PowerDirector and Director Zone

The days of sitting at home alone with your PC and some creativity software are long gone. Today creativity is all about sharing ideas and making friends with those who share your creative spirit. PowerDirector and Director zone are the tools that enable this process.

CyberLink’s Director zone is the building blocks of an online community that facilitates video creation. It’s a space to publish the effects and templates that you create using PowerDirector 7’s various design tools. It is quite deliberately NOT a medium for publishing your completed videos, a site such as www.youtube.com . Instead, and far more importantly, it provides unlimited added value to your PowerDirector software.

Got a great DVD menu you’d like to share with other PowerDirector users? Simply upload to Director zone. Looking for a special animated object to add to your project? Just download from Director zone. As you download, PowerDirector automatically places effects and templates directly into your appropriate library.

As a member of any creative community, the more often you get published (that is, upload to Director zone), the quicker you’ll get recognized as a leading creator. The more often your designs are downloaded, the higher is your standing as a leading effects creator. Director zone facilitates this process further by allowing other community members to subscribe to your creations.

As well as allowing you to download effects, Director Zone lets you add a comment, give a rating, and set an effect as one of your favorites. Of course you can invite other friends to join the community, while a forum provides a place to discuss tips and tricks for using PowerDirector.

This week CyberLink has released free effects and templates with a sports theme, just in time for the Olympics.

Sharing a Passion on MoovieLive

Movies are watched by millions of individuals around the world, but they are not necessarily enjoyed as a shared experience. You may sit in the dark with hundreds of people at the cinema, and you may discuss a movie with friends, but if you are REALLY into it, how do you connect with other connoisseurs? Other than taking a film studies course, a movie club is really where you get the chance to look in depth and share your opinions about the movies you love.

You might even publish a review on your club newsletter, or post something on your blog—but readership is going to be pretty limited. To share a passion you need a focused medium for discussion. You also need to find friends with the same interests who are willing to listen to what you have to say.

This is where CyberLink’s MoovieLive comes into play.

PowerDVD and MoovieLive

Designed specifically for PowerDVD users, MoovieLive is a natural extension of the movie experience. It lets you take the movies you watch on your home PC, and offers a communication channel for writing reviews, rating movies, and getting details about the DVDs you or others like to watch.

The site links directly to PowerDVD users who sign up to the free online service. As you watch movies with PowerDVD, you can access information collected by others who have also seen the same movie. You can contribute your own details about the movie, then sync with MoovieLive for others to see.

With its direct relationship to PowerDVD, MoovieLive members already share two key interests: not just watching movies, but also watching movies on the PC. MoovieLive is the common thread connecting this global community. The more that members watch, rate, and review movies, the richer the site becomes.

The value for owners of PowerDVD does not stop at reading and writing reviews. MoovieLive is also the easiest way for users to share the Movie Remix files they have made using PowerDVD 8’s new Movie Remix feature.

After creating your own remix file, you can publish to MoovieLive to share with other members. Or for favorite movies you can download the remixes created by other users. In this way, MoovieLive resembles an online library of user-generated stories.

Like other social network services, MoovieLive lets you edit your own online profile, discuss issues in its forum and invite other friends to join.

CyberLink and Social Networking

With the headline-grabbing growth in popularity of MySpace and Facebook, much has been made of the social networking craze. Over the last year or so, online communities have become as much a social phenomena as they are a huge shift in the way we want to be entertained and entertain others.

Social networking is all about finding a way to connect with people of similar interests. This used to be done through a social club in the physical world. You could share a passion for an activity or topic, discuss your experiences, and even make new friends in the process. Today’s version is a community connected online via a web service.

CyberLink has joined the fray by launching two social networks this year designed specifically for users of leading products PowerDVD and PowerDirector. For PowerDVD users, that’s a site called MoovieLive. For PowerDirector users it’s called Director zone.

CyberLink Live Premium: for a Truly Mobile Web 2.0

The revolution will be televised. And mobilized. And on demand.
During their keynote speeches on the first day of Computex 2008, executives from Microsoft and Intel delivered very compelling arguments for the need to “mobilize” all the technological platforms that enable Web 2.0, allowing remote access to local servers and to infinite amounts of knowledge and resources for the largest number of people, everywhere on the globe, and on-demand.

They focused on the new wave of truly portable ”netbooks”, entry-level PCs that are light in weight and price; on the new energy-efficient, miniaturized processors used to power them (like the new Intel Atom series); they spoke of the necessity of working with common, compatible formats that allow full intercommunication between all digital devices, in the home and on the go.

They spent plenty of time covering the exciting new developments of the Wi-MAX standard—which, incidentally, is being championed right here in Taipei, Taiwan, through huge investments from the Taiwanese government and the many local technology powerhouses—a new way of thinking “wireless”, featuring blazing speeds and enabling, among other things, multiple streaming channels of live video in 720p HD resolution (trust us, it’s VERY impressive), and live tracking of (and intercommunication between) countless devices on detailed, interactive global maps.

Remote Media Access. Anytime, Anywhere
The future of Web 2.0, the future of portability, of true mobilization of our digital life, is knocking at our door. Here at CyberLink, we are well prepared, and eager to provide more innovative, leading solutions for the connected digital lifestyle.

Our new, improved, CyberLink Live Premium service stands out, because it provides full mobility AND access to multimedia resources at all times.

CyberLink Live Premium allows anytime, anywhere access to one’s data and multimedia. It’s a simple, yet powerful application that enables remote access to all the content—photos, videos, live and recorded TV programs, music, documents, live webcams—stored on and connected to a home (or office) PC, from any web-enabled device. Its Hosted Relay Service ensures high-bandwidth connectivity through firewalls, and its secure data encryption guarantees safe access.

CyberLink Live is inventive, it answers very simple needs in today’s digital world: the necessity to have on-demand access to documents and multimedia, wherever one may be, to be able to sync data across multiple devices (without countless, confusing copies of documents), to be allowed to share multimedia, files and comments with one’s own community of choice.

CyberLink Live does all this with the simplicity and user-friendliness of an intuitive interface, by transforming any desktop PC in the home or office where the program is installed into a personal Home Server: all files, documents, TV tuner cards and webcams therein are then made available securely through one’s account on the www.cyberlinklive.com website, accessible from any web-enabled device, all over the world and around the clock.

Think of it as being able to bring all your hard drives, all your favorite TV programs, all the live feeds from your webcam (including motion-detection recording and notifications!), on the road and wherever you may be, without any extra weight, portable drives, discs and without any worries.

Now that’s what we call mobilized!

CyberLink at Computex: Partnering with the Leaders of the Connected Digital Age

Another day of Computex 2008 is in the books, and what a day it was! The sheer quantity, quality, size and overall awesomeness of the new products showcased easily make one’s head spin.

CyberLink software solutions are featured prominently in the booths of some of the biggest players in the computer world, through our key partnerships with the likes of Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Dolby, Kingston, Gigabyte and Shuttle, among (many) others.

Just today, Computex visitors were treated to an in-depth live presentation of our most popular software—PowerDVD 8, PowerDirector 7, CyberLink Live Premium—on Intel’s big stage (and to a very popular free software giveaway).

They also may have caught what amounts to a free cinema-like movie display in Intel’s home-theater lounge, or perhaps, if they walked just a few extra steps, witnessed the beauty of high-definition Blu-ray Disc movies on a huge HD plasma display, at the equally impressive AMD booth, which featured their brand-new Turion X2 Dual Core Ultra processors, one of the excellent new innovations that CyberLink software is optimized for.

While AMD and Intel may be fighting for world dominance in the chipset market—much to the delight of all of us consumers who enjoy the revolutionary processors born out of this healthy competitiveness—their choice for showing off stunning home-theater HD movies was a shared one: PowerDVD 8 Ultra.

Just a few booths away, Dolby and NVIDIA were showcasing PowerDVD and PowerCinema, respectively, to highlight the sheer purity of their HD surround sound and graphics capabilities. It was a beauty to the eyes and ears.

And our many TV-tuner card partners (K-World, Yuan and Prolink, among others) were taking full advantage of the live- and recorded-TV streaming capabilities of our CyberLink Live Premium service to display truly mobile (and “mobilized”) TV, on-demand and on the go. Think of it as bringing one’s TV—premium cable channels included—on the road, anywhere and anytime, directly on one’s notebook (or netbook, PDA, or any other web-enabled device), in high quality. And it’s just one of the many features for remote-access that CyberLink Live offers, because a truly connected digital lifestyle means ubiquitous access to everything a user needs, anytime.

If the future (and even the present) is one of HD-everything and Wi-MAX-enabled Web 2.0 mobilization, it’s going to be a bright one for us at CyberLink, for our partners, and for all our users.

 
For more about the ubiquitous connected digital lifestyle, check back on these pages soon, visit our website at www.cyberlink.com and make sure to visit Computex 2008, to witness all that CyberLink and our partners have in store for you.

Computex 2008 – Web 2.0 needs Media 2.0

Yesterday afternoon, Sean Maloney, Intel’s Executive Vice President, addressed the crowd gathered at the Taipei International Conference Center for Computex 2008’s keynote speech. He was giddy with anticipation at what the future holds for the computer industry, at the potential for growth, and the unlimited possibilities that the new technologies offer.

Sean spoke at length about Web 2.0—the Internet used as a platform for the sharing of knowledge and the exchange of, well, virtually everything. He touched upon ”the explosion” of video content, of its ever-growing, ubiquitous presence on the internet and on everybody’s hard drives, and of the current trend toward high definition: “HD everything” is coming, and will be everywhere soon.

(You can find Intel’s vision of the future, as presented by Sean, right here.)

He then talked about the infrastructure, hardware and software alike, that needs to be in place for Web 2.0 to be truly successful—Media 2.0, technologies, applications and logistical planning geared at making the most of the new connected digital world. He stressed the need for “mobilization” of all computer functions, for better accessibility, from anywhere and by everyone, as the true goal for all of us working in the IT industry. The new Intel Atom processors, geared toward ultra-portability, and the soon-to-be-everywhere WiMAX wireless networks are leading the way toward more mobility and accessibility, and everybody in the digital business is investing great resources into making this mobilization successful.

CyberLink is also at the forefront of this continuous evolution/revolution, in a position to deliver the best software for media management, creation and enjoyment. Our vision is one of a truly connected digital lifestyle, and it’s what’s at the core of all our software innovations, which combine powerful tools and ease of use, support the latest formats, and feature the best core programming technologies on the market.   

Creating the HD content to power Web 2.0
PowerDirector 7 (and PowerProducer 5), allows users to capture, edit and author high definition contents on Blu-ray Discs, or post them on YouTube for rapid blogging (or Vlogging, as those who are more connected may say).

People everywhere can watch HD movies on-the-go with their laptops equipped with PowerDVD 8, enjoy high-definition video and audio, then share their opinions and views on our online community dedicated to movie fans worldwide, MoovieLive.

Managing and accessing Media for the Digital Lifestyle
MediaShow 4 is the first media management software on the market to combine ease of use with video-editing capabilities, so that consumers may access and edit all their photos AND videos from one simple application, preserve their digital memories and share them, online and off.

 

CyberLink Live Premium, our web-based service for accessing multimedia, TV and documents remotely from any web-enabled device, puts everybody’s digital memories within reach, anytime and anywhere. It is perhaps the best example of Web 2.0 and Media 2.0 working together to enable live, digital connectivity for online accessing and sharing of multiple contents. It merits its own feature, and we’ll be covering it at length on these pages (very) soon.

Related Computex News
Intel is previewing its new Quad-core processors at their enormous Computex booth: a marvel of technology and miniaturization, and so powerful (with throughputs up to 50 GB/sec!), so efficient, so revolutionary, that they can make one’s head spin; a true marvel of engineering.

It’s a bit of a foregone conclusion, then, that the software Intel chose for showcasing what their G43/45 chipsets can do with Blu-ray movies is the video player with the best playback quality and most advanced core technology: PowerDVD 8 Ultra. If you’re in Taipei this week, check us out at the Intel booth. What you’ll see is worth the trip.

For more in-depth info and coverage on Computex:

• http://www.computextaipei.com.tw
• http://www.digitimes.com/index.asp

 

CyberLink at Computex 2008

Taipei, Taiwan. June 3^rd, 2008

It’s bigger. It’s better. And it’s definitely faster.

 

Yes, we’re talking about Computex 2008, the largest hardware expo in the world which kick-started today, with a speech by Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-Jiou, but we may as well be talking about CyberLink’s new products, including PowerDVD 8, which are leading the connected digital lifestyle.

Computex 2008 is here, with thousands of exhibitors, and absolutely countless hardware and software innovations, creating platforms that allow better and faster digital connectivity and interoperability across devices and across the world with Web 2.0.

Throughout the week we’ll provide a little bit of insight and commentary on the expo’s events and underlining market trends, and present the new technologies that we’ve been working hard to develop here at CyberLink: new versions of our award winning software-PowerDVD 8, PowerDirector 7, MediaShow 4, YouCam 2-, new technologies like TrueTheater^TM, and new and improved platforms for improved accessibility and sharing around the house and remotely, like CyberLink Live Premium, and CyberLink’s Digital Home Enabler (which includes Media Server and SoftDMA).

  

You can read more about our exciting new product and technology news for Computex 2008 here.

CyberLink Digital Home Software Gets Certified

A bit of a technology update for connectivity fans: two applications from CyberLink’s Digital Home Solution line—CyberLink Media Server and CyberLink SoftDMA—have passed DLNA tests and are among the first DLNA Certified™ devices that are compliant with the DLNA Networked Device Interoperability Guidelines v1.5.

DLNA stands for the Digital Living Network Alliance.

What’s more, both Media Server and SoftDMA have been selected as reference devices for interoperability tests as part of the DLNA certification program.

CyberLink has been doing a lot recently in the area of the Digital Home. The field requires all kinds of industry players to join to build an interoperable framework of wired and wireless network devices. The DLNA plays an important role in enabling leading computer, consumer electronics, and mobile device manufacturers to work together in building a Digital Home ecosystem.”

Media Server and SoftDMA are both “Digital Home enablers” and allow the streaming and sharing of content such as video and audio files, or photos, within a DLNA home network.

To see what these products are all about, you can check out the retail download site for CyberLink’s Digital Home Enable Kit.

Hit Predictions for 2008

Teenagers Go Crazy Over Video Chats
Who doesn’t like chatting using instant messaging software? Well, you could say we did our bit to enhance the discussion with CyberLink YouCam. Designed as a kind of photo booth for the home PC, YouCam lets you record videos and take photo snapshots via your web camera. While online in chat mode you can add effects, distortions, frames, and objects instantly. A site filled with bonus effects lets you expand your library for free.

The World Goes Crazier Over HD

You may have already gone totally HD, but not everyone has joined the bandwagon yet! CyberLink’s response has been to add an extra version to its DVD Suite, the 10-in-1 package of our leading products. DVD Suite 6 Ultra (released Dec 2007) is a do-everything-with-HD kind of product. Play, edit, author, and burn Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs. Can it get any bigger than this

Our Hits of 2007

For a company made famous by DVD player software, you might say we seemed very quiet on that front this year.

Sure, everyone loved PowerDVD Ultra, but technically we launched the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD version of PowerDVD in 2006! That said, PowerDVD Ultra—sold online and in retail stores—became a major hit and received rave reviews for its ability to play commercial movie titles in breathtaking high-definition. Such as this one from the UK’s PC Advisor.

PowerDirector was a second hit. Releasing version 6 early in the year, the software suddenly had people taking note: Yes, CyberLink does more than just PowerDVD! Not only did we offer direct uploading to YouTube (and we were the first), we delivered major improvements to our auto editing and design tools, our UI layout, and format support. PC Magazine offered a pretty typical response by saying we’d made “big strides”.