It can also be launched from within Windows Media Center. This can be activated by clicking the TV icon right next to the Settings icon on the top right. In addition to the Classic Mode described above, PowerDVD also has a Cinema Mode used for playing back discs (there is no support for local media files in this mode). This enables easy access to recently played media also. A Playlist shortcut completes the left pane. The Online Media section enables access to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. In particular, it enables easy access to the media available on smartphones and tablets which have PowerDVD Mobile v4 running on them and sharing the media over DLNA. The Home Media (DLNA) section lists and enables access to all the DLNA servers in the network. It also lists various removable devices (such as USB flash drives) plugged into the computer. The Devices section provides information necessary to pair a smartphone / tablet remote with the particular PowerDVD instance. Users also have the option to navigate the various local files in the My Computer section. The media library feature also gives the ability to change the display picture for the folder in the grid view in a seamless manner. Media Library gives access to various streams in the media library.

The navigation pane on the left side clearly segregates the different functions. Restarting PowerDVD gives us a much cleaner interface. Thankfully, PowerDVD 12 does give the option to turn off this feature in Settings > MoovieLive > MoovieLive Features. On first startup, the player fetches a bunch of information about the latest Blu-ray and DVD releases, leading to a cluttered interface. However, even if MoovieLive is skipped during installation some of the features are turned on by default. Most users do not want the player to communicate with the Internet unless absolutely necessary. This number increases to eight when PowerDVD is playing a disc. These are related to the DLNA functionality offered by the software. PowerDVD also has five processes (including two corresponding to the services) which keep running in the background. These services remain active irrespective of whether PowerDVD is running on or not. PowerDVD 12 installs two services which are set to start when the PC boots up.

Powerdvd 12