashing, reinstalling Java runtime environment, searching the Valuesoft website, searching the web, Tune Tools for iPod still will not detect my iPod. Tune Tools returns cryptic errors and hangs my system (XP, SP2, latest updates). Valuesoft help and support is non-existent.


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Get the Most Out of Your iPodProduct InformationUnlock your iPod potential with Tune Tools for iPod. Your iPod ismore than just your music jukebox now with video and podcast capabilities it'syour portable hard drive and entertainment gadget. Up until nowyour iPod's potential has been limited by iTunes' features. Now with TuneTools fully integrated features it's time to unlock your iPod'spotential. Get songs out of your iPod perform backups and get the mostout of your iPod.Product FeaturesEasily Transfer songs Videos and PodcastsTransfer individual iPod files and playlists directly to another iPod.Move songs videos podcasts and other ifles easily from your iPod to adifferent computer.Migrate songs videos podcasts and playlist directly into iTunes to growyour music library without losing playcounts and other information.Clone your iPod contents to another iPod.Instantly Recover Lost Songs and FilesRestore files that occasionally disappear form the iPod database with theclick of a mouse.Clean Up and Sync Your iPod LibraryRemove duplicate songs from your iPod.Correct tag inconsistencies in your iPod and iTunes library.Detect inconsistencies between your iTunes library and your iPod.Detect and Fix iPod ErrorsCheck the health of your iPod hard drive to find problems before they findyou!Detect and correct corrupt files in your iPod library with the click of amouse.Backup and Restore Your MediaUse the Full Backup feature to protect the full content of your iPod fromloss or corruption.Make instant backups of your iPod files using the Quick Backup technology.Restore your iPod quickly from a Quick or Full Backup using Smart Restorefrom Tune Tools.View and Edit Song InformationGet instant access to artist album and song information when you transferyour iPod database.Simplified User InterfaceGet the most out of your iPod with

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Final Fantasy XIV Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)From the account creation process (and subsequent cancellation) to patching the game to finally playing it, there isn't anything that feels natural or works well about this game.
You'll need to create multiple accounts to initially get logged in, from a Square-Enix account to a service account to a credit card billing company account. When I finally canceled the account I had to read the instructions on the web page to do so, something I've never had to do with another game before this; it should also probably be pointed out that the instructions on the site refer to options and terminology that didn't even actually exist on the page, so chalk up another thing that's incomplete and more complicated than it should be. Add to this that the game is $9.99/mo, plus $3/mo per character without your first character included, making it ridiculously expensive when compared to other MMO's to have more than one or two characters in this game.
Nothing about the game is designed for the PC, even though it's a PC game whose counterpart console version is months from release. The game is nearly unplayable without a controller, and even with a 360 controller in Windows where everything is recognized the game doesn't have any of its own keybinds already assigned and pre-configured... You'll need to set up everything yourself from scratch with their configuration utility. Literally nothing works like you'd expect it to; logging in to the game requires you to click the Login button, just pressing enter like every other program you've ever used doesn't work. It's something that seems like a minor gripe, and it definitely would be if this kind of behavior wasn't what you'll see with virtually every other interaction you do with the game.
A good example is a chest. You find a chest on the ground in the game, and to open you can't just click it, or select it and then open it. You move up to it, click to open a menu, select the chest from the menu, and then the chest opens. You then need to reopen the menu and select to loot the chest to gather its contents. Inventory would be another good example, since you can't just press "I" like every other game you've ever played. You'll need to navigate through the menu system to find your inventory and equipment. You'll do this for most interactions you have in the game.
The graphics in the game are very nice and mostly well done, but screen tearing was noticeable every time I played it. Even with Vsync forced to enable from video options for the card (there isn't an option in the game itself) it was still there every time I moved. Despite running fairly well with little slowdown, pop-in from other player characters made it nearly impossible to proceed with quests in some cases in the early game because an NPC would not appear unless you knew exactly where to look for them and manipulated the camera to ensure there were few enough people in view that the game would show them to you.
The game has been heralded as a return to old-school mechanics in that it doesn't force feed you information to guide you along your gameplay path, but the reality of the game is that it doesn't even give you the basic information you need to get started. I was able to complete my first story quests and my first levequests (a sort of daily quest), but afterward was unable to obtain more and had no idea where to go to continue. I chose a non-combat class to start with and was given no recipes to craft, and was only able to craft items while on a quest to do so, and hit a brick wall of being unable to progress. Letting you figure things out on your own would be perfectly fine if the game followed conventions that were even remotely familiar; things seem designed specifically to be obscure to impossible without involving yourself in a community outside of the game...
...because there is no community actually IN game. Hours of play time and I saw someone speak maybe twice, which was unreal. The chat system is difficult to navigate and controllers are practically mandatory so maybe that's why it's avoided, but I've never played an MMO before this where people weren't even talking to each other.
There wasn't a single minute I spent with this game that was fun rather than frustrating or felt like it wouldn't have been better placed elsewhere, and it is absolutely impossible to recommend to anyone. I would strongly urge anyone considering it to look elsewhere, or at the very least find a way to try it before purchasing it to be sure you aren't wasting your time. As this is a review for the CE of the game, please also note that the CE is very light on things to make it worthwhile for the average buyer, with its best incentive to purchase being an early start to the game that has already passed.

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Embark on the myriad journeys of an epic in FINAL FANTASY XIV, the revolutionary MMORPG from Square Enix. As denizens of the new and visually stunning realm of Eorzea, players will actively engage in compelling storylines narrated through high-definition, real-time events featuring the players' own highly personalized and versatile characters. While exploring even the farthest reaches of this magnificent world, adventurers are given the freedom to entirely alter their gameplay experience by simply swapping out equipment, and realize objectives with or without the aid of others. The entire experience is crafted to accommodate the widest variety of play styles—from the lone mercenary with only moments a day to spare, to the legion of comrades campaigning for days on end, and every combination in between. Join players from around the world in an adventure of infinite possibilities. NOTICE: This product requires: (1) an active internet connection; (2) monthly recurring subscription fees; and (3) agreement to certain license and usage terms (available at FINALFANTASYXIV.COM). Currently, children under age 13 are not permitted to play; users 13-17 require parental consent. Users are granted a limited, revocable license only and do not own any data or intellectual property generated during gameplay.

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PowerDVD 9 Ultra Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)PowerDVD 9 Ultra usually works OK, but not a great program for the price. I am running Windows 7 Premium x64 on a i7 2.8 GHz system with 8 GB memory.
Like many others here, I did not want the MoovieLive feature running. I am tired of the marketing people at these software houses that keep trying to push more and more internet content on the user. Jeeze folks, I just want to watch a movie!
To disable MoovieLive, go to the PowerDVD9 installation directory. Rename file "2cMovie.dll" to something such as "2cMovie.dll.old". This will eliminate any MoovieLive functions.
If having problems playing some movies with PowerDVD9 Ultra try this: When installed, the shortcuts to PowerDVD9 point to file "PDVDLaunchPolicy.exe" in the PowerDVD9 directory. Add additional shortcuts on the desktop or start menu and point them to "PowerDVD9.exe" in the installation directory. Try playing from the new shortcuts which will bypass PDVDLaunchPolicy.exe.
I also disabled Cyberlink's brs.exe (using msconfig) which always runs after installing PowerDVD9 even when not using PowerDVD. This program has to do with Region Code. It is not needed to play discs.

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CyberLink PowerDVD 9 Ultra, the latest in the award winning PowerDVD series, brings uncompromising HD movie playback for Blu-ray Discand other leading HD formats, DVD enhancement features, high-defi nition audio support, animated browsing and a many other groundbreaking features to the PC!

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Nero Liquid TV Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)EDIT: 9-27-2010 - I've been informed that Windows 7 is not supported and that development of the software has stopped, so now that I have Windows 7 this software is now completely useless to me.
EDIT: 9-JAN-2009 - I just got Verizon FIOS and a new cable box. Since the cable box is newer than the software, the software can't change the channel and is thus unable to record shows, so it is now a useless brick.
EDIT: 16-MAR-2009 - After waiting over two months for Nero to reply to my tech support email I decided to try again to fix the problem myself. I discovered after installing from the CD that it was upgrading to the new version as recommended by Nero that broke the software's ability to change channels on the cable box. This means that I can never upgrade the software to resolve such tasty issues as these problems covered in the release notes for the new version:
"Resolved error that deleted all recorded shows"
and
"Fixed system shut down when attempting to delete a show from Now Playing"
and
"Resolved Service Expired: Stuck on incorrect service message - Blocks access to application"
Furthermore, there's no way to delete a Season Pass, so once you've created it, you're stuck with it forever, even if the show is no longer on the air.
Yes, these are all critical failures that I can never have the fix for because upgrading the software makes it useless.
This software is utter garbage and Nero's technical support team is loaded with fail and useless.
I could call them on the phone if I wanted to pay $2 a minute to fix problems that are not my fault.
---
EDIT 19-MAR-2009:
Dear Josh,
thank you for your e-mail.
We were able to reproduce the problem in the meantime.
We are working full speed at a solution to this problem and will implement this in the next update of Nero LiquidTV.
Nero LiquidTV update page:
[..]
Sadly we have no means of offering a patch or a workaround to solve the problem in the meantime.
We apologise for the inconvenience.
Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us again.
Best Regards
Sven Bolz
Nero Support
---
EDIT 21-MAR-2009
In their latest email response Nero's support team indicated that they do not have any intentions in the near future of releasing a product update to resolve the channel changing problem.
Given that the last update has been on the website for over six months and has not been pulled even though installing it completely breaks the software, I'm not looking forward to an update anytime soon.
Unfortunately because this product is sold as "software" it can't be returned to the store if it's been opened, so I have a $200 product that I can do nothing productive with other than throwing it in the trash.
EDIT: 29-MAR-2009
The problem with the IR blaster was fixed with a new release of the software. However, now none of the shows on TV match the guide, so I can't record any shows: Any show I schedule for recording is recorded at the wrong time. Also, all of the Guide data is wrong and the channel banner shows show info for a show that is not on at that time. Nero tried to fix the problem by pushing a lineup change but then the channel banner displayed NO INFO AVAILABLE on every channel.
EDIT: 07-ARP-2009
After 34 emails and over six months of waiting, I was given a Beta version of the Liquid TV software that displays the correct Guide data and records shows at the right times.
This resolves all of the issues I have been experiencing with the service. However, I discovered Tivo service cannot be transferred to LiquidTV so you have to cancel your Tivo account, which may result in an "early termination" fee. I also discovered that when I signed up for LiquidTV, the Tivo account was not automatically terminated so I was being billed for service I was no longer using.
I called Tivo to resolve the issue but the CS agent I spoke with refused to resolve the issue (cancel the account with no early termination fee and refund the double billed service). I had to request a supervisor and wait on hold for ten minutes. Then I had to explain the situation again to him, after which he resolved the issue.
The only remaining problem with the software is that the Tivo remote only works when the Liquid TV software has focus, so if you're browsing the web and you have the Liquid TV software going, you have to switch away from your web browser to the Liquid TV window before you can control the Liquid TV software with the remote.

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No other digital video recorder (DVR) offers the unique ease-of-use, personalized features, and flexibility of Nero LiquidTV. Thats because at the core of Nero LiquidTV is the Emmy award-winning TiVo service, which is always working to automatically find and digitally record the entertainment you want to watch, and to suggest related programming you might like to see.

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PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I was not a fan of PDVD 9, it was IMO never out of Beta and not what you would call compatible with Vista. However, Cyberlink is moving in the right direction with Ultra 10 (this review is for Windows 7 only).
OK, first off there are only 3 Blu Ray media players on the market. 1) Cyberlink PowerDVD, 2) Corel WinDVD 2010, 3) Arcsoft TotalMedia Theater 3. All are available for download and all have trial periods. I can tell you right now not to bother wasting time with Corel's new implementation, its garbage and there's a reason its been on sale lately for as cheap as around $40, it just plain doesn't work. Arcsoft's player looks like its spec'd similarly to PDVD 10, but I haven't tried it. However, it is priced at around $90, about the same as Cyberlink's product so maybe you can tell a difference between the trial versions.
The first thing that impressed me about PowerDVD 10 Ultra, was that once I downloaded the fully licensed version, there was no 100Mb+ "patch" required to make the thing work. I mean it DID work right out of the box with Windows 7 but some features like 3D and the ability to add video files to a playlist were disabled. But the upconversion of regular DVD's to HD is the most impressive feature of this software. You can even split the screen to see the difference for yourself, its amazing, and works 5 times better than WinDVD. Also, its automatic. Or, if you want more control over playback you can switch to "hardware acceleration" using your video card settings but you'll soon forget about this feature, TruTheater is just that good.
PDVD 10 is allegedly compatible with most video formats, but I haven't found that to be the case. The only thing I can play since the upgrade are DVDs and Blu Rays, it wont play avi, divx, etc. although they claim to be compatible, I see a lot of complaints about this so I'm not the only one. It will play .VOB and MPEG2 files but crashes when you touch the controls. It also plays .MOV reliably but only from my iPhone, it wont play .MOV files you convert using Cyberlink's PowerDirector. Typical! DVD Audio is covered with a number of options for 2/4/6/8 speakers including Dolby Surround Downmix and TruTheater Surround. Other classic features like Slow Motion, Snapshot, Zoom 4x/9x make this the most versatile player on the market.
3D I cant speak too cause I don't have a 3D ready/HDCP compatible monitor so that feature is disabled in the player but I'm anxious to try that out. MaximumPC did an article recently on converting 2D video to 3D with a simple script change so I know its possible to convert normal DVD's to 3D, I just haven't seen it demonstrated. You will need a 3D monitor, compatible video card, and shutter glasses. After the latest update I can simulate this even though I don't have a compatible system but the player will produce a pseudo "3D" image, I just don't have any glasses so I don't know what it looks like.
Don't know if you're system is compatible with 3D, no problem. Just go to Cyberlink's website, click the Support link and download the BD Advisor, it will analyze your system and tell you exactly what you need to play 3D Blu Rays. There's also a forum worth checking out before you plunk down your hard earned cash for this feature.
Update 12/15/10 On the subject of "patches"..... there are a number of updates on the Cyberlink website that should improve performance and fix a few minor bugs, and as usual with Cyberlink it is a confusing process, and ALL these fixes are over 100+Mb files. Autohiding the control panel during playback was my biggest issue, there's a fix for that. Most of the other patches are updates to incorporate optimization for video cards and 3D playback. However, after downloading 240Mb of "updates" I am suffering crashes with .VOB and MPG files, but it will play AVI, MP4 and other formats now.
NOW, on the subject of Blu-Ray????? This player will NOT play all Bluray discs on your PC. It wont for whatever reason whether its copywrite protection or what, but in my experience it will only play about 40% of the content I attempt to play. To get around that, you will need a decoder like Slysoft's AnyDVD which costs $80. AnyDVD will unlock all these bluray discs for play on PowerDVD. However, you will not have full mouse control, PowerDVD opens a keypad you have to use instead of your mouse. Its all a real pain! Cyberlink still has some work to do. BTW, Corel's WinDVD shares this same problem with unlocking Blu Rays.

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CyberLink's most advanced movie and media player to date, PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D delivers 3D and HD movies on the PC. PowerDVD 10 is a unique universal player that offers the best playback quality available. Whether it is 3D movie content, captured home videos, or your digital music files, PowerDVD 10 lets you access them all from the same convenient player software, enhancing your experience in all kinds of new ways.


The Universal Player for Upgrading Your Media Experience to 3D and HD
Brilliant Blu-ray
Experience Blu-ray movies the way that only PowerDVD 10 can offer: simply unbeatable quality. Optimized for the latest hardware acceleration technologies from Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD, PowerDVD ensures smoother movie performance. PowerDVD 10 launches your Blu-ray movies up to four times faster, too.

Blu-ray 3D*
Seeing is believing the kind of life-like imagery that Blu-ray 3D* can deliver, and PowerDVD 10 brings it to life on your PC. Offering the best-quality 3D movie experience possible, PowerDVD is compatible with the full range of 3D hardware on the market, including glasses, graphics cards, and monitors.
* Notice of Free Mark II Upgrade: Consumers who purchase PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D will receive a FREE UPGRADE that enables support of the Blu-ray 3D format and 2D to 3D conversion of video files. Available summer 2010.

Play DVDs in 3D
Give your existing movie collection a new look and feel. PowerDVD 10 makes it easy to convert regular DVD movies into a spectacular 3D experience thanks to its advanced TrueTheater 3D technology. It's easy, too. With the simple click of a button, PowerDVD 10 transforms your favorite 2D movies into 3D. You can also customize the 3D effect by adjusting the depth slider. PowerDVD 10 takes you to new heights of visual excellence for standard DVD content.

Upscale DVDs and Videos to HD
Enjoy better movie playback quality for both your DVDs and video files with TrueTheater HD upscaling technology. PowerDVD 10 lets you output to an HDTV in a quality that looks noticeably sharper and clearer. Optimization for hardware acceleration ensures even smoother results.
Browse Titles and Chapters by Touch
Make your DVD searches more exciting with FancyView, an animated browsing mode for your DVD titles. Enjoy a unique perspective when browsing for movie titles, chapters, and special features.
Get a preview of chapters for those DVDs you've watched with PowerDVD's "flashback" thumbnails. FancyView supports touch technology so you can flick through movie chapters with your fingertips too.

Better Video Playback
Enhance your home videos during real-time playback with PowerDVD 10's TrueTheater Noise Reduction and TrueTheater Stabilizer. Simply select TrueTheater Noise Reduction to remove any "visual noise" from grainy videos, to give a much clearer, artifact-free picture. Apply TrueTheater Stabilizer to fix the shakiness in videos that often occurs when you take handheld camcorder shots. As a universal player, PowerDVD now plays even more formats, gives you access to online movie trailers via MoovieLive, and lets you upload files to YouTube.
Home Theater Music
Supporting the latest music library features of Windows 7, PowerDVD 10 makes it even easier to listen to music from the player you use to enjoy your movies. Create playlists of favorite tunes. Use TrueTheater Surround technology to optimize your audio for home theater and PC hardware. Sounds great!
High-Definition Audio
PowerDVD 10 lets your ears enjoy the ultimate movie experience too, with support for high-definition audio formats from Dolby Digital and DTS. Support for HDMI 1.3a delivers the purity of lossless HD audio via a single convenient cable to your home theater system.

Movie Reviews & Live Comments
Create movie reviews that other users can read and play using PowerDVD 10. MovieMarks combine bookmarks and review comments and can be shared online via MoovieLive.com. Meanwhile, Live Comments let you post your opinions to Facebook, Twitter, and MoovieLive while your movie is playing.

Key Features:
Universal movie and media player delivers 3D and HD movies on the PC
Offers the best playback quality available for 3D movie content, captured home videos, digital music files, and more
Delivers the smoothest Blu-ray playback; optimized for leading CPU/GPU technologies from Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA
Experience Blu-ray movies; optimized for the latest hardware-acceleration technologies
TrueTheater technology transforms 2D movies into a spectacular 3D experience
Compatible with full range of 3D hardware, including glasses, graphics cards, and monitors
Upscale DVDs and video files to HD quality with TrueTheater HD technology
Browse DVD titles by touch with animated browsing mode
Enhance home videos during real-time playback with TrueTheater Noise Reduction and TrueTheater Stabilizer
TrueTheater Surround optimizes audio for home theater and PC hardware
Create movie reviews and live comments that can be shared with others

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True Image Home 2011 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I'm a software engineer and I'm used to pushing computers to their limits. Just my computer at home has 3 hard drives with a total of 14 partitions (I use Boot IT NG to manage so many partitions). I have installed in these disks mostly Windows 7 and Windows XP.
Acronis. A backup and restore solution is like a parachute. It either opens when you need it or it doesn't. It's as simple as that. I've been using Acronis for over 6 years and I've spent my money buying the most recent versions.
Fact: this tool never let me down and it saved my skin several times. However, this isn't to say I love the tool.
To make Acronis work for you is simple: stick to the basics, backup and restore. Acronis has a smart team of developers, but their marketing team is stupid. Every version they come up with, more senseless bells and whistles are added which just clutter their tool.
After so many years, here's a list of features that worked well and some that failed miserably. Again, this is my experience with more partitions in my computer than most users.
One-click backup.
This "one-click" feature works great if you're buying stuff from Amazon. For backups you can't be serious. What will it back up, where will it store, and how do you recover? Sure, the answers are there but how can you understand things with a "one-click"? It's a silly marketing catch phrase that in the end never did anything useful to me. Spend a few more clicks and... do things right.
Try and Decide
This one should be called "please crash my computer". Every time I attempted to make this feature work, something went wrong. To me, this is absolutely useless and it's consistently useless across all Acronis Home versions I owned. This has never, ever worked for me.
Acronis Secure Zone.
This one has consistently worked well for me. On client computers I use the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager and it works really well. Again, a core feature that works when you need it. One drawback: it's painfully slow on larger disks with incremental backups. Here's a suggestion for the Acronis engineers:
MAKE EXISTING FEATURES PERFORM BETTER
instead of adding non-sense bells and whistles every year. With Acronis TI 2011, you can convert the ASZ from a FAT files system (old) to NTFS (newer). They claim this should help performance a bit; however, their conversion utility stops working at "33%" on my 350 GB ASZ (not all is used). So, I can't tell you if it's any faster on this version.
Online backup
Another "you've got to be kidding me feature". Why would you want to do it this way? Simple: another marketing catch. This is simple: save your backup locally, validate it, THEN you upload it to the online service of your choice. Now... uploading the file "directly"? It sounds good in theory, but in reality upload speeds are slower, they drop, people use wireless (!) and you set yourself up for failure. I'm sure this works well for some people, it's just that I'm not one of them. I stay away from this one. If you save your stuff online, save it locally first.
Scheduled Backups
Another feature that works well. I have several backups that run every week and Acronis does a great job emailing me the results (good or bad). These backups have worked consistently well for me over the years and they never failed me. Here's something they did right and it works well.
Recovery / Restores
This is thee acid test: does the parachute open or not? In all fairness, a restore with Acronis has never, ever failed me. I restored partitions, files, data from internal hard drives and from external ones (USB). It worked 100%, all the time. It's even smart enough to deal with the file security in Windows O/S and it even updates the boot.ini file to make Windows bootable. Smart. Useful. It's great.
All other features
I can't cover them all here without making this review 50 pages long. However, stuff like mount / un-mount images, file shredder, system clean-up, work "alright" but... they're slow. What's up with the Acronis team that their tool is "consistently" slow? How do they manage that? :-)
Again, in my opinion Acronis is going in the wrong direction trying to add more "features I don't need" to their software to make it more marketable. Instead, they should make this tool screaming fast, but it has been consistently slow over the years.
In the end: does it work? Yes, but only if you stick to the basics. Do I recommend it? Yes, but only if you stick to the basics.
I've been running TI Home 2011 on my computer at home and it seems to perform better from prior versions. The interface is now centered around backup files and this takes some getting used to. If you want to schedule a backup, it's not as obvious as before in my opinion, but it's there.
All in all, buy it if you don't have one. The price is good and the tool works, just make sure you understand what this tool is: backup and recovery. Stick to the basics. All the other stuff is almost useless to me and I guarantee you all bad reviews here have something to do with their "extra" features (Acronis just needs to get smarter). Their basic backup and recovery works well, if you can deal with slow performance (this could be because of so many partitions I have in my computer too). So your mileage may vary.


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