CyberLink DVD Suite 7 Ultra

Large software suites face a challenge providing a central control panel that lets you easily get to the component you want. Roxio's launcher offers too many choices, and any apps you access from it remain open. Nero does a little better here, giving focus back to the launcher when you close an app. CyberLink's PowerStarter start-up interface improves on both in this respect—by default, it closes when you open a suite app, and then snaps right up when you close the sub-app (with Nero there's a delay). And if you don't like that behavior, clicking on a gear icon brings up the Preferences screen, where you can turn it off. 

 

At first, PowerStarter is nothing more than a window that displays a slideshow of professional photographs. Along the bottom are eight large circular icons that expand and show descriptive text when the mouse hovers over them. The space beneath them is reflective—strikingly reminiscent of a certain operating system's task bar. There are icons for Music, Data, Movie Player, Video & Photo, Copy & Backup, and Utilities. When you click on one, the main launcher window displays options for related tasks, such as "Burn a disc image" or "Edit a video." 

Choosing Favorites brings up a blank menu, initially. You populate it with selections from other menus by clicking on the heart icon to the right of each. You can alternatively start a specific suite program directly. Note that until you register, every time you run a sub-application the registration form will reappear—a behavior you may find somewhat obnoxious.

INSTALATION

Hands down, CyberLink's installation process beats that of Nero and Roxio, not least because it takes a fraction of the time. True, it has fewer components to set up than the other two, but that's not enough to account for the enormous difference. Nero's latest version is a major offender: On my 2-GHz Athlon test machine, it required about an hour. Roxio's 40 minutes was better, but still slow compared with CyberLink's 15 minutes. The installer is also more compact, at a "mere" 948MB, than those of its rivals, which demand about 1.5GB of space. Oddly, there's no choice for installing just the components you want, an option I'd like to see, and one offered by both Nero's and Roxio. Like the others, the CyberLink installer pushes you to install the Google Toolbar, behavior I frown on, especially in a product you're paying for.

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CyberLink DVD Suite 7 Ultra