Far from being just office workhorses, computers are also great as home cinema systems – especially if you use such an excellent software tool as Power DVD.

This full featured DVD player enables you to enjoy your favorite DVD movies right on your computer, with all the extra functionality you would expect from such a high-quality product, plus some aces up its sleeve. Power DVD features a sleek interface you can customize with skins and includes direct access to MoovieLive, an online movie database that helps you identify and categorize all the titles in your collection.

Power DVD is generally very easy to use. Most of the program's functions can be performed with the mouse or their correspondent keyboard hotkey, and there's also a comprehensive context menu that gives you access to even more options just by right-clicking anywhere on the image.

Regarding playback, the movie flows very smoothly even when you move the window around or play it in full screen mode. Image quality has been improved thanks to the special TrueTheater filters, that provide pixel-perfect images and make the most out of your HD visual equipment. Sound can be configured in different ways, depending on your hardware means (from headphones to an full stereo surround system) in order to obtain the best possible sound quality.

During our tests we found some interesting features in Power DVD: you can change playing speed, take snapshots of your favorite scenes in the movie and have a sentence repeated over and over again with the "Say it again" tool. This may be useful for foreign language students who watch movies to improve their listening skills.

Besides the playing functions, Power DVD includes two other extra tools: one is the Movie Remix feature, which lets you create custom video remixes with your favorite scenes from any movie; and the other is a built-in movie manager with which you can easily create a detailed database with all your movies – and review it in an eye-catching Coverflow-style interface.

Power DVD is then a perfect solution for your all DVD playing needs: a powerful video player with interesting features, yet easy enough to use for everyone.