PowerDVD 7 is the latest release of Cyberlink's software for playing DVDs on Windows PCs.

We took a look at the Deluxe version to see what it offers over and above the DVD playback programs that come bundled with most new PCs these days.

Cyberlink has packed this release full of extras that can roughly be categorised as either improvements in power management, movie playback or audio compatibility.

One of the major benefits of this application is its improved functionality for notebook users. No longer will they be plagued by batteries dying before a movie finishes. PowerDVD 7 monitors battery power (which can be displayed on-screen) and as it drains the playback speed is increased to ensure you catch the entire movie.

Watching a film at anywhere from 1.05-1.25 times normal speed is tolerable although it is a nuisance when trying to read subtitles. Of course, if your notebook's is nearly empty when you start watching the film this feature won't be of much use.

Image quality is visibly enhanced when using Cyberlink's proprietary CLEV-2 technology. Version 7 allows you to tinker with the CLEV settings (i.e. adapting video contrast and colors).

A split-screen playback mode (one half CLEV off) helps in altering the image to your taste. The processor intensive CLEV component is automatically disabled when running on a slower PC.

Other enhancements include See-it-clearly and Say-it-again. The former makes sure that subtitles don't get in the way of the action by placing them in the black bands at the bottom of the screen. Although not always fool-proof it's a welcome addition.

Say-it-again is a useful little feature, accessed via a keyboard shortcut, which loops the last few seconds of playback, saving you the hassle of rewinding, playing and possibly replaying again.

Audio-wise, PowerDVD can now handle AAC encoding along with the broad range of support for surround sound systems it already boasted. Speaker control is especially useful for those with a Dolby Digital speaker system.

Another feature worthy of note is the screen capture function which lets you grab screenshots and save them directly in a number of formats and optionally set them to be your desktop background.

The player is controlled via any one of five interfaces, of varying size and complexity, including a taskbar icon set.

PowerDVD 7 is somewhat future proof in that it can play media files over an UPnP network and is High Definition (HD) ready, (the deluxe version can play videos encoded in H.264 format).

Users will, however, need to wait for a future extension pack to be able to play movies directly from either a HD-DVD or Blu-ray drive.

If you're a movie aficionado with a great speaker setup then this software will certainly make the most of them. Power conscious notebook users will appreciate the battery saving aspects too, but for the average user who plays the occasional movie on their PC, £39.99 may just be a bridge too far.

You can take a look at the full rundown of PowerDVD's features on Cyberlink's website.