Cyberlink Power2Go 4: Standard CD\DVD burning software
Written: Jul 14 '05 (Updated Jul 22 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Inexpensive CD/DVD burning solution that covers most bases.
Cons: No video editing or DVD authoring features. Low bit-rate MP3/WMA support.
The Bottom Line: The bottom line still listens to tapes and vinyl records. Uh... well so do I :-)
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| Gr8ful's Full Review: CyberLink Power2Go 4 for PC |
Cyberlink Power2Go 4: Standard CD\DVD burning software
In the last four years, I have relied on one DVD player for my computer and that is Cyberlink’s Power DVD. Since I rely so much on Cyberlink for one program, I decided to give them a shot at another of my frequent tasks… CD burning. For a long time I have been using Nero for most common CD burning tasks and for burning DVD folders from my hard drive to DVD discs. I was pleased to know that I can do the same with Power2Go 4.
Power2Go 4
Power2Go 4 is software for burning CD and DVD projects to disc. It is not a DVD authoring package and does not contain any DVD authoring features or video editing features. What it does do is allow you to burn CDs and DVDs from data files, music or video on your computer. It does allow for simple menu creation for DVD video discs giving you the option of importing a background image and music for the menu. You can make DVD video discs from AVI and MPG files and the software will convert the video to DVD format before burning.
First Look
The first thing you see is a window that asks you to select a burning task. From here you can choose whether you want to burn music, video, data or make a mixed mode disc. Once you choose the type of project, you then choose the type of disc and/or content type.
Once you have made your decisions, you will see a nice looking interface with very large icons and no Windows file menu. The format of the interface looks very much like Roxio Easy CD Creator, so those of you who are familiar with Roxio will feel right at home. Through this interface you can get disc information, choose your recording device and change configurations as well as burning options. It is fairly versatile and extremely easy to use.
There is a bar indicator at the bottom of the window that shows your disc (CD or DVD) capacity and a red meter indicates how much you have used for the compilation. It has a mark at 74 and 80 minutes for CDs and at 60 minutes for DVD-R. I have not used a dual layer DVD disc yet so I don’t know how much time it will show for dual layer DVD discs.
CD Burning
Music
You can add music titles from WMA, MP3 and WAV format files to a disc compilation. You can choose whether you want to burn a regular Audio CD, MP3 CD or WMA CD. No matter if you have both MP3 and WMA files you want to burn, Power2Go 4 will automatically convert them to the chosen format before burning as long as the original files are one of the two supported formats. HighMAT discs are supported but you must choose “Mixed Mode” at the beginning and not music to burn HighMAT discs. HighMAT burning supports music, image and video compilations.
You can choose the bit-rate for MP3 files and WMA files before burning your disc. WMA format supports up to 128k bit-rate while MP3 format supports up to 192k bit-rate. One thing I don’t like is the low bit-rates, I like my MP3 discs to play at 320k for truly lossless digital playback. However, it is nice to be able to just drag the files to the list and let the software do it’s thing without having to convert each file before hand.
You can use Power2Go 4 to rip CDs as well as convert audio files from one format to another. It has a built in feature to connect to freedb over the Internet to obtain disc and track information when ripping from audio CD.
Data
Making data CDs or backing up data to a CD is very similar to Nero Burning ROM. You simply drag files from their location on your computer to the CD compilation and drop them in. You can even drag files from open folders on your desktop to the compilation. It is simple enough that the first time you use it, you will most likely be able to navigate your way through it.
Video
You can make Video CD discs with Power2Go 4 that will play on any MAC, Windows, or Linux PC with the right software player (PowerDVD, WinDVD or any player capable of playing MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video). These discs will also play in most DVD players. You have the ability to make simple menus for your Video CD that work just like a DVD menu. The process is fairly simple and doesn’t take long to master.
Video CDs can be made from MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or AVI files. No other file types appear to be supported. The ability to burn AVI files may differ on some computers because the software relies on the codecs installed on your computer in order to convert an AVI file to Video CD format.
For example; if you download an AVI video clip but you do not have the codec installed to play the file, Power2Go 4 will not be able to burn it correctly either. The best thing to do is test your video before trying to burn it by simply playing the file to make sure you can.
DVD Burning
Music
When making an Audio DVD, the only formats supported are MP3 and WMA disc compilations. DVD audio is not supported unless you are making a copy from a DVD audio disc. This is one area where I prefer Nero, it allows you to make true DVD audio discs that are excellent sound quality. The interface is the same for burning DVD MP3 and DVD WMA discs as it is for CD discs. You simply drag your music files to the compilation and Power2Go 4 will convert the files to the chosen format before burning.
Data
Burning data to a DVD is exactly the same as burning it to a CD. The only difference is you have a lot more space to fit your data.
Video
Burning your MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or AVI files to DVD is very easy and is much like the creation of a Video CD. As a matter of fact, the interface for making a DVD is the same as the Video CD right down to the menu creation. The only difference is that it takes a lot longer for the files to be converted to DVD video than it does to Video CD format. You can make DVD discs with simple menus that will play in any computer with a DVD player program and most all DVD players.
You can make copies of DVD discs provided they are not too big to fit on your burnable media. I was impressed to discover that the Power2Go 4 software recognized my dual layer burner and shows it is capable of dual layer discs. I have not burned a dual layer disc yet but the software supports dual layer. This I like very much and is one of the things I was interested in finding out.
You can also make DVD video discs from DVD folders on your hard drive. If you have DVD movies or video backed up on your hard drive and need to re-create the discs, all you have to do is select “Video/Photo Disc” and then choose “Burn from existing DVD folder” at the very beginning where you choose the disc type. The choices are CD, DVD or Burn from existing DVD folder. Then you simply navigate to the folder (you don’t have to drag anything) and Power2Go 4 will automatically populate a VIDEO_TS folder in the compilation.
Power2Go Express
This is a handy little feature that simplifies CD/DVD burning by adding an icon in the system tray that controls four little boxes you can use to drag files to burn straight to disc. These four boxes are for data discs, music discs, video discs and to copy a disc. If you want to copy a disc you simply click on the “copy disc” box and choose your source and destination drive. The source and destination can even be the same drive if you only have one writer, it will simply read one disc to the hard drive and ask for a blank disc when it’s ready.
You can drag MP3 and WAV files directly to the music box and then click the box to open the burning utility. All the files you dragged into the box will be ready to burn. There are two large icons at the bottom, “burn” and “close” so finding the burn button is no problem.
The same goes for video files you can drag MPEG and AVI files to the video box and click on the box to open the burn interface. Everything you drag into the video box will be there ready to burn. You can also open the burning interface before dragging files to it; this is practical if you have a lot of files to burn so you can see how much disc space you have to work with.
The icons (boxes) can be hidden from view at any time and the system tray icon can be closed with the option of having it load with the system at boot time or not. This is the easiest program to use for simple burning tasks and doesn’t use much of the system resources, unlike other tray programs I have used in the past. Power2Go Express adds compact simplicity to an already easy to use program and makes this a great tool for people who don’t want to (or have time to) have to “learn” how to burn discs.
Personal Use
I have burned Audio CDs, a data CD and a DVD movie from a folder on my hard drive. All went smooth and the software supported my high speed burners. Power2Go 4 automatically set the burning speed for the fastest speed of my Sony DVD-RW for CD writing which is 40x. It also recognized the same drive as 8x for DVD-R. I have also created three MP3 CDs and an MP3 DVD that pretty much held all my MP3 music on one disc. Now all I need is a DVD player for my Jeep and I can listen to about three days (umm… that is approx. 72 hours or more at 128k bit-rate) worth of music without changing a disc. :-)
Conclusion
Power2Go 4 is an inexpensive solution to most CD and DVD burning tasks and is very easy to use. For a complete novice, I would say the learning curve is maybe an hour max. There are some things that I do with CD and DVD media that I can not do with Power2Go 4, but for most people this is the only software they will ever need for these tasks. Just don’t expect to get any DVD authoring functions or video editing functions, you’ll have to rely on other software for that. All in all Power2Go 4 is a solid program and for the price it is extremely competitive with Ahead Software’s Nero Burning Rom and Roxio’s Easy CD Creator.
Thanks for reading,
Gr8ful :-)
Recommended:
Yes
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