CyberLink PowerDVD 14 adds HEVC support, cloud storage/ sync

CyberLink Corp has launched PowerDVD 14, the latest edition of its universal media player.

The top-of-the-range PowerDVD 14 Ultra now includes a free year’s subscription to 10GB of space on CyberLink Cloud. There’s new support for syncing media between PC and mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows 8), while auto-transcoding of videos, photos & music from PC to Cloud should improve performance.

PowerDVD 14 Ultra also adds support for playing HEVC/H.265 videos and UltraViolet CFF content (US only) from within the program.

Meanwhile, all PowerDVD editions (Ultra, Pro and Standard) can now handle Vimeo videos and ALAC audio files, and there’s support for MP4 files with multiple audio tracks and embedded subtitles.

PowerDVD 14 also sees much improved YouTube abilities. "Pin" a YouTube video and it can be watched offline, and viewed just like any other clip: upscaled to HD or 3D, enhanced using TrueTheater, and browsed via PowerDVD’s fast forward and slow-motion features.

As previously, there are major differences between PowerDVD’s editions. The high-end PowerDVD 14 Ultra does everything; PowerDVD 14 Pro drops CyberLink Cloud, 3D and UltraViolet CFF, as well as the Power Media Player. PowerDVD 14 Standard also drops Blu-ray and AVCHD support.

A 30-day PowerDVD 14 Ultra trial is available now, but beware, it does have some limitations. In particular, it doesn’t support HEVC/H.265 playback; you only get 2GB of CyberLink Cloud space, and CyberLink Cloud for Power Media Player isn’t available.