PowerDVD Ultra (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray)

[RichB]

Mounted isos will not play for me in PDVD8. I get unsupported disk with BD isos and nothing after switching to file mode with HD DVD

this happens with both daemonTools and VirtualCD (latest versions)

will try from files after I get something ripped to HDD

so far it looks like this is utter crap

This is great news. Why stop there, why not stop playing DVD rips. Then, no one will buy it :p

- Rich

[AbMagFab]

This is great news. Why stop there, why not stop playing DVD rips. Then, no one will buy it :p

- Rich

I'm guessing this is a rip or configuration problem. Technically, the software shouldn't be able to tell the difference between a mounted ISO and a physical disc.

So:
1) The poster has something weird with his rips
2) PDVD won't play unprotected BD/HDDVD anymore (which would be silly)
3) PDVD is detecting AnyDVD and failing to run if it's loaded (unlikely)

If it's really not working, my guess is on #2, but I don't think they'd take such a drastic step, given the proliferation of AVCHD cameras, and many people creating non-CP BD's.

[tsb]

I'm guessing this is a rip or configuration problem. Technically, the software shouldn't be able to tell the difference between a mounted ISO and a physical disc.

So:
1) The poster has something weird with his rips
2) PDVD won't play unprotected BD/HDDVD anymore (which would be silly)
3) PDVD is detecting AnyDVD and failing to run if it's loaded (unlikely)

If it's really not working, my guess is on #2, but I don't think they'd take such a drastic step, given the proliferation of AVCHD cameras, and many people creating non-CP BD's.


I tried both rips I made from folders using IMGBurn 2.4.0 in UDF 2.50 build mode and rips made using IMGBurn 2.4.0 in read mode with AnyDVD HD running in the background. None will play.

I tried with AnyDVD HD and without. Still nothing will play.

Interestingly, you may now be able to disable HWA if you want. I need to get something to play first though to be sure.

[jong1]

It seems totally pointless right now to predict possible features/restrictions from this beta of PDVD8. Some apparant restrictions may well be things that do not work in the beta but will be fixed by launch. Equally, any apparent benefits over PDVD7 may just be because they haven't finshed locking everything down.

I imagine this beta will only be of interest to those that want to explore all the "wonderful" "social networking" "enhancements" :)

[Peter Nagy]

Anyone tried this remote control?

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

I have Logitech Harmony 880 remote control and it works fine with PowerDVD using MCE 2005 commands but it's limited. I downloaded Cyberlink DVD remote control from Logitech Harmony database and it's also limited. For example, it does not include "Subtitle" or "Open/Close". Will Harmony remote control be able to learn extra commands from Cyberlink's remote control?

It's not clear whether it would work with my OEM PowerDVD 7.3 Blu-ray edition that came with Lite-On Blu-ray drive. They have software updates for PowerDVD 7 or Ultra. Which update version should I use?

Thanks,
Peter

[Mr.D]

Thanks Vern
I believed it was possible, as the great flexibility that was had with TheaterTek.
However if you confirm me this, it means that any players software Blue-ray it won't allow any posts processing :(

regards
Domenico


What sort of post-processing would you like to do to 1080p video anyway?

I can think of using the post processing the color for display accuracy but that's getting quite esoteric ( not to mention the somewhat problematic usage of the color transforms in ffdshow anyway).

Constant height 2.35 adjustment?

[BigHead]

My HD/BD OEM version that came with my LG drive said that it was 2 channel but passed multi channel sound without any modifications through the SP/DIF connection...

I also have the Ultra OEM version, and I think the 2 channel issue is with analog output, since I get 5.1 through my SP/DIF connection as well.

[Mr.D]

I imagine this beta will only be of interest to those that want to explore all the "wonderful" "social networking" "enhancements" :)


Cool its like facebook but for film geeks:confused:

[IAM4UK]

I installed the 3730 update and now Digital Video Essential HD DVD doesn't work. Anyone has the same problem?

Yes, that title has always been troublesome for me. The blu-ray version (reportedly updated for greater compatibility and ease-of-use) is coming out this month. Upgrades are available for about fifteen bucks, delivered.

[Al Sherwood]

Quote:
Originally Posted by fireanimal
Can some one check and see if they are having issues with HD-DVD version of DVE, the menus are there but there is no content showing?? Just want to make sure it's powerDVD and not my setup.

This is with the latest patch, before they worked fine.

Thanks

I'm having the same problem with the lastest version of PowerDVD, but it worked with older versions. I cannot play the files either because its the lastest version. So, I assume its broke again. PowerDVD does pop up ever so often when I first try playing DVE, saying a critical update is needed,but there is no update. I think they could have made that disc a little easier to play, considering the first versions of Powerdvd wouldn't play it, and Arcsoft won't either.

This is a finicky title, If you have AnyDVD running, mke sure in the setup you don't have 'remove first run title' (or something like that), doing this prevents the menu system from working.

I am at PDVD 3730 and it works for me, last time I checked! ;)

[Al Sherwood]

I installed the 3730 update and now Digital Video Essential HD DVD doesn't work. Anyone has the same problem?

OK, now you guys have me curious, I will try mine again, it worked before, but you never know...:rolleyes:

[Stereodude]

Is anyone else using the DTS encoding in PowerDVD for the True-HD and LPCM tracks on their High Def discs? I recently have been able to get it to work fairly reliably (not exactly sure how), but it sounds terrible. There is some sort of fairly high frequency resonance / ringing and shrillness in the DTS encoded output that I believe is being created by PowerDVD.

Yesterday I was watching Meet the Robinsons on Blu-Ray. I picked the lossless track and enabled the DTS encoding and was very annoyed by this high frequency ringing / resonance in the audio. The DD5.1 track on the disc didn't have the same artifact in it when passed the DD5.1 track for external decoding by my receiver. However, when I software decoded the DD5.1 track in PowerDVD and the encoded it to DTS in PowerDVD the ringing / resonance occurred in the audio again. I also noticed the same thing in other Blu-Ray / HD-DVD movies where I used the DTS mixing from the lossless tracks, though it was maybe less pronounced, or I maybe wasn't listening as closely for it.

I haven't seen any mention of this so far in this thread although I admittedly haven't read the whole thing, so I figured I would throw this out there for comments, hoping someone else can confirm the same thing I'm hearing. I have the 3730 patch installed if it matters.

[jojoxl]

Is anyone else using the DTS encoding in PowerDVD for the True-HD and LPCM tracks on their High Def discs? I recently have been able to get it to work fairly reliably (not exactly sure how), but it sounds terrible. There is some sort of fairly high frequency resonance / ringing and shrillness in the DTS encoded output that I believe is being created by PowerDVD.

Yesterday I was watching Meet the Robinsons on Blu-Ray. I picked the lossless track and enabled the DTS encoding and was very annoyed by this high frequency ringing / resonance in the audio. The DD5.1 track on the disc didn't have the same artifact in it when passed the DD5.1 track for external decoding by my receiver. However, when I software decoded the DD5.1 track in PowerDVD and the encoded it to DTS in PowerDVD the ringing / resonance occurred in the audio again. I also noticed the same thing in other Blu-Ray / HD-DVD movies where I used the DTS mixing from the lossless tracks, though it was maybe less pronounced, or I maybe wasn't listening as closely for it.

I haven't seen any mention of this so far in this thread although I admittedly haven't read the whole thing, so I figured I would throw this out there for comments, hoping someone else can confirm the same thing I'm hearing. I have the 3730 patch installed if it matters.

Yep, I ran into the same issue with the TrueHD track on Spiderman 3. Ended up turning off re-encoding and it went away (though I only got 2 channel output).

[Al Sherwood]

Yes, that title has always been troublesome for me. The blu-ray version (reportedly updated for greater compatibility and ease-of-use) is coming out this month. Upgrades are available for about fifteen bucks, delivered.


I can't find this on the site and would definitley buy the upgrade, I saw some obout HD- Back to Basics but nothing about a BD version of DVE...

Can you provide a link...

Thanks!

[Al Sherwood]

Yep, I ran into the same issue with the TrueHD track on Spiderman 3. Ended up turning off re-encoding and it went away (though I only got 2 channel output).

I'll check my setup, I watched Spiderman 3, selected TrueHD and I thought the receiver responded with DTS-ES? I am sure that I did not have PowerDVD set for 'encoding'. I suppose the AVR3805 could be doing to work?

[DMD61]

What sort of post-processing would you like to do to 1080p video anyway?......
They agree with you, however I am convinced that using a few the sharpen the image is still best

The screens are with TheaterTek sharpen regulated to 70 and monitor @1280x1024,

comparative 1
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6708/screen1senzazf8.jpg
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1057/screen1sharpenjg3.jpg

comparative 2
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1624/screen2senzaah8.jpg
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/770/screen2sharpenmt0.jpg

comparative 3
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/4494/screen3senzabn2.jpg
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/7538/screen3sharpenxx9.jpg

comparative 4
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/9527/screen4senzane5.jpg
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/4596/screen4sharpenbb6.jpg


hi

[gsr]

Where has it been said the OEM version 2-channel restriction only applies to analog output?

I'm not going to search a 200+ page thread to find every post that has refered to the 2 channel analog output limit, but it has been said over and over again in this thread. I'm not sure what all the nuances are around the limit and I really don't care. I'm using SPDIF output to my Lexicon MC-12 and also have the ability to send it 5.1 analog if I choose to. I never installed the OEM version and never intend to.

[jojoxl]

I'll check my setup, I watched Spiderman 3, selected TrueHD and I thought the receiver responded with DTS-ES? I am sure that I did not have PowerDVD set for 'encoding'. I suppose the AVR3805 could be doing to work?

I could be wrong, but I think PDVD Ultra (retail) will automatically enable DTS downmixing if you're playing a TrueHD soundtrack over SPDIF. You have to go in and specifically disable it under the audio tab.

[jongig]

Anyone tried this remote control?

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

I have Logitech Harmony 880 remote control and it works fine with PowerDVD using MCE 2005 commands but it's limited. I downloaded Cyberlink DVD remote control from Logitech Harmony database and it's also limited. For example, it does not include "Subtitle" or "Open/Close". Will Harmony remote control be able to learn extra commands from Cyberlink's remote control?

It's not clear whether it would work with my OEM PowerDVD 7.3 Blu-ray edition that came with Lite-On Blu-ray drive. They have software updates for PowerDVD 7 or Ultra. Which update version should I use?

Thanks,
Peter

I have the Cyberlink remote and it controls PDDVD just fine but it comes with a IR-Dongle and when no plugged in the IR codes don't work on the PC. I have the dongle plugged into the back of the PC out of sight of the remote and as long as it's plugged in the codes work. Not sure why this is but no button works on the Cyberlink remote without it plugged in.

john

[jongig]

I have PDDVD Ultra 3730 and I can't get resident Evil to play. I can play all other Blurays except this one. It loads up to the Topmenu and the music plays but it won't let me click play.

j

[Larry J]

Mounted isos will not play for me in PDVD8. I get unsupported disk with BD isos and nothing after switching to file mode with HD DVD

this happens with both daemonTools and VirtualCD (latest versions)

will try from files after I get something ripped to HDD

so far it looks like this is utter crap


I tried a mounted ISO yesterday and it won't play with that beta verison. Its almost like its not even a HD version. Hopefully its only because its Beta.

[Peter Nagy]

I have the Cyberlink remote and it controls PDDVD just fine but it comes with a IR-Dongle and when no plugged in the IR codes don't work on the PC. I have the dongle plugged into the back of the PC out of sight of the remote and as long as it's plugged in the codes work. Not sure why this is but no button works on the Cyberlink remote without it plugged in.

john

Thanks for the response. Is there a "Subtitle" button (I am hearing impaired). I am unable to find a nice picture displaying a keypad layout of this remote control.

Peter

[Davinleeds]

Only one I could find
http://www.cestuff.com/manuals/Remote.pdf

[Peter Nagy]

This is an old remote control and "Subtitle" seems to be there as "Next Subtitle". I don't doubt it's there on the latest remote control. Unfortunately this remote control is out of stock right now from Cyberlink.

Thanks,
Peter

[Davinleeds]

ditcho says yes to subtitle button

[vddobrev]

I have PDVD Ultra OEM that came with the LG drive. I have patched to 3516b. I am not able to play "3:10 to Yuma" - I cannot click on Play or any other options in the menu. Using the remote control doesn't work either.
Are there any workarounds to playing this movie?

[Peter Nagy]

ditcho says yes to subtitle button

Thanks. Now I have to wait for this remote control to be available on stock from Cyberlink. I search for other stores that might sell this remote control but found only older models. I prefer latest model.

Peter

[Davinleeds]

Don't know if it's the latest.
http://www.vidabox.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=71

[Al Sherwood]

I could be wrong, but I think PDVD Ultra (retail) will automatically enable DTS downmixing if you're playing a TrueHD soundtrack over SPDIF. You have to go in and specifically disable it under the audio tab.


You were right, the DTS radio button was on, but stranely enough the button "enable SP/DIF mixing" was not?

Still, even if I check the show information gui, it shows Dolby TruHD, the receiver shows 2 channel PCM at 96 kHz, and the AVR renders Dolby PLIIx

If I enble SP/DIF mixing and choose DTS along with TruHD, the AVR responds by recognizing a DTS signal and gives me Neo6 DTS...

[jongig]

This is the version I just received 2 days ago. I looked at the link in a previous post and noticed they had a eject button but got rid of it. I would really love to have an eject button.

The 3 attached files are 3 views of the remote so you read each button. If anyone has the old remote I'd love to get the eject button IR code.

As I mentioned in a previous post that the remote does not work unless you have the Cyberlink dongle that comes with it.

Can someone please let me know if Resident Evil will play? I can't get it to play yet I can play other Sony titles.

Thanks,
John

[Al Sherwood]

PowerDVD 3730 AnyDVD 3.1.0.3:

AnyDVD complains that it needs an update, my trial version doesn't allow this, so I reply with OK, it closes and I 'exit' the program.

Optical copy works fine, ISO won't play? PowerDVD looks for an update, I allow it , it completes (but deos nothing). :mad:

Why would this be, I thought that a correctly mounted ISO looks like the original?

[Stereodude]

I'll check my setup, I watched Spiderman 3, selected TrueHD and I thought the receiver responded with DTS-ES? I am sure that I did not have PowerDVD set for 'encoding'. I suppose the AVR3805 could be doing to work?Do you have a sound card with DTS connect? If so it would do the same thing outside of PowerDVD.

[Stereodude]

Yep, I ran into the same issue with the TrueHD track on Spiderman 3. Ended up turning off re-encoding and it went away (though I only got 2 channel output).Thanks for the confirmation. I knew I wasn't crazy. I wonder why more people haven't noticed this? :confused:

[Emig5m]

Is anyone else using the DTS encoding in PowerDVD for the True-HD and LPCM tracks on their High Def discs? I recently have been able to get it to work fairly reliably (not exactly sure how), but it sounds terrible. There is some sort of fairly high frequency resonance / ringing and shrillness in the DTS encoded output that I believe is being created by PowerDVD.

Yesterday I was watching Meet the Robinsons on Blu-Ray. I picked the lossless track and enabled the DTS encoding and was very annoyed by this high frequency ringing / resonance in the audio. The DD5.1 track on the disc didn't have the same artifact in it when passed the DD5.1 track for external decoding by my receiver. However, when I software decoded the DD5.1 track in PowerDVD and the encoded it to DTS in PowerDVD the ringing / resonance occurred in the audio again. I also noticed the same thing in other Blu-Ray / HD-DVD movies where I used the DTS mixing from the lossless tracks, though it was maybe less pronounced, or I maybe wasn't listening as closely for it.

I haven't seen any mention of this so far in this thread although I admittedly haven't read the whole thing, so I figured I would throw this out there for comments, hoping someone else can confirm the same thing I'm hearing. I have the 3730 patch installed if it matters.

Yup. I noticed when you encode to DTS (or spdif mixing) the sound quality is awful. I'd rather just listen to the True HD in 2.0 with absolutely crystal clear sound quality then the crap sound quality of the DTS mixed (multichannel doesn't = sound quality.) I stay far-far away from spdif mixing in PowerDVD. The sound quality is just crap, it's not even close to the sound quality of a regular ac3 DVD soundtrack. It just sounds so unnatural.

[Al Sherwood]

Do you have a sound card with DTS connect? If so it would do the same thing outside of PowerDVD.

No I have a Gigabyte mobo, onboard SP/DIF

[Peter Nagy]

This is the version I just received 2 days ago. I looked at the link in a previous post and noticed they had a eject button but got rid of it. I would really love to have an eject button.

The 3 attached files are 3 views of the remote so you read each button. If anyone has the old remote I'd love to get the eject button IR code.

As I mentioned in a previous post that the remote does not work unless you have the Cyberlink dongle that comes with it.

Can someone please let me know if Resident Evil will play? I can't get it to play yet I can play other Sony titles.

Thanks,
John

Thanks so much for the pictures. I too would love to have eject button.

Do you have LG Blu-ray drive? If so, i read that PowerDVD is working on fixing issues related to LG drives. So far I have watched Terminator and Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (both Blu-ray) and both played perfectly with Lite-On Blu-ray drive. I have read great reviews about Lite-On drives. I have not seen Resident Evil (I don't think I plan to. :D).

Peter

[jatoghia]

I just watched Pirates 3 - At World's End with absolutely no issue, and then Ratatouille. Ratatouille doesn't drop frames like Meet the Robinsons (which is rather consistent throughout) but does on occasion. Similiar again to Meet the Robinsons, some shot changes result in frames from later in the shot showing up first, in a sort of blink, before proceeding normally.

It wouldn't surprise me to find out that the encodes are slightly out of the norm... Disney did that with the original DVD encodes of some of their movies... pushing just past what most of the 1st and 2nd gen players would display. Forced me to change out my player way back then.

They look incredible, and I've got a really good feeling that it's just software related. But it does make me curious since Pirates 3 (while live action) is from the same studio, and probably encoded by the same people and processes.

Anyone here seeing these same things on Power DVD and other drives? Is it different with an upgrade to Ultra or Nero?

The other interesting thing is that I can record HDTV through my Hauppage while watching a movie... It doesn't effect the playback in any way whatsoever. The problems and weirdnesses in the playback are always identical, and are always frame for frame.

I was also able to play Pirates 3 ok, but you should note that it is only a 1080i movie and not 1080p, so that might have something to do with it.

[Stereodude]

Yup. I noticed when you encode to DTS (or spdif mixing) the sound quality is awful. I'd rather just listen to the True HD in 2.0 with absolutely crystal clear sound quality then the crap sound quality of the DTS mixed (multichannel doesn't = sound quality.) I stay far-far away from spdif mixing in PowerDVD. The sound quality is just crap, it's not even close to the sound quality of a regular ac3 DVD soundtrack. It just sounds so unnatural.I wonder if the sound quality from a DD Live or DTS Connect sound card is better, or if they suck at encoding too? :confused:

[Andy o]

Thanks for the confirmation. I knew I wasn't crazy. I wonder why more people haven't noticed this? :confused:

Yup. I noticed when you encode to DTS (or spdif mixing) the sound quality is awful. I'd rather just listen to the True HD in 2.0 with absolutely crystal clear sound quality then the crap sound quality of the DTS mixed (multichannel doesn't = sound quality.) I stay far-far away from spdif mixing in PowerDVD. The sound quality is just crap, it's not even close to the sound quality of a regular ac3 DVD soundtrack. It just sounds so unnatural.

This has been known for a while, only it was buried many pages ago. You're not crazy.

I wonder if the sound quality from a DD Live or DTS Connect sound card is better, or if they suck at encoding too? :confused:

DTS Connect and DDL in my experience and by reading others' comments doesn't do this, it is a bug in PowerDVD.

Really, people who want to do this shouldn't rely on PowerDVD. Get the Sondigo Callisto (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829272001&Tpk=sondigo%2bcallisto) instead, or just a full sound card like the Sondigo Inferno (though not available now, it seems discontinued) or any other cards like HT Claro, Asus Xonar D2, etc based on the same C-Media chip. You'll get a kick out of the features for HTPC. Dolby Headphone is a must for me, for example.

[Andy o]

I was also able to play Pirates 3 ok, but you should note that it is only a 1080i movie and not 1080p, so that might have something to do with it.

Where'd you hear this? I don't think that's true.


EDIT: It seems it was an error (http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/news/show/1226) in the packaging. It is 1080p indeed.

[Agman]

I have PDVD Ultra OEM that came with the LG drive. I have patched to 3516b. I am not able to play "3:10 to Yuma" - I cannot click on Play or any other options in the menu. Using the remote control doesn't work either.
Are there any workarounds to playing this movie?

How did you patch your OEM PWDVD. Everytime I download one of the patches on Cyberlinks Website and try to install it I can't install it becasue it says I don't have a compatible version.

[Al Sherwood]

This is the version I just received 2 days ago. I looked at the link in a previous post and noticed they had a eject button but got rid of it. I would really love to have an eject button.

The 3 attached files are 3 views of the remote so you read each button. If anyone has the old remote I'd love to get the eject button IR code.

As I mentioned in a previous post that the remote does not work unless you have the Cyberlink dongle that comes with it.

Can someone please let me know if Resident Evil will play? I can't get it to play yet I can play other Sony titles.

Thanks,
John

Would't a Windows media center remote do just as well, no eject button but it does everything else, as well as putting the HTPC into to sleep mode!

I bought mine for $20 and it came with the IR/USB receiver too.

As for the eject function, I have Vista so I just added a gadget to do that, it sits on the desktop, works well.

[slaman]

Actually TrueHD does not include an embedded DD stream. If the PS3 is able to output DD5.1 from a TrueHD source, it is in fact extracting the 6-channel audio and encoding it into DD5.1 (Dolby Digital Live functionality). My understanding that re-encoding to DD5.1 is a feature that all hardware HD-DVD and Blue-ray players include today (possibly this is a part of the TrueHD specification, but I haven't confirmed this).

Edit: According to the Dolby Laboratories web site at http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/trueHD/AVRs/trueHD_avrs_1.html, the ability to re-encode TrueHD into DD5.1 is optional for high definition disk players (bottom of page 2).

The "downmix to DD/DTS" apparently doesn't work in PowerDVD Ultra Retail due to bugs and it is not supported at all with the OEM version.

There are only 4 methods for an HTPC running PowerDVD to provide 5.1+ channels of audio from a TrueHD or multi-channel PCM audio track:

1. The ultimate solution is 8-channel HDMI audio. Currently there are very few motherboards/soundcards that support this and there are still issues with all known (to me) HTPC solutions that try to do this.

2. The next best is to use a high end 8-channel analog audio card such as the Asus Xonar. Some of the higher end sound cards have exceptional pre-amp capabilities, often better than even relatively high end audio amplifiers.

3. The next best is to use a motherboard or sound card that supports DTS Connect or Dolby Digital Live. One advantage to this is the simplicity in a single connection between the HTPC and ampliier. The main downside to this option is it only supports a maximum of 6-channels of audio. The sound quality remains very good, especially with DTS Connect (IMO) and the DTS or DD5.1 is sent to the amplifier through SPDIF. Some will argue that the audio quality is not as good as 2 and this can be true, but the difference is typically difficult to perceive if you have a good amplifier. Selecting a motherboard with DTS Connect or Dolby Digital Live when building an HTPC can be considerably less expensive than going with option 2.

4. If you have a standard motherboard or lower end sound card, the only way to get more than stereo is to use the analog outputs instead of SPDIF. Unfortunately this solution typically leaves a lot to be desired as far as audio quality is concerned.

If you are looking for high quality audio, methods 1 through 3 all work well, but may require a hardware upgrade.

This is a great post...Thanks!

I'm running an Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard that has an onboard Realtek ALC882M High Definition Audio 8-channel CODEC connected to a Logitech z5500 system with BOTH: 3 analogue cables for 5.1 and a coaxial cable for SPDIF...

Software-wise, I am running a Vista system and PowerDVD with the latest drivers from Realtek.

I am testing this with Band of Brothers, which has a DTS-HD 2046Kbps track, and Planet Earth, which has a DD+ 5.1 448Kbps track, to find out what combination will produce the best SOUND quality...

1)
Windows Playback Device:Stereo
PowerDVD Output: 6-speakers

Planet Earth (DD+5.1)
Coax (SPDIF) source on receiver: Stereo detected
Direct (5.1) source on receiver: 6-channels detected

Band of Brothers (DTS-HD)
Coax (SPDIF) source on receiver: Stereo detected
Direct (5.1) source on receiver: 6-channels detected

2)
Windows Playback Device:Stereo
PowerDVD Output: SPDIF

Planet Earth (DD+5.1)
Coax (SPDIF) source on receiver: Stereo detected
Direct (5.1) source on receiver: 6-channels detected (I couldn't hear anything except the front two channels though)

Band of Brothers (DTS-HD)
Coax (SPDIF) source on receiver: Stereo detected
Direct (5.1) source on receiver: 6-channels detected (I couldn't hear anything except the front two channels though)

3)
Windows Playback Device: Digital
PowerDVD Output: 6-speakers

Planet Earth (DD+5.1)
Coax (SPDIF) source on receiver: Stereo detected
Direct (5.1) source on receiver: No sound detected

Band of Brothers (DTS-HD)
Coax (SPDIF) source on receiver: Stereo detected
Direct (5.1) source on receiver: No sound detected

4)
Windows Playback Device: Digital
PowerDVD Output: SPDIF

Planet Earth (DD+5.1)
Coax (SPDIF) source on receiver: dts Digital detected
Direct (5.1) source on receiver: No sound detected

Band of Brothers (DTS-HD)
Coax (SPDIF) source on receiver: dts Digital detected
Direct (5.1) source on receiver: No sound detected


My questions are:

a) What is being output when Windows Playback Device: Digital and PowerDVD Output: SPDIF in BOTH the DD+5.1 and DTS-HD case if you can't SPDIF either of those?

b) In both those cases, is setting my output to Stereo, and setting the PowerDVD to 6-channel superior in terms of quality over the SPDIF/Digital combination?

c) Is there anyway to specify WHICH Playback device I want to use (like I can in Winamp or MPC?)

[Peter Nagy]

Would't a Windows media center remote do just as well, no eject button but it does everything else, as well as putting the HTPC into to sleep mode!

I bought mine for $20 and it came with the IR/USB receiver too.

As for the eject function, I have Vista so I just added a gadget to do that, it sits on the desktop, works well.

You are correct. I checked Logitech Harmony 880 remote control database for MCE 2005 and there is a "Subtitle" feature. Too bad I don't have Blu-ray movie to test it. I am waiting for Netfix to deliver a Blu-ray movie soon.

You just saved me $20 from buying another remote control.

Thanks,
Peter

[TUFU]

PowerDVD 3730 AnyDVD 3.1.0.3:

AnyDVD complains that it needs an update, my trial version doesn't allow this, so I reply with OK, it closes and I 'exit' the program.

Optical copy works fine, ISO won't play? PowerDVD looks for an update, I allow it , it completes (but deos nothing). :mad:

Why would this be, I thought that a correctly mounted ISO looks like the original?

I think you may need to upgrade your version of ANYDVD HD.
With anydvd hd 6.3.1.0,I got same update message each time when I want to play Celine Dion: A New Day. After upgrade to anydvd hd 6.3.1.5,the update message didn't appear anymore.Surely you can play with optical drive but not in hard disc ISO mode without appropriate version of anydvd hd.

[ballenjr]

You are correct. I checked Logitech Harmony 880 remote control database for MCE 2005 and there is a "Subtitle" feature. Too bad I don't have Blu-ray movie to test it. I am waiting for Netfix to deliver a Blu-ray movie soon.

You just saved me $20 from buying another remote control.

Thanks,
Peter

Unfortunately the subtitle button on the Harmony 880 (MCE 2005 db) didn't work for me.
Using the 'U' button on the keyboard allows you to toggle between the different subtiitle tracks.
I wonder if there is a way to map the 'U' button to the Harmony remote.

ballenjr

[FamilyMan]

Bump #6293

[DC2R714]

I wonder if the sound quality from a DD Live or DTS Connect sound card is better, or if they suck at encoding too? :confused:

You are not crazy because I asked the same question a bunch of pages back. I found out my MB does have DTS Connect so I have been using that and it does a good job for encoding. I use DTS Connect now with SPDIF in PDVD and it works great. That is my only gripe with PDVD. I have been able to play every BluRay and HDDVD I have, but the DTS downmixing in PDVD is horrible, and seems to be a problem no matter what configuration you have.

[AbMagFab]

You are not crazy because I asked the same question a bunch of pages back. I found out my MB does have DTS Connect so I have been using that and it does a good job for encoding. I use DTS Connect now with SPDIF in PDVD and it works great. That is my only gripe with PDVD. I have been able to play every BluRay and HDDVD I have, but the DTS downmixing in PDVD is horrible, and seems to be a problem no matter what configuration you have.

Is there some difference between using the PDVD DTS/DD modes, and using the sound cards version of it?

I found that setting PDVD to something like DTS:Neo6 Cinema made the sound noticably worse, even over analog. Is there some way to use DTSConnect/DDLive, but have PDVD set to 8-channel?

[lsdavinci]

I've been following-up with this thread for a few months now so I kinda know the answers to most of the questions I now have except for 2.

XP & Vista. I've been running Vista for quite sometime now. I also have been running version 3319a for a few months now. I like it. It's stable and plays most my stuff. But I want the ability to play HDs like Knocked Up and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, etc. In order to do this, I'd have to upgrade which I'm reluctant to do. I've read in other places how to have both 3319a & 3730 on one machine but for some reason it doesn't work for me. going back to 3319a using a CMD script always asks me for a key and fails when I give it one forcing me to be in Trial Mode. And I can't get audio out of it as well. Going back to 3730, things are fine again but I lose the Hard drive feature. There's just no winning!!! :mad:

Also, I tried the SVS method and it doesn't work on Vista but seems to work fine in XP.

Anyway, does anyone have a better method of having both installs on the same Vista PC? If so, please share

If not, I will resort to dual boot XP/Vista where 3319a will live on the XP. Which brings up my 2nd question. Quality. Is the quality of PQ/SQ and better or worse between the two? Please share your experiences.

[AbMagFab]

I've been following-up with this thread for a few months now so I kinda know the answers to most of the questions I now have except for 2.

XP & Vista. I've been running Vista for quite sometime now. I also have been running version 3319a for a few months now. I like it. It's stable and plays most my stuff. But I want the ability to play HDs like Knocked Up and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, etc. In order to do this, I'd have to upgrade which I'm reluctant to do. I've read in other places how to have both 3319a & 3730 on one machine but for some reason it doesn't work for me. going back to 3319a using a CMD script always asks me for a key and fails when I give it one forcing me to be in Trial Mode. And I can't get audio out of it as well. Going back to 3730, things are fine again but I lose the Hard drive feature. There's just no winning!!! :mad:

Also, I tried the SVS method and it doesn't work on Vista but seems to work fine in XP.

Anyway, does anyone have a better method of having both installs on the same Vista PC? If so, please share

If not, I will resort to dual boot XP/Vista where 3319a will live on the XP. Which brings up my 2nd question. Quality. Is the quality of PQ/SQ and better or worse between the two? Please share your experiences.

I'm using the batch script that was provided a while back in this thread. You need to edit it to make the changes to match your paths (or change your paths), but it works great in Vista Ultimate.

I also changed the script so it didn't launch PDVD, just changed which one was running, and I have it renaming the desktop icon so I know which one is currently active.

In any case, yes, it works perfectly in Vista. All it's doing is copying a couple files and making a couple registry changes. Make sure you're running as admin, and don't have any of the annoying Vista security blocks turned on.

[DC2R714]

Is there some difference between using the PDVD DTS/DD modes, and using the sound cards version of it?

I found that setting PDVD to something like DTS:Neo6 Cinema made the sound noticably worse, even over analog. Is there some way to use DTSConnect/DDLive, but have PDVD set to 8-channel?

Ya the difference is that that sound card/mb versions actually work and dont get that ringing tinny sound.

Unfortunately DDL and DTS Connect are limited to 6-channel audio as far as I know.

[AbMagFab]

Ya the difference is that that sound card/mb versions actually work and dont get that ringing tinny sound.

Unfortunately DDL and DTS Connect are limited to 6-channel audio as far as I know.

Okay... well, I hope my G35 experience works tonight, and I can get 8-channel LPCM over HDMI, and working HD playback.

[Peter Nagy]

Unfortunately the subtitle button on the Harmony 880 (MCE 2005 db) didn't work for me.
Using the 'U' button on the keyboard allows you to toggle between the different subtiitle tracks.
I wonder if there is a way to map the 'U' button to the Harmony remote.

ballenjr

That's too bad. I may end up buying Cyberlink remote control and use Harmony to learn commands via infared.

Thanks,
Peter

[Stereodude]

Is there some difference between using the PDVD DTS/DD modes, and using the sound cards version of it?I sure hope so. ;)
I found that setting PDVD to something like DTS:Neo6 Cinema made the sound noticeably worse, even over analog. Is there some way to use DTS Connect/DD Live, but have PDVD set to 8-channel? I don't have analog hooked up, so I can't comment.

I think DTS Connect and DD Live only work up to 5.1, (maybe 6.1)... The best you can do is set PDVD to 5.1 and send the DTS stream to your receiver and do DPL IIx or DTS:NEO6 on it there.

[lsdavinci]

I'm using the batch script that was provided a while back in this thread. You need to edit it to make the changes to match your paths (or change your paths), but it works great in Vista Ultimate.

I also changed the script so it didn't launch PDVD, just changed which one was running, and I have it renaming the desktop icon so I know which one is currently active.

In any case, yes, it works perfectly in Vista. All it's doing is copying a couple files and making a couple registry changes. Make sure you're running as admin, and don't have any of the annoying Vista security blocks turned on.

are you doing 3319a & 3730 as well? you didn't run into the CD key prompt when switching back to 3319a? maybe I did something wrong. I know I did a few things wrong at first (incorrect path and all). I am glad that you're saying it works on Vista.

Oh yeah, another question for you. your 3730 version, a patch from the web site or did Cyberlink send you a link for the full install?

[Samstag]

Before I drop $100 for PowerDVD, is there anyone who can tell me how it will deal with my dual video card setup?

I'm running a 7600GS to an analog CRT and a 7600GT to an HDCP LCD monitor. I ran Cyberlink's BD/HD Advisor to make sure I was supported and it's only seeing the 7600GS (which happens to be in the first video slot). What I'd like to do is move back and forth between monitors so I can watch movies in 1080P on the LCD or watch lower-def on the CRT when I just want something playing in the background. Is this possible or am I going to be limited to 540p all the time? And if not can I swap the cards and expect to get 1080p on the LCD in that configuration?

[Mr.M]

In XP MCE I'm having trouble getting audio from DVDs with mp2 soundtracks.

Using PowerDVD Ultra as the DVD decoder alone or in Media Center I get no sound. Although live TV (with mp2 sound) works flawlessly. Windows Media Player also works correctly, once again with PowerDVD decoding.

I desperately want to get sound in Media Center, but keep PowerDVD Ultra as the MPEG2 decoder. I've tried assigning AC3Filter and ffdshow the highest directshow merit, but I can't get anything to override the Cyberlink decoder.

Can anyone either suggest a solution to get PowerDVD decoding properly or a way for me to get something else to decode the audio?

[HT Slider]

HT Slider is right, if multichannel analog is not possible, then DTS Connect multichannel isn't either. The way DTS Connect and DDL work is that they take the multichannel stream after it left PowerDVD (though it's not completely clear to me if it's before D/A, I presume it is). I was gonna say, DTS Connect always outputs 5.1, so HT Slider should still be seeing 5.1 channels IN on his receiver, but only hear stereo, but I think he knows better, and he said he can hear the surrounds.

HT Slider, I'm guessing you're positively sure that you're not applying Dolby Pro-Logic or something like that either in the audio driver or in the receiver, right?

I have bad news (and appear to be loosing my mind...). I am 100% certain that I checked for surround audio out of the rear speakers before and I swear that we had 5.1 out of TrueHD through DTS Connect, but either by brain and ears were confused or something has changed with the 3514 OEM version vs the version that shipped with my LG drive or I somehow selected something other than TrueHD when watching other movies and experimenting with the audio.

Whatever the situation, last night with The Bourne Ultimatum HD-DVD when I select the TrueHD soundtrack the motherboard's DTS Connect did only produce 2-channels of audio.

I haven't experimented with other movies or other audio track formats yet.

[Al Sherwood]

I think you may need to upgrade your version of ANYDVD HD.
With anydvd hd 6.3.1.0,I got same update message each time when I want to play Celine Dion: A New Day. After upgrade to anydvd hd 6.3.1.5,the update message didn't appear anymore.Surely you can play with optical drive but not in hard disc ISO mode without appropriate version of anydvd hd.

I updated to 6.3.1.5 this worked for A Brave One, but...?

I thought that a properly mounted ISO looked like the original?

[vddobrev]

How did you patch your OEM PWDVD. Everytime I download one of the patches on Cyberlinks Website and try to install it I can't install it becasue it says I don't have a compatible version.

I just downloaded and installed.

[vddobrev]

I have PDVD Ultra OEM that came with the LG drive. I have patched to 3516b. I am not able to play "3:10 to Yuma" - I cannot click on Play or any other options in the menu. Using the remote control doesn't work either.
Are there any workarounds to playing this movie?

Anyone? Please, I am desperate.

[Andy o]

Anyone? Please, I am desperate.

PowerDVD 3730 is needed for that movie, I think because of it being profile 1.1 or some crap like that. OEM people are screwed for now I guess.

[Al Sherwood]

You are correct. I checked Logitech Harmony 880 remote control database for MCE 2005 and there is a "Subtitle" feature. Too bad I don't have Blu-ray movie to test it. I am waiting for Netfix to deliver a Blu-ray movie soon.

You just saved me $20 from buying another remote control.

Thanks,
Peter

Hmmm, I checked my remote, although it has a 'DVD menu' button, it does not have a 'subtitle' button. I actually have a Gyrations Mouse/Kybd setup attached to my HTPC, I use the mouse to bring up the PDVD menus to access things like this.

[markm75]

Does anyone know if PowerDVD Ultra will play back m2ts files?

[HDTV Freak]

Does anyone know if PowerDVD Ultra will play back m2ts files?

PowerDVD Ultra 3319 can play folders but won't work if drop the m2ts file.

[Davinleeds]

PowerDVD 3730 is needed for that movie, I think because of it being profile 1.1 or some crap like that. OEM people are screwed for now I guess.

No, I provided a link to OEM on a previous page
http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/download/dl_patch_561_112_ENU.html

[Peter Nagy]

Hmmm, I checked my remote, although it has a 'DVD menu' button, it does not have a 'subtitle' button. I actually have a Gyrations Mouse/Kybd setup attached to my HTPC, I use the mouse to bring up the PDVD menus to access things like this.

My goal is to minimize using mouse and keyboard and use remote control for setting up and watching Blu-ray movies. I prefer all remote control and no mouse/keyboard for HTPC.

Peter

[Davinleeds]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13313349&posted=1#post13313349

Peter, Check out jongig's post 1419 if you want to see cyber remote.

[BigWorm2005GT]

No, I provided a link to OEM on a previous page
http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/download/dl_patch_561_112_ENU.html

@ Davinleeds,

That page states that the patch listed is for retail only.

BW

[Davinleeds]

Granted, I haven't tried it cause I like 3319, Al Sherwood has mentioned he has 3730 OEM. Cyberlink sent me this link and I'm OEM.

[markm75]

PowerDVD Ultra 3319 can play folders but won't work if drop the m2ts file.

So if you had the folder from the bluray it would in fact play it then?

Does bluray allow for managed copies.. i thought that was somewhere in the spec or am i thinking of hd-dvd.

[ctiq21]

^^
Have you tried Girder. You can use any remote and have it pretty much do anything you want. I have it setup to open Zoomplayer with the press of a button and different button for Power DVD. I never have to touch the mouse.

girder can be a little hard to get your head around at the beginning, but it is very powerful and a cool program.

[MikeZ06]

Not that I want to use it, because I heard to not enable it. But how do you enable spdif mixing on PDVD. In my audio tab it is greyed out. even when playing a dvd its greyed out. I am using optical audio by the way.

Thanks for the help

[bk1987]

PowerDVD 3730 is needed for that movie, I think because of it being profile 1.1 or some crap like that. OEM people are screwed for now I guess.

i have been using 3319a to play back 3:10 to Yuma but i did use TsRemux to shrink the BD size on the hdd Just the movie no menus etc which comes out to 27.5 gigs, similar to this guide, http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=11770
in fact all my blu rays are now movie only, all around 27-29 gigs in iso's or m2ts files

[markm75]

I have version 3730.. suddenly i've lost the spdif option.. i'm running onboard realtek audio from my asus p5n32-sli SE.. the same driver version is installed as when it was working 2 days ago..

Anyone run into this before? I'm on Vista x86.



Thanks

[JDLIVE]

^^
Have you tried Girder. You can use any remote and have it pretty much do anything you want. I have it setup to open Zoomplayer with the press of a button and different button for Power DVD. I never have to touch the mouse.

girder can be a little hard to get your head around at the beginning, but it is very powerful and a cool program.

What are you using with Girder to control PowerDVD? Keyboard shortcuts? I have Netremote/Girder running everything for me including Zoom Player but haven't tackled PowerDVD yet.

[HDTV Freak]

So if you had the folder from the bluray it would in fact play it then?

Does bluray allow for managed copies.. i thought that was somewhere in the spec or am i thinking of hd-dvd.

Yeah, as long as it's the folder structure of the original BD, it should play the movie as if you are playing it off a BD with menus and everything.

[Peter Nagy]

What are you using with Girder to control PowerDVD? Keyboard shortcuts? I have Netremote/Girder running everything for me including Zoom Player but haven't tackled PowerDVD yet.

Girder sounds interesting and I don't know anything about it. I briefly looked at their web site and it showed a partial list of remote controls but it didn't include Logitech remote control. I do not want to use keyboard or mouse. Will I have to get another remote control to work with Girder? Girder looks like a steep learning curve.

Thanks,
Peter

[JonProphet]

Ok, I'm still having an issue. I'm hooking directly into my Yami 1800 seriest receiver via HDMI. I have SPDIF (optical toslink not connected) selected and I don't get any audio. Only way I get audio is if I select 6 speakers. I do not get anything but prologic to display. I think something is limited on my Sony Vaio Laptop. Help me out someone. I'm flustered and frustrated.

=-JD=

[sixfive]

I have version 3730.. suddenly i've lost the spdif option.. i'm running onboard realtek audio from my asus p5n32-sli SE.. the same driver version is installed as when it was working 2 days ago..

Anyone run into this before? I'm on Vista x86.



Thanks

Yes similar issue here. Not sure which version I'm running though - how do I know? - file properties says 7.03.3514 next to "Product Version". My original copy came with my drive.

The SPDIF option is there when no disc is playing but disappears when playing. PDVD says it's outputting DDPlus 5.1 1536Kbps but my receiver tells me it's stereo over optical SPDIF.

I could swear I had 5.1 form PDVD and this disc (and others) before. I remember installing an "upgrade" a while ago. Has my version been hobbled?

The screen that follows clicking "activate" says "You are currently running PowerDVD BD+HD 2CH version..." Did Cyberlink mistakenly release a "2 channel" OEM version then patch it so users could only hear movies in stereo later? Hopefully LG knows they're bundling software from a company that seems to be doing a bait and switch.

[AbMagFab]

Yes similar issue here. Not sure which version I'm running though - how do I know? - file properties says 7.03.3514 next to "Product Version". My original copy came with my drive.

The SPDIF option is there when no disc is playing but disappears when playing. PDVD says it's outputting DDPlus 5.1 1536Kbps but my receiver tells me it's stereo over optical SPDIF.

I could swear I had 5.1 form PDVD and this disc (and others) before. I remember installing an "upgrade" a while ago. Has my version been hobbled?

The screen that follows clicking "activate" says "You are currently running PowerDVD BD+HD 2CH version..." Did Cyberlink mistakenly release a "2 channel" OEM version then patch it so users could only hear movies in stereo later? Hopefully LG knows they're bundling software from a company that seems to be doing a bait and switch.

Pretty sure anything but regular DD5.1 and DTS5.1/6.1 will be transmitted as two-channel stereo over SPDIF. Only way to get more is to use DDLive/DTSConnect to remix it, send as analog over 8-channels, or send as LPCM over HDMI.

[sixfive]

I'd be happy with DD 5.1 and/or DTS 5.1/6.1. And I WAS getting that from PDVD before the "upgrade". I'm guessing Cyberlink realized the OEM version was as good as the retail version and decided to disable multichannel output so people would have to purchase the "full" version.

[markm75]

Yes similar issue here. Not sure which version I'm running though - how do I know? - file properties says 7.03.3514 next to "Product Version". My original copy came with my drive.

The SPDIF option is there when no disc is playing but disappears when playing. PDVD says it's outputting DDPlus 5.1 1536Kbps but my receiver tells me it's stereo over optical SPDIF.

I could swear I had 5.1 form PDVD and this disc (and others) before. I remember installing an "upgrade" a while ago. Has my version been hobbled?

The screen that follows clicking "activate" says "You are currently running PowerDVD BD+HD 2CH version..." Did Cyberlink mistakenly release a "2 channel" OEM version then patch it so users could only hear movies in stereo later? Hopefully LG knows they're bundling software from a company that seems to be doing a bait and switch.

I hadnt even updated my version.. it was showing as "dolby digital" when playing dvds just days ago.. with the spdif option showing with or without a disc or harddrive based content playing..

Now its just "gone" .. *shrugs*...

[AbMagFab]

I'd be happy with DD 5.1 and/or DTS 5.1/6.1. And I WAS getting that from PDVD before the "upgrade". I'm guessing Cyberlink realized the OEM version was as good as the retail version and decided to disable multichannel output so people would have to purchase the "full" version.

Have you tried switching audio tracks? Maybe it's defaulting now to the better sound track, but it still has the DD/DTS one in there.

[Andy o]

I'd be happy with DD 5.1 and/or DTS 5.1/6.1. And I WAS getting that from PDVD before the "upgrade". I'm guessing Cyberlink realized the OEM version was as good as the retail version and decided to disable multichannel output so people would have to purchase the "full" version.

You can get DD 5.1 (or EX) and DTS 5.1 (or 6.1 ES if included) only through S/PDIF bitstreaming (i.e. PowerDVD does not do the decoding) for this, in Vista, you need to select your digital output as "default" in Vista audio properties (right-click on the volume icon in the taskbar, and choose "playback devices". Then open or restart PowerDVD, and before playing the movie, select S/PDIF in the Audio tab. PowerDVD then will have nothing to do with the audio, and your receiver should be able to decode DD, DTS and the embedded DD and DTS streams in the so-called HD audio tracks (DD+, DTS-HD). Don't know about TrueHD, though. I don't think that has a DD track embedded, but most movies I've seen with it come with a DD track as well.

By the way, you can tell which build you have by right-clicking on the PowerDVD window and "About...". Then just click on your name ("This product is licensed to:"). You probably have build 3516. I can see with mine that 3514 is the UI version or something like that, but that's not the PowerDVD build.

[sixfive]

Yes I have build 3516a

Now I'm getting no audio but I'm guessing it's because I just installed Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre. Sheesh. I guess I'll have to reinstall PDVD.

[ctiq21]

What are you using with Girder to control PowerDVD? Keyboard shortcuts? I have Netremote/Girder running everything for me including Zoom Player but haven't tackled PowerDVD yet.

Exactly. You have to use the keyboard short cuts and link them to a remote event. It seems to work flawlessly for me. For the up, down, left, right arrows you have to enter the string as <UP>, <DOWN>, etc.

The only thing I ran into is that the PowerDVD controls messed up my zoomplayer controls a little bit. I tried using focus and the windows conditional, but it didn't seem to work. So i ended up using the disable and enable girder GML event. So when I click my remote to open zoomplayer I have a macro that disables the GML for powerdvd. when I exit zoomplayer it re-enables it. Seems to work great.

Peter Nagy, girder is kind of difficult at first, but it is very cool. You can use any IR remote with it. You can add your own remote at the beginning with a wizard. It just asks you to push a button for play, pause, etc then it maps it all for you. I am using a $15 universal remote.

[Andy o]

Yes I have build 3516a

Now I'm getting no audio but I'm guessing it's because I just installed Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre. Sheesh. I guess I'll have to reinstall PDVD.

What kind of mobo do you have, and do you have any other sound cards? In Vista this is a little tricky, but in the long run it's better organized, I think. If you have more than one S/PDIF output (some mobos/cards have 1 coax and 1 optical, for instance, or 1 optical or whatever), then you're gonna have to select the exact one you're gonna be using as default.

[Peter Nagy]

Exactly. You have to use the keyboard short cuts and link them to a remote event. It seems to work flawlessly for me. For the up, down, left, right arrows you have to enter the string as <UP>, <DOWN>, etc.

The only thing I ran into is that the PowerDVD controls messed up my zoomplayer controls a little bit. I tried using focus and the windows conditional, but it didn't seem to work. So i ended up using the disable and enable girder GML event. So when I click my remote to open zoomplayer I have a macro that disables the GML for powerdvd. when I exit zoomplayer it re-enables it. Seems to work great.

Peter Nagy, girder is kind of difficult at first, but it is very cool. You can use any IR remote with it. You can add your own remote at the beginning with a wizard. It just asks you to push a button for play, pause, etc then it maps it all for you. I am using a $15 universal remote.

Thanks, I'll give Girder a try this weekend. I downloaded both released and Beta versions. Have you tried the Beta version? Shall I start with released version first?

Peter

[Emissary]

Thanks, I'll give Girder a try this weekend. I downloaded both released and Beta versions. Have you tried the Beta version? Shall I start with released version first?

Peter

You can also give HIP a try. I've had success with it and my Harmony remote, and best of all, it's totally free.

http://www.byremote.com.au/HIP/

[JDLIVE]

Exactly. You have to use the keyboard short cuts and link them to a remote event. It seems to work flawlessly for me. For the up, down, left, right arrows you have to enter the string as <UP>, <DOWN>, etc.

The only thing I ran into is that the PowerDVD controls messed up my zoomplayer controls a little bit. I tried using focus and the windows conditional, but it didn't seem to work. So i ended up using the disable and enable girder GML event. So when I click my remote to open zoomplayer I have a macro that disables the GML for powerdvd. when I exit zoomplayer it re-enables it. Seems to work great.

Interesting....thanks. I'll have another go at it when I get some time.

[sixfive]

What kind of mobo do you have, and do you have any other sound cards? In Vista this is a little tricky, but in the long run it's better organized, I think. If you have more than one S/PDIF output (some mobos/cards have 1 coax and 1 optical, for instance, or 1 optical or whatever), then you're gonna have to select the exact one you're gonna be using as default.

I have a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R. It does have both optical and coax but how do I choose which one to use? I mean I can't see anyway of selecting which output to use either in Vista or PDVD. I've never had to do that before with any program. I assumed the same signal would be sent to both coax and optical. I still think Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre messed it up somehow.

[--Sclaws]

OK, I am having a minor audio issue and asked Cyberlink to help (occasional dropout via spdif on specific titles). This is their response:

Dear James,

Thank you for contacting CyberLink Online Support.

We understand your concern related with SPDIF sound output.

Please note that PowerDVD Ultra does not support SPDIF Out greater than 48 Hz. If it is more than 48Hz, it will degrade it to 48Hz.

Currently PowerDVD Ultra does not support SPDIF sound output.

You may try connecting Analog connections and you will not face this issue.
---


Uh, it doesnt support SPDIF?!?!?! WTF! And I DID try analog and the problem persists.

[markm75]

OK, I am having a minor audio issue and asked Cyberlink to help (occasional dropout via spdif on specific titles). This is their response:

Dear James,

Thank you for contacting CyberLink Online Support.

We understand your concern related with SPDIF sound output.

Please note that PowerDVD Ultra does not support SPDIF Out greater than 48 Hz. If it is more than 48Hz, it will degrade it to 48Hz.

Currently PowerDVD Ultra does not support SPDIF sound output.

You may try connecting Analog connections and you will not face this issue.
---


Uh, it doesnt support SPDIF?!?!?! WTF! And I DID try analog and the problem persists.


This is rather confusing.. i mean.. we all know that it has worked with spdif.. well at least on mine it did till the other day..

Actually in my case, it seems that my DD out on the spdif isnt working even in the "playback devices" test option.. i'm at a loss as to why.. the driver hasnt changed under vista x86 since the day it was working.

[JonProphet]

I would be happy with LPCM from something. Don't care. I'm not getting anything but Pro Logic via HDMI. I'm not even touching Optical. Somebody please help me out here. I'm showing version 3730

-JD-

[Andy o]

I have a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R. It does have both optical and coax but how do I choose which one to use? I mean I can't see anyway of selecting which output to use either in Vista or PDVD. I've never had to do that before with any program. I assumed the same signal would be sent to both coax and optical. I still think Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre messed it up somehow.

Right-click on the volume icon in the system tray (usually in the lower right corner, next to the clock) and select playback devices. Then you should have some devices (at least 3 in your case: The analog, which should say "speakers" or "headphones", and 2 that say "Digital Output". Set the one you want as default, and then open or restart PowerDVD, and select S/PDIF in PowerDVD before playing anything. That should work.

EDIT: By the way, what are you trying to play? This works for me with DVDs and HD discs, but not for files for me. For files, your AC-3 or DTS Directshow decoder needs to be set to pass through. I think AC3Filter and such allow you to do that, but most probably that's not what you're trying to do.

[Peter Nagy]

This is the version I just received 2 days ago. I looked at the link in a previous post and noticed they had a eject button but got rid of it. I would really love to have an eject button.

The 3 attached files are 3 views of the remote so you read each button. If anyone has the old remote I'd love to get the eject button IR code.

As I mentioned in a previous post that the remote does not work unless you have the Cyberlink dongle that comes with it.

Can someone please let me know if Resident Evil will play? I can't get it to play yet I can play other Sony titles.

Thanks,
John

I watched Resident Evil tonight and was able to watch the whole movie. But it had issues if I interrupt by pausing, fast forwarding or rewinding. Sometimes it would go back to the beginning (Chapter 1) or lockup that I had to "Ctrl-Alt-Del" to exit PowerDVD. As long as I don't interrupt playing the movie, it worked fine. There was a minute or two I could barely hear the people's voices but background sound or sound effects were fine. I repeated playing back the same scene several times and it was consistent and people's voices were barely audible. I am using 2 channel analog audio. It's hard to determine who to blame: the movie or PowerDVD software. I think the movie itself was faulty. Picture quality was great.

Peter

[--Sclaws]

Just saw this posting about PDVD V8 to NOT support HD DVD playback:
http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=14424

Wow...if it turns out true then v7 is certainly my last for this app. My library is still mostly HD DVD and will remain so for some time.

[Al Sherwood]

Just saw this posting about PDVD V8 to NOT support HD DVD playback:
http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=14424

Wow...if it turns out true then v7 is certainly my last for this app. My library is still mostly HD DVD and will remain so for some time.

Not good news if true!

Although PowerDVD 7 Ultra appears fairly stable for HD-DVD playback that darn Blu-Ray needs patches every now and then!

We may need to perfect the ability to run 2 versions of PowerDVD on the same machine, SOON! :eek:

[stevetoney]

Actually not, I will not give them anymore money in software purchases or upgrades if they do something this unfriendly to current customers.

like others -- I have lot's of HDDVD's and looking for any under 10 buck deals I can get.

not a wise move for a software company to simply drop previous format support in a player this way.

If true, I hope it would put them one step closer to being put out of business due to lack of customers and other competitive that will provide a better product

hope arcsoft product continues to improve

I may buy a copy this weekend

powerdvd has been an unstable mess since ultra as noted especially with bluray playback..

Not good news if true!

Although PowerDVD 7 Ultra appears fairly stable for HD-DVD playback that darn Blu-Ray needs patches every now and then!

We may need to perfect the ability to run 2 versions of PowerDVD on the same machine, SOON! :eek:

[Emig5m]

Actually not, I will not give them anymore money in software purchases or upgrades if they do something this unfriendly to current customers.

Now everyone else has to start thinking like this. I think it's outrageous people have to rely on hacks and have to jump through hoops to get their software working like it should up front.

[Davinleeds]

A reply from ArcSoft when asked about future support
So in the future--like,I want to buy I am Legend on HDDVD--if this title has added(new) encryption, can you assure me when I get it from Amazon, I will be able to sit back and enjoy my purchase? Also, HDDVD will continue to be bought from Xploited and overseas, can we count on support?

There's too many factors to guarantee something like that absolutely. We all know what's happened to HD-DVD over the past two weeks and it's not the best news in the world for those of us who like (or prefer) HD-DVD.

Titles will have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis--is it a simple fix? A popular disc? Can the disc be easily obtained? Is this a general fix that resolves an issue with a number of discs or something isolated to this one disc? Is it April 2008 or April 2012?

Given Toshiba's announcement, our priorities obviously have to shift somewhat toward Blu but HD is not being summarily dismissed today and the future is tough to predict--there may come a time where it will need to be dropped completely, just like Toshiba reached that point yesterday.
http://www.arcsoft.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=312

Plan for the future.

[720p]

Anyone tried drag & dropping an m2ts file to powerdvd 8?
When it started playing my jaw dropped to the floor. I have never seen anything like that in my life. We are not talking hair splitting differences here, this was night & day difference. Just to make sure I wasn't seeing things I fired up arcsoft & powerdvd 7 and my fears were confirmed instantly.

So I very much would like to hear comments from anyone who has tried blu-ray content on PDVD8. I can't believe there are no post about this.

[genro]

Anyone tried drag & dropping an m2ts file to powerdvd 8?
When it started playing my jaw dropped to the floor. I have never seen anything like that in my life. We are not talking hair splitting differences here, this was night & day difference. Just to make sure I wasn't seeing things I fired up arcsoft & powerdvd 7 and my fears were confirmed instantly.

So I very much would like to hear comments from anyone who has tried blu-ray content on PDVD8. I can't believe there are no post about this.

Was PDVD8 better or worse than the other software? Not exactly clear what you are saying.

[Andy o]

Was PDVD8 better or worse than the other software? Not exactly clear what you are saying.

I'm kinda sure he's saying that it was better, but I am curious as well. Better how? Better resolution? I can't imagine anything getting jaw-dropping better from what I get with PowerDVD now. My problems, as most other people I guess, are with playback, not picture quality. I get good contrast (after calibration) and I can't imagine resolution getting any higher in my 1920x1200 (1080p effectively) monitor through DVI with movies like Corpse Bride and Ratatouille (or most CG movies straight from the source), which in my experience and others' are the highest-res movies out there.

So, on the other hand, he might have meant worse, hehe.

[720p]

It wasn't better it was much much better. Now if someone told me that I wouldn't have believed them either. In 1080p there is no deinterlacing or scaling involved so what can possibly go wrong? At one point I had Arcsoft & PDVD8 paused side by side watching the right half of the picture. Even the colors were totally different. The PDVD8 image was tons sharper as if it was post-processed by ffdshow sharpen, only it wasn't of course.
Anyway I am wasting my breath here, you'll have to see it to believe it. It doesn't take much time to install & try it for yourself. I am hoping that somebody does so they can back me up here. I'm on Vista x64 SP1 using Intel G35 HDMI connected to receiver using all latest drivers. Just to get a feel for the difference in quality it is like switching between SD & HD. You don't have to have both players side by side & go looking for specific scenes. If you can't see the difference in 1-2 seconds you won't see it at all.

[Davinleeds]

Is this the beta test 8 and did it overwrite your previous PDVD?

[Rathbone]

It is not new that Arcsoft and PDVD don't deliver best results PQ wise when playing in disc mode. I set up MPC for M2ts playback and PQ is much sharper.

Note: PDVD8 beta is only equipped with MPEG2 decoders. So M2TS playback will only work with MPEG2 Blurays. Tried to play a VC1 title and it failed.

[720p]

It is the beta, it installs to its own folder and you have to copy your powerdvd.sim from your pdvd7 folder and paste it to your pdvd8 folder renaming/overwriting it to powerdvd8.sim as your pdvd7 serial won't work.

Rathbone I only had PDVD7 & Arcsoft playing on my system, nothing else so I can only compare to that. Between those two although I am sure there are differences I can't tell them apart no matter how I try. But PDVD8 is the biggest deterrence in video quality I have ever seen (without changing the source and/or display).

[Mr. MarioMan]

I have just installed the latest beta (I think), build 1422, and here are few notes about it from the 2 minutes test I did:

1. There is a DTS-HD Master Audio logo on the background.

2. There is an option to play from HDD.

3. The HD-DVD logo is there.

I just hope it doesn't downsample anymore, but I can't test it.

[Davinleeds]

Comparison screenshots possible?

[Rathbone]

Ther HD logos are only there because of the PowerDVD Ultra serial and .sim file. PowerDVD 8 does not play anything except MPEG2. Just look in the video filter folder. Compared to PowerDVD 7, the beta misses out almost everything. If you have a "correct" serial you won't see those HD logos.

[xzener]

Hey guys. I've read the past couple of pages and noticed a similar problem I've been having. When I start a movie with PowerDVD, SPDIF isnt "always" selected. Every now and then (mostly now) its only showing up as 2 speaker output. So I have to close PowerDVD and reopen it. That fixes the issue for me, its just aggrivating that I have to do that with a $100 piece of software.
Sounds to me like Cyberstink has an issue they need to address.

[--Sclaws]

Hey guys. I've read the past couple of pages and noticed a similar problem I've been having. When I start a movie with PowerDVD, SPDIF isnt "always" selected. Every now and then (mostly now) its only showing up as 2 speaker output. So I have to close PowerDVD and reopen it. That fixes the issue for me, its just aggrivating that I have to do that with a $100 piece of software.
Sounds to me like Cyberstink has an issue they need to address.

I've had this issue with PDVD and TheaterTek sharing SPDIF...happens when I change settings in either app usually (which I avoid now!). Resolve was to reinstall TheaterTek, set to SPDIF, then reinstall PDVD and set to SPDIF...then both will use SPDIF w/o issue (for my system at least). YMMV as usual.

[tsb]

I see the PDVD final release is floating around now. anyone try it? same problems/lack of decoders as the beta?

[UFGrayMatter]

I see the PDVD final release is floating around now. anyone try it? same problems/lack of decoders as the beta?
where??

[Andy o]

It wasn't better it was much much better. Now if someone told me that I wouldn't have believed them either. In 1080p there is no deinterlacing or scaling involved so what can possibly go wrong? At one point I had Arcsoft & PDVD8 paused side by side watching the right half of the picture. Even the colors were totally different. The PDVD8 image was tons sharper as if it was post-processed by ffdshow sharpen, only it wasn't of course.
Anyway I am wasting my breath here, you'll have to see it to believe it. It doesn't take much time to install & try it for yourself. I am hoping that somebody does so they can back me up here. I'm on Vista x64 SP1 using Intel G35 HDMI connected to receiver using all latest drivers. Just to get a feel for the difference in quality it is like switching between SD & HD. You don't have to have both players side by side & go looking for specific scenes. If you can't see the difference in 1-2 seconds you won't see it at all.

I'm gonna try it then. Will report back later.

[Peter Nagy]

I started with OEM PowerDVD 7.3 Blu-ray edition that came with Lite-On Blu-ray drive. It was able to play Terminator and Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford without issues. Then I watched Resident Evil: Extinction and it had serious issues. Next/Previous Chapter or FF/RW would lock up. The only feature that didn't cause lock up is Pause.

So I bought PowerDVD Ultra directly from Cyberlink. Resident Evil movie was much better with Next/Previous Chapter or FF/RW but the whole movie stuttered pretty badly. I find it hard to believe Cyberlink would cause this. The other two movies played fine and I just finished watching The Invisible and it played perfectly.

So, what's wrong with Resident Evil movie. Is it possible that people who made this Blu-ray movie and did not follow the Blu-ray or Sony's protocols? I am afraid to try out 3:10 to Yuma since many people are having issues. Anyone seen these movies with stand-alone Blu-ray player with issues?

Even though my HTPC uses 3 GHz P4 with 1 MB cache, I believe my HTPC is powerful enough for Blu-ray.

My TV is four years old but it's HDCP compliant. Could the stuttering be caused by movie designed to run 24 FPS and I don't think my TV supports 24 FPS. My TV supports 720p or 1080i. The three other movies I described worked perfectly.

My gear:

Windows MCE 2005
Asus P4C800 Deluxe MB
3 GHz Pentium 4 with HT
2 GB Corsair RAM
Two 250 GB SATA Western Digital HD
Two VBox DTA-150 tuner 2.1.705.0 driver
Sapphire HD 3850 (Radeon) with Sapphire's CCC driver
NVIDIA PureVideo Decoder 1.02-223
Lite-On Dual layer DVD burner drive
Lite-On Blu-Ray drive
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra
Linksys WiFi-G
Microsoft Bluetooth keyboard and mouse
Logitech Harmony 880 Remote Control
Silverstone LC13 HTPC case
Antec 1000 Watts power supply
Sony KDF-60XBR950 60" LCD rear projection TV (use DVI cable)
Rabbit Ears indoor antenna (amplified).

Thanks,
Peter

[XxDeadlyxX]

where??

Yeh where... I don't see anything.. fake?

[Andy o]

I started with OEM PowerDVD 7.3 Blu-ray edition that came with Lite-On Blu-ray drive. It was able to play Terminator and Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford without issues. Then I watched Resident Evil: Extinction and it had serious issues. Next/Previous Chapter or FF/RW would lock up. The only feature that didn't cause lock up is Pause.

So I bought PowerDVD Ultra directly from Cyberlink. Resident Evil movie was much better with Next/Previous Chapter or FF/RW but the whole movie stuttered pretty badly. I find it hard to believe Cyberlink would cause this. The other two movies played fine and I just finished watching The Invisible and it played perfectly.

So, what's wrong with Resident Evil movie. Is it possible that people who made this Blu-ray movie and did not follow the Blu-ray or Sony's protocols? I am afraid to try out 3:10 to Yuma since many people are having issues. Anyone seen these movies with stand-alone Blu-ray player with issues?


That's pretty much about right. They didn't follow some "protocols" (i.e. "profiles"), because the profiles for bluray are not done yet. RE:E and 3:10 are the newer profile 1.1, which needs an update to play well, even with standalone players. That I think was the main problem with the Samsung players they got sued for, though I don't know the details of that. This is why the Slysoft people were warning about blu-ray since they started cracking the HD formats. They got some flak for it too.

Anyway, the best way is to just wait for the updates. PowerDVD build 3730 is supposed to play profile 1.1 movies, but the update came pretty late, and OEM people are STILL waiting for theirs. Bottomline, when a new profile comes out, some movies aren't playable right "out of the box", and even some standalone players become useless. There's at least one more profile coming, supposedly the "final" one, 2.0, which introduces new "features", including hardware ones (ethernet port) that 1.1 players don't necessarily have.

By the way, I was able to play RE:E with build 3319a, with only one scene freezing in one chapter start, but if I jumped around or FF or RW, PowerDVD would most of the time freeze. I still am waiting to test 3:10, but I've heard that doesn't work without 3730. I barely could play Sunshine, with exception of one whole chapter, which I just rented the DVD for (free with Blockbuster Online account).

The stuttering on RE:E is most probably due to your CPU. A P4 is not enough for that movie. Even if your card decodes H.264, which it does, bluray movies spike CPU usage with TrueHD soundtracks. I don't know why, but HD-DVDs don't do so. It might be a PowerDVD bug, or the TrueHD used in bluray is just a different "flavor" (in fact in HD-DVD it is displayed as "MLP" in the info, while on bluray it is correctly displayed as "TrueHD"). So try to play RE:E with one of the alternate tracks in DD (though regrettably there's not an English one).

I have the suspicion that with hardware decoding these movies would be playable VERY easily with a P4 or even a Celeron processor, but they are unnecessarily bloated, especially the newer ones.

[Andy o]

It wasn't better it was much much better. Now if someone told me that I wouldn't have believed them either. In 1080p there is no deinterlacing or scaling involved so what can possibly go wrong? At one point I had Arcsoft & PDVD8 paused side by side watching the right half of the picture. Even the colors were totally different. The PDVD8 image was tons sharper as if it was post-processed by ffdshow sharpen, only it wasn't of course.
Anyway I am wasting my breath here, you'll have to see it to believe it. It doesn't take much time to install & try it for yourself. I am hoping that somebody does so they can back me up here. I'm on Vista x64 SP1 using Intel G35 HDMI connected to receiver using all latest drivers. Just to get a feel for the difference in quality it is like switching between SD & HD. You don't have to have both players side by side & go looking for specific scenes. If you can't see the difference in 1-2 seconds you won't see it at all.

OK, I went and tested it in my PC. Vista x86, 8600GTS, Pentium Dual-Core @ 2.25GHz. No dice. Looks pretty much (I would say exactly) the same. Which is gorgeous, and what I was kind of expecting, since the processing is done by the card (you can't disable HW accel, and the video controls don't even work). If you are seeing the difference as in SD vs. HD, then something might be wrong in your PowerDVD 7 processing or settings.

The only MPEG-2 movie I could get was Underworld Evolution, but that movie looks excellent. As I said, looked the same. But I've seen better sharpness with PowerDVD 7.3 in movies of purely digital or ultra-high resolution sources like Ratatouille or Corpse Bride. Most film-shot movies don't get that kind of sharpness, which is to me is what perfect 1080p looks like.

[720p]

Andy o you can disable H/W acceleration on the fly with PDVD8, well at least on my G35 setup you can. I can't post camera pics as I don't have a camera but I'll see if I can post screen grabs. My tv in addition to several noise reduction settings, post-processes the signal with a list as long as my arm. With PDV8 the noise reduction & post-processing is kept to a bare minimum resulting in the best picture I've ever seen. As they say garbage in garbage out.

[Andy o]

Andy o you can disable H/W acceleration on the fly with PDVD8, well at least on my G35 setup you can. I can't post camera pics as I don't have a camera but I'll see if I can post screen grabs. My tv in addition to several noise reduction settings, post-processes the signal with a list as long as my arm. With PDV8 the noise reduction & post-processing is kept to a bare minimum resulting in the best picture I've ever seen. As they say garbage in garbage out.

Hmm I don't know how your software player can affect post-processing in your TV, or are you saying with PowerDVD 7 is double-post-processing? My LCD doesn't apply any post-processing, and the picture is pretty much identical.

[Nimo]

PDVD8= Craptacular!:o

[Peter Nagy]

The stuttering on RE:E is most probably due to your CPU. A P4 is not enough for that movie. Even if your card decodes H.264, which it does, bluray movies spike CPU usage with TrueHD soundtracks. I don't know why, but HD-DVDs don't do so. It might be a PowerDVD bug, or the TrueHD used in bluray is just a different "flavor" (in fact in HD-DVD it is displayed as "MLP" in the info, while on bluray it is correctly displayed as "TrueHD"). So try to play RE:E with one of the alternate tracks in DD (though regrettably there's not an English one).

I have the suspicion that with hardware decoding these movies would be playable VERY easily with a P4 or even a Celeron processor, but they are unnecessarily bloated, especially the newer ones.

You are right about the stuttering. The CPU usage for RE:E spiked to 100%. Changing audio track did not help. But all other movies I have seen played perfectly. "The Invisible" CPU usage was 50%. I hope Blu-ray movie makers won't do that again for future movies. I am using build 3730.

I doubt the profile numbers affects CPU usage. Profile 1.1 allows PIP but if you don't use it, the CPU usage should not be affected. Likewise for Profile 2.0 which adds internet connection. If you don't use internet feature, then CPU usage should be unaffected.

How can you tell which Profile is being used for each movie?

Peter

Edit: I checked my build. It's acutally 7.3.3723.0. File name: CyberLink.3730a_Ultra_DVD080102-02.exe. Is it the same as build 3730? I have a feeling Cyberlink forgot to update the version number. It looks like I have the very latest and greatest. I downloaded (but did not install) a 01/31/2008 patch and compared dates to my current build and the patch is older than my current build.

[Peter Nagy]

I just rented 3:10 to Yuma (Blu-ray of course) with latest Ultra (bought and download yesterday) and it plays perfectly with my 3 GHz P4 HTPC. No stuttering or freeze/lock up. See my gear in post #6369.

Either I got a bad Resident Evil:Extinction disk (rented from Netflix) or it was made incorrectly.

Peter

[Davinleeds]

Give every Netflix a bath as the sleeve suggests, this has made 5 or so movies play that didn't before. Now I just do it anyway.

[Andy o]

Peter, how are you checking your build number? File versions have different numbers. From the installer name, you should have 3730. You can right-click on the PowerDVD window, and then about... and click on your name ("licensed to:"). That will give you the actual number. I have seen people citing a "3514" version that actually have 3516.

And everybody I've been in contact with is having the same high CPU usage with RE:E. I have a Pentium Dual-Core (practically a Conroe Core 2 duo with 1MB cache) at 2.25GHz and it still spiked to nearly 100% in some parts. With a DD track it went down, but it was still high. Other movies I've tested with TrueHD tracks also show a spike with those tracks, but the overall CPU consumption is lower.

[taeboguy]

Guys,

So my OEM copy of PDVD played burned ANYDVD images of HDM with no trouble. My ultra copy with the latest updates will not play them.

I also read that you can create ISO images of the disks onto the hard drive and play them back but I have had no luck with that either. I am using an ISO image creator that I purchased online for $30.

Any ideas on why PDVD will not play these? Will any other SW play back these files?

Seems like I had to upgrade to Ultra to get multichannel out but lost the ability to play these disks.

Thanks!

[Peter Nagy]

Peter, how are you checking your build number? File versions have different numbers. From the installer name, you should have 3730. You can right-click on the PowerDVD window, and then about... and click on your name ("licensed to:"). That will give you the actual number. I have seen people citing a "3514" version that actually have 3516.

And everybody I've been in contact with is having the same high CPU usage with RE:E. I have a Pentium Dual-Core (practically a Conroe Core 2 duo with 1MB cache) at 2.25GHz and it still spiked to nearly 100% in some parts. With a DD track it went down, but it was still high. Other movies I've tested with TrueHD tracks also show a spike with those tracks, but the overall CPU consumption is lower.

I right clicked on PowerDVD.exe file from Program Files/Cyberlink/PowerDVD directory and looked at Properties->Version and it says 7.3.3723.0 but I guess that's not the right place to look for. I did what you suggested and it showed 7.3.3730a.0. Thanks for pointing this out. I looked all over for version number from "About" but I didn't know I need to click on "Licensed to" window.

Peter

[bk1987]

Guys,

So my OEM copy of PDVD played burned ANYDVD images of HDM with no trouble. My ultra copy with the latest updates will not play them.

I also read that you can create ISO images of the disks onto the hard drive and play them back but I have had no luck with that either. I am using an ISO image creator that I purchased online for $30.

Any ideas on why PDVD will not play these? Will any other SW play back these files?

Seems like I had to upgrade to Ultra to get multichannel out but lost the ability to play these disks.

Thanks!



You can use Imageburn,http://www.imgburn.com/, if you have the files already on the HDD than use build mode and choose UDF (only) and file revision# 2.50 imageburn will than create the iso for you.
if you want to rip the disk to ISO just use read mode in imageburn and let it rip, than just mount the ISO using DAEMON tools http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php?mode=ViewCategory&catid=5

[pqcanada]

Thanks to Andy o for pointing out how to check version. It was driving me nuts.

[drsmithdtv]

On what page of this thread is the instructions to run two different versions of PowerDVD from the one operating system ?

[bk1987]

On what page of this thread is the instructions to run two different versions of PowerDVD from the one operating system ?

here,http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13016417#post13016417

[drsmithdtv]

Thanks.

My interest in this was to try the beta version of PowerDVD8 while maintaining my earlier version. As it turned out just installing PowerDVD8 did not affect the earlier version and I was able to access both versions and note the following with PowerDVD8.

1) For sound I had no options beyond stereo and there was no sound at all with DVD playback.

2) HD-DVD playback from HDD was disabled as expected and the program file structure itself at first glance appears to be too different to enable HD-DVD playback of high def media by replacing certain program files from earlier versions.

I also took the precaution of setting a restore point prior to installing PowerDVD8 beta which I have now reverted back to.

[lsdavinci]

You can use Imageburn,http://www.imgburn.com/, if you have the files already on the HDD than use build mode and choose UDF (only) and file revision# 2.50 imageburn will than create the iso for you.
if you want to rip the disk to ISO just use read mode in imageburn and let it rip, than just mount the ISO using DAEMON tools http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php?mode=ViewCategory&catid=5

So is this the solution to get movies playing from the HDD? Even with v3730?

[tsb]

So is this the solution to get movies playing from the HDD? Even with v3730?

yes

[Peter Nagy]

You can use Imageburn,http://www.imgburn.com/, if you have the files already on the HDD than use build mode and choose UDF (only) and file revision# 2.50 imageburn will than create the iso for you.
if you want to rip the disk to ISO just use read mode in imageburn and let it rip, than just mount the ISO using DAEMON tools http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php?mode=ViewCategory&catid=5

Will subtitles be transferred as well?

Peter

[tsb]

Exact copy of the disk minus AACS.

When you use read mode in IMGBurn you should have AnyDVD HD running in the background as well. If you already have the folders on your HDD, there is no need for AnyDVD HD.

For build mode:

1. Make sure "Recurse Subdirectories" is checked in "Options"
2. Choose "File System" = "UDF"
3. Choose "UDF Revision" = "2.50"

[Peter Nagy]

Exact copy of the disk minus AACS.

When you use read mode in IMGBurn you should have AnyDVD HD running in the background as well. If you already have the folders on your HDD, there is no need for AnyDVD HD.

For build mode:

1. Make sure "Recurse Subdirectories" is checked in "Options"
2. Choose "File System" = "UDF"
3. Choose "UDF Revision" = "2.50"

If I already have HDCP video card, do I still need AnyDVD? Also, will the CPU load be less if playing from HDD than from Blu-ray drive?

Peter

[bk1987]

If I already have HDCP video card, do I still need AnyDVD? Also, will the CPU load be less if playing from HDD than from Blu-ray drive?

Peter

i dont think playing from the HDD will change the CPU load,
Even having HDCP equipment does not mean it will work the way it is suppose to
if your equip, works great if you have problems give anydvd HD a try they do have a 21 day trial, but even if your equip does work i feel to have anydvd remove AACS on the fly is a big +

[Peter Nagy]

i dont think playing from the HDD will change the CPU load,
Even having HDCP equipment does not mean it will work the way it is suppose to
if your equip, works great if you have problems give anydvd HD a try they do have a 21 day trial, but even if your equip does work i feel to have anydvd remove AACS on the fly is a big +

Thanks!!! I'll give AnyDVD a try. The web site is not clear about whether AnyDVD HD requires AnyDVD installed. Can I install AnyDVD HD without AnyDVD?

Peter

[bk1987]

Thanks!!! I'll give AnyDVD a try. The web site is not clear about whether AnyDVD HD requires AnyDVD installed. Can I install AnyDVD HD without AnyDVD?

Peter

its the same program you just need a different serial number to unlock the HD part but i think you need anydvd hd in order to get rid of the HDCP requirement, as well as AACS

[jongig]

I could not play 2 of the three Bluray movies in the trilogy Resident Evil and the movie boots up to the Topmenu with music playing and all looks good but you can't mouse click on play. I asked Cyberlink and they asked me to download the HD/BD Advisor and send them back the file. The Advisor says I have PowerDVD 7.3.3730.0 and they are telling me I need to download a new version of PDVD. Is there a newer version of 3730?

Last month I had a problem with S/Pdif and after emailing they had me upgrade and that fixed the problem. The service of this product must be huge since I alone have had problems and emailed them 3-4 times just since November.

john

[Peter Nagy]

I could not play 2 of the three Bluray movies in the trilogy Resident Evil and the movie boots up to the Topmenu with music playing and all looks good but you can't mouse click on play. I asked Cyberlink and they asked me to download the HD/BD Advisor and send them back the file. The Advisor says I have PowerDVD 7.3.3730.0 and they are telling me I need to download a new version of PDVD. Is there a newer version of 3730?

Last month I had a problem with S/Pdif and after emailing they had me upgrade and that fixed the problem. The service of this product must be huge since I alone have had problems and emailed them 3-4 times just since November.

john

Mine is 7.3.3730a.0. I had OEM and was able to play Resident Evil:Extinction but it always locks up if I click on FF, RW, Next/Previous Chapter. As long as I didn't touch any of these buttons except Pause, I was able to watch it. Then I bought and download the latest Ultra and I was able to use all features or buttons without lock up. I believe RE:E movie is Blu-ray Profile 1.1 and your version may not support Profile 1.1 and the latest (3730a) may fix your issue.

Which Resident Evil movies were causing problems? 2nd and 3rd?

Peter

[lsdavinci]

So since reading 720p's post praising PowerDVD 8 (which I agree, I have to see it to confirm) no one has provided a link to the trial. Is it up on their website? I can't seem to find it. I want to see this amazing PQ. :eek:

[sewe]

Quote:
Originally Posted by drsmithdtv
On what page of this thread is the instructions to run two different versions of PowerDVD from the one operating system ?

here,http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13016417#post13016417

I have to asked again since I didn´t get any answer last time I asked, Why issn´t Powerdvd save my audiosettings when I run 2 versions?

If I start powerdvd the audiosettings is grey´d out and when I start the movie it is 2ch and I changed it to 8ch and then when I start up powerdvd again, same vers it´s grey´d out again, really annoing

[Davinleeds]

So since reading 720p's post praising PowerDVD 8 (which I agree, I have to see it to confirm) no one has provided a link to the trial. Is it up on their website? I can't seem to find it. I want to see this amazing PQ. :eek:

http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=14296

[drsmithdtv]

http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=14296
Trying the version from this source I 6ch sound oprions under configuration and had 5.1 ch sound upon playback.

In an attempt to enable HD-DVD playback I tried copying the missing video filters and nav filters from an earlier version but this failed.

[KeyMix]

Hey anyone have any idea how to keep this setting saved? For example, I don't have a receiver that can play TRUE HD. So when I play a movie like let's say Spider-man 3 Blue-Ray, I can select the PCM 5..1 and then select the DTS mixing option from the menu (which only seems to be available to select once the movie is playing??), the SPDIF output on my recieiver correclty adjusts to DTS perfectly and plays the soundtrack in great full surround.. However, if I then stop and close POWERDVD, and reopen. It will default to 2 speaker setup!!!??? WTF???

If I then select SPDIF...and don't select the DTS mixing, it stays on SPDIF when I close and reopen but I never get any codec picked up by my receiver. It seems to default to stereo. Is there a way not to leave DTS mixing selected??? Why does POWERDVD kick it back to 2 CH Stereo??

Anyone's help woudl be great!!!

Thanks KeyMix

[mikegb]

My Vista Media Center PC is hooked up to my tv in the family room. I use it for DVD watching, photos, music, etc. Works fine. I use PowerDVD to watch BluRay discs.

I have the Media Center remote keyboard and the Media Center remote control.

In order to watch BluRay discs, I have to exit Media Center, use my remote keyboard to double-click on the PowerDVD desktop icon. I can then use the remote control to play the BluRay disc. Exiting out of PowerDVD requires the keyboard again.

There has to be an easier way but I don't see it. I don't think PowerDVD has a Media Center plug-in which I'm ok with if I can make this more seamless.

How are those of you running Media Center and PowerDVD able to make this work without any need for the keyboard (i.e. make things simpler). Thanks in advance.

[genro]

My Vista Media Center PC is hooked up to my tv in the family room. I use it for DVD watching, photos, music, etc. Works fine. I use PowerDVD to watch BluRay discs.

I have the Media Center remote keyboard and the Media Center remote control.