HomePage 3 of 24: What's new in version 2.1
Note : This is an archived review for an older version of WinDVD. For the latest review, please refer to this page.
NEW in WinDVD 2000 v2.1
To see a complete review of the the latest version of WinDVD, please refer to this page.Zoom
- Zoom support has been added and in a way it is both superior and inferior to the implementation in PowerDVD. The zoom feature can be accessed by holding down the left mouse button and dragging an area around the screen in which you want to zoom to. To restore to the original size, you'll have to access WinDVD's main console, expand the console by pressing on the ">" button located just below the "power" button, and click on the "zoom" button. There is also a "pan" button located there to allow you to, again using the left mouse button, to pan the picture in any direction.
This zooming feature is superior to that of PowerDVD because it allows a variable zoom, meaning that you can eve zoom down to the smallest pixel, whereas PowerDVD only allows a certain level of zoom, controlled by a "zoom in" and "zoom out" command. It is also inferior because, unlike PowerDVD, there are no presets for zooming, meaning that if you want to watch a widescreen movie as a fullscreen one (as many often want to), then you'll have to drag out the area everytime you want to watch it. This feature also isn't documented very well, and as a result, many people are not aware of this new feature.
Both implementations by Intervideo and Cyberlink do not allow proper zooming of 16:9 enhanced DVDs that has the "keep aspect ratio" option turned on. The zoom will occur, but it will only occur within the bounds of the set letterbox area, not the full screen - this means that 16:9 enhanced titles will not be able to be zoomed to fullscreen, without destroying the aspect ratio (ie. everything appears tall).
Still Capture
- This feature should be familiar to those used to playing DVDs with PowerDVD. WinDVD 2000 v2.1 has added this feature, although again like the zoom feature above, it is almost undocumented - in fact, there isn't even a button on the console to do this. Instead, you'll have to press the "P" key during playback, and a .bmp file would be been written to your WinDVD\Capture directory. This implementation is definetely inferior to that of PowerDVD because PowerDVD also allows you to select where you want the capture to go to (eg. to clipboard, to a file, or even use the capture as your Windows background picture).Both PowerDVD and WinDVD's capture implementation capture to the default resolution of the DVD, not the desktop.
