Updated April 14th, 2015: As we expected, PowerDVD 15 was released today. You’ll be able to check out the new features in the Standard, Pro, and Ultra versions, as well as download the free 30-day trial version at Cyberlink.com. And if you decide to order from Cyberlink, you can save an extra 10% on your purchase between now and May 1st, 2015 when you use coupon code PDVDSV at checkout. We’ve also posted our own review which highlights the major improvements in version 15 and the minimum system requirements your PC needs to be compatible with the changed specs.
Updated April 7th, 2015: Looks like the folks at Cyberlink have posted ALL of the “preview pages” for the upcoming PowerDVD 15 launch – That includes for Standard, Pro and Ultra versions. Listed below is a look at all the new features and what’s to come in each version (click on each screenshot to expand into full view).
In terms of the release date, it looks like we were spot-on with the predictions from months ago for the mid-April release of PowerDVD 15. Thanks to the tip from one of our reader, Luigi, an amazon.fr leak has set the “official” release date for April 14th, 2015 (the page has since been removed). We’ve posted the screenshot further below as well with the details.
PowerDVD 15 Standard:
PowerDVD 15 Pro:
PowerDVD 15 Ultra:
Here’s the Amazon France page that we were able to take a snapshot of before it was deleted by Amazon:
Updated: March 1st, 2015: For the last several releases of PowerDVD, we’ve been seeing a pretty consistent release cycle (mostly do to the formatting changes still coming out in video formatting, including blu-ray). With only the exception of version 12, all the new updates are usually released on an annual basis in either March or April.
Here is the full list of previous release dates back to version 8:
- PowerDVD 14 – This is the latest version and became available on April 8th, 2014.
- PowerDVD 13 – This version became available on April 2, 2013.
- PowerDVD 12 – Available on January 31, 2012.
- PowerDVD 11 – Released on April 18, 2011.
- PowerDVD 10 – Released on March 3, 2010.
- PowerDVD 9 – Released on March 2, 2009.
- PowerDVD 8 – Released on April 2, 2008.
Is there a grace period for those that bought version 14 right before 15 was released?
We hate buying software right be a new version is released, but sometimes it’s simply unavoidable. We’ve heard through several forums that Cyberlink offers a 30-day grace period and will give you a free upgrade if you bought within this timeframe before a new version is out. However, we could not find any terms in writing that specifies this so you will need to talk with customer support to see what’s possible. The worst case is that you can request for a refund (they have a 30-day refund policy) and then repurchase the new version.
What’s coming in PowerDVD 15?
We haven’t yet seen any pre-release notes yet so it’s still too early to know what’s coming for sure. As users of PowerDVD 14 ourselves, we would love to see better Chrome support. We also hope to see changes to their Cinavia protection. Cinavia is basically an audio protection against pirated movies and sits within the audio track. If it believes that the video is pirated (such as someone smuggling in a video camera into a movie theater), it will block the sound. But if you are using Anydvd-HD to make your DVD movie region free, even though you bought an original copy, it will not let you play the audio in the film (usually stops after about 20 minutes or so).
What would you like to see in version 15? Leave your suggestions in the comments below.
Rajesh Singh
It seems that the adjustment for cropping and aspect ratio to remove the black borders from top and below and fit 1080p full HD videos on 16:9 screen ( as in VLC, SMplayer , JRiver) is still not been provided . So NO upgrade for me and i will invest in JRiver Media Center instead.
Tom
Her is a Video
https://youtu.be/pF4GAMHfLZo
Robin
The preview pages doesn’t work anymore. Seems i was lucky to get it a few days earlier.
Robin
I purchased the Pro version and i could download it right away, so it’s released.
Eric
Hi Robin,
Thanks for the confirmation – I’m surprised that you were able to download it as PowerDVD 15 is not “officially” released yet.
Cheers,
Eric
Robin
Ok, it works perfectly fine. I’m watching a film on it now.
Luigi
PowerDVD 15 is announced to be available on April 14, 2015 by Amazon.
wasse
Any new news about Power DVD 15 ?
Milton
I am waiting for the release of the Power DVD 15 Ultra and what is the new that it brings.
Tamer Samy
I wish if they support external subtitles in BD movies player as currently not supported,
all cheap android media player doing that very easy
Karl
I do not quite understand your meaning. Could you please clarify “external subtitles in BD movies”? Thanks.
Robin
I would like to see PowerDVD 15 to use that crop function in VLC player or something similar. It’s better than PowerDVDs version which distorts the picture and crops. VLC player doesn’t distort the picture making people look fat or very wide.
Luke
I would like to see support for Dolby ATMOS and the new Blu Ray 4k UHD disk movies becoming available in 2015.
Ryan R
Luke, i own powerdvd 14 ultra and i’m able to send Dolby Atmos through HDMI, from my pc to my onkyo tx-nr636. i’ve got a 5.1.2 setting and it works fantastic
Dave
No, we would like to see PowerDVD 15 perform the decoding itself instead of sending it to a receiver (bitstreaming). There are many of us that use our computers as prepros and have no need for a receiver to decode – we let PowerDVD decode and send the signal straight to a monitor and the audio via analog to power amps.
Ryan
PowerDVD Live is for only $5 a month billed quarterly or $45 dollars a year and you get all updates to the software plus 10 gb of cloud storage for watching videos on the go.
Lloyd
I already have PowerDVD 14 Ultra. You get it if you subscribe to Cyberlink PowerDVD Live.