CyberLink Media Suite

CyberLink Media Suite 12 bundles a number of powerful media tools into one unified solution, including PowerDVD for playing DVD and Blu-ray discs, PowerProducer for media authoring, PowerDirector for HD video editing, and MediaShow for managing all your media. Media Suite also edits audio, burns and copies discs, backs up data, and designs labels. While it's not cheap, it's not too expensive, either, especially when considering what it packs in comparison to similar media packages.

Pros

All-encompassing studio: Media Suite's tools work together to cover all your media needs and can serve as the core of a home media platform. For example, you can copy movies to your hard drive and watch them on your home media network.

Unified interface: Though you can access tools individually, Media Suite's master interface let us select any function and then choose from a menu of wizards for things we want to do, like Play a Movie Disc or View Online Movie Info.

Cross-platform: You can create and manage media for portable devices with Media Suite, too. Recent updates include Windows 8 touchscreen compatibility.

Extras: Media Suite packs mobile apps, including Android versions of some of its tools, as well as some extras like YouCam apps.

Cons

Size: CyberLink Media Suite 12 is a large download of compressed data that must be extracted, and installing all 12 bundled programs requires more than 2GB of your drive. If space is an issue (for example, if you boot from an SSD), be aware of the headroom required.

Bottom Line

While CyberLink Media Suite 12 costs just under $120 retail (with a 30-day trial), it may be a bargain for many users, especially when you consider that it packs not only some powerful media authoring and managing tools that already work together, but it can also replace component Blu-ray or DVD players in a home media system.

Editors' note: This is a review of the full version of CyberLink Media Suite 12. The trial version is limited to 30 days.