CyberLink Power2Go is a Windows program for burning CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs. It also authors movie discs with menus, converts media for phones and tablets, and protects or backs up data. It is a paid application sold as Power2Go Platinum, and CyberLink offers a free trial download under the Essential name.
Power2Go groups its work into tasks. Each task opens its own window for one kind of disc or job. You build a music CD, an encrypted data disc or a Blu-ray movie with settings suited to each.
Data, music and copied discs
To build a data disc in Power2Go, you add files and folders to a content area. You can use a filter to limit which file types it includes. The program writes to CD, DVD or Blu-ray media and can keep a burn log of each session. You can erase rewritable discs first, either quickly by clearing the index or fully by removing all content.
Music discs come in several forms:
- Audio CD for standard CD players, with CD-Text, volume normalization and adjustable gaps between tracks.
- MP3 or WMA discs on CD or DVD, which hold far more songs as compressed files and can include an automatically generated playlist.
- CUE audio discs, where a CUE sheet with its matching FLAC or APE file supplies the track list and album details before burning.
Disc copying duplicates a disc onto a blank disc of the same type. Before the copy starts, you set the read and write speed, the number of copies and whether to skip read errors. You can also save the copy to the hard drive instead. Some copy-protected or damaged discs cannot be duplicated.
Drag-and-drop burning gadget
For quick jobs, Power2Go also runs as a small desktop gadget. The gadget queues files or movies dropped onto it for a disc. One click on the gadget starts the burn.
Movie disc authoring
Power2Go turns video files into DVD, Blu-ray or AVCHD movie discs that play in disc players. You build menus from templates with a main page and a scenes page. You can change the text, chapter titles, layout and photo gallery. Platinum adds a pack of premium menu templates in themes such as travel, holidays, home video and romance.
Menu audio can come from the included music library or from audio files on the computer. You can set the music volume, with fade-in, fade-out and repeat options. You can trim unwanted parts of each clip and preview the result in Full HD before burning anything.
Quality and disc space
DVD output offers three quality levels: Best Quality, Standard Quality and Long Play. Lower levels fit more video on a disc at the cost of picture quality. Smart Fit chooses the highest quality the disc can hold, taking the decision out of the user’s hands. It raises the bit rate to use any space left over.
Conversion for phones and other devices
The conversion side of Power2Go prepares video and audio for mobile devices. When you connect a phone, Smart Detect picks a suitable format and resolution for that model, with output up to 4K. You can choose a preset or custom profile instead, setting the format, resolution and audio by hand.
Supported formats include HEVC (H.265) video, HEIC and HEIF images, and MP3, WAV, OGG, APE and FLAC audio. H.265 encoding produces smaller files for transfer. It also lets you convert footage from iPhones or GoPro cameras for devices that cannot play it directly. You can apply CyberLink’s TrueTheater enhancements during conversion to improve the look of the transferred video.
You can rip audio CDs to files such as MP3, FLAC, WAV or APE. Along the way, you can edit track titles, artists and album details. An audio converter changes existing files between formats and can also pull the soundtrack out of a video.
Disc images and the virtual drive
Power2Go saves a disc as an image file and burns image files back to disc. You can also mount an ISO as a virtual drive with its own drive letter. This lets you open its contents as if a disc were inserted, without an optical drive. The ISO Viewer lets you browse and organize image files.
Encryption and system backup
Power2Go can write encrypted CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs using 256-bit encryption. The user sets a password when burning, and the protected files open only after that password is entered. You can also copy an existing unencrypted disc to a new encrypted disc in one step.
For Windows backup, Power2Go copies data files to disc and creates a bootable recovery CD, DVD or Blu-ray. A USB flash drive can serve as the recovery medium in place of a disc.
YouTube downloads
Power2Go can download videos from YouTube, including 4K and HDR uploads, for offline viewing or burn them straight to a disc.
