PowerDVD is one of the more refined and easy to use software DVD decoders in this shoot-out. The interface is straightforward, all options and menus are well explained and are easy to access by either using the graphical menu, or by right clicking on the PowerDVD main screen itself. To top it off, Cyberlink added the ability to apply different “skins” to the menu much like Winamp has done with their popular MP3 player.

PowerDVD 2.55 also comes standard with an on-screen display (which will tell you what action was just performed), and is fairly useful if you don't want to look at the graphic menu while watching a movie, and would rather use keyboard shortcuts. In addition there are three options for fast-forward (2x, 4x, 8x) and three more options for slower speeds (1/8x, 1/4x, 1/2x) and finally, a rewind function. A screen capture option is also included which allows you to capture individual frames and set them as your desktop background, or simply save them to a directory.

Support for hardware motion compression and iDCT (Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform, available on some ATI cards) means that people with lower-end machines will still get reasonably good playback in combination with a card supporting built-in motion compression. Unfortunately, with motion compression enabled on my GeForce2, PowerDVD exhibited odd visual anomalies such as major pixelation, and green strips running through the length of the picture. Whether this problem was caused by Elsa's drivers, or PowerDVD itself is unknown. There was also a little bit of banding, but it was very infrequent and generally unnoticeable. Fortunately, running with motion compression disabled and a minor tweaking of the RGB controls, I was able to get a very sharp picture.

Audio support in PowerDVD is among the best in this roundup. There is support for most major sounds cards in 4-speaker mode, and Dolby Digital is available through either the digital out on the Sound Blaster Live series, or though S/PDIF on some Aureal vortex 2 cards (most notably the SQ2500). Sound quality and volume was both loud and clear. Sadly the only item missing is support for LFE decoding which means that some movies will lack a little in bass.

Overall PowerDVD 2.55 is an excellent software DVD player with exceptional video and audio quality, all in a nice package which is easy to use.