Reviewer’s

Guide

WinDVD

®

9 Plus Blu-ray

The World’s #1 DVD and Video Playback Software

Press Contact

Amie Hoffner

Sr. PR Manager - Digital Media

Phone: (952) 294-2350

Fax: (952) 930-9172

Cell: (952) 217-9000

Email: [email protected]

Contents

Welcome to the Reviewer’s Guide for WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray, the latest version of Corel’s awardwinning DVD, Blu-ray Disc

®

and Video Playback Software.

Contents

Welcome

Corel

®

Digital Media Solutions .............................................................................................. 3

Trends in the WinDVD

®

target market ................................................................................... 3

Introduction

WinDVD

®

9 Plus Blu-ray at a glance ...................................................................................... 4

What’s New

New features ......................................................................................................................... 5

Blu-ray Disc/HD DVD playback .............................................................................................. 6

Version comparison chart ....................................................................................................... 7

Product Tour

Stylish new user interface ...................................................................................................... 8

State-of-the-art upscaling & video enhancement .................................................................... 9

Movies on the go - Music to your ears - Hardware graphics acceleration ........................... 10

Personalize playback & enjoy HD home movies ................................................................. 11

Summary

WinDVD

WinDVD

®

®

9 Plus Blu-ray – The best way to watch movies on your PC! .............................. 12

9 family ................................................................................................................. 13

System requirements .......................................................................................................... 14

Corel

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray

Reviewer’s Guide Page 2

Welcome

Corel

®

Digital Media Solutions

Enrich the way you live, work and play

Corel’s Digital Media Solutions offer the broadest portfolio of products to enhance the way users live, work and play. Our innovative software gives both beginner and advanced users the tools they need to organize, enhance, edit, share and enjoy their digital content. Whether it’s working with photos or video, creating or playing back DVDs and high-definition discs, or sharing on mobile devices or on the Web, Corel Digital Media solutions empower users to make the most of their digital media and enrich their lifestyle.

Covering the spectrum of user needs

Whether a beginner or advanced user – or somewhere in between – Corel has the full software suite to manage, enjoy and share photos and videos.



Organization – easily import, export, categorize, sort and archive photos and videos.



Photo Editing – change color, fix lighting, erase objects, crop and enhance images.



Project Creation – produce movies, slideshows, calendars and scrapbooks.



Digital Art – sketch, paint and transform photos into stunning paintings.



Video Playback – enjoy crystal-clear playback of DVD, video and audio in most popular movie file formats.



Video Editing – enhance video footage with narration, music, audio and special effects to create amazing videos.



DVD Creation – create, author and burn professional-style movies, menus and slideshows to

DVD and CD.



Copy and Convert – transfer content to multiple media devices and/or burn to DVD and CD.

Trends in the WinDVD

®

target market

High-Definition Playback

The shift to HD is gaining momentum. With Blu-ray emerging as the winner in the format war, consumers who elected to “wait and see” are now able to invest in the new technology with greater confidence. HD content is gaining shelf space in retail channels and fanfare around new title launches will create even more excitement for the HD experience. For PC playback, hardware requirements are now well established and component prices are falling to the point where this year mainstream PCs will have the ability to play back HD titles. In short, the scene is now set for HD to take off.

Upscaling

If HD is clearly the future, SD remains the present. High-end televisions and DVD players address the gap between display technology and lower-resolution content by including sophisticated upscaling features. WinDVD now brings this solution to PC and notebook playback. Users can enjoy a “betterthanoriginal” experience when playing back DVD content with advanced SD to HD upscaling and picture enhancement based on Trimension ALL2HD technology

.

HD Home Movies

Consumers are shifting to HD camcorders for shooting their family memories. HDV led the way, but

AVCHD is gaining in popularity, and Hitachi just announced a Blu-ray camcorder. WinDVD

®

9 Plus

Blu-ray will flawlessly play back HD home movies - from video files, AVCHD or Blu-ray discs - in full resolution.

Corel

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray

Reviewer’s Guide Page 3

Introduction

WinDVD

®

9 Plus Blu-ray at a glance

Corel

®

WinDVD

®

9 Plus Blu-ray is DVD, Blu-ray Disc

®

and video playback software that delivers quality and entertainment in style. Play spectacular Blu-ray and HD DVD discs on your PC, or enjoy standard DVDs with state-of-the-art HD-quality upscaling. Take your movies on the go with advanced battery optimization controls for laptops. Play home movies recorded on the latest high-definition

AVCHD™ camcorders. Choose WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray for the ultimate Blu-ray, DVD and video playback experience.

WinDVD

®

9 Plus Blu-ray

The World’s #1 DVD and Video Playback

Software



Superior video & audio playback

The best way to watch movies on your PC.



View standard DVDs at amazing HD

resolution with state-of-the-art upscaling and motion enhancement.



Unique laptop features lets you watch movies wherever you are, and ensure you never miss the ending!



Plays popular formats

Standard as well as high-definition formats like Blu-ray, HD DVD, AVCHD and HDV.

Blu-ray/HD DVD playback

WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray plays high-definition Blu-ray and HD DVD discs!



Play commercial titles with advanced navigation features



Play recordable media such as HD DVD-R, BD-R and RE



The first playback software to support new BD BonusView.

Corel

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray

Reviewer’s Guide Page 4

What’s New

WinDVD

®

9 Plus Blu-ray offers a cool new interface, with up-to-date DVD & video playback enhancements. Play Blu-ray & HD DVD discs, or enjoy new upscaling technology that makes DVDs look like HD. Enhancement filters improve low-resolution video, and there is support for new audio and video formats such as Dolby

®

Digital EX and AVCHD.

Stylish good looks

The sophisticated graphite interface blends seamlessly with your Windows

®

XP or Vista

® desktop.



Digital Natural Motion – advanced motionsmoothing technology.

Enhance low-resolution video



New graphite color – Up-to-date and professional look.

Clean up digital artifacts from MPEG, H.264 and VC-1 video



New layout – A clutter-free and easy-tonavigate interface.



New compact mode – Minimize the screen to use less screen space.



Message Center – Don’t miss out on product updates, exclusive offers and fun tips and tricks!



De-snow filter removes digital noise from low-resolution video.



De-block filter removes blocky digital artifacts from compressed video.

More formats supported

Enjoy reliable playback of high-definition or standard-definition video recorded from HDTV, camcorder, or downloaded from the Web.

Immerse yourself in today’s top audio technologies.

Technology powerhouse

Maximize your viewing experience with stateof-the-art audio and video technologies.



Blu-ray & HD DVD Playback – Enjoy the unrivalled viewing experience of highdefinition discs.



Unique All2HD upscaling – converts standard DVDs to crisp high-definition video with outstanding color and clarity.

Corel

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray

Reviewer’s Guide



H.264 Support – Smoothly plays back the next-generation high-definition format for premium content and downloaded video.



AVCHD ™ – Supports playback of video from AVCHD camcorders, either copied from the camcorder hard drive, on

AVCHD disc, or memory card.



Dolby

®

Digital EX – Enjoy 6.1 or 7.1channel playback with appropriate hardware.



DTS

™

surround audio – Supports up to 6 channels of audio for titles with DTS

™ surround sound.

Page 5

Blu-ray/

HD DVD ay

Blu-ray Disc/HD DVD playback

WinDVD

®

9 Plus Blu-ray plays back high-definition Blu-ray and HD DVD discs with stunning 1080p picture quality and next-generation Dolby

®

Digital Plus, Dolby

®

TrueHD and DTS-HD ™ surround sound. BD-J, BonusView and HD DVD Advanced Navigation offer new and exciting ways to interact with content.

Compatibility



WinDVD

®

9 Plus Blu-ray fully supports both

Blu-ray and HD DVD disc types.



Play commercial titles, as well as

recordable media such as HD DVD-R, BD-R and RE.



Supports both BD-J and HD DVD Advanced

Navigation technology to provide immersive features such as pop-up menus to select scenes or change audio tracks, without interrupting movie playback.



It is the first software to support the new

BonusView picture-in-picture features on

Blu-ray Disc

®

.



Plays back HD-Rec (HD DVD on standard

DVDs) - HD DVD-format video can also be burned on a standard DVD disc. WinDVD reliably plays back such discs on standard

DVD drives.



Supports all Blu-ray and HD DVD video encoding formats, including MPEG-4-AVC

(H.264), MPEG-2, and VC1.



Supports HD audio formats like Dolby

®

Digital Plus, and uncompressed Dolby

®

TrueHD and DTS-HD

™

for Blu-ray and HD

DVD commercial titles.

Interactivity

Support for BD-J & BonusView

Interact with advanced content such as games, additional tracks and advanced menu options for Blu-ray Discs.

Blu-ray BD-J overlay menu

Support for HD DVD Advanced Navigation

Provides interactive menus and special features for HD DVD, including links to online content, clips and images. Responds to user navigation input (remote buttons) as well as to events set to occur during playback of a movie.

HD DVD Advanced Navigation Menu

Corel

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray

Reviewer’s Guide Page 6

Version

Comparisons

WinDVD

®

9

Version Comparisons

Comparing previous and current versions

WinDVD ® 9

Plus Blu-ray

WinDVD ®

Plus

9 WinDVD ® 9

Standard

WinDVD ® 8

Platinum

WinDVD ®

Gold

8

Key Features

Blu-ray/HD DVD playback & navigation

BD-J/BonusView

HD DVD Advanced Navigation

All2HD Upscaling

De-snow/De-block filters

AVCHD

™ support

96K/24bit audio decoding

NVIDIA PureVideo

ATI AVIVO

Codec/File Format Support

H.264

VC1

DivX

®

file playback

WMV HD

QuickTime

®

RealPlayer

®

Audio Features

Dolby Digital® Plus

Dolby

®

Digital EX

Dolby

®

TrueHD

Dolby

®

Pro Logic IIx

Dolby

®

Headphone

Dolby

®

Virtual Speaker

DTS ™ HD

DTS

™ NEO:6

SRS TruSurround

®

VT

Video Features

Progressive de-interlace

SmartStretch

Smooth reverse playback

Other Features

Quick Clip

Power Saver

Time Stretch

Corel

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray

Reviewer’s Guide

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Product Tour

Stylish new user interface

Audio Graphic Equalizer

Corel

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray

Reviewer’s Guide

WinDVD

®

9 Plus Bluray’s new, sophisticated graphite design blends seamlessly with your Windows ®

XP or Window Vista

®

desktop. The interface is clutter-free and easy-to-navigate. Apart from the familiar playback controls, users can find advanced audio and video controls to easily personalize the playback experience.

Video Filters and

Enhancements

Display clip information by clicking the “I” button

Click on

Compact Mode to see viewing area only

Set up a custom playlist

Page 8

Product Tour

State-of-the-art upscaling

& video enhancement

WinDVD

®

9 Plus Blu-ray employs leading technologies to make standard DVDs look like HD, and to

improve the look of low-resolution video.

Trimension ™ ALL2HD upscaling

All2HD converts standard DVDs to crisp near-high-definition video with

outstanding color and clarity. It works by auto-scaling intelligently, and tailoring playback to fit monitor resolution and refresh rate. Adjust sharpness for a better-than-original look.

Try it for yourself!

Note: Be sure to turn off hardware acceleration in the

Setup-Audio/Video Setup menu to enable All2HD.

Trimension ™ Digital Natural Motion

Digital Natural Motion removes judder effect for smooth motion and crisp edges even on fastmoving objects. Choose from presets for the smoothest possible playback.

De-Block

Now!

Clean up

MPEG videos!

De-Snow

Enhance low-resolution video

Clean up digital artifacts from MPEG, H.264 and VC1 video.



De-snow filter removes digital noise from low-resolution video.



De-block filter removes blocky digital artifacts from compressed video.

Corel

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray

Reviewer’s Guide Page 9

Product Tour

Corel

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray

Reviewer’s Guide







Movies on the go

Music to your ears

Hardware graphics acceleration

Laptop-friendly features

WinDVD

®

9 Plus Blu-ray offers custom controls for those who like to watch movies on the go.



Smartstretch lets users watch movies in standard or widescreen.



Enjoy Virtual Surround Sound even when listening on headphones.



TimeStretch enables the playback time to be adjusted without altering the audio pitch - so a movie can finish when you need it to!



Battery Optimization makes sure your battery doesn’t die before the villain does.

Top audio technologies

The Audio Center gives easy access to a robust assortment of high-end audio technologies:



Dolby Digital

®

Plus – Next-generation HD sound support.



Dolby

®

TrueHD – Audio encoded with lossless technology, supporting the Blu-ray/HD DVD maximum of 8 channels.



DTS-HD ™ – DTS 7.1 surround audio for compatible Bluray/HD DVD discs.



Dolby

®

Pro Logic IIx – Transforms 2-channel (stereo) audio to surround sound, or expands 5.1 sources up to 7.1 speaker systems. Choose Movie or Music modes.



Dolby

®

Virtual Speaker – Creates a 5.1 surround sound environment on two speakers.



SRS audio technologies – Selectively enhance movie dialog or music, or create a virtual surround effect on two speakers with TruSurround

®

.



96 kHz/24-bit audio decoding –

Play back audiophile-quality audio.

Hardware graphics acceleration

WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray supports graphics devices with ATI

AVIVO™HD and NVIDIA PureVideo ®

HD hardware-enhanced video playback.



Enjoy sharper, more vibrant video images.



Minimize CPU utilization and power consumption.

Page 10

Product Tour

Personalize playback

& enjoy HD home movies

Personalized playback



Pan & Zoom – Click and drag to zoom in and pan across any part of the screen to get a closer look.



Playlists – Create personal playlists with audio tracks or video files from DVDs, VCDs, SVCDs and CDs.



Bookmark favorite spots and save them as a file (.bmk) for later, or send to a friend.



Instant Replay – Ctrl-B lets you jump back to the line you missed, or catch that action sequence again!



Smooth Reverse Playback – Play movies in reverse without frame drops.



The Boss Key (F12) instantly clears the desktop and pauses your movie. To resume, simply double-click on the small WinDVD

®

9 icon in the system tray!

Capture Image/QuickClip

The new capture controls make it even easier to grab a favorite movie scene as a still picture or animated clip that users can easily share with friends via email or mobile phone.

Capture QuickClips

UPnP ™ client

Plays back content from other UPnP-certified devices within a network, with enhanced thumbnail views of available clips!

AVCHD and HDV playback

Today’s high-definition camcorders let you record your personal memories in stunning clarity. WinDVD

®

9 Plus Blu-ray lets you see them at full resolution!



AVCHD – Conveniently supports playback of video from AVCHD camcorders, either copied from the camcorder hard drive, on AVCHD disc, or memory card.



HDV Video – Play HD video captured from HDV camcorders.



Blu-ray Camcorders – Play HD video from the latest Hitachi Blu-ray camcorders

Corel

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray

Reviewer’s Guide Page 11

Summary

WinDVD

®

9 Plus Blu-ray

The best way to watch movies on your PC!

Corel

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray

Reviewer’s Guide

Corel

®

WinDVD

®

9 Plus Blu-ray

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray offers high quality playback of commercial and personal Blu-ray and HD DVD movies, video files and DVDs, and introduces cutting-edge video upscaling and enhancements.

$99.99 SRP in US and Canada

Upgrades from WinDVD 6, 7 and 8 to

WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray will be available via download at $59.99 SRP.

User Benefits Recap



Blu-ray Disc/HD DVD Playback.



State-of-the-art upscaling with motion enhancement.

– View standard DVDs at amazing HD resolution



Plays popular formats – Standarddefinition and high-definition video such as

AVCHD and HDV.



Unique laptop features – Watch movies wherever you are, and ensure you never miss the ending.



Superior video and audio playback – The best way to watch movies on your PC.

Page 12

WinDVD 9

Family

WinDVD® 9 is available in three editions to let consumers choose the range of features they need, at different price points. (For the differences between WinDVD® 9, WinDVD® 9 Plus, and WinDVD® 9

Plus Blu-ray, see the comparison chart on p7)

Corel

®

WinDVD

®

9 Plus

The World’s #1 DVD and Video Playback Software

With over 200 million users worldwide, WinDVD ® 9 Plus offers high-quality playback of video files and discs, and introduces cutting-edge video upscaling and enhancements.



Superior video & audio playback – The best way to watch movies on your PC.



All2HD upscaling – View standard DVDs at amazing HD resolution with state-of-the-art upscaling and motion enhancement.



Unique laptop features – Watch movies wherever you are, and ensure you never miss the ending!



Plays popular formats – Standard as well as highdefinition formats like AVCHD and HDV.

Corel

®

WinDVD

®

9

(Standard Version)

WinDVD

®

9 is the world’s leading DVD and video playback software delivering superior audio and video quality in a stylish and easy-touse application. With broad format support, state-of-the-art quality enhancement technologies and unique features for watching movies on the go, WinDVD

®

9 sets the standard for affordable entertainment on your laptop or desktop PC.

UPGRADE to Blu-ray

Upgrade WinDVD

®

9 and WinDVD

®

9 Plus to high-definition disc playback! Visit www.corel.com and purchase your instant activation key . You’ll be watching the latest blockbusters, in HD, in no time! Also plays HD DVDs.

Upgrade from WinDVD 9 Plus:

Upgrade from WinDVD 9:

US$ 29.99

US$ 59.99

Corel

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray

Reviewer’s Guide Page 13

System

Requirements

WinDVD

®

9 Plus System Requirements and Format Support



OS: Windows

®



Processor: Minimum CPU:



Windows

®

XP: Intel

Windows Vista

®

XP SP2, Windows Vista

®

®

Pentium

: Intel

®

Pentium

®

Recommended CPU: Intel

®

®

III 800 MHz or equivalent AMD Athlon

4 1.0GHz or equivalent AMD Athlon

®

Pentium

®

4 2.8 GHz or equivalent AMD Athlon

®



RAM: 256 MB system memory or above (512 MB recommended)



Disc space: 200 MB of hard-disk space for program installation.

®

processor

processor

, or above



4:3 or 16:9 (widescreen) monitor



Graphics Card: AGP or PCI-Express graphics card/accelerator with DirectDraw

TM

overlay support



Windows

®

-compatible sound card and stereo speakers (PCI or on-board audio card)



Optical Drive: DVD-ROM, DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo, DVD-R/RW, DVD+RW or DVD-RAM drive

Supported Formats



Disc: DVD-Video, VCD, SVCD, Mini DVD (DVD on CD), WMV HD, Audio CD, AVCHD™ disc



Video: H.264, MPEG-1, 2, 3GPP/3GPP2, DivX

®

, Windows Media

®

, AVI, RealPlayer

®

, QuickTime

®

HDV, MPEG2 HD, AVCHD™



Audio: Dolby Digital

®

, MP3, AAC, MPA, M2A, WAV, WMA, DTS

™

, LPCM

,

Additional Blu-ray/HD DVD Playback Requirements



Processor: Intel

® Core™ Duo T2400 1.83 GHz or above, AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3800+ 2.0 GHz or above



RAM: 512MB



Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce

®

7600 or above, ATI Radeon

®

X1600 or above



VGA Chipset: Ensure VGA chipset supports hardware acceleration, with updated drivers installed.



VGA VRAM: 128MB



Optical Drive: Blu-ray optical drive for Blu-ray titles or HD DVD drive for HD DVD. Standard DVD optical drives can play back HD-REC (HD DVD video burned on a standard DVD) as well as AVCHD discs.



Display Device: If you are using a DVI (Digital Visual Interface) or HDMI (High-definition Multimedia

Interface) connection to a digital output, please make sure your display device is HDCP (Highbandwidth Digital Content Protection) compatible and your VGA supports HDCP.

Supported Formats



Disc: Commercial HD DVD & Blu-ray discs, HD DVD-R, BD-R and RE, HD-REC



Video: MPEG-4-AVC (H.264), MPEG-2 HD, and VC1



Audio: Dolby Digital

®

Plus, Dolby

®

TrueHD and DTS-HD

™

Copyright © 2008 Corel Inc. All rights reserved. Corel, the Corel logo, InterVideo, and WinDVD, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel

Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in Canada, the U.S. and/or other countries.

AMD, AMD Athlon, ATI, ATI logo, Avivo and Radeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AVCHD and the AVCHD logo are trademarks of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. and Sony Corporation. Blu-ray, Blu-ray Disc and Blu-ray Disc Logo are trademarks and/ or registered trademarks licensed by Sony Corporation on behalf of Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). DivX, and associated logos are trademarks of DivX, Inc. and are used under license. Dolby, Pro Logic, and the double-D symbol are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. DTS is a registered trademark and the DTS logos and Symbol are trademarks of DTS, Inc. DVD Logo and HD DVD Logo are trademarks of DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation.

Intel, Intel Core, and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. NVIDIA PUREVIDEO and NVIDIA GEFORCE are registered trademarks or trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. QuickTime and the QuickTime logo are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. QuickTime and the QuickTime logo are trademarks used under license. The

RealPlayer is included under license from RealNetworks, Inc. © 1995-2001 RealNetworks, Inc. RealPlayer is registered trademark of RealNetworks, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. SRS and the SRS symbol, TruSurround, TruSurround XT, are trademarks or registered trademarks of SRS Labs,

Inc. Trimension is a trademark belonging to NXP Software B.V. Windows, Windows Vista, Windows Media, DirectDraw, DirectX and the Windows logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other products, font and company names and logos may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Corel

WinDVD ® 9 Plus Blu-ray

Reviewer’s Guide Page 14