CineMaster 2000 really hasn't changed much from previous versions. Aside from its Windows 2000 support, and the overdue addition of 4 speaker audio (Though not truly 4 speaker downmixed), it looks and feels very much like previous versions.

Bookmarking is new for CineMaster. Rapidly becoming a DVD standard, I won't devote a lot of time to it. You can insert a disc, bookmark a spot, and the next time you play that disc, you can use the bookmark to jump straight to the saved spot without having to manually move yourself there. Nice, but again, it's becoming a standard, so it's expected nowadays. Multi-angles, restart from last stop position, and multi language support are also standard fare and available in CineMaster 2000.

CineMaster 2000 has changed it's REGION LOCK system for disc region ID. Older builds had region lock as part of the player. The player locked its region in the Windows registry based on the 1st disc inserted. Those settings only affected the player, and were very stable. CineMaster 2000 now uses the WINDOWS REGION settings to verify its region setting. MS Windows regions are TOUCHY! I never attempted to change region on my system, I never inserted a non REGION-1 disc; but I still ended up having a locked and un-useable player after Genie-tweaking other player settings. Reinstall of the player didn't help. I had to clean-reinstall windows to repair its region before I could use CineMaster 2000 again. While this may not be CineMaster's FAULT per say (Can we say WINDOZE?), it was still annoying as hell! I much prefer PowerDVD and WinDVD who continue with internal region controls which do the job and are very STABLE. I don't use multi regions, so I shouldn't be hammered by region controls unless I actually try to play an alternate-region DVD! It was a lot of work, and shouldn't have happened. It's possible it was because I have a 98SE UPDATE rather than a full Windows 98SE install (98SE uses a different region code from 98 standard and they don't mix). Whatever the case, It wasn't a high point of my testing.

DVD Genie has always been a CineMaster owners salvation! Many hidden features in ALL versions of CineMaster were uncovered, explained, and adjustable using DVD GENIE. Alas, CineMaster 2000 has changed some things for the worse regarding DVD Genie. The REGION LOCK issue is only a potential issue. A major miscue was SCREEN ZOOM. DVD Genie lets you zoom the playback window of any software to any size you like. What this means is, on WIDESCREEN DVD titles, where you have the BLACK BARS top and bottom, you could ZOOM the window height so the picture grew until the black bars were pushed off-screen. GREAT feature! Unfortunately, this latest CineMaster has done something internally that prevents DVD Genie's zoom. A moment after zooming, it resets the window size back to player default. ARGH!!! Unless they were going to add in an internal zoom(Ala PowerDVD and WinDVD), they should have left this well enough alone! This is probably the BIGGEST complaint I have. Not only do they not include that now popular feature, they make sure you can't add it in externally. A future update to DVD Genie may overcome this block, but it shouldn't have been there to begin with.