CyberLink Media Suite 8 Ultra review

Windows is so stuffed with extra bits and bobs these days, that media software bundles have a tough time justifying themselves. Even advanced functions, such as video editing, are covered by Microsoft's Live Essentials, while photo management and editing can be had for free via the excellent Google Picasa 3.5. So is there any reason to buy CyberLink's Media Suite 8 bundle?

At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking not – after all, it's main selling points are its media management, video and photo editing capabilities – but take a closer look, and you might start changing your mind. The main reason is that, instead of bit-part applications, which bundles such as this so often include, Media Suite 8 wraps up grown up versions of the company's video and photo applications.

On the video side, you get a full version of PowerDirector 8, a video editing tool that not only supports a wide range of video codecs (including the all-important AVCHD), but is also absolutely packed with features. You get GPU acceleration support for both ATI Stream and Nvidia CUDA, plus advanced features such as particle effects, video noise reduction, and interpolated slow-motion.

There are plenty of video and audio tracks to play with, plus there's a decent selection of output options, including the ability to write AVCHD footage to DVD media so you can watch Full HD on a standalone Blu-ray player. Other neat features include the ability to have the video editor transcode AVCHD clips in the background to a less demanding format, so they preview smoothly on less powerful PCs. It's not as good as Adobe Premiere Elements 8, but it's not far off.

For photos, the package takes in CyberLink's MediaShow 5 applications, another impressive addition. It has advantages over Google Picasa too, firstly in its support for video, which is broader than Picasa and boasts more impressive quick-editing facilities. Colour correction and software-based image stabilisation are among the most impressive inclusions.

Its tagging engine is also superior in some respects. Both applications offer automatic face tagging, but where it`s the workflow in MediaShow is more straightforward. For those with the appropriate hardware, meanwhile, the whole process can be speed boosted; as with PowerDirector, MediaShow offers both ATI Stream and Nvidia CUDA acceleration and on our test laptop with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 chipset an analysis on a test set of 61 photos the analysis completed in 59 seconds. Picasa`s background process was still going after five minutes. It's also nice to be able to apply the face recognition to specific folders, rather than have to apply it across everything as with Picasa, and the Facebook upload, which transfers the face tags along with the pictures, is a really useful feature.

Elsewhere you get a basic audio editing app with support for VST plugins, and with the Ultra version reviewed here, you also get PowerDVD 9, a movie player that includes not only decent DVD upscaling and impressively broad format support, but also full-fat Blu-ray playback facilities. That means there's support for BD-Live, HDMI 1.3, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio. It's a nice addition for those thinking of upgrading their Media Center PCs with a Blu-ray drive.

The weakness of this package lies not in its component parts, however, but in the way they all fit together. The launch console is neat enough, keeping the number of options down and the language simple, but the workflow doesn't quite hang together in the way it should. Rather than offer a single application for managing photos and videos, Media Suite offers one for each. Click through to the photo management tool, and it will offer to import both pictures and video and save both file types to your photo folders by default. Unless you're careful, your media library is going to get very confused, very quickly. Likewise, when you click the Edit video option while in the Video management tool it will whisk you away, not to the main PowerDirector tool, but to MediaShow; not the most obvious choice.

The key question is how this all stacks up against the competition, and here it's a bit of a mixed bag. While Media Suite offers superior core components than rival suites such as Nero 9 and Roxio Creator 2010 – its video and photo editing are far better offerings - it can't compete with the polish of Adobe's Premiere/Photoshop Elements 8 bundle. So, while there's no doubt Media Suite offers great value for money, we recommend choosing the Adobe package, and if you need the Blu-ray playback, investing extra for a third-party solution instead.

Price when reviewed: £85 (£100 inc VAT)