Taipei (Taiwan) - Cyberlink announced a new version of its PowerDVD video playback software. The big news about the "Ultra" version is that it can play movies on HD DVDs as well as Blu-ray discs; but the fine print also reveals that Cyberlink has developed a driver for Microsoft's Xbox 360 HD DVD drive: So far, the external USB device could only be used as a regular DVD drive on a PC.

Other features include support Nvidia's Purevideo, ATI's Avivo and Intel's Clear Video. Cyberlink also says that the software already supports next-gen high-def features such as picture-in-picture modes, networking, interactive BD-J and iHD features, bookmarks, advanced disc navigation and double-layer HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

The fact that the PowerDVD Ultra transforms the $200 Xbox 360 HD DVD drive into a PC HD DVD drive suggests that the tandem is one of the most economical high-def video solutions out there right now. However, PowerDVD Ultra by itself isn't particularly cheap at a suggested retail price of $100.