Other useful new features include support for lossless pass-through of Dolby TrueHD (7.1), DTS-HD Master Audio (7.1), Ogg, and Flac formats. If the software only had something along the lines of Windows Media Player’s SRS TruBass to give them more kick, I might switch to PowerDVD as my main music application. On the other hand, applying the TrueTheater audio effects breathes new life into old tunes. I did find one minor bug in the music player: It listed an Apple lossless file by the wrong name, and then would not play it (apparently lossless. 7digital music store access is now available, so you can shop for and download tunes you can participate in CyberLink’s MoovieLive cinema database and community site as well. Facebook and Flickr are baked in, too, but although I was able to upload photos, PowerDVD didn’t seem to recognize any of the nearly 100 pictures I already have on Facebook. In addition, PowerDVD 12 integrates browsing and playing YouTube videos, freeing you from having to open a browser to do so.

The company also offers a free app to turn your mobile device into a remote control for PowerDVD, a handy feature that worked remarkably well on my iPod Touch. The apps are free for PowerDVD Ultra users, but cost $5 for users of the less-expensive PowerDVD Professional and Standard. CyberLink has produced new two-way media streaming/syncing apps (version 4) for both the IOS and Android platforms. You can use it to stream the multimedia content on your PC across a network to other devices, as well as play content from other servers.

The software can now function as a DLNA server as well as a client. Also, navigating the program’s media library and moving between areas was somewhat slow in the version I tested (.54). 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.

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