Cyberlink’s new PowerDVD 7.3 ultra is a software disc player with all the controls and features that you may fiend in any hardware player, and much more. The interface is very clean and easy to understand. The controls are at the bottom of the window and balloon help is alwayes there, so you will never be left confused. You can even control the speed of playback, and it dosen’t cause the “Chip’n'Dale” effect on voice even at high playback speeds. There are many hotkeys available during playback, as you can exercise total control with a flick of a button.
PowerDVD is not resource hungry-on our modest computer, it starts up in a second and plays HD clips with complete ease. It supports native hardware acceleration provided by most modern graphics chipsets and takes advantage of it to take the load off the CPU while rendering HD video. playback is stutterless and audio was crisp and clear thanks to the smart de-interlacing support. CLEV-2 is a proprietary video enhancement technology from Cyberlink that detects vidio content and dynamically adjusts brightness/contrast/ saturation ratios for a better viewing experience.
Cyberlink Pano Vision is a non-linear video stretching technology that is used to stretch the video to your desktop resolution with minimal distorion. All speaker configurations are supported, and there are a host of different audio modes, such as Dolby Headphone that creates a virtual surround sound experience while using headphones, Dolby Virtual Speaker that creates virtual surround sound through two speakers, etc. Some of the newer sound technologies supported are Dolby Pro Logic Iix, Neo:6, and SRS TruSurroundXT. DivX, DVD (MPEG-2), DVD+VR, DVD-VR, DVD-Audio, VCD (MPEG-1), SVCD, MiniDVD formats and DVD files on hard drive are all supported. For HD aficionados, PowerDVD also supports blu-ray as well as HD DVD with support for the H.264 format. There is also a See-It-All OPtion THat will adjust the playback speed of your movie so that you can watch an entire movie before your laptop battery runs out . This software is a worthy buy.

Microsoft have finally released the Update for Windows XP as Service Pack 3. Its the first Release Candidate (RC1) for Windows XP Service Pack 3.

It includes all the updates released till date and has a few new functionality, which do not significantly change customers’ experience with the operating system. This white paper summarizes what is new in Windows XP SP3.

Supported Operating Systems are:
Windows XP; Windows XP Home Edition ; Windows XP Home Edition N; Windows XP Media Center Edition; Windows XP Professional Edition ; Windows XP Professional N; Windows XP Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 2; Windows XP Starter Edition; Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

You can download it right from Microsoft’s Download Center or from HERE.
Its a direct link from Microsoft’s Download Center. The File Size is 336.10MB. No Validation Required.

Don’t like a screenshot and wish you could make that one
change to make it look better? WinSnap is the soluton. The
453 KB screen capture utility lets you create screenshots of
non- rectangular windows and applications using a back-
ground of your choice. One can just capture the foreground
images. It even worksn on keyboards without the “print scrreen”
option, as one can copy at the click of a mouse with the help
of its auto- copy and auto- save features. It enhances the pic
with a smooth drop shadow effect. One can and a watermark,
or even change the colours. It also allows canvas transforma-
tions in photoshop style. It supports avariety of image
formats.

Download It Here

Trial Limitation : 30 day trial. Watermark added to captures.

Price : 19.95