PowerDVD 17 Adds 360 VR, 4K Blu-ray Support

Nigh PCs equipped with a disc drive come with PowerDVD preloaded. But that version is a basic disc thespian. Home theater enthusiasts will want to consider upgrading to the ultimate in CyberLink's video consumption offerings: the Ultra edition of PowerDVD 17 ($99.95 or $14.99 for a three-month subscription). The newly released software not simply adds support for the latest video applied science and standards, but improves how older content looks, too.

The 3 large, new PowerDVD features are the ability to play 360-degree VR content, 4K Ultra Hard disk Blu-ray discs, and HDR10 content, which increases a video's colour gamut appreciably. In fact, CyberLink reps claim it's the very commencement piece of software in this category with official support for Ultra Hard disk drive Blu-ray and HDR10.

CyberLink's SVP of Global Marketing, Richard Carriere, explained "Our approach is to make any content look the best it tin can on whatsoever device you have."

PowerDVD 17

Of course, the biggest problem with any new video standard is finding content to play. With 360-degree VR, though, it recently gained support in Vimeo and has been available on YouTube for a couple years. HDR10 is supported by LG, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Vizio TV models. You tin already go 4K Blu-rays that include HDR at BestBuy, and more are bachelor for pre-social club. Note that all your equipment will have to be HDCP 2.ii-compliant—for good onetime DRM.

Even if the content you're playing isn't full 4K, but you want a better image on your 4K tv, PowerDVD can upscale information technology and simulate HDR with its TrueTheater technology. So y'all can take advantage of an HDR-capable TV even when your content isn't HDR.

VR and 360-Caste Video

PowerDVD 17 lets you not only play 360 VR videos, merely it supports playing them on ii of today's most-popular VR headsets, the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. CyberLink demoed a VR video, which convinced us that being in a flick could be a lot more fun than just watching one.

PowerDVD 17 VR

Carriere admitted that the VR engineering all the same had some way to go to get to resolutions and framerates that produce a truly disarming virtual scene, just added, "Our goal has always been to offer the latest first."

But PowerDVD isn't but for video. It supports ripping to lossless formats and lets y'all extract audio from your video sources. The software besides lets you stream music, photos, and video to HDTVs via Apple Idiot box, Chromecast, and Roku, and PowerDVD Ultra includes 30GB of cloud storage for photos, videos, and music.

You can read more than about the new PowerDVD 17 on CyberLink's website, and look for an updated review on PCMag in the coming days.

Nigh Michael Muchmore

Michael Muchmore

Michael Muchmore is PCMag'due south lead analyst for software and web applications, with an accent on photo editing, video editing, and Windows. A native New Yorker, he has at diverse times headed upwards coverage of web development, enterprise software (including databases and application servers), and display technologies (monitors and TVs). Michael cowrote i of the first overviews of web services for a general audience. Before that he worked on PC Magazine's Solutions section, which educated readers virtually programming techniques like C+ and Visual Basic, too as offering tips on using office productivity software. He previously covered services and software for ExtremeTech.com.