Review Cyberlink’s MediaEspresso
Posted by Jon Peddie on January 13th 2011 | Discuss
Categories:
Software Review
Tags:
review
software
media
cyberlink
convert
converter
Ultra fast universal media converter
CyberLink has impressed us almost since day one with their courage, cleverness, and consistency. One of the first companies to offer a suite, innovative with their attempt to auto edit video for action scenes (they called it "emotional"), and really good looking and easy to use UIs. MediaEspresso has been cut from that same cloth, and version 6.5 is the best yet.
The program can convert video with its batch function.. You import files or complete folders, and let MediaEspresso handle the video conversion process, no need to sit by your computer till the end.
The program has "Smart Detection" of the best media profile of the connected device, and support for various media devices: iPhone, iPad, PSP, etc. The program supports a bewildering 59 output devices.
There is extensive media format support – video, photo and music files, and the converter is optimized for Intel Core i3, i5, and i7, Nvidia CUDA, & AMD GPUs.
It couldn't be much simpler to use, simply select the file you want to convert, which can be from Windows Explorer or file type icons inside media espresso workspace. The company claims it can convert media files for over 70 different devices (iPhone, Zune, PSP, etc.). The program also has a convenient uploading mechanism for posting to YouTube, Facebook, and other SN sites.
The user selects the target platform (iPhone, Zune, PSP, etc.), then the file format (music, video, pictures), and any special filtering desired such as cyber link's, "auto light," a brightness and contrast balancing algorithm, or cyber link's de-noise algorithm. You also have the choice of enabling hardware encoding or decoding. Media espresso works with Intel's Sandy bridge Quick Sync, or AMD's and Nvidia's GPUs. The program automatically senses what hardware is available. We tested it with Sandy bridge Quick Sync, and an AMD AIB.
This amazingly powerful program is only $30 and 132 MB in size. A trial version can be downloaded from cyber link's website.
What do we think?
Given the general chaotic organization of most people's PCs I would like to have seen and auto indexing feature similar to Picasso so that would find all of my media files. (Nero actually does a pretty good job of this.)
When a video file, for example, is converted the program has a countdown digital clock in the far right column to show the progress of the conversion. It is surprisingly and delightfully accurate. This is a welcome tool for people like us who benchmark things.
We took a 4 minute; 449 MB HD MPEG2 video file and converted it to an iPhone 3G 16:9 format. We did the conversion with Sandy Bridge alone, and with an AMD HD 5570. It took 48 seconds with AMD and an astonishing 14 seconds with Intel's Sandy Bridge Quick Sync.
Pros
It's fast, easy to use, inexpensive, and exploits the latest hardware acceleration. It can convert photos, music , and video files and do it in a batch mode running parallel streams.
Cons
Few faults to find— other than feature enhancements. No bugs, no gotchas. But this is version 6.5 so the company has had time to wring it out pretty.
