PowerDVD Ultra (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray)

[Andy o]

Yeah for DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks, PowerDVD does show the proper lossless variable bitrate (usually between 3mbps-6mbps... I guess it's much higher than TrueHD because all of Fox's releases are 24-bit I think, most TrueHD tracks I've seen usually hover between 1mbps-2mbps - they are Warner's 16-bit TrueHD... plus DTS-HD uses a slightly higher bitrate anyway for whatever reason).

The question is whether it is actually decoding what it says... or if it is just reading the lossless extension but only outputting the core DTS 1.5MB track.

Earlier in the thread someone who had a Samsung BDP-1400 said that he compared it to PowerDVD and found that PowerDVD only outputs the DTS core.

Arcsoft trial player information only shows 1.5MB in information, not the lossless bitrate like PowerDVD does. There again it only shows 192kbps for TrueHD on the Spiderman films from what I remember, so you can't really trust that. Plus Arcsoft had problems with mixing the rear channels up on some movies, so I uninstalled it.

The good thing is that the DTS-HD tracks sound spectacular from what I can tell, MUCH better than any DVD DTS 768kbps tracks. So if what I'm hearing is only the core 1.5MB, I wonder how much better it would sound with the full MA extension.

So if you're hearing the core 1.5 Mb, and it sounds better than DVD DTS tracks, it might be the higher bitrate. I really don't think I have the equipment to be able to tell the difference, so I would just like to be able to listen to something, anything, but alas, PowerDVD can't extract the 7.1 "core" I guess. It doesn't even work through S/PDIF, which I was thinking it should.

I really wonder what happened with the Pan's Labyrinth HD-DVD. They're going blu-ray on us with that crap about the non-standard audio format. DD plus is supposed to be mandatory for HD-DVD, Almighty Wikipedia says so!

[XxDeadlyxX]

So if you're hearing the core 1.5 Mb, and it sounds better than DVD DTS tracks, it might be the higher bitrate. I really don't think I have the equipment to be able to tell the difference, so I would just like to be able to listen to something, anything, but alas, PowerDVD can't extract the 7.1 "core" I guess. It doesn't even work through S/PDIF, which I was thinking it should.

I really wonder what happened with the Pan's Labyrinth HD-DVD. They're going blu-ray on us with that crap about the non-standard audio format. DD plus is supposed to be mandatory for HD-DVD, Almighty Wikipedia says so!

Yeh the reason it probably sounds better is 1) it has double the bitrate of DTS on DVD and 2) the source is probably mastered a LOT better generally for DTS-HD hence the core still sounds damn good.

Hmm, not sure if it is supposed to extract a 5.1 or 7.1 DTS core from a 7.1 track... can anyone who has a standalone confirm which?

Regarding Pan's Labrinth being New Line's first HD-DVD release, it seems they are doing the same thing as Fox has done with their Blu-ray releases, only using DTS-HD Master Audio and leaving out standard Dolby Digital which is supposed to be required on all Blu-ray discs much like DD+ is "required" on HD-DVD. Although it will suck if PowerDVD can't play the 7.1 MA track at all... if this is a bug hopefully it is fixed in the next release soon with the Profile 1.1 support.

I'll be picking up Hairspray on Blu-ray soon so I will test to see if the 7.1 MA track on that works in PowerDVD... can anyone who has it confirm if it works or not? I'm using Analog out so it may be different to SPDIF.

[Andy o]

Regarding Pan's Labrinth being New Line's first HD-DVD release, it seems they are doing the same thing as Fox has done with their Blu-ray releases, only using DTS-HD Master Audio and leaving out standard Dolby Digital which is supposed to be required on all Blu-ray discs much like DD+ is "required" on HD-DVD. Although it will suck if PowerDVD can't play the 7.1 MA track... if this is a bug hopefully it is fixed in the next release soon with the Profile 1.1 support.

I'll be picking up Hairspray on Blu-ray soon so I will test to see if the 7.1 MA track on that works in PowerDVD... can anyone who has it confirm if it works or not? I'm using Analog out so it may be different to SPDIF.

I didn't know blu-ray had any requirements for audio. I did know about HD-DVD, and I've read that everywhere where HD-DVD specs are listed. So I guess that would make Pan's Labyrinth a non-standard HD-DVD.

By the way, I have tried analog and S/PDIF, niether work. Setting the channels to different numbers doesn't work either. It seems we'll be forced to upgrade to another PowerDVD version or build just for this. And I was just starting to get cozy with 3319a.

[briinthesky]

What settings are you using to get DTS-HD from power dvd and are you going via analogue or spdif?

Has anyone tried the latest version of pdvd ? I find hd and blue-ray play fine but normal dvd has tearing mid sreen which i have not been able to get rid of yet.

[XxDeadlyxX]

What settings are you using to get DTS-HD from power dvd and are you going via analogue or spdif?

Has anyone tried the latest version of pdvd ? I find hd and blue-ray play fine but normal dvd has tearing mid sreen which i have not been able to get rid of yet.

I'm using Analog and the Information says Audio: DTS-HD xxxxkbps

[tman247]

On the subject of analog audio output in PDVDU, has anyone noticed that the centre channel output from PDVD is much quieter than the surround channels. As you have to put your amp into 5.1 analog mode for this to work, you lose all DSP options and controls.

I've tried a few BR disks with various audio tracks, and they all seem to exhibit this problem. All the audio control settings are set to 'max' in PDVD, although I haven't yet tried reducing the volume of all but the centre channel to see if this helps the problem.

[Rathbone]

3516 can display PiP (see RE3:Extinction) altough it has some nasty bugs (as I posted before). PiP is Profile 1.1 right? So 3516 is some kind of profile 1.1 beta version. :eek:

[Socio]

Originally Posted by Andy o
I really wonder what happened with the Pan's Labyrinth HD-DVD. They're going blu-ray on us with that crap about the non-standard audio format. DD plus is supposed to be mandatory for HD-DVD, Almighty Wikipedia says so!

Maybe that is just for the U.S. because all my import HD-DVD's are DTS not DD.

[mpgxsvcd]

How do you get PDVD to switch audio tracks? I tried about 6 different HD-DVDs last night and I could not get any of them to change from the Dolby Digital Plus track to the Lossless tracks or the commentary tracks for that matter.

I tried click on the audio language portion but it was grayed out.

[Tinker]

How do you get PDVD to switch audio tracks? I tried about 6 different HD-DVDs last night and I could not get any of them to change from the Dolby Digital Plus track to the Lossless tracks or the commentary tracks for that matter.

I tried click on the audio language portion but it was grayed out.

I use the "H" key on the KB and that cycles thru the audio tracks. Just turn on Info in PDVD to confirm which audio track has been selected.

[mpgxsvcd]

I use the "H" key on the KB and that cycles thru the audio tracks. Just turn on Info in PDVD to confirm which audio track has been selected.

Thank you kind sir!

[pospower]

SPDIF in Vista/ Ok took someones advice and picked the digital sound output in Vista sound settings. YES I can now use SPDIF the movies stay in SPDIF. BUT....
After exiting each movie I get what sounds like a bad Helicopter noise like the old Cammanche game. The only way to get rid of it is to open more music. I have uninstalled my B enspire sound card drivers and PDVD Ultra 3319A and reenstalled it. Anythinga else I might be missing.

[thadius65]

Just got my LG GGC-H20 installed in my system:

Vista 64
Intel Q6600
Gigabyte x38 MB
AnyDVD HD (trial) 6.3.0.3
PowerDVD Ultra (DVD071102, build 3516)
BFG 8800GT OC
LG BR/HD-DVD

I played SpiderMan3 on BR no issues. Sound is excellent, no issues with PQ. On HD-DVD, KingKong plays great, but Bourne Ultimatum and Transformers comes up with black screen and no audio or video.

Once rebooted and attemtped a restart and got a PowerDVD internal error 80040216. This occured on both the Bourne and Transformers HD DVD.

Any help would be appreciated. I am in the process of reinstalling the latest patch, just checking if I missed something. (PS, I did search and found nothing)

HELP!!

Thanks,

Ted

[Evil4blue]

For me, both Bourne and Transformers work fine, but you have to quickly (I mean really quickly) cancel the web data screen. If I do that, both disks go to the menu and play fine.

[thadius65]

For me, both Bourne and Transformers work fine, but you have to quickly (I mean really quickly) cancel the web data screen. If I do that, both disks go to the menu and play fine.

I don't get that far... just black on both, but Kong HD plays fine. Blu ray plays fine. Any settings to look at you can think of?

[Evil4blue]

Hmmm...if I don't cancel the web updates on those disks, I too will get black screens, then if I kill PowerDVD and restart it, that's when I get the 80040216 error. I only ever get the error after killing the powerdvd process, never on the first try, but I always at least see the loading screens w/ the cancel button. I have an AMD X2 and an ATI 3850 so that might be the difference of how those disks startup.

[JKohn]

Man I'm so pissed. Would somebody else please release an english-language HD/BD player so I can ditch this Cyberlink crap?

I finally made time to watch Pan's Labyrinth, which I've been looking forward to for a while now. I'm running the latest PDVD patch, and use SPDIF connection to my surround processor. Unlike the previous poster who mentioned audio problems with this disk, I did get DTS 5.1, so the latest version of PDVD is smart enough to play the "core" DTS track for SPDIF connection. But I was getting really jerky video, far worse than I've ever seen with any title before.

I knew my Radeon 1950 Pro doesn't accelerate VC-1, and I thought maybe this disc has a really high bitrate and my CPU just couldn't keep up. So, I ordered a new Radeon 2600Pro. The card arrived and I installed it today. On my first playback attempt, the video was great but then I noticed I was only getting 2.0 sound. I've seen this before, sometimes PDVD "loses" the SPDIF setting and I have to stop playback and go into the configration to select SPDIF again. But once I do this and resume playback, the jerky video is back. For whatever reason, sending the 1.5mbps core DTS track over SPDIF screws up the video. So if I want to actually watch this disc, I have to do so with with 2.0 sound.

[Andy o]

JKohn,

Are you using 3516? Probably my fault for using 3319a, but I have been hanging around a long time around this thread, and I can't recall people mentioning that DTS-HD MA will work with something newer than 3319a. If so, that sucks. I can't play some new BRs with 3516.

Thanks for the info, I'm gonna try 3516 now.

[Rathbone]

I am playing DTS-MA with 3516 just fine over analog but I don't know if it's downsampled or core stream. Nevertheless most DTS-MA titles rock, so I don't have anything to complain. Also web features in Transformers and Bourne 3 work fine if you deactivate AnyDVD HD! If you want to use AnyDVD HD with these titles click "rename XPL file" in the AnyDVD HD-DVD tab. Web content is not working with AnyDVD HD enabled!

@ Andy O: Can you tell us which BRs you cannot play?

[briinthesky]

I am playing blu-ray and hd/dvd through pdvd(latest) and so far all have played perfectly and I get great sound through spdif, but my amp only says dd or dts. I connected with analogue leads but got no sound at all (Rathbone can you tell me how you connected with analogue please ?) I may have set up wrong.
The only problem I experience with pdvd is I get tearing mid screen when playing a normal dvd no prob's on bd or hd any idea's ?


Bc.

[Andy o]

I am playing DTS-MA with 3516 just fine over analog but I don't know if it's downsampled or core stream. Nevertheless most DTS-MA titles rock, so I don't have anything to complain. Also web features in Transformers and Bourne 3 work fine if you deactivate AnyDVD HD! If you want to use AnyDVD HD with these titles click "rename XPL file" in the AnyDVD HD-DVD tab. Web content is not working with AnyDVD HD enabled!

@ Andy O: Can you tell us which BRs you cannot play?

I couldn't play the Simpsons with 3516 and AnyDVD, but that's a known problem. I also had some trouble with a couple of discs of Prison Break, but that's not a PowerDVD thing. They fixed Prison Break with AnyDVD 6.3.0.1, but with 6.3.0.2 it broke again, and as late as 6.3.0.4 it still wasn't fixed again. I posted at the AnyDVD HD forums, but it seems they couldn't find the cause, or didn't have the Prison Break discs to reproduce the error. I don't have the discs anymore to test with newer versions.

[JKohn]

JKohn,

Are you using 3516? Probably my fault for using 3319a, but I have been hanging around a long time around this thread, and I can't recall people mentioning that DTS-HD MA will work with something newer than 3319a. If so, that sucks. I can't play some new BRs with 3516.

Thanks for the info, I'm gonna try 3516 now.

Yes, I'm running 3516. But like I said I'm using SPDIF.

[Bjur]

I saw 300 HD DVD with HD sound over analogue cables in PowerDVD. It automatically changed config to headphone. I choose 6 speaker configuration and CMEI II, but the sound was strangely not powerfull enough compared to headphone. Do I have a wrong version of PowerDVD Ultra, or should I leave it at headphone in the future, to get the best sound??
What should I do to get best HD sound?

[thadius65]

Just got my LG GGC-H20 installed in my system:

Vista 64
Intel Q6600
Gigabyte x38 MB
AnyDVD HD (trial) 6.3.0.3
PowerDVD Ultra (DVD071102, build 3516)
BFG 8800GT OC
LG BR/HD-DVD

I played SpiderMan3 on BR no issues. Sound is excellent, no issues with PQ. On HD-DVD, KingKong plays great, but Bourne Ultimatum and Transformers comes up with black screen and no audio or video.

Once rebooted and attemtped a restart and got a PowerDVD internal error 80040216. This occured on both the Bourne and Transformers HD DVD.

Any help would be appreciated. I am in the process of reinstalling the latest patch, just checking if I missed something. (PS, I did search and found nothing)

HELP!!

Thanks,

Ted

I found the issue, now working on a solution:

I use the clone monitor feature in the Nvidia control panel. When that is engaged, the HD Transformers and Bourne do not work. When it is turned off they work fine.

Funny thing is that the Cyberlink advisor fails the driver and HDCP when Clone is on, but is okay when off. So cloning must be against copy protection rules, but why doesn't AnyDVD HD take care of this for playback?

Ted

[Cap.T]

I'm having a problem with PowerDVD Ultra I can't figure out. Two weeks ago I watched "The Simpsons"-Movie on Blu-Ray with PowerDVD. Everything worked fine and even before that I never had bigger problems watching Blu-Rays or HD DVDs.

A few days ago I got Blade Runner on BR an tried to watch that. After a few minutes PowerDVD crashed and took my pc down with it. After a restart I tried to watch it again, but PDVD went down again. I figured it was a problem that was related to the disc.

Today I wanted to watch Master and Commander and the same thing happend. After a few minutes PDVD crashed and my PC went down with it. I tried a few other discs (Warner, FOX, Sony it doesn't matter) after a few minutes everything crashes. I tried watching HD DVD again and to my big suprise, that works without any problems. No crashes for over two hours.

I tried it with diffrent PowerDVD-Versions (3319a, f and 3517) and installed the latest NVidia Beta Driver (169.28), nothing helps. I didn't install any new software or drivers over the last two weeks. I just don't know, where this problems comes from. Do you guys have an idea? BTW: My OS is Vista 32-Bit.

[sarah99]

Do you guys have an idea? BTW: My OS is Vista 32-Bit.

Try v3104
also try uninstall/re-installing 3319 but disable internet access before trying to play The Simpsons Movie

[Cap.T]

Try v3104
also try uninstall/re-installing 3319 but disable internet access before trying to play The Simpsons Movie

Hmm it seems to be something else. I just installed the Arcsoft Trial-Player and it does exactly the same thing. After a few minutes my PC just stops and nothing works anymore until I reboot. I tried HD DVD for a few minutes and no problems. What could I possible have done to my PC that it doesn't want to play BR anymore? I tried it now with "Master and Commander", "Blade Runner" and "Harry Potter 5". HP 5 doesn't even start with Arcsoft. Vista crashes as soon as I hit the Play-Button.

Oh man I really don't want to reinstall Vista after I did that just 5 weeks ago...

[briinthesky]

I have played through analogue and the sound is very low and as Bjur stated it was better when set to headphone for some reason. is there a way around this ?

[Nimo]

As much as I hate to say it I too had to go back to PDVD to play DAT because of the DTHD track. Same old 3104 player in 6 channel using my Aud 2 analogs to my VR-615 KW.

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/freedombikesusa/dthd.jpg

[Andy o]

Crap, I just saw this at the slysoft forums

http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?p=77849#post77849

Warner is going Blu-ray exclusive. Must be because we're so angry at BD+ so the studios thought "Well, whatever pisses off the tech-savvy consumers must be good".

Nimo, what is DAT, and does it have a DTS-HD MA track, or just DTS-HD (not lossless)?

[Nimo]

Hi Andy o, DAT is Day After Tomorrow, and it's DTS-HD only for this movie.

[MKANET]

For those of you who need a tiny app to force this app to remember its size and position in a window when you start it, use this free app.

http://www.southbaypc.com/AutoSizer/

[Andy o]

Hi Andy o, DAT is Day After Tomorrow, and it's DTS-HD only for this movie.

Thanks. Just looked it up, that blu-ray has DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. PowerDVD might just be incompatible with DTS-HD-MA 7.1, but with 5.1 it can extract the core fine. Maybe 3516 will work for me, haven't tried yet.

[Jim HTPC]

I have tryed to get it to work ths way but have run into a problem. Heres my setup, my ISO file is located in a shared folder on my nas. Daemon tools is located on my HTPC. When I mount the iso in daemon tools and launch PDVD I get an invalid disk structure error from PDVD. When mounting it this way the file structues looks like /shares/videos/Movie/movie.iso If I mount the iso from the same drive that daemon tools is on then the file structure looks like /Move/movie.iso and plays fine.. So I guess my question is can I leave my ISO on my nas or do they have to be on my htpc to work... Which will suck....Hope this makes sense and as always thanks for you help

I get the PDVD error message after ripping, then create iso, then play. If I reboot, then mount it plays without the error message you describe. PDVD version is 3319a. All my ISO files are on my NAS. I even got the same error message from my local temp folder. Reboot HTPC and mount again. See if it works now.

[mpgxsvcd]

Has anyone been able to get Transformers to rip to their hard drive or get it to play from the disc smoothly? I am getting a lot of stuttering when I play the disc and it errors out halfway through AnyDVD ripping it.

[mpgxsvcd]

Has anyone noticed that on the advanced audio menu of PDVD it lists the quiet environment as giving the user the "full" dynamic range of Dolby. It lists the normal environment as giving the user the compressed dynamic range of Dolby. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

[XxDeadlyxX]

Thanks. Just looked it up, that blu-ray has DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. PowerDVD might just be incompatible with DTS-HD-MA 7.1, but with 5.1 it can extract the core fine. Maybe 3516 will work for me, haven't tried yet.

PowerDVD works with 6.1 DTS-HD MA tracks - X-Men 3 works fine. As does Stargate which is DTS-HD High Resolution 6.1, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't work with 7.1. I need to pick up Pan's Labyrinth or Hairspray to check :)

[XxDeadlyxX]

Has anyone noticed that on the advanced audio menu of PDVD it lists the quiet environment as giving the user the "full" dynamic range of Dolby. It lists the normal environment as giving the user the compressed dynamic range of Dolby. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Always select 'Quiet', if you set it as Normal then it makes Dolby Digital Plus tracks sound way too soft and it sounds like a totally different track... everything sounds flat and lifeless.

For example, switching from DD+ to TrueHD on 'Normal' results in a massive volume increase, however when it is set to 'Quiet' they are the same volume.

[edfowler]

Has anyone been able to get Transformers to rip to their hard drive or get it to play from the disc smoothly? I am getting a lot of stuttering when I play the disc and it errors out halfway through AnyDVD ripping it.

Transformers plays and rips smooth for me.

others don't however.

[Noobified]

I get the PDVD error message after ripping, then create iso, then play. If I reboot, then mount it plays without the error message you describe. PDVD version is 3319a. All my ISO files are on my NAS. I even got the same error message from my local temp folder. Reboot HTPC and mount again. See if it works now.


Map your network folder to a drive and it should work just fine. That's what I'm doing now with my HTPC, which is playing movies from my 4TB Storage Server.

[Cap.T]

Hmm it seems to be something else. I just installed the Arcsoft Trial-Player and it does exactly the same thing. After a few minutes my PC just stops and nothing works anymore until I reboot. I tried HD DVD for a few minutes and no problems. What could I possible have done to my PC that it doesn't want to play BR anymore? I tried it now with "Master and Commander", "Blade Runner" and "Harry Potter 5". HP 5 doesn't even start with Arcsoft. Vista crashes as soon as I hit the Play-Button.

Oh man I really don't want to reinstall Vista after I did that just 5 weeks ago...

Ok, so i did what I didn't want to do and reinstalled Vista. And I still can't watch Blu-Ray. After a few minutes my sytem crashes. This happens in the Arcsoft Trial Software and in PowerDVD. I just don't get what it could be. I wachted "Day after tomorrow", "Sunshine" and some episode of "Prison Break" a few weeks ago without any problems. Nothing on my system changed since then. And after I just reinstalled everything I pretty sure it's not a software problem. Could my Pioneer BR-Drive be damaged? HD DVD continues to work fine...

[talon95]

Ok, so i did what I didn't want to do and reinstalled Vista. And I still can't watch Blu-Ray. After a few minutes my sytem crashes. This happens in the Arcsoft Trial Software and in PowerDVD. I just don't get what it could be. I wachted "Day after tomorrow", "Sunshine" and some episode of "Prison Break" a few weeks ago without any problems. Nothing on my system changed since then. And after I just reinstalled everything I pretty sure it's not a software problem. Could my Pioneer BR-Drive be damaged? HD DVD continues to work fine...

Nothing has changed? Not even vid card drivers?

[Cap.T]

Nothing has changed? Not even vid card drivers?

Nope, not even those. I used the beta driver 169.17 since it's been out. All the BRs I mentioned worked with that driver when I watched them 2 weeks ago. That's what I don't get. Why would it just stop working when nothing on the system changed.



Update: OK. I'm pretty certain now, that the drive is broken. I just tried ripping a BR-Disc (something I've never done before, because I never needed it) and again after a few minutes my system crashed. After that I tried ripping a normal DVD in the drive. System crash again. Now I'm trying to rip the same DVD with another DVD-Drive and so far that works without any problems. So it can only be the drive itself, right?

[XxDeadlyxX]

Nope, not even those. I used the beta driver 169.17 since it's been out. All the BRs I mentioned worked with that driver when I watched them 2 weeks ago. That's what I don't get. Why would it just stop working when nothing on the system changed.



Update: OK. I'm pretty certain now, that the drive is broken. I just tried ripping a BR-Disc (something I've never done before, because I never needed it) and again after a few minutes my system crashed. After that I tried ripping a normal DVD in the drive. System crash again. Now I'm trying to rip the same DVD with another DVD-Drive and so far that works without any problems. So it can only be the drive itself, right?

Unplug the drive and plug it in again... I know it sounds stupid but often I've found the most complicated problems are the most simple. Probably won't fix it but I always do that as a rule before declaring anything as broken.

[AbMagFab]

Digital Video Essentials - HD

Anyone got this to work with PDVD? I get it to load, I can get to the various menus, but I can't actually get it to do any of the functions. At the last menu level, it won't let me select anything. Also, there's no sound (not sure if there's supposed to be sound on the menus), and the "Additional Info" seems always blank (although I wasn't paying close attention to that).

So anyone get DVE-HD to work?

Edit: Saw some of the previous posts about enabling trailers. I disabled AnyDVD but it still didn't work (although I didn't get trailers either). So I'm re-ripping with trailers enabled, and we'll see how it does. Will post in a few minutes.

Edit: Okay, re-ripped and I can now play things, but there's no audio, except for the sample tracks. Not sure if that's intentional, but it makes it a little hard for a novice calbrator like me to figure out what to do with each of the patterns. Anyone know if the patterns are supposed to have audio with them?

[Cap.T]

Unplug the drive and plug it in again... I know it sounds stupid but often I've found the most complicated problems are the most simple. Probably won't fix it but I always do that as a rule before declaring anything as broken.

I got the same idea and pluged the cable into another SATA-Port and believe it or not that actually seems to have fixed the problem! I can't believe it. Could it really have been that simple? That would be really great. I hope it keeps working. Thanks for the tip by the way.

[audionewer]

how do you play mkv files on Powerdvd even though i have ffdshow in my system?

[Allin4greeN]

Digital Video Essentials - HD

Anyone got this to work with PDVD? I get it to load, I can get to the various menus, but I can't actually get it to do any of the functions. At the last menu level, it won't let me select anything. Also, there's no sound (not sure if there's supposed to be sound on the menus), and the "Additional Info" seems always blank (although I wasn't paying close attention to that).

So anyone get DVE-HD to work?

Edit: Saw some of the previous posts about enabling trailers. I disabled AnyDVD but it still didn't work (although I didn't get trailers either). So I'm re-ripping with trailers enabled, and we'll see how it does. Will post in a few minutes.I couldn't get DVE-HD working either but, I wasn't playing it from the HDD, just using the disc. Like you, I could navigate to the test patterns but, couldn't select any to view.

I finally gave up on it and used the SD side. Despite the color space difference, I managed to get things dialed in to my satisfaction.

For me, PDVD (3516) has had problems with menus on most of my BD and HD DVD titles. It's quirky for sure but, I've been able to at least play all of my titles, so far...

[chuckr]

I'm hoping someone can give me some help on a playback problem I'm having.

I have a new HTPC build based on the HTPC build sticky thread here. The basic config of the box is:

- PNY GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready
- LG Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM Model GGC-H20L
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz
- ASUS P5K-VM LGA 775 Intel G33 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
- Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)

I'm able to use PDVD to play back regular DVDs on my Panny AE900. When I try to play an HD-DVD or Blu-ray DVD I get this:

http://lh4.google.com/chuckr/R37-NK5FsjI/AAAAAAAADbg/-ic0N2t2V_c/IMG_2096.JPG?imgmax=800

This problem starts as soon as PDVD starts playing. I don't know of a good way to describe the problem - only a picture does it justice.

I've tried using both the bundled PDVD and PDVD Ultra with the same results. I have the latest nvidia drivers and have mucked around quite a bit with various nvidia control panel settings, but nothing has made a difference.

My gut tells me there's something wrong with the video card and I should RMA it, but I want to check here to see if there's some sort of config issue I'm not understanding.

Thanks....

[laguna_b]

I'm hoping someone can give me some help on a playback problem I'm having.

I have a new HTPC build based on the HTPC build sticky thread here. The basic config of the box is:

- PNY GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready
- LG Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM Model GGC-H20L
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz
- ASUS P5K-VM LGA 775 Intel G33 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
- Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)

I'm able to use PDVD to play back regular DVDs on my Panny AE900. When I try to play an HD-DVD or Blu-ray DVD I get this:

http://lh4.google.com/chuckr/R37-NK5FsjI/AAAAAAAADbg/-ic0N2t2V_c/IMG_2096.JPG?imgmax=800

This problem starts as soon as PDVD starts playing. I don't know of a good way to describe the problem - only a picture does it justice.

I've tried using both the bundled PDVD and PDVD Ultra with the same results. I have the latest nvidia drivers and have mucked around quite a bit with various nvidia control panel settings, but nothing has made a difference.

My gut tells me there's something wrong with the video card and I should RMA it, but I want to check here to see if there's some sort of config issue I'm not understanding.

Thanks....

I had a similar problem...update your video drivers to fix the problem. That worked for me.

[netsigma]

how do you play mkv files on Powerdvd even though i have ffdshow in my system?

You'll need the CoreAVC codecs.

[chuckr]

I have the latest drivers. The nvidia site shows latest as:
ForceWare Release 169 WHQL
Version: 169.21

Checking my nvidia control panel, I'm at 169.21.

I'm going to try and unistall the nvidia drivers and re-install it (this is on Windows XP Pro).

[laguna_b]

I have the latest drivers. The nvidia site shows latest as:
ForceWare Release 169 WHQL
Version: 169.21

Checking my nvidia control panel, I'm at 169.21.

I'm going to try and unistall the nvidia drivers and re-install it (this is on Windows XP Pro).

I had something similar happen when I went from 3319 and upgraded. In fact I may not have even used beyond 3319, recollection is fuzzy. My problem was the entire image was in the upper left corner 30% of the screen and the last scan line replicated below similar to what you see. I had a board with an integrated ATI 1250 and I was told to upgrade the drivers. Unfortunately, ATI did not support the changes required for the decoding for that 1250 chip. So I ended up getting an iMac with the 2600 ATI chip and it did support drivers for this decoding. That is the reason I suspected that yours was a driver issue. It was an educated guess. You might contact nVidia to see if they have a solution. I assume that if your card is PCIX and HDCP compliant, that it would still be supported. Good Luck....

[audionewer]

i have corecodec. will that works or not? what is the setting for it?

[almostinsane]

You need the mastroka splitter to play MKV's.

[chuckr]

I had something similar happen when I went from 3319 and upgraded. In fact I may not have even used beyond 3319, recollection is fuzzy. My problem was the entire image was in the upper left corner 30% of the screen and the last scan line replicated below similar to what you see. I had a board with an integrated ATI 1250 and I was told to upgrade the drivers. Unfortunately, ATI did not support the changes required for the decoding for that 1250 chip. So I ended up getting an iMac with the 2600 ATI chip and it did support drivers for this decoding. That is the reason I suspected that yours was a driver issue. It was an educated guess. You might contact nVidia to see if they have a solution. I assume that if your card is PCIX and HDCP compliant, that it would still be supported. Good Luck....

I went and uninstalled and reinstalled the nvidia drivers and blu-ray works now with PDVD. HD-DVD almost works - it looks fine, but PDVD silently exits right after the Universal logo on the "The Bourne Ultimatum". Nice. I'll mess with that some more and see, but that's the only HD-DVD disk I have to try.

So for future reference for people, I'll document what I did on Windows XP Pro:
- Went to add/remove programs and removed all nvidia drivers and software
- Re-downloaded the latest nforce install package.
- Installed with the nforce installer. Did the basic config stuff.
- Tested HD playback with PDVD. I didn't run any of the fancy wizards or display optimization programs from nvidia (which I did do the first time).

Thanks for the pointers.

[AbMagFab]

Weird thing with HD MPEG-2's. Some of them show up in a small window when played in PDVD. Any idea why?

Specifically, the HDnet and InHD test patterns that I TTG's from my S3, as well as some movies. Here's what I've tested:
1) They are all 1920x1080
2) I used DSDump to turn the .tivo's into .mpg's
3) When playing in anything else (WMP, Nero Showtime) they play as full screen
4) When playing in PDVD, they play as little things in the middle of the screen, looks like about 1/4 of the real estate.

So questions:
- Is there any way, in PDVD, to see what it thinks the resolution of the video is?
- Is there any way to force a full screen of the video?
- Any thoughts as to why this is happening with only a small subset of my HD MPEG's (all DSDumped from .tivo files)?

Thanks!
-Mark

[laguna_b]

I went and uninstalled and reinstalled the nvidia drivers and blu-ray works now with PDVD. HD-DVD almost works - it looks fine, but PDVD silently exits right after the Universal logo on the "The Bourne Ultimatum". Nice. I'll mess with that some more and see, but that's the only HD-DVD disk I have to try.

So for future reference for people, I'll document what I did on Windows XP Pro:
- Went to add/remove programs and removed all nvidia drivers and software
- Re-downloaded the latest nforce install package.
- Installed with the nforce installer. Did the basic config stuff.
- Tested HD playback with PDVD. I didn't run any of the fancy wizards or display optimization programs from nvidia (which I did do the first time).

Thanks for the pointers.

Chuck,

I see you are a local. Hopefully you have power. I am still on generator with little hope of seeing real PGE power until Monday or Tuesday. But my HT progress continues on a generator. I too have teh same Bourne HD disk and never had any issues with it as it came with my HP drive. Did you get one of the LG dual use drives?

Barry

[gsr]

This topic came up earlier, but I don't recall seeing much in the way of replies (and just did a few searches that came up empty)...

I'm having trouble using the menus on HD DVD's (haven't tried menus on Blurays yet). I haven't tried lots of discs yet, but for both 300 and Transformers, I can bring up the root menu but am not able to use the arrow keys to navigate through the menu. I undocked the controls (which I'm assuming put me into "Player Mode") and opened the Menu/Number Pad - all of the arrow keys appear to be grayed out even when the root menu is displayed.

I get the same result with AnyDVD HD running, disabled, and not running at all.

Any ideas? Are there some movies that people have definitely had success with using the menus?

System:
Windows XP MCE 2005
Zalman HD160 Case
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
E6850 Core 2 Duo 3.0GHz 1333FSB
4GB Corsair XMS2 6400
Gigabyte HD2600 XT (Passively Cooled)
Holo3D II
RME DIGI 96/8 Pad
Creative Labs X-Fi Elite Pro
PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra (build 3516)
TheaterTek 2.0 (latest patch)
AnyDVD HD (latest version)
PowerStrip
ATI Catalyst 7.10 (I believe that's what's installed - I'll be upgrading to 7.12 when I get some free time)

[thadius65]

I found the issue, now working on a solution:

I use the clone monitor feature in the Nvidia control panel. When that is engaged, the HD Transformers and Bourne do not work. When it is turned off they work fine.

Funny thing is that the Cyberlink advisor fails the driver and HDCP when Clone is on, but is okay when off. So cloning must be against copy protection rules, but why doesn't AnyDVD HD take care of this for playback?

Ted

Anyone with thoughts on my use of secondary monitor in Clone mode and it's impact on playback?

Vista 64
Intel Q6600
Gigabyte x38 MB
AnyDVD HD (trial) 6.3.0.3
PowerDVD Ultra (DVD071102, build 3516)
BFG 8800GT OC
LG BR/HD-DVD

[stud]

If anyone how has a Bluray dvd with smart menu could let me know if they are able to get the menu screen up i would be grateful as all my bluray dvds are smart menu films, and although i can get the popup menu to come up, i cannot get the main menu screen.

When i insert the film it plays immediately, hasn't powerdvd implemented smart menus yet ?

thanks

[fergiej]

Here are my specs:
Gigabyte P35-DS3Rrev2
C2D E6750 (nothing overclocked)
4GB PC5400
Vista 32 Ultimate
Nvidia 8600GT
XBOX360 Addon

With AnyDVD running, I use IMGBurn in read mode to create an ISO of the disc. With DaemonTools I load the ISO and PDVD plays it very nicely. Transformers, all the Harry Potter, Bourne, every one I've tried actually play perfectly. Now, I am only feeding a 720P signal to my plasma, so I'm not rying a 1080 resolution. That may be part of it, I don't really have a way to test larger resolutions. Now, having said all that, I'm not a PQ junkie. To me it looks fantastic, but my eyes are untrained. I'll see about doing a screenie or 2 and see if you agree.

I still really want to try the Arcsoft player, though. Good to have choices.

[fergiej]

OK, quick question. How DO I take screen shot is Powerdvd of HD DVd material. It's disabled. What would be the best program to use? Would Snagit work? I have a copy around here somewhere I just don't want to install more than I need to on the HTPC. I like to keep it clean.

[mpgxsvcd]

Transformers plays and rips smooth for me.

others don't however.

I am still having trouble ripping Transformers with AnyDVD. It fails at 49% everytime. Can someone describe exactly what process they use to rip the disc. What version of AnyDVD are you using? What settings in AnyDVD do you use?

I am also getting a lot of stuttering when I try to play the movie from the disc. Any help on this would be much appreciated.

[Rathbone]

OK, quick question. How DO I take screen shot is Powerdvd of HD DVd material. It's disabled. What would be the best program to use? Would Snagit work? I have a copy around here somewhere I just don't want to install more than I need to on the HTPC. I like to keep it clean.

AACS forbids screenshots of HD discs. The only way I know is to enable AnyDVD HD. This removes AACS and if you use ArcSoft DT2 trial it lets you make screenshots of non AACS protected discs (the screnshot button isn't greyed out anymore). :p

[NamesJay]

Hi guys, I have a question, not about playback, but about how to remove images on the screen of a film!

When I right click to go to title menu, it brings up a menu dialogue box for "choose scene, special features, play film" and when I choose one of the options, the menu dialogue stays on the screen!

I don't know how to get rid of it. I tried escape and searching for all the options but I couldn't get rid of it.

[fergiej]

So, how are the screenshots being made in the Hd DVD software forum? They CAN'T be taking photos of their screens. I do have anydvd hd running, but only have PDVD right now (Since my Japanese is really bad). I'm waiting for DT2 come hit the market in English.

Thanks

[AbMagFab]

Some questions/issues... hopefully someone can help out!

1) How can I adjust the picture settings for HDDVD? I go to the video settings, make changes, but it only seems to effect MPEG, not HDDVD or BluRay (from ISO's).

2) Related to #1, my blacks are really crushed through PDVD. With MPEG's and adjusting the video settings, I'm able to mostly fix it, but this doesn't seem to have any effect of HDDVD's and ISO's. Thoughts?

3) Is there any way to see the attributes of the video, like resolution? Particularly for MPEG's. I have a problem where some HD MPEG's aren't filling the screen, and I'm curious if PDVD thinks the resolution is really that small?

4) Any advice on a sound card to get all 7.1 tracks? Even if I need to feed analog to my AVR, I'd like to be able to get all 7.1 discrete tracks out of things that have them.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
-Mark

[dabl]

If anyone how has a Bluray dvd with smart menu could let me know if they are able to get the menu screen up i would be grateful as all my bluray dvds are smart menu films, and although i can get the popup menu to come up, i cannot get the main menu screen.

When i insert the film it plays immediately, hasn't powerdvd implemented smart menus yet ?

thanks


http://forum.slysoft.com/showpost.php?p=66160&postcount=37

[ssaeed]

I am still having trouble ripping Transformers with AnyDVD. It fails at 49% everytime. Can someone describe exactly what process they use to rip the disc. What version of AnyDVD are you using? What settings in AnyDVD do you use?

I am also getting a lot of stuttering when I try to play the movie from the disc. Any help on this would be much appreciated.

Did you try cleaning the disc? wash it with some warm water and soap.

[XxDeadlyxX]

Any update on when the new PowerDVD Profile 1.1 build will be released?

[NamesJay]

I have a new build and am encountering some problems with stuttering when playing HD DVD material. My system specs are below:

Intel Core2 Quad 6600
XFX NVIDIA 8800GT 512MB
Samsung SyncMaster 225BW
2 GB RAM
Windows Vista Ultimate

I have altered no settings in PowerDVD Ultra edition (most recent build); I have AnyDVD running. When I first saw some stuttering, I unchecked the box that said "Enable hardware acceleration" and I thought that worked, but a few minutes into the movie I noticed that there was still some stuttering. Pausing the video and then hitting play was a temporary fix, but the problems occurred again a few minutes later.

Any suggestions for this problem?

[IanD]

I went and uninstalled and reinstalled the nvidia drivers and blu-ray works now with PDVD. HD-DVD almost works - it looks fine, but PDVD silently exits right after the Universal logo on the "The Bourne Ultimatum". Nice. I'll mess with that some more and see, but that's the only HD-DVD disk I have to try.
If you are using AnyDVD HD, I think the recommended fix for Universal titles is to enable "rename highest .xpl" in the settings. Not sure if this works for all Universal, but may help with Bourne Ultimatum.

Otherwise, the latest PDVD generally works with most titles, but introduces more DRM effects (eg no HDD playback, unless you rip to ISO and mount with Daemon Tools).

[IanD]

1) How can I adjust the picture settings for HDDVD? I go to the video settings, make changes, but it only seems to effect MPEG, not HDDVD or BluRay (from ISO's).

I've noticed under XP with Nvidia 8x00 and PDVD 3516 that hardware acceleration is always enabled and this seems to disable all the video colour controls. I can't even adjust video colour in the Nvidia control panel.

Things were different in PDVD 2911: with hardware acceleration disabled, I could adjust everything via the PDVD control panel or the Nvidia Control Panel.

I really dislike PowerDVD taking over control like this.

Oh, this was for HD-DVD: I haven't tried mpeg2 or Bluray.

2) Related to #1, my blacks are really crushed through PDVD. With MPEG's and adjusting the video settings, I'm able to mostly fix it, but this doesn't seem to have any effect of HDDVD's and ISO's. Thoughts?

As above with PDVD removing control when in hardware acceleration mode.

However, if you change the registry setting (can't remember it exactly, but something like the following):

HKLM->Software->Cyberlink->PowerDVD->COLORSPACE

from it's default value of 3 to a value of 1 and then reboot, it should help with the crushed blacks and restore things to reference levels.

Unfortunately this change also seems to desaturate the image, so is not without its own issues. I used to be able to compensate by boosting saturation in the Nvidia Control Panel, but that doesn't seem to work now.

3) Is there any way to see the attributes of the video, like resolution? Particularly for MPEG's. I have a problem where some HD MPEG's aren't filling the screen, and I'm curious if PDVD thinks the resolution is really that small?

If an HD MPEG is authored from 4:3 material, then it won't fill a widescreen. But I expect you are talking about something slightly different.

The "show information" option in PDVD I think distinguishes between mpeg2 and HD mpeg2.

4) Any advice on a sound card to get all 7.1 tracks? Even if I need to feed analog to my AVR, I'd like to be able to get all 7.1 discrete tracks out of things that have them.

Can't comment. Not sure if PDVD will decode better than 5.1. Most mobos have 8 channel analogue output these days: have you tried that first?

Do AVRs have 8 channel analogue input? Mine is only 6 channel.

[IAM4UK]

Anyone else having issues with "Lost" season 3 bD set? I have no problems with discs 1-3, but discs 4-5 show just a black screen after the "Buena Vista Home Entertainment" logo. Ideas?

Intel C2D 6550 at stock speed (2.33GHz)
DVDU 3319a
AnyDVD HD running (latest build) to overcome false reporting from Cyberlink about HDCP on my Samsung DLP monitor.

[dynam1ke]

I am new to the whole PC movie watching thing. I have been using the Xbox360 with the HDDVD Add-on. Since a few weeks, I have a Laptop with a Bluray drive and HDMI output. Is capable of doing audio and video over HDMI. Right now I am considering upgrading to a HDMI receiver to hook up the laptop and enjoy Bluray. I figured PowerDVD Ultra is the best way of playback on the laptop, and now I have a question which you guys might be able to answer.

The receiver I am willing to buy is a not-HDMI v1.3 receiver. So I have to output my movies on the laptop to multichannel PCM. What do you guys think will happen when a Bluray or HDDVD with for example TrueHD track is played? Will it be decoded to multichannel PCM? Are there settings in the PowerDVD that have to be adjusted to get the PCM output? In the Control Panel at my HDMI Audio device there is no such term as PCM to be found. I don not have the receiver yet, and I would like to now if it is possible to output the audio in PCM format, before I am buying. Do I need extra codecs? And what do you guys think will happen when I just select the PCM audio track on a Bluray?

Thanks.

[phigment]

I am new to the whole PC movie watching thing. I have been using the Xbox360 with the HDDVD Add-on. Since a few weeks, I have a Laptop with a Bluray drive and HDMI output. Is capable of doing audio and video over HDMI. Right now I am considering upgrading to a HDMI receiver to hook up the laptop and enjoy Bluray. I figured PowerDVD Ultra is the best way of playback on the laptop, and now I have a question which you guys might be able to answer.

The receiver I am willing to buy is a not-HDMI v1.3 receiver. So I have to output my movies on the laptop to multichannel PCM. What do you guys think will happen when a Bluray or HDDVD with for example TrueHD track is played? Will it be decoded to multichannel PCM? Are there settings in the PowerDVD that have to be adjusted to get the PCM output? In the Control Panel at my HDMI Audio device there is no such term as PCM to be found. I don not have the receiver yet, and I would like to now if it is possible to output the audio in PCM format, before I am buying. Do I need extra codecs? And what do you guys think will happen when I just select the PCM audio track on a Bluray?

Thanks.

At the moment there is no way of getting multi channel PCM out of a PC. The HDMI cards from ATI only output what SPDIF could (2 ch PCM or compressed AC3 or DTS). So the only way to get lossless audio out of the PC is to do it over analog. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[dynam1ke]

At the moment there is no way of getting multi channel PCM out of a PC. The HDMI cards from ATI only output what SPDIF could (2 ch PCM or compressed AC3 or DTS). So the only way to get lossless audio out of the PC is to do it over analog. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.I really really though I read that PowerDVD is able to convert TrueHD to multichannel PCM and sent it over HDMI numurous times in this thread. Downconverted...but still multichannel PCM.

I just want to know what I have to do or use on my laptop to get multichannel PCM output.

[Rathbone]

I have a new build and am encountering some problems with stuttering when playing HD DVD material. My system specs are below:



Which build?

[leeHD]

I'm a newby at this so please be patient.

I've just finished building my pride and joy HTPC and find that no way can I get Ultra to play HD content (of the red or blue varieties) from my LG combo drive.

I've tried about every version of Ultra but to no avail.

AnyDVD knows what is in the drive and I can rip to the hard drive so the LG is working fine.

When PDVD launches there is drive activity but nothing happens - no error messages. NOTHING. It plays SD content fine.

I'm running Vista Ultimate on a Core2Duo 6850 with 2GB DDR2 1066mhz on an ASUS PK5C motherboard, with ATI 2900 XT (Catalyst and AVIVO 7.7) via DVI to a Hyundai 240w so the hardware spec should be perfectly OK.

Cyberlink recommended 071102-03 so that is the version currently on the machine.

This may be something or nothing but PDVD insists on asking me to register every time it loads - even though it is properly activated and already registered.

Am I missing something obvious - has anyone else had these problems?

HELP!!!!

[Rudy81]

I'm hoping someone can give me some help on a playback problem I'm having.

I have a new HTPC build based on the HTPC build sticky thread here. The basic config of the box is:

- PNY GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready
- LG Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM Model GGC-H20L
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz
- ASUS P5K-VM LGA 775 Intel G33 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
- Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)

I'm able to use PDVD to play back regular DVDs on my Panny AE900. When I try to play an HD-DVD or Blu-ray DVD I get this:

http://lh4.google.com/chuckr/R37-NK5FsjI/AAAAAAAADbg/-ic0N2t2V_c/IMG_2096.JPG?imgmax=800

This problem starts as soon as PDVD starts playing. I don't know of a good way to describe the problem - only a picture does it justice.

I've tried using both the bundled PDVD and PDVD Ultra with the same results. I have the latest nvidia drivers and have mucked around quite a bit with various nvidia control panel settings, but nothing has made a difference.

My gut tells me there's something wrong with the video card and I should RMA it, but I want to check here to see if there's some sort of config issue I'm not understanding.

Thanks....


This is a strange one. I had seen your post and today I had updated my nVidia drivers to the latest nvidia offering. As soon as I rebooted and put in a BR disk, the exact same started happening to me. I went back to the older, original drivers that came with my card and I am now back to normal.

Followup: I did as suggested, uninstalled all nvidia drivers and then installed the latest 169.21 drivers and now it all works just fine. Thanks for your research.

[NamesJay]

Which build?

The .exe file I downloaded says "3516" at the end. Is this what you are looking for?

[AbMagFab]

HKLM->Software->Cyberlink->PowerDVD->COLORSPACE

from it's default value of 3 to a value of 1 and then reboot, it should help with the crushed blacks and restore things to reference levels.

Unfortunately this change also seems to desaturate the image, so is not without its own issues. I used to be able to compensate by boosting saturation in the Nvidia Control Panel, but that doesn't seem to work now.

Okay, found the setting (just add HDDVD to the above RegEdit path). Will test tonight and post results.


If an HD MPEG is authored from 4:3 material, then it won't fill a widescreen. But I expect you are talking about something slightly different.

The "show information" option in PDVD I think distinguishes between mpeg2 and HD mpeg2.

Definitely 16x9 MPEG, from Tivo S3 and converted using DSDump. It plays as 16x9, just small in the middle of the screen. And only with PDVD. With Nero and WMP, it properly displays in full screen. Really weird.

And there's nothing on that Show Information screen about resolution. Any other ideas about where to look for resolution information?

Not sure if PDVD will decode better than 5.1. Most mobos have 8 channel analogue output these days: have you tried that first?

Do AVRs have 8 channel analogue input? Mine is only 6 channel.

My AVR (Onkyo 905) has 8 channel analog input. My MoBo doesn't seem to have that output (ASUS P5WDG2 WS Pro), but I might have misplaced some dongle somewhere.

Anyone know a good 8-channel audio board that works with Vista and PDVD for the full 8 channels, and is likely to work with other soft players coming out soon?

[ssaeed]

Guys,
is there a way to change the default screen PowerDVD puts up, i.e. the girl with the red background. I would like to make my own.

Thanks

[MKANET]

Yes..

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12560958

Guys,
is there a way to change the default screen PowerDVD puts up, i.e. the girl with the red background. I would like to make my own.

Thanks

[ES_Revenge]

I really really though I read that PowerDVD is able to convert TrueHD to multichannel PCM and sent it over HDMI numurous times in this thread. Downconverted...but still multichannel PCM.

I just want to know what I have to do or use on my laptop to get multichannel PCM output.
The way people are doing this is either the motherboard has a built-in HDMI port that already couples the audio via internal "HD Audio Link" (not S/PDIF like ATI cards are doing) or they have a motherboard with built-in video and the HD Audio Link header, and they have an ADD2 card for HDMI output from the both of them. I can't imagine any other way to do this at current moment.

As for your laptop, I'm really not sure. Does it have an HDMI port? If it does, you're at least part of the way there. It still depends on how it couples audio with the HDMI signal, but if it does it the same as the way mentioned above, you probably could get uncompressed PCM multi-channel over the HDMI connection.

[pclausen]

Does build 3516 not work with BD+ titles like Die Hard 4? I get error 80040216 when I attempt to play this particular title. On the other hand, I have no issues playing titles such as Bourne Ultimatum, Transformers, Cars or Spiderman 3.

System specs as follows:

Asus P5E-VM HDMI
Q6600
LG combo drive

Vista Home Premium 32bit & AnyDVD 6.3.0.6 (the latest)

The titles listed above plays directly from the disc as well as ISO images from the HD. Die Hard 4 doesn't play either way.

Thanks!

[ES_Revenge]

Got my LG GGC-H20L today and I'm using PDVD Ultra 7.3.3319f. BD seems to be playing fine (I've only tried the Weeds Season 1 disc though), and I'm getting downconverted DTS-HD-->DTS-ES fine via optical.

However I have a problem with the way it displays Blu-ray on full screen with my desktop res at 1080p...

Computer is running Vista x64 and videocard is an ATi X1950pro, running Catalyst 7.12; also I pass the HDCP test in Cyberlink's advisor thingy. TV is a 50" Sony SXRD. I can set my desktop to 720p standard and by going two notches up in the driver's scaling/overscan/underscan slider it fills the screen just about perfectly. On 1080p, I use just one notch above centre to make it fit the screen right. This is without using custom resolutions in the HDTV menu, it's just by using the scaling options.

What happens is, when I go to fullscreen on when playing back the disc [Weeds Season 1, 1080p and it says "16x9" format on the case sleeve] with a 1080p display/desktop res, I get a border around the video that's about 1 to 1.5 inches around the image. On DVDs this does not happen.

If I play the disc with the desktop at 720p and go to full screen it fills the screen fine, just as it does with DVDs at either res. TV still shows 720p and 1080p as the display input accordingly in both cases. PDVD's little controls/menu bar at the bottom even takes up the full width of the screen in 1080p mode but the video does not.

Anyone know why this is happening? What I did after that was change my 1080p settings to custom res instead... This disables the scaling options but lets you set the horizontal and vertical independently. The TV still gets a 1080p signal from the videocard either way (either scaling or custom res) btw. When I did this and tried to play the BD again, it seems to fill the screen much better. However there is still a very small border around the video about a couple of mm on each side.

The way I have it now I can live with it like that, but I'm curious as to why PDVD is putting any sort of border at all around the BD video and why it puts more of a border around it when I use over/under scan controls in the driver instead of custom res. What makes no sense to me is that it works at 720p without a problem, and also DVDs play fullscreen in either res without a problem.

Any thoughts? :confused:

[ES_Revenge]

Does build 3516 not work with BD+ titles like Die Hard 4? I get error 80040216 when I attempt to play this particular title. On the other hand, I have no issues playing titles such as Bourne Ultimatum, Transformers, Cars or Spiderman 3.

...

Vista Home Premium 32bit & AnyDVD 6.3.0.6 (the latest)

Apparently the latest PDVD (3516) detects AnyDVD I think and won't play the BD+ disc. To play it you're going to have to disable AnyDVD, but then I'm imagining you only have it because you don't have an HDCP complaint display? I think in that case analog is the only way you can watch the movie. I'm not sure about that but I saw a post not too long ago which said pretty much exactly that^ about BD+ discs.

[IanD]

Okay, found the setting (just add HDDVD to the above RegEdit path). Will test tonight and post results.

And there's nothing on that Show Information screen about resolution. Any other ideas about where to look for resolution information?

I have no idea what actually happens when the COLORSPACE is changed to 1, 2, or 3, but 1 fixes up aliasing and brightness issues I have with hardware acceleration mode, at the expense of desaturation and maybe a softer image (difficult to be sure: it just could be the loss of aliasing which removes a perceived sharpening effect).

Show Information doesn't actually show resolution, but I was sure that it indicates "HD MPEG2" for an HD source and just "MPEG2" for an SD source.

Alternatively, you could try playing a source file in graphedit (or MPC) and check the filter properties: it may give some information. VLC might also show some information about the source file.

Just out of interest, when DTV first began broadcast here, adverts were sometimes 4:3 letterbox inside a 16:9 frame, giving a tiny image in the centre of the screen with black bars all round. The frame was still 16:9, but what was inside, wasn't. I still see some actual programs broadcast in this way, where the source is 4:3 letterbox but the broadcaster won't scale to the 16:9 frame in order to save bandwidth (it takes less bits to encode all that static blackness).

[AbMagFab]

Update on black crush...

The Registry setting made a tiny bit of difference, but not enough.

I discovered with nVidia, if you have acceleration in PDVD, you can use the nVidia control panel settings by:
- Under Video and Television
- Under Adjust video color settings
- Check the "Use the NVidia Control Panel color settings"
- Then slide the bars

Unfortunately, the settings aren't granular enough, but they get you close.

I've traded severe black crush for a little white crush (which is overall a lot more visually appealing, if I have to choose one).

One note - you'll only see changes while a video is playing. And with calibration images, they only update every few seconds (MPEG/VC1 full frame refresh I assume).

My settings:
- Brightness +68
- Contrast +54
- Hue +100 (or 0, not sure it matters)
- Saturation +55
- Gamma doesn't seem to work
- Red Gamma +7
- Green Gamma +6
- Blue Gamma +3

My current test scenes are the ones that prompted this, specifically:
- 30 minutes into "33" episode of BSG (HD DVD). A scene with Adama and Tigh talking, and their uniforms were completely crushed. Now i can see the detail in them, and the background colors of the bridge are diverse.

- The scene in the second part of the mini series, where they are coming out of the cloud, and there's a 5-10 minute space fight scene. With the black crush, it was really difficult to visually follow what was going on. Now it's clear, almost 3-D (like it's supposed to be). And the blacks are still inky.

Overall the picture is a smidgen washed out, but I don't have the granularity of controls to get this tighter. I think it's minimal, and the colors look good, and the blacks are deep and contrasty and inky, without being crushed, so I think I'm happy.

If anyone else has more advice on this, especially using the HD DVD DVE (with no audio for some reason, so I have only my amateur knowledge of what I'm doing with it), that would be great.

I'm using an Onkyo 905 and Sony Black Pearl on a Stewart FHG3, if that matters. My Sony was professionally calibrated.

[AbMagFab]

Just out of interest, when DTV first began broadcast here, adverts were sometimes 4:3 letterbox inside a 16:9 frame, giving a tiny image in the centre of the screen with black bars all round. The frame was still 16:9, but what was inside, wasn't. I still see some actual programs broadcast in this way, where the source is 4:3 letterbox but the broadcaster won't scale to the 16:9 frame in order to save bandwidth (it takes less bits to encode all that static blackness).

It's from HDnet and InHD, both are 100% HD. These are the calibration patterns they run once a week. Definitely 1920x1080, according to Nero at least. There are a few other MPEG's like this.

In PDVD, "A Scanner Darkly" plays fine, says "MPEG-2" at ~15mb/s. But "2010" plays small, says "MPEG-2" at ~18mb/s. In Nero and WMP, they play full screen and show 1920x1080 resolution.

I was just curious if PDVD for some reason didn't think it was 1920x1080.

So I found where to look - under Configuration/Information, it displays stuff. For the videos that are small, it says 1920x1080. However for videos that work, I get no information and just a bunch of hardware acceleration information. It also says "DirectShow" for the not working ones, and IA acceleration for the working ones.

Really weird. Any thoughts on what this even means?

[Rudy81]

I am struggling to understand PureVideo HD and how it works with PDVD ultra. I have windows XP Pro, GIGABYTE GV-NX85T256H GF8500, LG multi-player, AMD AM2 X2 4800+. I can run HD-DVD and BR disks with little problem. My CPU usage runs around 50% to 85% regardless of wether Hardware acceleration is checked or not in the OEM version of PDVD. I am guessing I do not have PureVideo HD operating somehow. I do have the latest Forceware drivers from the Nvidea site.

Any ideas?

[pclausen]

Apparently the latest PDVD (3516) detects AnyDVD I think and won't play the BD+ disc. To play it you're going to have to disable AnyDVD, but then I'm imagining you only have it because you don't have an HDCP complaint display? I think in that case analog is the only way you can watch the movie. I'm not sure about that but I saw a post not too long ago which said pretty much exactly that^ about BD+ discs.
Thanks. Actually my display is HDCP compliant, but I'm going through a Denon 3808 receiver (to get lossless audio) but apparently the Intel HDMI drivers for my Asus HDMI mobo do not yet support HDCP repeaters like my 3808.

Anyway, you were right! Disabling AnyDVD did the trick and allows me to play Die Hard 4 just fine. Of course I had to connect my HDMI output directly to my display, so no sound.

Just when I thought I had everything working, lossless audio and all, then Cyberlink pulls this crap. Damn, just can't win I guess. Hopefully Arcsoft DT2 will be an improvement over PDVD.

[NaTT]

not to worry, you didn't have lossless audio anyway, since PDVD downsamples the HD audio before sending it to your sound card.
You did have a single cable soultion though.....

[pclausen]

I thought PDVD allowed 16bit 48KHz TrueHD, DTS-MA and LPCM to pass through without downsampling, no? Also, I'm not using a sounds card as the HDMI audio capapility is built in on the new G35 Intel boards.

[AngelEyes]

I thought PDVD allowed 16bit 48KHz TrueHD, DTS-MA and LPCM to pass through without downsampling, no? Also, I'm not using a sounds card as the HDMI audio capapility is built in on the new G35 Intel boards.

AFAIK you are correct except about DTS-MA, which I believe PDVD only plays the core 1.5mbps track. Anything greater than 16bit 48hz is of course downsampled, unless they fixed it all and just didn't bother to tell anyone of course... :rolleyes:

[ES_Revenge]

I thought PDVD allowed 16bit 48KHz TrueHD, DTS-MA and LPCM to pass through without downsampling, no? Also, I'm not using a sounds card as the HDMI audio capapility is built in on the new G35 Intel boards.

You still have a sound card just not a physical "soundcard" that's plugged in anywhere. There still has to be an audio chipset (likely a Realtek or a C-Media, etc) somewhere on the board and you'll still have to have drivers installed accordingly.

Are you actually able to pass TrueHD and DTS-HD MA over HDMI? I thought PDVD could only do LPCM (pre-decoded) versions of those over HDMI? Also PDVD downsamples before it hits the sound driver so LPCM would be down-converted nonetheless. Now if you can get TrueHD and DTS-HD MA natively output I guess that would be a lot better, but I was under the impression it was only LPCM from PDVD?

[XxDeadlyxX]

Ok... so is a 4.6MBps 48khz/16-bit LPCM track, or a 16-bit TrueHD track downsampled? If PowerDVD downsamples to 48khz/16-bit shouldn't they play properly over analog?

[jmb295]

I'm having problems with subtitles on HD-DVDs. With the new version of PowerDVD 3516 they are still always on. I have always ripped and edited them out of the xpl file to play properly.

Now that I'm using 3516 I can't play files and have switched to ripping them to files, editing the xpl, and then making an iso with imgburn. But when I do this somehow the xpl file has the subtitle lines back in them when the iso is mounted. Is this is common problem, or something just with my setup?

How are people solving the subtitle problem with the 3516 build?

[ES_Revenge]

Ok... so is a 4.6MBps 48khz/16-bit LPCM track, or a 16-bit TrueHD track downsampled? If PowerDVD downsamples to 48khz/16-bit shouldn't they play properly over analog?

If it starts at 48kHz/16-bit then I can't imagine it would be downsampled anymore since it's already there. I would make sense that it would get played without any sampling changes because applying a sample rate conversion to 48/16 to output 48/16 would do nothing at all as there's nothing to convert.

Are there actually 48/16 LPCM tracks on HD and Blu-ray discs though?

[XxDeadlyxX]

If it starts at 48kHz/16-bit then I can't imagine it would be downsampled anymore since it's already there. I would make sense that it would get played without any sampling changes because applying a sample rate conversion to 48/16 to output 48/16 would do nothing at all as there's nothing to convert.

Are there actually 48/16 LPCM tracks on HD and Blu-ray discs though?

Yeah there are heaps. Almost all of Warner's TrueHD and LPCM tracks are 16-bit, and most of Sony LPCM tracks are 16-bit, but their newer TrueHD tracks are 24-bit, so it's probably half half. Also Disney's US releases are 24-bit, however the same movies such as POTC1/2 here in Australia are only 16-bit :o

[ES_Revenge]

Got my LG GGC-H20L today and I'm using PDVD Ultra 7.3.3319f.

...

However I have a problem with the way it displays Blu-ray on full screen with my desktop res at 1080p...

Computer is running Vista x64 and videocard is an ATi X1950pro, running Catalyst 7.12; also I pass the HDCP test in Cyberlink's advisor thingy. TV is a 50" Sony SXRD. I can set my desktop to 720p standard and by going two notches up in the driver's scaling/overscan/underscan slider it fills the screen just about perfectly. On 1080p, I use just one notch above centre to make it fit the screen right. This is without using custom resolutions in the HDTV menu, it's just by using the scaling options.

What happens is, when I go to fullscreen on when playing back the disc [Weeds Season 1, 1080p and it says "16x9" format on the case sleeve] with a 1080p display/desktop res, I get a border around the video that's about 1 to 1.5 inches around the image. On DVDs this does not happen.

If I play the disc with the desktop at 720p and go to full screen it fills the screen fine, just as it does with DVDs at either res.

...

Anyone know why this is happening? Any thoughts? :confused:
Sorry to repeat the question but anyone know anything about this? No one's experienced this?

I found the following thread at SlySoft's forums on a google search, it may have to do with Catalyst 7.12. I guess I'll have to remove it, install 7.11 and see... Still kind of puzzled how it doesn't affect 1280x720, or DVDs though...

http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?p=75080

[AngelEyes]

You still have a sound card just not a physical "soundcard" that's plugged in anywhere. There still has to be an audio chipset (likely a Realtek or a C-Media, etc) somewhere on the board and you'll still have to have drivers installed accordingly.

This isn't quite true, there is a Realtech card on the MB but you don't use it, I actually have it disabled and no drivers installed. The LPCM is output from another the Intel G35 chip.

I am not exactly sure what difference this makes, probably PDVD still downsamples it but just wanted to make the point you don't use the onboard soundcard.

Are you actually able to pass TrueHD and DTS-HD MA over HDMI? I thought PDVD could only do LPCM (pre-decoded) versions of those over HDMI? Also PDVD downsamples before it hits the sound driver so LPCM would be down-converted nonetheless. Now if you can get TrueHD and DTS-HD MA natively output I guess that would be a lot better, but I was under the impression it was only LPCM from PDVD?

The HDMI is 1.2 so no bitstream output, just Multichannel PCM via HDMI.

[NaTT]

I might be wrong here (read I'm testing my understanding, awaits flaming) but nothing with the capability of sending the bitstream signal (even standalone players) "can" send bitstream because flags on the discs themselves allow/deny this and to date Hollywood has decided to deny this.
But this is of no loss to us (no pun intended) since, unlike DD and DTS of old, having the player uncompress the sound is no worse than having a posh reciever do it, more over, having the player do it means the on-line content / extras can be mixed in before sending it to a receiver to do bass management etc.

[AngelEyes]

I might be wrong here (read I'm testing my understanding, awaits flaming) but nothing with the capability of sending the bitstream signal (even standalone players) "can" send bitstream because flags on the discs themselves allow/deny this and to date Hollywood has decided to deny this.
But this is of no loss to us (no pun intended) since, unlike DD and DTS of old, having the player uncompress the sound is no worse than having a posh reciever do it, more over, having the player do it means the on-line content / extras can be mixed in before sending it to a receiver to do bass management etc.

This is one of those 'myths' I am afraid, I believed it at one point as well. The disc authoring simply required the player to mix menu noises etc before outputting LPCM. If you use Bitstream obviously no mixing is done in the player so you lose these annoying noises. On some discs this may mean you can't listen to the audio on commentaries or PIP clips but AFAIK this is the only downside of Bitstream and Pre-Amp/Receiver Decoding.

On the plus side if your Reciever can accept bitstream it can also accept LPCM so you could always configure it differently if you want those extras at any time.

From an HTPC point of view, Bitstream seems to be the only way to bypass any 'crap' the software player may add or take away in the form of downsampling etc.

[dynam1ke]

Does PowerDVD output multichannel PCM standard (over HDMI)? Only when a high bitrate codec is played? Or do I need to change settings in PowerDVD or Windows Vista Audio Control Panel to get multichannel PCM?

[AngelEyes]

Does PowerDVD output multichannel PCM standard (over HDMI)? Only when a high bitrate codec is played? Or do I need to change settings in PowerDVD or Windows Vista Audio Control Panel to get multichannel PCM?

PDVD just outputs the number of channels you select, it doesn't know whether they are Analogue or Digital. The output method is handled by your operating system etc. in Vista I select HDMI in the 'Sound' control panel and the bit rate/depth and this is what Vista outputs.

You don't need to change anything for different file types or formats.

[dynam1ke]

PDVD just outputs the number of channels you select, it doesn't know whether they are Analogue or Digital. The output method is handled by your operating system etc. in Vista I select HDMI in the 'Sound' control panel and the bit rate/depth and this is what Vista outputs.

You don't need to change anything for different file types or formats.Thank you very much for an answer I can actually use :)

I will test this out as soon as I get my hands on a HDMI receiver.

[AngelEyes]

Thank you very much for an answer I can actually use :)

I will test this out as soon as I get my hands on a HDMI receiver.

No problem :D

If you are going for an Intel G35 based MB like then Asus P5E-V HDMI, then it is worth noting a lot of Denon Receiver owners seem to have problems passing the video. I have an onkyo 805 and haven't had any problems at all. Things like this can save you any number of headaches. :)

Check out the P35 motherboards thread for more information.

[IanD]

I'm having problems with subtitles on HD-DVDs. With the new version of PowerDVD 3516 they are still always on. I have always ripped and edited them out of the xpl file to play properly.

Now that I'm using 3516 I can't play files and have switched to ripping them to files, editing the xpl, and then making an iso with imgburn. But when I do this somehow the xpl file has the subtitle lines back in them when the iso is mounted. Is this is common problem, or something just with my setup?

How are people solving the subtitle problem with the 3516 build?
I think AnyDVD's "magic file replacement" facility can create unexpected results if one is not aware of what .xpl versions are being used at any point in time. It is possible the "magic file replacement" .xpl created when the original disc was first inserted, is being used in preference to a modified .xpl in a folder if AnyDVD is running when the ISO is created.

The most convenient method I have found is to rip an original disc directly to ISO with ImgBurn and AnyDVD running, but minimal "removals" activated in AnyDVD and no .xpl modifications made.

On playback, use AnyDVD's "magic file replacement" to edit the .xpl as required: it's effectively the same as reading the original disc but from a mounted ISO instead. Note that I'm informed if the hash of the ISO is different from the original disc, AnyDVD will probably create a different entry in the "magic file replacement" folder to the original disc. It can then be difficult determining which one relates to which "disc", unless you erase all references from the folder, allow AnyDVD to recreate them and note which one is which as they are created.

Alternatively, you should be able to use the "magic file replacement" facility with the original disc to configure subtitles as required and confirm it works with PowerDVD. When you rip to ISO with AnyDVD running, it should use the modified .xpl when compiling the ISO.

There shouldn't be a need to rip an original disc to HDD folders and then create an ISO from the folders: more efficient to rip to ISO directly from the disc.

I prefer the first method because the ISO source is then as close to the original as possible and retains all elements that can be modified, as required, down the track: if you only save a modified .xpl, there is less scope to make further changes in the future, or to re-enable subtitles as you have already "lost" information through prior modifications.

The "magic file replacement" facility can become a little confusing as to which .xpl is actually being used, but it's easy to just erase the folder, re-insert the original disc and AnyDVD will create a fresh .xpl

I'm still trying to decide which of the "removal" options are worthwhile ticking in AnyDVD HD when creating the ISO. Removing certain elements that permit the title to work with the current PowerDVD, means that the ISO can simply be mounted and played, but also means that if those removed features become useful in future, they are already gone and can only be restored with difficulty (if at all). I suspect the best move is only to remove AACS with AnyDVD HD when creating the ISO and then use AnyDVD (and magic file replacement) to remove other features and modify the .xpl as required. The ISO then becomes equivalent to the original disc, but with the advantage of being already decrypted.

[Thuppu]

Have someone with Win XP and Nvidia 8xxx graphics, get PDVD work/play properly and stable without any crashes with v. 169.21 drivers? Seems that always I try to play VC1 content HD DVD´s the player jamms after a while. With AVC everything works properly with hw acceleration.

Last fully working driver for me is 158.22. Of course without hw acceleration.

[dynam1ke]

No problem :D

If you are going for an Intel G35 based MB like then Asus P5E-V HDMI, then it is worth noting a lot of Denon Receiver owners seem to have problems passing the video. I have an onkyo 805 and haven't had any problems at all. Things like this can save you any number of headaches. :)

Check out the P35 motherboards thread for more information.I'll be testing out my HDMI laptop with Bluray drive. I am not sure about its HDMI capabilities. I have had the opportunity of testing on a Denon 4308 in a Hifi Shop a while ago, but did not have PowerDVD yet that time. I only tested the Dolby Digital and DTS samples in the Vista 'Audio' Control panel on the HDMI audio device, which worked perfectly in multichannel surround. I am planning on going back to that shop in the weekend to test out a Bluray in PowerDVD. I hope I'll get multichannel PCM output on the laptop, so I can get a HDMI receiver and hook it up. I like the HK AVR247, which has multichannel PCM processing on HDMI.

[Sunnie]

PDVD just outputs the number of channels you select, it doesn't know whether they are Analogue or Digital. The output method is handled by your operating system etc. in Vista I select HDMI in the 'Sound' control panel and the bit rate/depth and this is what Vista outputs.

You don't need to change anything for different file types or formats.

Ok...I have been looking all over for this solution. I have an Onkyo TX-SR605 connected to my PC Vista 32bit (ATI 2400HD Pro), with HDMI and use PDVDU to play High Def Disc. I have no problems now playing disc, but I only get two channel PCM over HDMI connection. My Cable box PVR is also connected HDMI and it gets Dolby Digtal just fine. I have this same graphics card on another computer and it too, only outputs two channel PCM over HDMI. What do I need to do to make this happen. Am I going to have to use my 7.1 analog onboard HD solution? Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. Is there a 5.1 digital output over HDMI solution with the ATI 2400HD Pro cards?

[xboy360]

Ok...I have been looking all over for this solution. I have an Onkyo TX-SR605 connected to my PC Vista 32bit (ATI 2400HD Pro), with HDMI and use PDVDU to play High Def Disc. I have no problems now playing disc, but I only get two channel PCM over HDMI connection. My Cable box PVR is also connected HDMI and it gets Dolby Digtal just fine. I have this same graphics card on another computer and it too, only outputs two channel PCM over HDMI. What do I need to do to make this happen. Am I going to have to use my 7.1 analog onboard HD solution? Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. Is there a 5.1 digital output over HDMI solution with the ATI 2400HD Pro cards?

You should be able to do compressed DD/DTS 5.1 over HDMI, it's just equivalent of what you'd get if you output spd/if over coax or toslink.

[Davinleeds]

Have someone with Win XP and Nvidia 8xxx graphics, get PDVD work/play properly and stable without any crashes with v. 169.21 drivers? Seems that always I try to play VC1 content HD DVD´s the player jamms after a while. With AVC everything works properly with hw acceleration.

Last fully working driver for me is 158.22. Of course without hw acceleration.

Working good with 169.09. PDVD 3319.0 8600GTS XP. I do lock the internet when I play from HDD or disk. No crashes, but some are particular (off hdd) with the start sequence and use on secondary display. So far I get no sound off Moody Blues but works on xbox with hd drive. HW accel seems to be always on. Also, I disable cookies and search for updates.

[AngelEyes]

Ok...I have been looking all over for this solution. I have an Onkyo TX-SR605 connected to my PC Vista 32bit (ATI 2400HD Pro), with HDMI and use PDVDU to play High Def Disc. I have no problems now playing disc, but I only get two channel PCM over HDMI connection. My Cable box PVR is also connected HDMI and it gets Dolby Digtal just fine. I have this same graphics card on another computer and it too, only outputs two channel PCM over HDMI. What do I need to do to make this happen. Am I going to have to use my 7.1 analog onboard HD solution? Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. Is there a 5.1 digital output over HDMI solution with the ATI 2400HD Pro cards?

If you want multichannel HD sound over HDMI with your current GFX card you will need to wait for the Auzentech HDMI add-in-board and also buy a Prelude X-Fi.

You can get there now if you ditch your current hardware for an Asus P5E-V or VM but forget playing games and you will need a decent processor as you won't have much hardware Accel from the onboard GFX.

However (AFAIK) it is the only way currently to get Multichannel PCM via HDMI.

[cybrsage]

AMD/ATI's newest IGPs will be out before the end of this month. We will see if they can do the sound properly.

[drsmithdtv]

I'm having problems with subtitles on HD-DVDs. With the new version of PowerDVD 3516 they are still always on. I have always ripped and edited them out of the xpl file to play properly.

Now that I'm using 3516 I can't play files and have switched to ripping them to files, editing the xpl, and then making an iso with imgburn. But when I do this somehow the xpl file has the subtitle lines back in them when the iso is mounted. Is this is common problem, or something just with my setup?

How are people solving the subtitle problem with the 3516 build?
I have no such problem with 3516.

I don't create an iso, rather I have copied some of the program files from an earlier version of PowerDVD to facilitate HD-DVD playback from HDD with PowerDVD 3516.

I also modify an xpl file and in the ADV_OBJ folder I only retain two files, the modified xpl file and the dat file.

[jxo]

The Q and the A may be buried in this thread-- apologies for not looking harder.

Is there any difference between PowerDVD Ultra that you purchase online and the PowerDVD v7 that comes bundled with hardware (in my case a BluRay drive)?

[ES_Revenge]

The Q and the A may be buried in this thread-- apologies for not looking harder.

Is there any difference between PowerDVD Ultra that you purchase online and the PowerDVD v7 that comes bundled with hardware (in my case a BluRay drive)?

Yes. The version you buy online is the "retail" version, the one you get with the drive is an "OEM" version.

The OEM can have any number of features disabled, depending on what the manufacturer of your drive selected/requested from Cyberlink. However most commonly it's exactly the same with the exception that the OEM versions are only allowing 2ch output on certain tracks and outputs. (I believe it only affects analog output and HD audio tracks, but I could be wrong; however a few people have mentioned the difference in this thread so you could search for stereo or 2ch or something like that.)

[samw97]

Has anybody tried the new Cyberlink remote?

http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/products/main_44_ENU.html

Does it solve the janky issue of different hotkeys depending on the type of disk that PDVD is playing?

I already have an IR remote for my HTPC but it only allows key bindings at the application level and cannot distinguish what PDVD is playing. As a result, I can only set it up to enable rewind/play for HDDVD but not Blu-ray. I don't use it for DVD playback (thankfully).

If this remote unifies all the functions for PDVD using one set of keys for all media type, it might be worthwhile. Do you think Cyberlink purposely setup their hotkeys the way they did to sell this remote? :)

[Sunnie]

This does not happen with either of my ATI 2400HD Pro cards on either system. I only get PCM 2 channel.

[Sunnie]

I don't need multi-channel PCM. I am looking for just a 5.1 digital bitstream that my Onkyo (with 1.3a HDMI capability) can decode from the ATI's HDMI output. It is only doing 2 channel PCM.

[ES_Revenge]

I don't need multi-channel PCM. I am looking for just a 5.1 digital bitstream that my Onkyo (with 1.3a HDMI capability) can decode from the ATI's HDMI output. It is only doing 2 channel PCM.

Did you install all the right drivers? Did you set PDVD to output SPDIF?

[ES_Revenge]

PDVD just outputs the number of channels you select, it doesn't know whether they are Analogue or Digital. The output method is handled by your operating system etc. in Vista I select HDMI in the 'Sound' control panel and the bit rate/depth and this is what Vista outputs.

You don't need to change anything for different file types or formats.
A somewhat related question, AngelEyes...

I'm currently using my optical out to get sound but I'm going to add 3 or 4 y-cables shortly to use analog output. I don't have a subwoofer, but I do have a rear centre (not L/R just one speaker) that I don't have in the living room now but I will probably add soon enough.

I know that PDVD will output the LFE signal to the front L/R by using that LFE checkbox in the advanced properties page; however how do you get PDVD to properly process a surround back when there is only one?

I see the options for speakers don't even mention ".1" just speakers--as in 2, 4, 6 or 8 speakers. I assume 6 means 5.1, and 8 means 7.1 but does that mean PDVD has no facility for 6.1 audio? I think in Vista it does allow you to have a 6.1 system though, no?

Also going back to the missing subwoofer, why is there a box in PDVD to mix the LFE if Vista will do it for you? What I mean is if you can set up a 5.1 or 6.1 minus the .1 in Vista, so why would you need to check the box in PDVD?

[Sunnie]

I didn't see where you could set PDVDU to output SPDIF? Are you talking about in configuration? I have been in touch with AMD/ATI and Cyberlink. I sent Cyberlink a DxDiag file of my system and in return, they sent me there lastest full version of PDVDU and that did allow the Lastest Die Hard Blu-ray to play without any error code, bit it's still only 2 channel PCM recoqnized on Onkyo 605. I can get analog from my Dell with onboard HD processing, but that means a lot more cables going to the multi-channel inputs on the Onkyou. You could lose all those cables if the HDMI output would do 5.1 digital anything. The manufacturer claims it will do it.

[ES_Revenge]

I didn't see where you could set PDVDU to output SPDIF? Are you talking about in configuration?
Yep, go configuration, Audio, and then where the pull down box shows number of speakers, set it to S/PDIF. If you haven't got S/PDIF on there you're probably missing a driver or something's not set right in Windows.

[MKANET]

I seriously doubt I'm going to get my question answered here. But, is there a registry setting which will make PowerDVD NOT remember the master volume level of my sound card and try to put it back at that volume level when you restart the app? I'm not sure why the heck someone would actually want that. This seemed to have changed just recently in the last couple builds. What a lame feature.

[Sunnie]

Yep, go configuration, Audio, and then where the pull down box shows number of speakers, set it to S/PDIF. If you haven't got S/PDIF on there you're probably missing a driver or something's not set right in Windows.

I have looked at that screen many times and don't recall ever seeing that option on the drop down. Maybe it doesn't show up unless you have a SPDIF output on your sound card (which I don't have). So...where do I get this driver that will work with PDVDU and ATI 2400HD Video card and it's HDMI output? Why doesn't it load with ATI software? I thank you for any help you can give me, but I need specific answers, please.

[Davinleeds]

FYI, not having spdif could make a difference, but for me it doesn't show up while the movie is playing and I have optical out. Look for it without anything playing.

[Sunnie]

Thanks, I will check it out when I get home from work tonight.

[ES_Revenge]

Yep you have to be not playing anything (playback stopped).

The driver I think you need is the Microsoft UAA driver... Do you have that installed?

[Sunnie]

I just googled that UAA driver and it looks like it is for up to Win XP, but not for Vista. I forgot to mention I was running Vista.

[ES_Revenge]

Hmm I'm not sure then... I don't have a HD2600 so I'm not all that familiar with it. Did you check the HD2400/HD2600 thread?

[Sunnie]

I didn't know there was one. I guess there is a thread for everything. Ha! Thanks.

[archibael]

I just googled that UAA driver and it looks like it is for up to Win XP, but not for Vista. I forgot to mention I was running Vista.

Pretty sure it's built into Vista by default.

[Trond-Eirik]

Maybe this could be of some interest here.
I sent a information request to cyberlink a couple of days ago.

The questions was:

There are some rumours going around
stating that:
1) PowerDVD Ultra in latest versions
will not support HD based playback of
HD-DVD/Blue-Ray discs.
2) PowerDVD Ultra does not support full
HD audio quality playback sampling
rates.
[snip: section that detailed the question and resons for not agreeing to this]


The reply was:

[snip: polite stuff]
In regard to your concern, we like to inform you that this feature to play HD/BD DVD's from the harddrive has been removed from the new build of the CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra software. So, if you use the new build of the PowerDVD Ultra software then you will not be able to play HD/BD DVD's from harddrive.

This feature has been removed from the new version due to some security policies of the organization which set standards for HD/BD DVD's.

We have already escalated your case to higher department and you have to wait for sometime for updates regarding this issue.
[snip: refound stuff]
Regarding your second issue we would like to inform you that PowerDVD Ultra supports full HD audio quality playback. To get the full HD audio quality playback we would like to inform you that your sound card must support the full HD audio quality playback.
[snip: polite stuff and general info]


Just have to mention that I'm impressed by the support resons from Cyberlink. This is the second issue I have flagget and both thime have I get exellent replies!
This time not all of the reply gave the result I hoped for, but the information supplied is really great! My hat of (if I had one) to Cypberlink for that.

[Thuppu]

Working good with 169.09. PDVD 3319.0 8600GTS XP. I do lock the internet when I play from HDD or disk. No crashes, but some are particular (off hdd) with the start sequence and use on secondary display. So far I get no sound off Moody Blues but works on xbox with hd drive. HW accel seems to be always on. Also, I disable cookies and search for updates.

Ok. Funny, yesterday when I watch Happy Feet Blu-ray (VC1) everything worked fine with 169.21 driver, and the hw acceleration is on.

[XxDeadlyxX]

New info regarding new PowerDVD Ultra build and DTS-HD!

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=851

Multimedia software company CyberLink is at CES showing the latest versions of their applications, including PowerDVD 7 Ultra which was one of the first programs you could use to play back Blu-ray Discs on your PC. CyberLink was showing the latest update which allows your PC to become Profile 1.1 compliant.

Using the newly released Fox Blu-ray Disc of Sunshine, the folks at CyberLink demonstrated how the PC can now be a fully functional Profile 1.1 Blu-ray player. The update changes the interface slightly: in addition to the standard play-skip-pause (etc.) buttons they have added the red, green, blue, and yellow buttons. The PC's hard drive is used as persistent storage. The movie played the Picture-in-Picture (PiP) material perfectly. CyberLink expects to have this update available (free to owners of PowerDVD Ultra) next month.
Another point of interest to people is that they confirmed that PowerDVD Ultra does play DTS-HD soundtracks. This has been a point of confusion since the actual logo does not appear on the box or splash screen. They also confirmed that a DTS-HD Master Audio update is coming as well, but could not give a timetable. Until then, you can enjoy the HD extension of those soundtracks for higher quality sound than normal (core) DTS Digital Surround.

Other products available from CyberLink include PowerProducer 4 and Power2Go 6 which allow people to author and burn Blu-ray Discs. PowerDirector 6 can now capture and output High Definition formats. All these have been bundled together, along with PowerDVD, in DVD Suite Ultra. People with HD camcorders now have a complete solution for capturing, authoring, burning, and playing back their home movies in Blu-ray format.

Of interest was CyberLink's CyberLink Live. It allows people to stream videos, pictures, music and even retrieve documents remotely. They are even working on an update to allow people to remotely play their Blu-ray discs! Also shown was Media Server which allows streaming from a PC to any DNLA device, including the Sony PlayStation 3.
I would like to thank Manal Ma of CyberLink for showing me these great products that helps folks like us create our own Blu-ray Discs!

So DTS-HD High Resolution tracks play correctly at the moment, such as on Stargate. I'm not sure what they mean about DTS-HD Master Audio though... does that mean that PowerDVD currently extracts something higher than the 1.5MB "core" DTS? Is it even possible to extract DTS-HD from DTS-HD MA? :confused:

[AngelEyes]

New info regarding new PowerDVD Ultra build and DTS-HD!

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=851



So DTS-HD High Resolution tracks play correctly at the moment, such as on Stargate. I'm not sure what they mean about DTS-HD Master Audio though... does that mean that PowerDVD currently extracts something higher than the 1.5MB "core" DTS? Is it even possible to extract DTS-HD from DTS-HD MA? :confused:

I think that with an MA track it currently extracts the core track but with an HD one you get the real deal. This is just based on what I have read about MA tracks though so it may not be the case. Still it is very good news MA will be supported shortly... as long as some brainbox hax0r works out how to maintain HDD playback :D

[Radiophile]

I seriously doubt I'm going to get my question answered here. But, is there a registry setting which will make PowerDVD NOT remember the master volume level of my sound card and try to put it back at that volume level when you restart the app? I'm not sure why the heck someone would actually want that. This seemed to have changed just recently in the last couple builds. What a lame feature.I agree with you this is totally lame. (All together now: What are these software developers smoking?) I skipped all the PDVD versions in between, but I recall this "feature" being present in PDVD XP 4.0 (ca. 2003 I think), so it's probably been a PDVD problem for a long time.

[Rew452]

So does this explain why I am having trouble with suttering trying to play "Sunshine"??

Would also like to know if anyone else is having problems with this disc.

Thanks
Rew