Cyberlink Power2Go 7

Designed for both home and enterprise users, Power2Go 7 provides the security that enterprises crave and the ease of use that home users want. Power2Go 7 also includes a set of media tool that lets you share your media files in style. Industrial grade encryption, more creativity and control of your media files with a robust engine that take care of all your burning needs.

Power2Go packs the ability to write virtually any type of job (data, video, music) to any kind of disc, including high-capacity Blu-ray Discs (BDXL); plus, it can rip and transcode audio. In addition, it has several new creative features. Self-executing HD photo gallery (slideshow) discs and a standalone wave editor for editing audio are the most prominent, but DVD authoring has been improved significantly-to the point where most users won't need a more expensive option. Also new are the ability to view and even extract files from an ISO disc image; create 128-bit or 256-bit encrypted discs; a new desktop widget for easy-access; and support for nVidia's CUDA and ATI's Stream GPU acceleration of tasks. You may also now freely download menu templates for your video discs from CyberLink's DirectorZone. The separately-installed wave editor is quite facile, and it allows the use of industry standard virtual instruments and audio (VST) effects plug-ins to expand the effects library.

The ISO viewer is a separately-installed app, as well. Viewing and extracting files from both CyberLink's proprietary .P2I files and industry standard .ISO files worked just fine. All the apps in the suite allow you to export your projects as disc images, however, you must dig into the browse function of Save As dialog before you can set the export type to .ISO.

The handy desktop widget is attractive and easy to use, and it works in all versions of Windows from XP onward. The widget queues files you want to write to disc, and supports separate audio, data, and video jobs; it can also copy discs.

CyberLink has a history of fixing bugs quickly, so by the time you read this, it's likely they may have fixed the audio import issue. The bottom line is that the suite works well, and it's a lot cheaper than Roxio and Nero. But this cheaper, more streamlined option may suit your needs just fine.

System Requirements:

* Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7;
* Intel Pentium III 800 MHz, or AMD Athlon 700 MHz;
* 256MB DDR RAM;
* 5-10GB hard drive space to make DVDs 9 (25 for Blu-Ray).