Have you tried Reclock? If 23.976 is working, why not just use that?

Reclock won't work with it under Vista.

I'd use 24hz but it feels stiff sometimes and I can't help but feel it isn't right.

I dunno...

For my audio, analog out on sound card and I have to set the player, PDVD or ArcSoft TMT to an analog setting, 2, 5.1 etc. If sound card is spdif, player must be same or they(player) usually crash. As long as I remember that, I usually have trouble free playback.

PowerDVD 8.0 is out...

http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/cyberstore/order_1_ENU.html

I bought Ultra.. but the CD-key they provided me doesn't work... WHAT THE HELL?!! :mad:

If someone has upgraded to PDVDU 8, can they possibly confirm if HDDVD media will playback? They don't specifically mention it in their version comparison but this may be to avoid supporting it officially. Would be nice to know.

If someone has upgraded to PDVDU 8, can they possibly confirm if HDDVD media will playback? They don't specifically mention it in their version comparison but this may be to avoid supporting it officially. Would be nice to know.

It currently doesn't seem to support it, and they never said they would. That article (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13457964#post13457964) linked a few pages back was as wrong as it could be, and (cue Stephen Colbert's voiceover) I CALLED IT!:D

Kidding aside, I don't find any reason whatsoever to trust their claim that PowerDVD Ultra will get HD-DVD support in the future, but that's just my cynical side speaking (and I've been told I'm one-sided).

Kidding aside, I don't find any reason whatsoever to trust their claim that PowerDVD Ultra will get HD-DVD support in the future, but that's just my cynical side speaking (and I've been told I'm one-sided).

Well they just lost my custom.

It says full support for DTS-HD and dolby Truehd etc. Does this mean that it no longer downsamples these audio tracks and deliver the full thing in 192 khz?

Antother stupid question about the true theatre stretch or whatever they call it. Is this scaling of good quality or should I still stick to ffdshow or whatever for the best preprocessing, de interlacing and scaling?

I want to deliver 1920x1080p @ 24 hz from HDMI to my Pioneer plasma that will then rescale and deliver the picture in 1280x720 (or 1366x768 not sure) in 72 hz with filmdetection, pulldown etc if needed.

It says full support for DTS-HD and dolby Truehd etc. Does this mean that it no longer downsamples these audio tracks and deliver the full thing in 192 khz?

Antother stupid question about the true theatre stretch or whatever they call it. Is this scaling of good quality or should I still stick to ffdshow or whatever for the best preprocessing, de interlacing and scaling?

I want to deliver 1920x1080p @ 24 hz from HDMI to my Pioneer plasma that will then rescale and deliver the picture in 1280x720 (or 1366x768 not sure) in 72 hz with filmdetection, pulldown etc if needed.

According to the readme it downsamples ot 48/16.

When I try and activate it says:

Processing online activation... please wait.

Your activation key is incorrect.
Please try again (0x80ab000b).

I find this unbelieveable... has anyone had this before in previous PDVD versions and found a solution? I've emailed tech support.

What's weird is if I change any characters in the legit key (make it deliberately wrong) and try to activate, it leaves out the Processing online activation line.

According to the readme it downsamples ot 48/16.

When I try and activate it says:

Processing online activation... please wait.

Your activation key is incorrect.
Please try again (0x80ab000b).

I find this unbelieveable... has anyone had this before in previous PDVD versions and found a solution? I've emailed tech support.

What's weird is if I change any characters in the legit key (make it deliberately wrong) and try to activate, it leaves out the Processing online activation line.

Exactly the same happened to me. Are they mad at Cyberlink? They got the payment but didn't allow activation???

This is the new time called online-activation, oh no?:eek:

So I have to re-install the 7.3 ultra, oh Cyberlink, why?

Anyone got it working yet? Would be interesting to know if there is a difference in picture / audio quality if there aint i think i wait it out for abit until the first patch is out.

Was hoping the down sampling was sorted out.

Are the activation servers at Cyberlink online? It doesn't seem so.:mad:

Are the activation servers at Cyberlink online? It doesn't seem so.:mad:

Hopefully you are correct and this isn't a permanent thing. I really don't want to resort to using a torrent release when I've paid this much $$ :mad:

Hopefully you are correct and this isn't a permanent thing. I really don't want to resort to using a torrent release when I've paid this much $$ :mad:

No torrents i checked :p
Wont take long though

Hopefully you are correct and this isn't a permanent thing. I really don't want to resort to using a torrent release when I've paid this much $$ :mad:

If the problem persists, you can get a refound from Cyberlink, because till now PowerDVD 8 Ultra is useless, because nobody can use (or activate) it:mad:

I would recommend to open a new thread in this forum for PDVD 8.

If someone has upgraded to PDVDU 8, can they possibly confirm if HDDVD media will playback? They don't specifically mention it in their version comparison but this may be to avoid supporting it officially. Would be nice to know.

Considering we're talking about Cyberlink here, I guess I'm not too surprised that PDVD 8 doesn't support HD-DVD.

At the same time, it seems like a ludicrous decision to drop HD-DVD already. Anyone with an HTPC is going to be far more interested in HD playback software that supports both HD-DVD and Blue-ray - even if they don't own many HD-DVDs, or even don't own any. One of the things we all like about our HTPCs is the fact that they are flexible and can support multiple formats.

Many of us, myself included, do own a number of HD-DVDs and we need to be able to play them. Even though I keep telling my wife not to, she keeps picking up HD-DVDs on sale - expecting our HTPC will continue to be able to play them back.

One thing for certain, there is absolutely no way we'll be upgrading to PDVD 8 without HD-DVD support. I don't know why Cyberlink wouldn't have simply carried over their existing code for HD-DVD into PDVD 8. It worked well enough and without that, most (if not all) HTPC enthusiasts will be purchasing software that supports both HD-DVD and Blue-ray.

Why would anyone "upgrade" from PowerDVD Ultra 7 to PowerDVD Ultra 8 if it only takes away functionality?

Considering we're talking about Cyberlink here, I guess I'm not too surprised that PDVD 8 doesn't support HD-DVD.

At the same time, it seems like a ludicrous decision to drop HD-DVD already. Anyone with an HTPC is going to be far more interested in HD playback software that supports both HD-DVD and Blue-ray - even if they don't own many HD-DVDs, or even don't own any. One of the things we all like about our HTPCs is the fact that they are flexible and can support multiple formats.

Many of us, myself included, do own a number of HD-DVDs and we need to be able to play them. Even though I keep telling my wife not to, she keeps picking up HD-DVDs on sale - expecting our HTPC will continue to be able to play them back.

One thing for certain, there is absolutely no way we'll be upgrading to PDVD 8 without HD-DVD support. I don't know why Cyberlink wouldn't have simply carried over their existing code for HD-DVD into PDVD 8. It worked well enough and without that, most (if not all) HTPC enthusiasts will be purchasing software that supports both HD-DVD and Blue-ray.

Why would anyone "upgrade" from PowerDVD Ultra 7 to PowerDVD Ultra 8 if it only takes away functionality?

Because we want DTS-HD Master Audio :p... the Cyberlink Demo on the purchase page teases us with the logo in the video :o

The question is... does this release have it or not ;) Or will we have to wait until 8.5.

Anyone get activation to work yet?

Anyone get activation to work yet?

Not yet :(

Fingers crossed.

DTS Master Audio is the only reason why i want this release but if it dont have it we will be waiting for 8.5. Other then that i doubt there is any difference in picture quality.

I got the same upgrade error. Emailed tech support as well. Guess we will see...

Not upgrading simply saves me money in the end. Looks like CL lost another customer.

In the meantime, I purchased TotalMedia Theatre which has been been getting better with every release. They are active in their own forums and calling them for help has been pleasant. They have also pledged support for the HDDVD format.

As posted elsewhere, there is currently a 50% promo for all of the products in the eStore. Go to their front page and there is a banner link on the right. Seems to be problems with their email system so if you don't get an email with the activation code, call the number posted in the Arcosoft TMT thread.

Not upgrading simply saves me money in the end. Looks like CL lost another customer.

In the meantime, I purchased TotalMedia Theatre which has been been getting better with every release. They are active in their own forums and calling them for help has been pleasant. They have also pledged support for the HDDVD format.

As posted elsewhere, there is currently a 50% promo for all of the products in the eStore. Go to their front page and there is a banner link on the right. Seems to be problems with their email system so if you don't get an email with the activation code, call the number posted in the Arcosoft TMT thread.

Note that TMT doesn't work at all with the G35. Also, it doesn't support many of the discs or ISOs that PDVD supports.

I dislike PDVD (a lot), but TMT is a joke (IMO) by comparison.

Strongly suggest you use their trial before even considering purchasing their software. And let's now keep these discussions in their appropriate threads.

What is so great about PDVD8 when you have a perfectly working version 7?

What is so great about PDVD8 when you have a perfectly working version 7?

Likely very little. The minute possibility of DTS-MA sound working it seems, and more likely very few to no updates to v7.3 in the future forcing people to eventually "upgrade" to 8. :cool:

What is so great about PDVD8 when you have a perfectly working version 7?

You get the great feature of no HD-DVD playback.

What is so great about PDVD8 when you have a perfectly working version 7?

Ideally it fixes the HA issues with things like the G35, and so we can stop switching between 3319a and 3370.

One working version would be nice.

Does it support from HD or still ISOs only?

Does it support from HD or still ISOs only?

No one knows yet since it can't be activated, but it most likely doesn't support HDD directories, since that was a requirement pushed by Sony, apparently.

No biggie though, making ISO's from your original BD discs is easy.

Which is faster?

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor: Retail (includes heat sink/cooling fan) for $299.99 from NewEgg

or

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor: Retail (includes heat sink/cooling fan) for $209.99 from NewEgg

Both are 45nm process.

Thanks,
Peter

The only thing to be careful of is memory... each core uses a part of the memory. A 2 core processor with 2 gig of ram has 1 gig for each processor, while a 4 core processor with 2 gig of ram only has 512 MB for each one. These numbers are probably not dead accurate because they don't account for OS memory management, but there's something to it.

One of my machines at the office has a Quad Core. When network rendering animation, even though both machines have 4GB of ram, the Quad core can't handle certain scenes, even though it's "faster".

(The Quad core also is only running a 32bit OS, while the other system is running 64bit, but I only render out using the 32bit renderer, so it SHOULD be a null issue...)

Hope it helps!

That's nonsense. The number of cores doesn't affect your available memory. The issue you're seeing is probably caused by the fact that a 32bit OS can't use 4GB or RAM.

What is so great about PDVD8 when you have a perfectly working version 7?

Likely very little. The minute possibility of DTS-MA sound working it seems, and more likely very few to no updates to v7.3 in the future forcing people to eventually "upgrade" to 8. :cool:

Actually it's not so very little once more 7.1 DTS MA tracks start rolling. While I've been known to be a skeptic of most of the "lossless" hoopla regarding sound quality, a 7.1 DTS MA track only carries a 5.1 "core", so there's no 7.1 from DTS MA tracks with PowerDVD 7.3. 2 extra channels is not a little difference (if the soundtrack is properly mastered of course).

Actually it's not so very little once more 7.1 DTS MA tracks start rolling. While I've been known to be a skeptic of most of the "lossless" hoopla regarding sound quality, a 7.1 DTS MA track only carries a 5.1 "core", so there's no 7.1 from DTS MA tracks with PowerDVD 7.3. 2 extra channels is not a little difference (if the soundtrack is properly mastered of course).

And full HDMI audio support is a big deal.

There's lots in PDVD 8. While it should really be PDVD 7.5 or something, I can't begrudge them getting more license money for this. Assuming it works, and isn't another pre-alpha release.

Now if only it would activate.

The only thing to be careful of is memory... each core uses a part of the memory. A 2 core processor with 2 gig of ram has 1 gig for each processor, while a 4 core processor with 2 gig of ram only has 512 MB for each one. These numbers are probably not dead accurate because they don't account for OS memory management, but there's something to it.

One of my machines at the office has a Quad Core. When network rendering animation, even though both machines have 4GB of ram, the Quad core can't handle certain scenes, even though it's "faster".

(The Quad core also is only running a 32bit OS, while the other system is running 64bit, but I only render out using the 32bit renderer, so it SHOULD be a null issue...)

Hope it helps!

I was wondering about that regarding to L2 cache. Both Dual and Quad core CPUs each have total of 6 MB L2 cache. The Dual Core would probably use 3 MB each core while Quad Core would probably use 1.5 MB each core.

I am still undecided to upgrade my HTPC system. Currently I have the following:

Windows MCE 2005
Asus P4C800 Deluxe MB
3 GHz Pentium 4 with HT, FSB 800 MHz
2 GB Corsair RAM
Sapphire AGP HD 3850 (Radeon) with Sapphire's CCC driver
Lite-On Blu-Ray drive
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 3730a
AnyDVD HD
Antec 1000 Watts power supply

It has been working perfectly for many Blu-ray movies except Resident Evil:Extinction. RE:E has TrueHD sound, stuttered all the time and CPU usage was at 100%. This system is able to play many other Blu-ray movies perfectly that many others are having problems like Sunshine, 3:10 to Yuma and The Guardian. I am expecting Spiderman 3 today from Netflix. This movie has TrueHD 5.1 like RE:E. If it Spiderman 3 does not stutter, then I will blame on the studio for making RE:E poorly. I don't expect Spiderman 3 to stutter since it was released October 2007 which means it may be Profile 1.0. RE:E is probably Profile 1.1 which probably caused CPU to spike to 100% (along with TrueHD sound).

Anyone know which movies contain Profile 1.1 and TrueHD sound so I can test my HTPC for stuttering? How can you tell which movies contain Profile 1.1?

Note that my HTPC does not have anti-virus, anti-spyware or any other software running in the background (except AnyDVD HD). If others are having problems with their Blu-ray movies, try disable background programs.

Peter

Exactly the same happened to me. Are they mad at Cyberlink? They got the payment but didn't allow activation???

This is the new time called online-activation, oh no?:eek:

So I have to re-install the 7.3 ultra, oh Cyberlink, why?

I am the same symptom, too.:confused:
I am troubled very much.
I cannot send an email to support.
This is terrible!:mad:

And full HDMI audio support is a big deal.

There's lots in PDVD 8. While it should really be PDVD 7.5 or something, I can't begrudge them getting more license money for this. Assuming it works, and isn't another pre-alpha release.

Now if only it would activate.

I don't know if there's any difference at all regarding proper HDMI support. I assume you mean bitstreaming with compatible HDMI 1.3a hardware, but I don't think they even mentioned anything like that.

Also, I'll have to say that besides DTS MA support (which they don't state clearly, by the way), there is indeed little that actually matters. Almost everything else looks more like bloatware to me.

I don't know if there's any difference at all regarding proper HDMI support. I assume you mean bitstreaming with compatible HDMI 1.3a hardware, but I don't think they even mentioned anything like that.

Also, I'll have to say that besides DTS MA support (which they don't state clearly, by the way), there is indeed little that actually matters. Almost everything else looks more like bloatware to me.

It's huge. Right now, it's fixed at 5 channel or 7 channel, or whatever you set Windows and Cyberlink to.

With proper support, it would dynamically change the channels to 6 or 8 or 2, depending on the source. Even if it's all LPCM. This means your pre-pro/AVR can properly matrix the material.

Right now, we are forced to lock it at 6 channel, which means we lose 2 channels on 8 channel sources, and 2-channel sources are a mess.

Plus a minor benefit is DD/DTS (non-HD) audio support without converting to LPCM, which doesn't matter a lot, but it allows for more granular control in your pre-pro/AVR.

This is probably the #1 reason for me for upgrading, and the hope that it's at least as good as 3319a + 3370, so I don't have to toggle between the two (3319a for BD without stuttering, 3370 for proper MPEG2-HD single-file support, e.g. from Tivo TTG).

Likely very little. The minute possibility of DTS-MA sound working it seems, and more likely very few to no updates to v7.3 in the future forcing people to eventually "upgrade" to 8. :cool:

Has anyone confirmed that PDVD 7 can not decode the DTS MA tracks? How do we know it can only do the DTS core if there are no HDMI 1.3 computer outputs?

Same question goes for PDVD 8! Even if it can decode DTS MA. How are you going to be positive that signal is getting to your receiver?

What is up with product registration???? This is unacceptable, to take our money and not allow use of the product.

And there's no way to contact them without goimg into some e-mail abyss.

I'm really ticked off!!!

What is up with product registration???? This is unacceptable, to take our money and not allow use of the product.

And there's no way to contact them without goimg into some e-mail abyss.

I'm really ticked off!!!

They pulled version 8 from being downloaded a few minutes ago until they resolve the activation problems. Our press copies would not activate either. ;)

Anyone who buys powerDVD 8 and has Quad Core could you let me know how it plays back. Am thinking of getting a Quad soon and heard PowerDVD 7 had some problems. Need to know the cpu usage and which cpu it is. Ohh and Quality set to BEST and not Auto if possible.

Thanks

Everybody who paid PowerDVD 8 Ultra cannot use it, because of this nasty non-working online activation.

Everybody who paid PowerDVD 8 Ultra cannot use it, because of this nasty non-working online activation.

How does on-line activation work? Does it mean Cyberlink will not provide keys like before and use internet to activate? Every time you start PowerDVD, does it connect to internet to make sure your copy is valid? Is it like Windows on-line activation? So what happens if you re-install PowerDVD, will you have to make telephone call to tell them why you are re-installing like Windows?

Peter

How does on-line activation work? Does it mean Cyberlink will not provide keys like before and use internet to activate? Every time you start PowerDVD, does it connect to internet to make sure your copy is valid? Is it like Windows on-line activation? So what happens if you re-install PowerDVD, will you have to make telephone call to tell them why you are re-installing like Windows?

Peter

Exact. I think Cyberlink verifies the key once after PowerDVD 8 (Ultra) is installed through a Cyberlink internet server data base. No more illegal keygens...

I only want, that my legal copy could do it's job.

If they can't even get activation to work, there's not a chance in hell anything else is going to work right.

BD won't work, SD won't work, HA will be totally broken, HDMI won't do anything.

Yay...

They broke it at Step 0. Good job on the testing.

If anyone hires a tester that ever worked for CyberLink, you should be fired.

I was wondering about that regarding to L2 cache. Both Dual and Quad core CPUs each have total of 6 MB L2 cache. The Dual Core would probably use 3 MB each core while Quad Core would probably use 1.5 MB each core.

Actually, what the other poster said indeed does not make much sense. RAM as far as I know is used by any processor that calls it, it doesn't get divided. His problem was probably that the software he's using is not optimized for multicore, in which case clock frequency would be more relevant than number of cores.

About L2, The Core 2 Duos actually share their L2, so it's 6MB for both. Core 2 Quads are pretty much 2 Duos taped together, so they will share 6MB per 2 cores in the case of the upper-class Quads, and in the case of the Q9300, it will be 3MB per pair. This is what AMD hoped their "advantage" would be, because their Phenom quad-cores share their L3 with all cores and each core has a dedicated L2, hence they claim theirs are "true quad-core", but it's not proven to be just more than semantics, because there hasn't been found any real difference in performance due to the L2 cache difference as far as I know.

I am still undecided to upgrade my HTPC system. Currently I have the following:

Windows MCE 2005
Asus P4C800 Deluxe MB
3 GHz Pentium 4 with HT, FSB 800 MHz
2 GB Corsair RAM
Sapphire AGP HD 3850 (Radeon) with Sapphire's CCC driver
Lite-On Blu-Ray drive
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 3730a
AnyDVD HD
Antec 1000 Watts power supply

It has been working perfectly for many Blu-ray movies except Resident Evil:Extinction. RE:E has TrueHD sound, stuttered all the time and CPU usage was at 100%. This system is able to play many other Blu-ray movies perfectly that many others are having problems like Sunshine, 3:10 to Yuma and The Guardian. I am expecting Spiderman 3 today from Netflix. This movie has TrueHD 5.1 like RE:E. If it Spiderman 3 does not stutter, then I will blame on the studio for making RE:E poorly. I don't expect Spiderman 3 to stutter since it was released October 2007 which means it may be Profile 1.0. RE:E is probably Profile 1.1 which probably caused CPU to spike to 100% (along with TrueHD sound).

Anyone know which movies contain Profile 1.1 and TrueHD sound so I can test my HTPC for stuttering? How can you tell which movies contain Profile 1.1?

Note that my HTPC does not have anti-virus, anti-spyware or any other software running in the background (except AnyDVD HD). If others are having problems with their Blu-ray movies, try disable background programs.

Peter

Actually, your Pentium 4 is crying for an upgrade, but if you're not having trouble except for RE:E, I'd recommend to wait until Nehalem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehalem_(CPU_architecture)) comes out, supposedly in the second half of the year, though it'll probably be delayed, seeing as how things are going with Yorkfield and Wolfdale (45nm Quad and Duo respectively). It will bring a whole new architecture and the demise of the FSB. Since you'll have to pretty much upgrade your whole system, it's probably a great way to start.

I hate beta testing:D

Actually, your Pentium 4 is crying for an upgrade, but if you're not having trouble except for RE:E, I'd recommend to wait until Nehalem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehalem_(CPU_architecture)) comes out, supposedly in the second half of the year, though it'll probably be delayed, seeing as how things are going with Yorkfield and Wolfdale (45nm Quad and Duo respectively). It will bring a whole new architecture and the demise of the FSB. Since you'll have to pretty much upgrade your whole system, it's probably a great way to start.

I realized that my P4 is crying for an upgrade but I would have upgrade if I had issues with many Blu-ray movies but I don't (except RE:E). I will keep renting Blu-ray movies with my current HTPC until it becomes serious issue.

Nehalem is very interesting. It has integrated memory controllers supporting DDR3. Cool!!!! 731 million transistors!!!!!!

Peter

I hate beta testing:D

No, what you really hate is to have to pay to be a beta tester....:D

Grrr... This was the response to my support question on PDVD 8 activation:

Dear Mark,

Thank you for contacting CyberLink Online Support.

We understand your concern related with activating PowerDVD 8 software.

In response to your concern, we suggest you to please follow the steps given below:

1. Copy and Paste to activate the CD-Key.

( copy (Ctrl + C) and paste (Ctrl + V) into the first entry box)

2. Disable the software Firewall (Windows or other 3rd party software)
setting for the moment.

Kindly use the below mentioned link to get quick answer to your further reply :-

index.jsp

Please feel free to contact us back for any further clarification or for any assistance related to CyberLink Products.

Thank You and Best Regards

Are they serious? Do they not even realize they have a problem?

I love how your always suppose to disable your firewall. Like their crap is more important than your computer security. And of course it never fixes the problem. Why don't they suggest reformatting your hard drive while they're at it.:eek:

I went home for lunch and found Spiderman 3 (Blu-ray) in my mailbox from Netflix. I played it with TrueHD sound and there was no stuttering with my 3 GHz P4. I watch it for a few minutes of each chapter and it looks great. The CPU usage varied from 50 to 70%. Either Intel secretly put in dual core in my 3 GHz P4 or this CPU simply can handle Blu-ray movies along with ATI 3850 graphics card, 2 GB RAM and PowerDVD Ultra 3730a.

Peter

I went home for lunch and found Spiderman 3 (Blu-ray) in my mailbox from Netflix. I played it with TrueHD sound and there was no stuttering with my 3 GHz P4. I watch it for a few minutes of each chapter and it looks great. The CPU usage varied from 50 to 70%. Either Intel secretly put in dual core in my 3 GHz P4 or this CPU simply can handle Blu-ray movies along with ATI 3850 graphics card, 2 GB RAM and PowerDVD Ultra 3730a.

Peter

You must have hardware acceleration turned on and the ATi HD3850 is doing the work :cool:

You must have hardware acceleration turned on and the ATi HD3850 is doing the work :cool:

Yes it is turned on. What turns me off is like in many of my past posts, Resident Evil:Extinction is the only movie my HTPC hates. :mad:

Peter

Yes it is turned on. What turns me off is like in many of my past posts, Resident Evil:Extinction is the only movie my HTPC hates. :mad:

Peter

I dont think its just you i read alot of people having problems with this disc and powerDVD. Do Arcsoft have trail versions maybe you could download it and test it with that player.

Yes it is turned on. What turns me off is like in many of my past posts, Resident Evil:Extinction is the only movie my HTPC hates. :mad:

Peter

I have the HD3850 and a p4 3.2 as well. When I sign up for my summer rentals from Netflix I'll give RE a try. I haven't played that many movies yet but if this is the only movie then I'm not going to worry about upgrading.

I dont think its just you i read alot of people having problems with this disc and powerDVD. Do Arcsoft have trail versions maybe you could download it and test it with that player.

Already tried it. Arcsoft is a P.O.S. Not only I could not play RE:E but other movies as well.

Peter

I have the HD3850 and a p4 3.2 as well. When I sign up for my summer rentals from Netflix I'll give RE a try. I haven't played that many movies yet but if this is the only movie then I'm not going to worry about upgrading.

It's third version (Extinction) of RE that's giving me problems. The first two versions played perfectly.

Thanks,
Peter

Has ANYONE been able to activate PDVD 8? I never say things like this, but I'm about ready to call my lawyer on this one.

They take your money, then give you a product that is non-functional. They aren't admitting to any problem, and they make me take screen shots, disable my firewall, and all sorts of other nonsense. The time they've wasted of mine is way more than the product costs.

This is really insane. And their support is abysmal.

No but I am on the phone with tech support and he can not find a record of my purchase this morning (using both my email and order number). I sent him the confirm email from element 5. I am waiting for him to get it and then we will see...

FYI, he said to me (when i said i ordered version 8), "that is not being released until tomorrow. how did you order it?"

Oh boy. Your not gonna like this...

He finally admitted to me that this was an error this morning and that Cyberlink took down all links to version 8 because they have decided NOT to allow upgrades from version 7 to version 8 (only full retail purchases). I said this back to him to confirm. He again said, yes, this was an error and is currently being discussed how to handle the people who were allowed to purchase upgrades this morning. He says he needs a screenshot of the error message i am receiving before he can "address" my issue. I am heading home now to do this and I will see what results....

Stay tuned.

Oh boy. Your not gonna like this...

He finally admitted to me that this was an error this morning and that Cyberlink took down all links to version 8 because they have decided NOT to allow upgrades from version 7 to version 8 (only full retail purchases). I said this back to him to confirm. He again said, yes, this was an error and is currently being discussed how to handle the people who were allowed to purchase upgrades this morning. He says he needs a screenshot of the error message i am receiving before he can "address" my issue. I am heading home now to do this and I will see what results....

Stay tuned.

Well, I ordered a full product/price anyway. These guys are scum, and the product better be at least as good as what we've got.

And how did you call someone?

Oh... my... god.... these guys are total morons... they just said they can't locate the version of PDVD I'm talking about:

Thank you for contacting CyberLink Online Support.

We understand your concern related with PowerDVD software.

We apologize for the inconvineance and we kindly request you to be patience as we are here to assist you.

In response to your concern, we are unable to find the version of PowerDVD software that you are using. So, kindly provide us the below given information before escalating this case to the concern department.

Please follow the link given below to know how to find the SR-Number:

answerbox.jsp?FID=2615&ProdVerId=0

Also, send us the snapshot of the screen with full desktop where exactly you are entering the CD KEY. We will look at the screen capture, analyze and send you a solution or provide more information.


This is absolutely insane. I need a phone number to their US offices.

Not upgrading simply saves me money in the end. Looks like CL lost another customer.

In the meantime, I purchased TotalMedia Theatre which has been been getting better with every release. They are active in their own forums and calling them for help has been pleasant. They have also pledged support for the HDDVD format.

As posted elsewhere, there is currently a 50% promo for all of the products in the eStore. Go to their front page and there is a banner link on the right. Seems to be problems with their email system so if you don't get an email with the activation code, call the number posted in the Arcosoft TMT thread.


Good enough for me . I'll kiss powerdvd goodbye and get with arcsoft. I've always hated powerdvd anyway even if its "functional" after a fashion.

Can't believe cyberlink want us to pay full retail for an ugrade to lose functionality! Do these idiots live on Mars or something?

FYI, CL support number is 888-226-6030

FYII, usually you need a support number for phone support ($30 charge). However, if you choose option 3 (more info) and then choose option 9, you will eventually reach a support rep. When they ask for your number, explain this is a "customer support" issue and not tech support and tell them about the activation problem. They should then help you determine the problem.

If this is Cyberlink's idea of an April Fools joke they've got something coming...

They had better either refund all purchases or make activation work within a day or two... because this is beyond abysmal.

Me as well -- no HDDVD support -- no purchase

Well they just lost my custom.

FYI, CL support number is 888-226-6030

FYII, usually you need a support number for phone support ($30 charge). However, if you choose option 3 (more info) and then choose option 9, you will eventually reach a support rep. When they ask for your number, explain this is a "customer support" issue and not tech support and tell them about the activation problem. They should then help you determine the problem.

"I can not talk to you without a TS ID number." Over and over. No getting through them (and they're an India call center anyway, so there's no way they can resolve anything).

They refuse to do anything about this. Their e-mail support doesn't even know they have this product, and no one is willing to do anything about this.

If this doesn't get resolved today, I'm going to dig up my lawyer's phone number and pay $300 to get him to call/send a letter (about a $99 issue - stupid, but I'm disgusted at this point). This is beyond unacceptable.

E5 sales number if you care:
952-646-5022

It's third version (Extinction) of RE that's giving me problems. The first two versions played perfectly.

Thanks,
Peter

Peter, I think the later P4 chips actually had the Socket 775, so maybe you can buy a cheap dual-core for these next months, if you decided to wait for Nehalem. If your mobo can handle overclock well, you can just buy a cheap Pentium Dual-Core and overclock it to about 2.5GHz (a breeze) and you should not have problems. But if you got the older socket 478 you haven't got much of an option I guess.

Peter, I think the later P4 chips actually had the Socket 775, so maybe you can buy a cheap dual-core for these next months, if you decided to wait for Nehalem. If your mobo can handle overclock well, you can just buy a cheap Pentium Dual-Core and overclock it to about 2.5GHz (a breeze) and you should not have problems. But if you got the older socket 478 you haven't got much of an option I guess.

I am already S.O.L. :D I have socket 478. Money is not the issue. So far I just don't need to upgrade until future Blu-ray movies starting to give me problems. It does not take a long time to upgrade. One or two days from NewEgg, then a few hours to build and install OS and software and viola it's done.

Thanks,
Peter

I am still undecided to upgrade my HTPC system. Currently I have the following:

Windows MCE 2005
Asus P4C800 Deluxe MB
3 GHz Pentium 4 with HT, FSB 800 MHz
2 GB Corsair RAM
Sapphire AGP HD 3850 (Radeon) with Sapphire's CCC driver
Lite-On Blu-Ray drive
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 3730a
AnyDVD HD
Antec 1000 Watts power supply
Peter, I re-rented RE3 to see if anything changed since I last tried it. (In case you don't remember, I'm the guy with the 2400Pro and the AMD 5600+ who gave up on BluRay). With all other specs similar to your's, RE3 no longer stutters.. CPU was 90-100% and stuttered consistently. Now, CPU ranges from 45-80% with the majority in the 58%-65% range. The only differences between the first time I tried and now are:

1) previously I was using the OEM PowerDVD that came with the drive (updated)
2) did not have AnyDVD loaded
3) now running ATI 8.4 drivers

BTW: Switching to the Portugese non TrueHD track drops the CPU usage 20-30%. My opinion is that the implementation of the TrueHD decoder in PowerDVD was not efficient previously. Still not great but much better now.

Okay.. now Cyberlink have removed my CD-key from my CD-key retrieval page.

Has anybody tried the trial version? I just installed it.

Has anybody tried the trial version? I just installed it.

I installed the trial after Ultra wasn't working, just to see the layout etc, but even the TRIAL required me to activate...

I installed the trial after Ultra wasn't working, just to see the layout etc, but even the TRIAL required me to activate...

That's weird my 6.5 key seems to work with this trial, I didn't activate anything. The activation dialog popped up but I just ignored it restarted and it launches.

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o65/freedombikesusa/p8.jpg

Hmm.. why the heck is the DTS-HD MA logo in the trial... makes me think that Cyberlink have just put it there to look nice, but not actually decode it :rolleyes:

Well it played a DVD, my BD archives won't launch as expected... boy they sure killed the golden goose. This thing is no good for archived managed HDM. 6.5 still looks the best out of all the players to date.:D

Peter, I re-rented RE3 to see if anything changed since I last tried it. (In case you don't remember, I'm the guy with the 2400Pro and the AMD 5600+ who gave up on BluRay). With all other specs similar to your's, RE3 no longer stutters.. CPU was 90-100% and stuttered consistently. Now, CPU ranges from 45-80% with the majority in the 58%-65% range. The only differences between the first time I tried and now are:

1) previously I was using the OEM PowerDVD that came with the drive (updated)
2) did not have AnyDVD loaded
3) now running ATI 8.4 drivers

BTW: Switching to the Portugese non TrueHD track drops the CPU usage 20-30%. My opinion is that the implementation of the TrueHD decoder in PowerDVD was not efficient previously. Still not great but much better now.

Thanks for the info.

When I first installed AnyDVD, initially the stuttering seemed to have stopped for RE:E and later I played it again (and again) and the stuttering came back. I don't know what I did to cause stuttering again. I do not have ATI 8.4 drivers. I think I am using a modified version of 8.1 or 8.2 designed for Sapphire AGP ATI HD3850 card. Saphhire web site now shows version 8.3. I will try latest ATI driver. I do not see version 8.4 from ATI web site. Where did you get 8.4?

Peter

Saphhire web site now shows version 8.3. I will try latest ATI driver. I do not see version 8.4 from ATI web site. Where did you get 8.4?

PeterMy mistake. I'm using 8.3

Go back to the previous version.

Peter, I re-rented RE3 to see if anything changed since I last tried it. (In case you don't remember, I'm the guy with the 2400Pro and the AMD 5600+ who gave up on BluRay). With all other specs similar to your's, RE3 no longer stutters.. CPU was 90-100% and stuttered consistently. Now, CPU ranges from 45-80% with the majority in the 58%-65% range. The only differences between the first time I tried and now are:

1) previously I was using the OEM PowerDVD that came with the drive (updated)
2) did not have AnyDVD loaded
3) now running ATI 8.4 drivers

BTW: Switching to the Portugese non TrueHD track drops the CPU usage 20-30%. My opinion is that the implementation of the TrueHD decoder in PowerDVD was not efficient previously. Still not great but much better now.

I downloaded Catalyst 8.3 and was not able to install. My video card is Sapphire HD 3850 AGP. When I first bought the card, ATI Catalyst 8.2 did not work so I downloaded Sapphire's custom Catalyst 8.2 for AGP cards and it worked. I think Sapphire is working on customizing 8.3 to work with AGP cards. Their web site has a hot fix for 8.3 but that didn't work either. I sent Sapphire an e-mail about my issue with 8.3.

Anyway, I selected Portuguese DD 5.1 audio and the stuttering was eliminated. The CPU usage went as high as 80%.

Vladd, do you have AGP or PCI-e graphics card? What brand video card? Also, which OS are you using? Vista or XP?

Thanks,
Peter

Go back to the previous version.Why would I do that? The "mistake" was that I said I was using 8.4. I have no issues with 8.3

Anyway, I selected Portuguese DD 5.1 audio and the stuttering was eliminated. The CPU usage went as high as 80%.That's what I figured. That solidifies my theory that it is the decoding of TrueHD that is the issue. Interestingly, it is only a problem on BluRays, not HD DVD.

Vladd, do you have AGP or PCI-e graphics card? What brand video card? Also, which OS are you using? Vista or XP?

Thanks,
PeterI'm running a PCI-E card from Sapphire on Vista x86. I downloaded the drivers direct from ATI though, not the Sapphire website.

That's what I figured. That solidifies my theory that it is the decoding of TrueHD that is the issue. Interestingly, it is only a problem on BluRays, not HD DVD.

Do you think PowerDVD has some bugs related to decoding TrueHD audio?

I'm running a PCI-E card from Sapphire on Vista x86. I downloaded the drivers direct from ATI though, not the Sapphire website.

I am not surprised that ATI's driver works for PCI-E. Well, I hope Sapphire will resolve AGP driver issue for 8.3.

Thanks,
Peter

ATI 8.4 is on the ATI site, under the name "8.3 hotfix" :-)

Seriously.

This is crazy. How much did they ask for the upgrade, just out of curiosity?

Do you think PowerDVD has some bugs related to decoding TrueHD audio?Probably not so much "bugs" as simply not being very efficient. I think the latest version may be more efficient. Of course, I need to check to see if the decoder has changed at all. Admittedly, I have not done this yet. Free time for such things has been pretty scarce lately.

If I get some time this weekend, I may uninstall Ultra and go back to the OEM to see if it still exhibits the issue, in which case, the TrueHD decoding would not be the problem.

ATI 8.4 is on the ATI site, under the name "8.3 hotfix" :-)

Seriously.
Good to know, thanks.

It seems that some of my Cyberlink Online Customer Support inquiries are 'lost' concerning PowerDVD 8 Ultra upgrade errors activation:mad:

It's an absolute inappropriate behaviour that Cyberlink shows us.

First they offer a PowerDVD 8 Ultra upgrade which can be bought through on-line distribution via element 5 and after a short time the people at Cyberlink tell us that they never thought to sell a PowerDVD 8 Ultra upgrade?

First they offer something, second for that they take our money and third they say sorry, it never was intended to make such an offer???:confused:

What the hell is going on at Cyberlink's head office????

I've send them a new inquiry: I want an easy solution for the customer, or fast money back transfer

It seems that some of my Cyberlink Online Customer Support inquiries are 'lost' concerning PowerDVD 8 Ultra upgrade errors activation:mad:

It's an absolute inappropriate behaviour that Cyberlink shows us.

First they offer a PowerDVD 8 Ultra upgrade which can be bought through on-line distribution via element 5 and after a short time the people at Cyberlink tell us that they never thought to sell a PowerDVD 8 Ultra upgrade?

First they offer something, second for that they take our money and third they say sorry, it never was intended to make such an offer???:confused:

What the hell is going on at Cyberlink's head office????

I've send them a new inquiry: I want an easy solution for the customer, or fast money back transfer

Yeh this is an outrage, Cyberlink had better do something for those who actually bought it straight away to help the company, sofar we've been given a good kick up the rear.

Either make our keys we have activate, or give us new keys or new download links.

I'm not at home atm so I can't test if it activates now.

just received this funny email:

CyberLink Product Owner,
Thank you for purchasing CyberLink product, PowerDVD 8.0. By purchasing from our online store, your product will be automatically registered. Owning a CyberLink product entitles you to the benefits of our exclusive membership program. The link below will take you to our members' zone where you can... bla-bla-bla

Now, it is still impossible to activate (with the given keys to us from element 5) our legal upgrade copy

They're working really fast at Cyberlink. The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing:eek:

Probably not so much "bugs" as simply not being very efficient. I think the latest version may be more efficient. Of course, I need to check to see if the decoder has changed at all. Admittedly, I have not done this yet. Free time for such things has been pretty scarce lately.

If I get some time this weekend, I may uninstall Ultra and go back to the OEM to see if it still exhibits the issue, in which case, the TrueHD decoding would not be the problem.

Don't bother. The OEM played well but it had other serious issues. If I click on Next/Previous Chapter or FF/RW buttons, it freezes. I have watched RE:E using OEM PowerDVD without issues as long as I don't touch these buttons except Pause. Pause button was unaffected.

I finally figured out how to "manually" install CCC 8.3. I found this in another forum:

Windows XP 32bit
A. Install Drivers
1. Get official driver only cat 8.3 here.
2. Run it so that it extracts to where ever you want but when the next screen pops up click cancel.
3. Goto device manager > graphics adapter > update drivers...
a. Click no i'll update and find it myself for the next screens then click install from specific location.
4. Browse to X:\ATI\SUPPORT\8-3_xp32_dd_59746\XP_INF\CX_59746.inf
5. Scroll down a little till you find "ATI Radeon HD 3850" click next and YES.
6. Reboot

B. Install ATI CCC (Optional)
1. Need to install driver first see above.
2. Get official CCC 8.3 only here
3. Run it and install as usual.
4. Reboot

The above instruction is for AGP HD 3850 video cards.

8.3 driver works better with PowerDVD 3730a. The stuttering is significantly less than previous ATI driver but the stuttering is still there. Looks like I am on the right track. Hopefully 8.4 will be even better.

Peter

The official Cyberlink member (support) forum tells at the moment:

We're sorry. The site is unavailable due to maintenance.

Wow, lots of unfortunate action today. Two quick points:

1) I actually bought the full 7.3 Ultra version just a few days ago (3/28/08) I was initially really upset that even though I read this thread daily, I somehow missed the release date of v8...and that I will still have to pay to upgrade?! However, given the activation issues, it looks like I was perhaps in luck in a way?

2) After my purchase, even with every clean-install/registry-clean advice I could find, I cannot get out of "trial" mode from the old version. (E.g. it still tells me to "Activate" and does not enable h264...) (It accepts my product key though...)

So last night I sent a customer inquiry asking about issue 2) and nicely asking if they could see it in their heart to let me have version 8. However, my inquiry page is now missing (I see I am not alone?!) Does this mean I am SOL on all counts?

I am sorry for those of you that are having problems with v8. As a software engineer who worked through the dot-com era, with their significant head-start on a core technology that is about to become mainstream, I am shocked they are botching this unprecedented opportunity.

Sure, they are currently making money cutting corners on support and quality (while milking their customers for every penny,) but that is pittance compared to the possible billions they could make as the default HD renderer for all home theaters. It saddens me: in a couple years the big guys will come in with a solid product with fair pricing and support. And instead of becoming a truly dominant company, they will disappear, missing an opportunity most of us in the industry can only dream about. In the meantime, progress itself suffers.

Anyway, end-rant...

Since it seems we're on our own. Is there any chance someone has any tips on unlocking the full functionality of my paid version of 7.3? Thanks much!

8.3 driver works better with PowerDVD 3730a. The stuttering is significantly less than previous ATI driver but the stuttering is still there. Looks like I am on the right track. Hopefully 8.4 will be even better.I guess my theory on the audio decoder could be wrong then. It's possible that the HA of the video has improved to the point that there is more CPU available for the audio decoding. Either way, at least it's improving for you.

People who have just bought it now (after it was put back up), can you activate? I still can't.

As far as I'm concerned, my $100 has been stolen unless they can rectify this.

After my purchase, even with every clean-install/registry-clean advice I could find, I cannot get out of "trial" mode from the old version. (E.g. it still tells me to "Activate" and does not enable h264...) (It accepts my product key though...)

So last night I sent a customer inquiry asking about issue 2) and nicely asking if they could see it in their heart to let me have version 8. However, my inquiry page is now missing (I see I am not alone?!) Does this mean I am SOL on all counts?

If you product key is accepted once - you get the full functional ultra (aka deluxe) version. The "Activate" button is misunderstanding, it means you can re-type another product key to get the max. benefit, all features that you already have.

Peter, as a point of comparison, I took advantage of the 50% off coupon on TME. The CPU usage on RE3 averages from 10-37% on my system. Spikes to 41/47% were common and the highest spike was 52%. A significant difference.

Don't bother. The OEM played well but it had other serious issues. If I click on Next/Previous Chapter or FF/RW buttons, it freezes. I have watched RE:E using OEM PowerDVD without issues as long as I don't touch these buttons except Pause. Pause button was unaffected.

[...]

8.3 driver works better with PowerDVD 3730a. The stuttering is significantly less than previous ATI driver but the stuttering is still there. Looks like I am on the right track. Hopefully 8.4 will be even better.

Peter

Peter, the OEM never went higher than 3516b, so the stuttering you're seeing is not because it's OEM. The retail builds previous to 3730 also had this issue with this and other 1.1 movies. They might update the OEM for profile 1.1 compatibility (though that seems unlikely now), so OEM is not the problem itself. It is good to hear that you had an improvement with the ATI drivers. Right now I'm in the process of tricking out a HP slimline for HTPC use, and the only compatible passive card I could find was a Sapphire HD3450. I had a bad experience with the 2400 and 2600 series, so I'll just have to have my fingers crossed. When they worked though, HD acceleration was very good. I'll probably post something about it when I'm done. It's looking good so far. HP service has been great.

I guess my theory on the audio decoder could be wrong then. It's possible that the HA of the video has improved to the point that there is more CPU available for the audio decoding. Either way, at least it's improving for you.

I do think it's the audio. It has been known for a while that this movie will tax midrange CPUs. It's probably partly PowerDVD's fault too, from what you say below:

Peter, as a point of comparison, I took advantage of the 50% off coupon on TME. The CPU usage on RE3 averages from 10-37% on my system. Spikes to 41/47% were common and the highest spike was 52%. A significant difference.

And that is very interesting. I tried that program though, and I'm one of those that would not pay $20 for it. Looks and feels like PowerDVD 3.0 or something like that. But it's interesting nonetheless.

Any news from the activation front???

:rolleyes:

And that is very interesting. I tried that program though, and I'm one of those that would not pay $20 for it. Looks and feels like PowerDVD 3.0 or something like that. But it's interesting nonetheless.
Understood. I wasn't trying to plug it and debated whether or not to even make that post for fear that it would sound like I was. But I figured the information on the comparison was interesting and worth the risk. Neither software is great IMO.

Any news from the activation front???

:rolleyes:
nothing yet

i am also waiting for a response to my ticket

nothing yet

i am also waiting for a response to my ticket

Just tried again to activate, and it WORKS!! Phew...

But.. I can't seem to play any Blu-ray movies from disc... it just says 'Internal Error'... jeezus...

Just tried again to activate, and it WORKS!! Phew...

But.. I can't seem to play any Blu-ray movies from disc... it just says 'Internal Error'... jeezus...

Confirmed. Finally they did it at Cyberlink. My copy is also activated.

No thanks for long waiting.

Understood. I wasn't trying to plug it and debated whether or not to even make that post for fear that it would sound like I was. But I figured the information on the comparison was interesting and worth the risk. Neither software is great IMO.

Oh, don't mind my opinion. I didn't take your post like that. I already knew about the discount, I wasn't implying that you were trying to push it. Sorry for the misunderstanding. It is interesting that PowerDVD consumes so much more of CPU resources. Maybe Arcsoft is not compatible with extra features of profile 1.1, but can somehow play those movies cleanly... I guess it needs to be investigated.

Quick question; anyone get "Across the Universe" to play for me i can't get out of the menu's area using PDVD 3730 and 3730a??

Thanks
Rew

I contacted Cyberlink about TrueHD and DTS-HD since Corel claims WinDVD 9 supports them, here is the response I recieved from their PR contact.


For without down-sampling, it needs to upgrade Audio Chip and have secure audio path.

This will be second half of 2008. It depends on audio chip manufacturer's schedule.


This sounds like bull to me unless she's trying to say they are waiting for HDMI 1.3 video cards. Otherwise I'm not sure what the point of having a secure path is right up until you output the signal via analog. There are a few hardware Blu-ray players that output TrueHD and DTS-HD via analog so it's not a DRM issue.

Ouch! Can't play HD-DVDs with PDVD8 from the XBOX drive!!! Player switches to "file mode" and does nothing. Tried enabling and disabling AnyDVD with no success.

This sounds like bull to me unless she's trying to say they are waiting for HDMI 1.3 video cards. Otherwise I'm not sure what the point of having a secure path is right up until you output the signal via analog. There are a few hardware Blu-ray players that output TrueHD and DTS-HD via analog so it's not a DRM issue.

That isn't bull at all. analog out is unprotected and so has to be downsampled to 16/48 according to AACS. I recently talked to Auzentech about the HDMI X-tension and they confirmed that Auzen and CL are working together on the HDMI Extension compatibility with PowerDVD for non-downsampled hd audio via HDMI.

It is possible to put out DTS-HD via analog, but it is 16/48. It it is still an improvement over the DTS core output PowerDVD 7.3 does.

Does the trial verson of PDVD 8 work with blu ray discs? If yes, can I upgrade it to full retail by buying just a CD-key?
Tks.

Didn't I hear that PDVD8 is Blu-ray only, and they dropped HD DVD? You need to stick with 7.3 Ultra to keep HD DVD playback.

Ouch! Can't play HD-DVDs with PDVD8 from the XBOX drive!!! Player switches to "file mode" and does nothing. Tried enabling and disabling AnyDVD with no success.


It has been mentioned several times that PowerDVD 8 doesn't play HD-DVDs!

How is it PQ and AQ wise? Better than 7.3?

Tried on my second HTPC. It definitely does NOT play HD-DVDs so don't uninstall PDVD7 if you need HD-DVD playback.

EDIT:

Colors washed out on my ATI3850 (Cat8.3) but fine on my other HTPC with a 8600gts (174.74beta). First impression is PQ is the same than PDVD7's.

It has been mentioned several times that PowerDVD 8 doesn't play HD-DVDs!

How is it PQ and AQ wise? Better than 7.3?

Why the hell would they drop support for HD DVD already, people are still buying them and new ones are still getting released?

So is anyone else getting the Internal Error problem? No Blu-ray disc will play here.

I can play blu-ray discs just fine.

I can play blu-ray discs just fine.

With the trial version?

With the trial version?

No. There isn't a Powerdvd 8 ultra trial. You can only play with the standard Powerdvd 8 trial w/o Blu-ray playing.

Is it me or is there just a ton of fluff in version 8?

I want to watch movies, not remixes of someone elses stuff.. . actually maybe they should get everything working on 7 before they try adding more stuff that will break.

Does the switcher program for 3319a and 3730 work with 3730a? I always get 3730a no matter what. Did I do something wrong?

No errors. Blu Ray plays fine. I tried the following:

Harry Potter (Phoenix)
M. Clayton
Superbad
Across the Universe

However, ATU does not work. Same issues. Menus dont work. Cant play the movie.

Ill do more extensive testing tonight.

I am sorry for those of you that are having problems with v8. As a software engineer who worked through the dot-com era, with their significant head-start on a core technology that is about to become mainstream, I am shocked they are botching this unprecedented opportunity.

Sure, they are currently making money cutting corners on support and quality (while milking their customers for every penny,) but that is pittance compared to the possible billions they could make as the default HD renderer for all home theaters. It saddens me: in a couple years the big guys will come in with a solid product with fair pricing and support. And instead of becoming a truly dominant company, they will disappear, missing an opportunity most of us in the industry can only dream about. In the meantime, progress itself suffers.

For this same reason I'll never understand why they didn't offer a much better discount coming off of the OEM version. These guys just don't understand that it's about market penetration right now for them. Right now, no one cares which program comes out on top, and there are very few people in their corner through their lack of caring for the customers and lack of branding as a company that works for you.

For a $30 upgrade, they would have had a lot of the early adopters using Ultra, and they would have been in it for the long haul after they got some solid positive name recognition. Instead, many are looking for alternatives and mostly a way to integrate into media center.

Does the switcher program for 3319a and 3730 work with 3730a? I always get 3730a no matter what. Did I do something wrong?

Mine switches fine with 3319a and 3730a. You prob installed 3730 for both versions. Rem you have to install 3319a 1st then back it up before installing 3730(a). Just rem what ever version is running will be the one replaced with the new install, so just make sure its 3319a running and make the backup before install 3730(a) or you can run/switch to 3730 and have 3319a backedup and just install 3730a over 3730 (that shld work but I always use the other method). I use diff screens/wall paper for each so i can easily tell which one is running.

Mine switches fine with 3319a and 3730a. You prob installed 3730 for both versions. Rem you have to install 3319a 1st then back it up before installing 3730(a). Just rem what ever version is running will be the one replaced with the new install, so just make sure its 3319a running and make the backup before install 3730(a) or you can run/switch to 3730 and have 3319a backedup and just install 3730a over 3730 (that shld work but I always use the other method). I use diff screens/wall paper for each so i can easily tell which one is running.

I installed 3319a then copied the powerdvd folder to my desktop and renamed it. Then I installed 3730a and copied the 3319a folder back into the proper directory. I then copied the switcher .exe into the directory

did I do something wrong?

Peter, the OEM never went higher than 3516b, so the stuttering you're seeing is not because it's OEM. The retail builds previous to 3730 also had this issue with this and other 1.1 movies. They might update the OEM for profile 1.1 compatibility (though that seems unlikely now), so OEM is not the problem itself. It is good to hear that you had an improvement with the ATI drivers.

Andy,

I am not sure I understand your statement or you understood mine. I just wanted to make this clear so that we are on the same page.

I started with OEM that came with Lite-On Blu-ray drive. The movies played fine until RE:E came along. It was not stuttering but controlling via FF/RW or Next/Prev Chapter buttons was very difficult. I was able to watch RE:E without stuttering as long as I didn't touch these buttons. This prompted me to buy retail 3730a version. 3730a plays flawlessly for every Blu-ray movies I have seen so far except RE:E due to constant stuttering. Updating ATI display drivers helped reduce stuttering. Also setting to foreign language DD 5.1 audio in RE:E completely reduce stuttering. That does not bother me since I am hearing impaired and I always use sub-titles.

I wonder why OEM didn't stutter and retail stuttered. Probably Cyberlink added Profile 1.1 to 3730a and they may have not done it efficiently and cause the CPU to work harder. Hopefully version 8 was done better to reduce CPU load. This time I will not be an early adopter and buy version 8 right now until most people say this version is worth the upgrade. So thanks to people being guienna pigs beta testing verison 8. :D

Bottom line, I will continue to use my existing HTPC until future Blu-ray movies start to cause issues. I simply don't feel like upgrading right now while it continues to play Blu-ray movies quite nicely (except RE:E).

Peter

I installed 3319a then copied the powerdvd folder to my desktop and renamed it. Then I installed 3730a and copied the 3319a folder back into the proper directory. I then copied the switcher .exe into the directory

did I do something wrong?


You need to copy 3319a into the cyberlink dir. Just make a copy and paste after install and then rename copy to PowerDVD3319a for the folder. Then install 3730a. You dont need to copy the new install since its already in the folder. Copy everything from the switcher folder into the cyberlink folder where the folders are for the two versions of PDVD. What the switcher do is swap the 3319a backup with the current running version and make the current version the backup. Process repeated the other way when you use the switcher again. That shld work.

Add: after a switch dont rename PowerDVD3730 to PowerDVD3730a, just leave it as Powerdvd3730.

Bluray plays fine

I am legend
IROBOT
meet the robinsons

i will check with all my 85 bluray titles and update here, no hd playback

btw i have everything in HDD ISOs

That isn't bull at all. analog out is unprotected and so has to be downsampled to 16/48 according to AACS. I recently talked to Auzentech about the HDMI X-tension and they confirmed that Auzen and CL are working together on the HDMI Extension compatibility with PowerDVD for non-downsampled hd audio via HDMI.

Interesting, this is the first I've heard of this AACS restriction, do you have a link where I can read more about it?

Interesting, this is the first I've heard of this AACS restriction, do you have a link where I can read more about it?

If it is an AACS issue (and I did read somewhere else that Cyberlink is taking that position), then AnyDVD should effectively deal with it. The fact that it doesn't either means that Cyberlink is mistakenly downsampling ALL audio regardless of whether it's protected (which is what the article I read indicated), or is being less than honest about it.

So what software options do we now have to watch HD DVD's?

So what software options do we now have to watch HD DVD's?

PDVD 7 Ultra, ARCSOFT TMT and Nero plugin.

Andy,

I am not sure I understand your statement or you understood mine. I just wanted to make this clear so that we are on the same page.

I started with OEM that came with Lite-On Blu-ray drive. The movies played fine until RE:E came along. It was not stuttering but controlling via FF/RW or Next/Prev Chapter buttons was very difficult. I was able to watch RE:E without stuttering as long as I didn't touch these buttons. This prompted me to buy retail 3730a version. 3730a plays flawlessly for every Blu-ray movies I have seen so far except RE:E due to constant stuttering. Updating ATI display drivers helped reduce stuttering. Also setting to foreign language DD 5.1 audio in RE:E completely reduce stuttering. That does not bother me since I am hearing impaired and I always use sub-titles.

I wonder why OEM didn't stutter and retail stuttered. Probably Cyberlink added Profile 1.1 to 3730a and they may have not done it efficiently and cause the CPU to work harder. Hopefully version 8 was done better to reduce CPU load. This time I will not be an early adopter and buy version 8 right now until most people say this version is worth the upgrade. So thanks to people being guienna pigs beta testing verison 8. :D

Bottom line, I will continue to use my existing HTPC until future Blu-ray movies start to cause issues. I simply don't feel like upgrading right now while it continues to play Blu-ray movies quite nicely (except RE:E).

Peter

Yeah, I'm sorry, when I said stuttering, I meant the FF/RW and skipping issues. Those are profile-related issues, and I meant to say that those are not because of OEM software, because I had them also with 3516 retail. Sorry for the confusion.

Any issues with 8.0 and 7.3 side by side? Can they be installed concurrently?

I installed side by side and working fine

PDVD 7 Ultra, ARCSOFT TMT and Nero plugin.

and WinDVD 9

Interesting, this is the first I've heard of this AACS restriction, do you have a link where I can read more about it?

Here you go:

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/10/08/powerdvd_ultra_audio_downsampling_explained/1

Bluray plays fine

I am legend
IROBOT
meet the robinsons

i will check with all my 85 bluray titles and update here, no hd playback

btw i have everything in HDD ISOs

Do you notice any "skipping" or dropped frames in Meet the Robinsons?

Bluray plays fine

I am legend
IROBOT
meet the robinsons

i will check with all my 85 bluray titles and update here, no hd playback

btw i have everything in HDD ISOs

If you have Resident Evil:Extinction, please test this one. It seems to be the most problematic and talked about (mostly by me) Blu-ray movie as reported by many others. Please check for stuttering and CPU usage with TrueHD audio.

Thanks,
Peter

PDVD 7 Ultra, ARCSOFT TMT and Nero plugin.

Does anyone know if TMT supports bitstream audio? or at the least converts TrueHD/DTS-HD MA to non-downsampled LPCM?

The whole point of "upgrading" to PDVD8 was to get audio bitstream ability. Since they pulled HD DVD that makes the move worthless to me and PDVD7 is just as worthless since it downsamples everything. Yes I could use analog output but I didn't spend a ton of money on a good receiver just to have my sound card do the same work at half the quality level.

Cyberlink you just lost another customer.

what's the version number for the first retail V. 8 release?

I'm not aware of any way at the moment to bitstream HD audio codecs from a PC

you need HDMI 1.3 compliant hardware output / protected path thingies in place

no PC based hardware will do this yet..

yep - I've bought several versions of Powerdvd over the years and some of their other products too.

no more.. dropping HDDVD playback is a slap in the face to customers -- many of us have many HDDVD that work just fine -- thank you very much

I am having pretty good luck playing my HDDVD and BLURAY ISO with TMT -- The Vista Media Center plugin for TMT works pretty good too. I using SPDIF out and basically get roughly the same output I get from POWERDVD via SPDIF

I have a ATI 3870 card and can get sound from it, but it basically the same as I get with SPDIF optical - no bitstream

again there is no avialable hardware for this yet that I have seen anywhere

I hope they continue to improve the TMT product -- it is decent and if they keep making it better - I will not miss powerdvd at all

maybe later in 08 we will see a hardware setup for the PC that will bitstream then we can see if a software player will support it too.

Does anyone know if TMT supports bitstream audio? or at the least converts TrueHD/DTS-HD MA to non-downsampled LPCM?

The whole point of "upgrading" to PDVD8 was to get audio bitstream ability. Since they pulled HD DVD that makes the move worthless to me and PDVD7 is just as worthless since it downsamples everything. Yes I could use analog output but I didn't spend a ton of money on a good receiver just to have my sound card do the same work at half the quality level.

Cyberlink you just lost another customer.

There actually is hardware to support this though. I'm currently using the ASUS P5E-VM HDMI which is HDMI 1.3 capable. I use it to pass 8 channel 24/96 audio directly to my receiver in Vista64. Works great so far. Only PDVD downsamples all the lossless audio. While bitstream isn't exactly around yet (PDVD 8 was supposed to bring in that ability) I would be happy with decoded TrueHD/DTS-HD to LPCM at this point so long as it maintains a good quality sample/bitrate and doesn't downsample to SPDIF (640kb, 16/48).

I'm not aware of any way at the moment to bitstream HD audio codecs from a PC

you need HDMI 1.3 compliant hardware output / protected path thingies in place

no PC based hardware will do this yet..

yep - I've bought several versions of Powerdvd over the years and some of their other products too.

no more.. dropping HDDVD playback is a slap in the face to customers -- many of us have many HDDVD that work just fine -- thank you very much

I am having pretty good luck playing my HDDVD and BLURAY ISO with TMT -- The Vista Media Center plugin for TMT works pretty good too. I using SPDIF out and basically get roughly the same output I get from POWERDVD via SPDIF

I have a ATI 3870 card and can get sound from it, but it basically the same as I get with SPDIF optical - no bitstream

again there is no avialable hardware for this yet that I have seen anywhere

I hope they continue to improve the TMT product -- it is decent and if they keep making it better - I will not miss powerdvd at all

maybe later in 08 we will see a hardware setup for the PC that will bitstream then we can see if a software player will support it too.

If you have Resident Evil:Extinction, please test this one. It seems to be the most problematic and talked about (mostly by me) Blu-ray movie as reported by many others. Please check for stuttering and CPU usage with TrueHD audio.

Thanks,
Peter

Been playing it and off disk I did get stuttering and it froze. But right now off ISO, plays sweet. I don't have a specific problematic timestamp to check. Dolby Lossless 2250kbps=Task Mgr 5 to 22 % using TMT

Been playing it and off disk I did get stuttering and it froze. But right now off ISO, plays sweet. I don't have a specific problematic timestamp to check. Dolby Lossless 2250kbps=Task Mgr 5 to 22 % using TMT

Resident Evil is really EVIL. :D

That's with Power DVD 8?

Peter

ArcSoft Total Media Theatre

Just tried PDVD Ultra 8 and it fixed the problem I was having with version 7. Which was if a blu-ray disc did not have an AC3 (aka DD 5.1) track then PDVD would not remix the audio to DD 5.1 on the S/PDIF. This new version does if you select S/PDIF and AC3 Mixing. I am not happy that I had to pay $60 to get a bug fix.

Now I have a new bug. I wonder what it will cost me to get cyberlink to fix this one and if it will also take 5 or more months.

The new bug is I was playing Rush Hour 3 Blu-Ray which only has a DTS-HD track. I selected S/PDIF and AC3 mixing and my processor/pre-amp showed that I was getting DD 5.1. So I was happy the bug was fixed. But then after pausing and restarting the movie 3 times I had no audio. I exited PDVD and check windows sounds and also no audio. PDVD had killed the audio driver. To get the audio back I had to reboot the PC. Not a very useful product if you have to worry every time you pause that you may have to reboot to get audio back.

Then after watching Rush Hour 3 I tried an HD-DVD movie just to see if that feature had been removed and I found that it had (so now it is $60 for a bug fix, introduction of a new audio bug and a loss of HD-DVD functionality). But even worse than losing support for HD-DVD just trying to play a HD-DVD caused PDVD to kill the audio again. So another reboot to get audio back.

My system is
Vista 64
Asus Striker Extreme
2 XFX 8600 GT
4 Gig
3 gHz Intel Quad Core

Didn't I hear that PDVD8 is Blu-ray only, and they dropped HD DVD? You need to stick with 7.3 Ultra to keep HD DVD playback.

Key features in PowerDVD 8 include:

-- Support for HD audio and video standards and formats, including AVCHD and Blu-ray Discs.

This is from the Powerdvd v8 Ultra spec page. What exactly does this mean?
I would like to buy a full software package , but I have HD dvd's I want to use.

No errors. Blu Ray plays fine. I tried the following:

Harry Potter (Phoenix)
M. Clayton
Superbad
Across the Universe

However, ATU does not work. Same issues. Menus dont work. Cant play the movie.

Ill do more extensive testing tonight.

Man I hope all this is worth the $100 u spend. So far all i read is u pay $100 more and getting less features and a lots of headache

There actually is hardware to support this though. I'm currently using the ASUS P5E-VM HDMI which is HDMI 1.3 capable. I use it to pass 8 channel 24/96 audio directly to my receiver in Vista64. Works great so far. Only PDVD downsamples all the lossless audio. While bitstream isn't exactly around yet (PDVD 8 was supposed to bring in that ability) I would be happy with decoded TrueHD/DTS-HD to LPCM at this point so long as it maintains a good quality sample/bitrate and doesn't downsample to SPDIF (640kb, 16/48).


Unfortunately, your motherboard *is not* HDMI 1.3 capable. It cannot bitstream native HD audio for an external receiver to decode. What you are getting is LPCM, which to some is just as good but there are people that want an unmolested audio stream that is decoded once at the receiver and directly out to the connected speakers.

How do I get PDVD Ultra 8 not to run automatically whenever I put in a disc?

I have gone thru all the menus and I don't see anything that looks like it is set wrong.
I have none of the boxes checked in the file associations page.
In the Vista 64 file associations I do not have any that are mapped to PDVD.

But every time I put in a DVD or a Blu-ray disc, PDVD runs.

Okay, have done some initial testing:
- The spot-check of BD ISO's all work, no stuttering on my G35 at all (MPEG2, MPEG4-AVC tested so fat)
- Spot check of HD MPEG-2's (from my Tivo) all work great (many would change size with 3319a)
- HDMI audio is a bit of a joke, no different than before if you want multi-channel HD audio (still sends 5 channels for 2 channel sources with 3 blank channels, for example)
- Picture quality seems slightly improved actually, a little more detail/depth, and the color seems slightly better

So - If the rest of the ISO's work, then PDVD8 is like the production version of PDVD 7 beta. Everything works like it should have with PDVD 7. Nothing particularly new, but nothing seems broken either.

I'll post after I do more extensive testing.

Should issues with "8" be a new thread?

New Official PDVD 8 Ultra thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13552620#post13552620

Let's move all discussion of that version over there, so we can focus on it?

In PowerDVD 7.3, is anyone able to play Enchanted? I finally got it to play by manually navigating to chapter 3, then skipping two chapters back to chapter 1. It would not play when I pressed play in the menu or even selecting chapter 1 or 2 from the title menu. It would just give me a black screen with no sound. I'm using 3516a.0.

Works for me with no problems. Insert disc, skip through ten or so prevues, select play on the menu.

Vern

When it starts, the menu button is blocked, but you can skip to the next chapter, then press menu. However, audio (the DD track) mutes for about a second several times during the movie -- perhaps it's "seamless" branching. Using 3730.

Just a fair warning for those of you thinking of getting PowerDVD 8... it sucks pretty bad. It couldnt play the first blu-ray disc I tried it with correctly. Same disc works fine in PDVD 7.3.

Also, it appears Cyberlink for the first time ever decided to not share their directshow decoders in any apps. After I installed PowerDVD Ultra, I cant use the decoders in Windows Media Player 11, nor anything else.

Also, it appears Cyberlink for the first time ever decided to not share their directshow decoders in any apps. After I installed PowerDVD Ultra, I cant use the decoders in Windows Media Player 11, nor anything else.

That's odd, others have said they can. Will try a demo myself sometime.

I just forced it it's merit value to above normal and now the decoders are being used instead of Nero's (for both mpeg2 and mpeg4). This is the first time ever that any of my machines have preferred to use other decoders over Cyberlink's.

That's odd, others have said they can. Will try a demo myself sometime.

This is the response I got from Cyberlink support. I'm guess they are competent enough not to misunderstand my complaint.

Dear Michael,

Thank you for contacting CyberLink Online Support.

We understand your concern related with the PowerDVD 8 Ultra software.

In regard to your issue we would like to inform you that the decoders of PowerDVD 8 Ultra can be used from within PowerDVD 8 Ultra only and can not be used or shared with other applications such as Windows Media Player.

We regret to inform you that there is no setting or trick to make it work with other applications such
as Windows Media Player.

This is the response I got from Cyberlink support. I'm guess they are competent enough not to misunderstand my complaint.

Dear Michael,

Thank you for contacting CyberLink Online Support.

We understand your concern related with the PowerDVD 8 Ultra software.

In regard to your issue we would like to inform you that the decoders of PowerDVD 8 Ultra can be used from within PowerDVD 8 Ultra only and can not be used or shared with other applications such as Windows Media Player.

We regret to inform you that there is no setting or trick to make it work with other applications such
as Windows Media Player.users at SageTV have figured it out

Yeah... I wonder who figured it out?? ;)

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32064

users at SageTV have figured it out

Yeah... I wonder who figured it out?? ;)

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32064haha - i didn't look at the name

Out of curiosity, can you still buy PowerDvd Ultra 7.3? (I did not find a link on their site.)

Wow, if that is the case, then I turned out to be lucky as heck that I bought version 7.3 on 3/28/2008 (I bought a LG combo drive and just bought over a dozen dirt-cheap HD-DVDs.

Quick question: I am doing some calibrating, and I am noticing a lot of blacks. Does the "COLORSPACE" registry setting/NVidia "black crush" problem/solution still apply?

Out of curiosity, can you still buy PowerDvd Ultra 7.3? (I did not find a link on their site.)

Wow, if that is the case, then I turned out to be lucky as heck that I bought version 7.3 on 3/28/2008 (I bought a LG combo drive and just bought over a dozen dirt-cheap HD-DVDs.

Quick question: I am doing some calibrating, and I am noticing a lot of blacks. Does the "COLORSPACE" registry setting/NVidia "black crush" problem/solution still apply?

Your only real solution to the nVidia black crush problem is to downgrade to a much older version of the nVidia drivers (listed earlier in this thread).

Have just installed PDVD 3730a patch on a C2D 2.2GHz XP 8600GT 1920x1440p72 system and the first time I attempted to play anything, it opened a dialogue saying something like: "to improve smoothness of playback on your hardware, PowerDVD can temporarily reduce the resolution of your display and it will be returned when playback ends: Yes or No".

Needless to say, I answered No as I want to be the only one modifying resolutions if necessary. I noticed they didn't say what the resolution would be reduced to.

I'm quite concerned Cyberlink even consider reducing resolution, since I had major issues with forced windowboxing to 1600x900 with 2911<version<3516. When I hacked the registry in an attempt to overcome the windowboxing, I did get an effect which temporarily reduced the desktop resolution until playback stopped, which sounds remarkably similar to what Cyberlink intended to do.

Has Cyberlink been futzing around with scaling and resolution modification without telling us until now?

Maybe it's my imagination, but even with hardware acceleration enabled, VC-1 playback with 3730a seems to suck more CPU cycles than what I remember with much earlier versions. If I'm not mistaken, it could mean Cyberlink have dropped the efficiency of their algorithms or increased the quality at the expense of CPU utilisation and are maybe warning us about this indirectly?

I'm having a problem with special features on blu ray discs.

The main movie plays fine but sd quality video on the featurettes in some discs has very noticeable slowdowns even tho my cpu is at like 10 percent. The video quality seems to fluctuate as well.

Hoping someone can help with this one - searched a bit and didn't come up with anything.

Movies (HD+BD) play just fine for awhile (from files on my PC, not from the disc), then the picture freezes and the sound starts stuttering. Stop the movie, start it again, find the scene where it froze, watch for awhile (15 minutes or so), then repeat. Getting a little frusterating to say the least and I'm not sure where to look for the problem.

I don't have to reboot, or even shut down PDVD, just stop the movie and start it back up again.

Power DVD - latest version that will play from files - (can't remember the number)
MB - Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
CPU - AMD 4200+ Dual Core 2.2
4 gb RAM
Vista Enterprise + SP1 and nothing else installed on this machine-

Can some one please confirm whether or not 7.3.3730 decodes DTS HD or MA without substituting the DTS Core or downsampling?

Thanks!

For those in the know about anamorphic projection and CH setups...

When using PDVD to playback HD-DVD or Blu-Ray is there a way to send a full screen (1920x1080) image, anamorphically compressed so a horizontal expansion lens such as my Panamorph can do it's magic?

I have a BenQ W9000 and I can select 'letterbox' and use the lens, but I am not sure that I am getting the correct results: all 1920x1080 pixels being used for a 2:35:1 movie...

Thanks

Can some one please confirm whether or not 7.3.3730 decodes DTS HD or MA without substituting the DTS Core or downsampling?

Thanks!

It does not.

Can some one please confirm whether or not 7.3.3730 decodes DTS HD or MA without substituting the DTS Core or downsampling?

Thanks!

It does not.

DTS-HD MA it does not, but DTS-HD I think it does. James, one of the masterminds at Slysoft reports 7.1 from DTS-HD discs. Have you tested this, by the way, 'cause we were wondering about this over there and some of us including James I guess want to be positively sure. Though I just bought PowerDVD 8, so it'll be practically moot for me.

That isn't bull at all. analog out is unprotected and so has to be downsampled to 16/48 according to AACS. I recently talked to Auzentech about the HDMI X-tension and they confirmed that Auzen and CL are working together on the HDMI Extension compatibility with PowerDVD for non-downsampled hd audio via HDMI.

It is possible to put out DTS-HD via analog, but it is 16/48. It it is still an improvement over the DTS core output PowerDVD 7.3 does.

that's crap, AACS doesn't really require it and some other programs don't donwsample.
it's idiotic anyway, seriously who copies and distributes 24bit 96khz movie tracks?

Prompted tonight to update to patch 080102-02

List of Updates:

Supports Blu-ray Disc Profile 1.1.
Improves BD-J compatibility to enhance interactivity with some BD-ROMs.

Anybody try this?

Prompted tonight to update to patch 080102-02

List of Updates:

Supports Blu-ray Disc Profile 1.1.
Improves BD-J compatibility to enhance interactivity with some BD-ROMs.

Anybody try this?

i'm baout to give it a go.
interesting to see if it will handle Across the Universe now or not.

yeah so the new patch DOES NOT make Across the Universe work yet :eek: but it does make Spiderman 1 stutter like mad for me even if I run AnyDVDHD in the background (the version prior to this latest patch had actualy made stuff stutter slightly less than recent previous versions when not running anydvdhd and made it completel go away when running AnyDVDHD, this new patch makes those stutters worse again without anydvd and much worse, now they are still there even with AnyDVDHD running :eek::eek:).

All I see is four buttons that do nothing, no fixes for titles that I have that didn't work before and now stuff that AnyDVDHD fixed stuttering for me it no longer fixes it and stutters like mad! :mad:

bah! I shoulda backed up my partition before this.

goign to 24Hz mode helps since it gives it more time to process, but still gets stutters during some scenes whereas with previous version it did not at all.

wow they offer $5 off 7 user to upgrade to 8?!
are they serious? $5? :eek:
they never even got 7 doing everything yet (like 24 bit, and DTS-MA).

I'll have to double-check my e-mail when I get home, but I got an e-mail a couple of days ago prompting me to upgrade for (I think) $55.

across the universe still did not work. :(

What's this "new" patch build number? Profile 1.1 came one build ago, with 3730. The current one is supposed to be 3730a, and from that "patch 080102-02" it doesn't seem it's too new. Probably you are getting the prompt to update just now because it's just now that you put in a movie that requires it?

What's this "new" patch build number? Profile 1.1 came one build ago, with 3730. The current one is supposed to be 3730a, and from that "patch 080102-02" it doesn't seem it's too new. Probably you are getting the prompt to update just now because it's just now that you put in a movie that requires it?

I didn't even have any movie in the drive. I just clicked PowerDVD and it told me a critical patch had been released.

And yet the patch makes all the stuff that ANyDVDHD had prevented stutter for me now stutter and it still doesn't play Across the Universe, it shows the menus and they run but the selections are all unresponsive to keyboard or mouse control and if you hit skip or next it says prohibited!

So yeah it did not one good thing that I can see, but it made stutter way worse for me.

Gotta try to uninstall and go back to 3730. Hope that does not turn into a mess. ALso hope if they do ever get stuff like Across working that the stutter will go back to 3730 levels.

I have not upgraded since 3319a, which was the last version that can play BD and HDDVD from the harddrive - unless Cyberlink has re-introduced that feature.

As far as I know, there have not yet been any worthwhile patches (for me), but there probably will be one day. Then I am going to have to figure out some virtualization method that allows me to install two separate versions of PowerDVD, and switch between them, as needed.

Has anyone else downloaded the update for the "PDVDUltra_3730a_Patch_DVD080102-02" that I was prompted to download? Considering it is 100MB and it requires a complete uninstall of my pevious version, and considering that aside from still being stuck with the "black crush" problem on my 8600 GT, I am hesitant to change anything that is currently working perfectly...especially from Cyberlink and the reports of Version 8.

Thanks for the comments so far, but can anyone else comment? Should I stick with my current version?

I don't know the differences between 3730 and 3730a, but 3730 was a significant update, with compatibility for profile 1.1 movies such as 3:10 to Yuma, Resident Evil: Extinction and Sunshine.

Some bugs that 3319a had was improper extracting of the DTS "core" of DTS-HD MA 7.1 tracks for HD-DVD (Pan's Labyrinth being the only one movie I know of that suffered that).

Other than that, I was happily running 3319a and 3730 at the same time, until Slysoft came up with the BD+ fix, then I just updated and ran 3730a without any major problems. Haven't tried Across the Universe though, but I've read other people having trouble even with the latest patches.

Actually I already have 3730a, this is another patch on top of 3730a. When I enter PowerDVD it tells me I should install it. (You can also see if on the "upgrade" screen.) It is dated 3/20/2008

The installation notes say:
List of Updates:

* Supports Blu-ray Disc Profile 1.1.
* Improves BD-J compatibility to enhance interactivity with some BD-ROMs.


Again, I am hesitant to grab anything from Cyberlink until I hear from several more people... (For instance, like you said, I thought I already had BluRay 1.1 supported! ...So what is this for? )

Man, if PowerDVD 7.3 was planning to update this with blu-ray profile 2.0... I'd dump PowerDVD 8 in a heartbeat Switching to PowerDVD 8 was the worst upgrade I ever bought.

Actually I already have 3730a, this is another patch on top of 3730a. When I enter PowerDVD it tells me I should install it. (You can also see if on the "upgrade" screen.) It is dated 3/20/2008

The installation notes say:
List of Updates:

* Supports Blu-ray Disc Profile 1.1.
* Improves BD-J compatibility to enhance interactivity with some BD-ROMs.


Again, I am hesitant to grab anything from Cyberlink until I hear from several more people... (For instance, like you said, I thought I already had BluRay 1.1 supported! ...So what is this for? )

Well, one of two things might be happening. The first is that you got your build wrong and you aren't really running 3730a (maybe just 3730?) and the second and more probable is that your PowerDVD is just confused, and prompting you for an update that you don't need. It happens. And also, I've read from others that they were having trouble with Across the Universe even with the latest updates, but I can't confirm since I don't have the slightest interest for watching that movie. But since I've already ran out of interesting movies, I'm watching some movies which I wouldn't have watched on DVD just for the sake of some HD love. I am just finishing the Harry Potter ones (nice suprise there) and eventually I'll get my hands on Across the Universe I guess, but then it'll probably be fixed. (Or maybe it's already fixed with 8.):D

Check out this Cyberlink update page (http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/download/updates_112_ENU.html). I get my updates from there, and I got 3730a there. It is the same update, and the same date.

Another thing, how are you looking at your version build? Are you going into the "About" window and clicking on your name, or just checking out the properties of some files?

Hey thanks Andy O. I did not look carefully at the version number, as I mentioned, the file I downloaded per their instructions was "PDVDUltra_3730a_Patch_DVD080102-02", which exactly matches my version (see below: )


I just bought PowerDVD Ultra on 3/28/08, so I should have assumed as much. BTW - at first I was upset, but since I have a HD-DVD/BluRay combo drive and over a dozen HD-DVDs I just bought at $8-$10 dollars, I'm extremely happy I bought 7.3 on one of the last available days!

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/mikeyurkus/PowerDVDVersionCapture.jpg

As for BluRay 2.0...well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Hopefully a more solid application will be available when it becomes critical for me.

Thanks again! A stable PowerDVD install is tenuous enough as it is; I would hate to mess it up with a superfluous re-install.

Those of you recently discussing this new patch being available - are you running the OEM version or the retail version?

Is 3730a officially released for the OEM version yet?

It is really confusing (to me at least) when everyone keeps talking about all of these different versions without stating which "flavor" of PowerDVD Ultra they have (Retail, OEM 2-channel, OEM 8-channel, etc?). BTW, there is an 8-channel OEM version out there. I saw it on a Media Center PC at a local PC store. Might have been a Dell or HP or ?.

Hey thanks Andy O. I did not look carefully at the version number, as I mentioned, the file I downloaded per their instructions was "PDVDUltra_3730a_Patch_DVD080102-02", which exactly matches my version (see below: )


I just bought PowerDVD Ultra on 3/28/08, so I should have assumed as much. BTW - at first I was upset, but since I have a HD-DVD/BluRay combo drive and over a dozen HD-DVDs I just bought at $8-$10 dollars, I'm extremely happy I bought 7.3 on one of the last available days!

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/mikeyurkus/PowerDVDVersionCapture.jpg

As for BluRay 2.0...well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Hopefully a more solid application will be available when it becomes critical for me.

Thanks again! A stable PowerDVD install is tenuous enough as it is; I would hate to mess it up with a superfluous re-install.

I just PM'd you about something. Check your PM, it wouldn't hurt to try what's in there.

I just PM'd you about something. Check your PM, it wouldn't hurt to try what's in there.

I am pretty sure its the same as you download from the website as the dates and times are the same. The stupid thing is even if you install it from the application, you still need to reactivate the patch and it will still be in the download window when you look again.

I am pretty sure its the same as you download from the website as the dates and times are the same. The stupid thing is even if you install it from the application, you still need to reactivate the patch and it will still be in the download window when you look again.

I don't know what you're talking about, but I know it's not what you're talking about:D

I don't know what you're talking about, but I know it's not what you're talking about:D

If you download 3730a patch from cyberlink site without going through the prompt in PDVD you will get the same patch (although it has another file name).

If you use the link within PDVD then even when you install it, if you look at the update window again, the prompt to install the patch is still there. PDVD cannot even tell you that you have patched it.

EDIT: I was actually commenting on myurkus statement about the patch request and version

Actually I already have 3730a, this is another patch on top of 3730a. When I enter PowerDVD it tells me I should install it. (You can also see if on the "upgrade" screen.) It is dated 3/20/2008

The installation notes say:
List of Updates:

* Supports Blu-ray Disc Profile 1.1.
* Improves BD-J compatibility to enhance interactivity with some BD-ROMs.


Again, I am hesitant to grab anything from Cyberlink until I hear from several more people... (For instance, like you said, I thought I already had BluRay 1.1 supported! ...So what is this for? )

It's for teasing you that Across the Universe might actually work and providing you with more stutter on AVC blu rays :D.
From what I have seen I would not 'upgrade'. So far 3730 works best for me and this new a or patch on top of a 3730 is a little worse and seems to fix nothing (although I have not extensively tested interactive features or extras and so on, so maybe it does help some stuff, maybe).
I'm mad that running AnyDVDHD in the background used to remove stutter for me on high bitrate AVC blurays using new profiles and compressed lossless audio and now even running ANyDVDHD in BG they STILL stutter, so yeah, that is a lot worse (epecially since the older 3730plain had actually made them almost run stutter free without anydvdHD).

No one wants to clarify if you guys are talking about the OEM or Retail version of 3730a?...

We're running the OEM and so far haven't found anything that won't play. Also I haven't seen stuttering on a single movie yet (even before 3730a). We did have a few things that 3516b wouldn't play though, including the Pixar Shorts collection on Blue-ray and 3:10 to Yuma (quite a few movies had glitches with the menus and some would start the movie with a blank screen prior to updating to 3730a). I haven't tried Across the Universe.

I still haven't noticed the OEM version of 3730a available to download on the Cyberlink web site and this is why I'm wondering what you guys are running. It is on the FTP site though.

BTW, I don't own nor have I tried AnyDVD HD.

No one wants to clarify if you guys are talking about the OEM or Retail version of 3730a?...

We're running the OEM and so far haven't found anything that won't play. Also I haven't seen stuttering on a single movie yet (even before 3730a). We did have a few things that 3516b wouldn't play though, including the Pixar Shorts collection on Blue-ray and 3:10 to Yuma (quite a few movies had glitches with the menus and some would start the movie with a blank screen prior to updating to 3730a). I haven't tried Across the Universe.

I still haven't noticed the OEM version of 3730a available to download on the Cyberlink web site and this is why I'm wondering what you guys are running. It is on the FTP site though.

BTW, I don't own nor have I tried AnyDVD HD.

I have tried both the retail and oem 3730a. Cannot tell any difference.

Yes my pre 3730 was stutter free too, but then you cannot play all the BD disks with it either.

Edit: If you want the OEM 3730a then let PDVD look for updates from the internet and then choose the little icon at the top. It will give you a link to download it. Make sure you have your older file saved first so you can revert to a pre 3730a version.

moved.

Make sure you have your older file saved first so you can revert to a pre 3730a version.

Have you had trouble with the OEM 3730a?

So far we've watched about half a dozen movies with it and other than some minor Blue-ray menu glitches it has worked well. Playback has always been trouble and stutter free.

I did keep the previous versions, but I doubt I'll be re-installing them.

Sorry, I was away...this is (or should be) the retail version. I have not noticed much difference between OEM or retail. (For instance, why does my screenshot specify "OEM/Retail" ...lol thanks for the info Cyberlink!) I posted this earlier, but I feared that even with cleaning out my registry etc that the retail version still did not "take."

All responses and research seem to point to not worrying. But boy, so much for my software-engineering-self for having a conscience! (lol kidding...)

Actually I have had little problems with the software. Nothing studders and every mode I have thrown at it looks awesome.

I think many of the performance/studdering issues are on peoples' hardware. Since we are not at full FFDShow-like software configuration, it relies (or should rely) on hardware decoding.

For me, aside from the black and a few timing options, it works GREAT (CPU Utilization ~4%) with Purevideo HD for every all BluRay and HD-DVDs I have thrown at it.

[edit: I went on a misplaced "Purevideo HD compatibility rant later in this thread (with references) so I am removing it here.]

There are only two ways (that I know of) to tell: Look at your VideoCard box for a "PureVideo HD" label. And when playing bluRay, your cpu should be trickling (mine runs at 3-5%)
I believe all G92-based cards support Purevideo HD. So those would include the 8600, the 8800GT and the 8800GTS 512 MB.

it is true though that 3370 will not play ripped hd/bd/sd files.? that means EVERYTHING has to be converted to iso. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! isnt it possible to mount a folder as a disc? isnt there a utility that will do this?

should i post this question as a new thread?

Does anyone here know why my Video.TS folders will not play with Power DVD 7.3? It plays the the disc fine, but when I open the Video.TS Folder it goes to black with some of the sound from the beginning part is there something I am not doing? I am using MyMovies to copy them any ideas?

I have a Sapphire 2600XT and an e6750 conroe 2.66ghz??

Thanks so much.

When I play AvP2 BD I can hear severe audio stutters every 1-2 minutes. This is with PowerDVD 7.3 and 8 Ultra. WinDVD 9+ plays the disc flawlessly.

Anybody has the same issue?

I get the same thing happen with AvP2 as well in 8 and build 3730a but not with build 3319a. I also have the problem of the mouse flashing for a split second every now and then. I have disabled the osd but still no joy. I have now gone back to 3319a as the mouse thing is driving me mad.
Any ideas?

Thanks

Hey Folks,

I had posted a question to the Cyberlink Tech Support on an issue that I had encounted with the SPDIF - DTS Mixing Option ( a previous known issue to this forum thread of not saving..once selected and upon next session returning to 2 speaker...anyway)..After like a week reply they replied as follows:

"Thank you for contacting CyberLink Online Support.
We understand your concern related with PoweDVD Ultra software.
In response to your concern, we regret to inform you that the issue mentioned by you, has been found to be because of the bug of PowerDVD Ultra.
We have escalated this issue to R & D Department and it is expected that the new PowerDVD 8 Ultra version would be free from this issue. However, the R & D Department is testing this issue with the new PowerDVD 8 Ultra version.
Therefore, you may need to wait for few days until they come out with a response to this issue.
We deeply regret the inconvenience caused to you so far.
For an immediate response, please get back to us on the following mentioned link: index.jsp
Please feel free to contact us back for any further clarification or for any assistance related to CyberLink Products.

Thank You and Best Regards "

Of course I was PO'd and miff'd :mad: b/c I didn't want to upgrade to Ultra 8 and deal with no HD DVD etc. etc.. so I replied back as follows:

"Asked 2008/04/08 17:46 Response to reply on Response CS000506687
Your response indicates a fix for PowerDVD Ultra 8.. What about patch
fixes for users on 7.3? You're obviously not going to force your paying customers to pay for another upgrade are you? As I understand it.... PowerDVD Ultra 8 upgrade from 7.3 is NOT free.. So you just stop supporting
someone who may have recently purchased your 7.3 within the last 3 months? I hope not!!!! Please advise on 7.3 support for my issue. "

After another week, Cyberlink interstingly replied back with this reply that I that each of you here may be intersted to hear....

"vcved Reply 2008/04/14 16:14

Thank you for contacting CyberLink Online Support.
We understand your concern related with PowerDVD Ultra software.
In response to your concern, please note that we have not stopped the support for PowerDVD 7.3 versions and we are going to release another upgrade patch for the same on 2008/04/30.
Therefore, we request you to wait till 2008/04/30 and then get back to us for the latest upgrade patch to resolve the issues with PowerDVD 7.3.
For an immediate response, please get back to us on the following mentioned link: index.jsp

Please feel free to contact us back for any further clarification or for any assistance related to CyberLink Products.

Thank You and Best Regards "

Sorry for the long post but...two important things from this.. One is that is does NOT seem that Cyberlink has discontinued updating and giving patches for Ultra 7.3, at least for one more:confused: AND ....that they are continuing to fix bugs for 7.3 v/s they're previous post I shared with you indicating all fixes would be for Ultra 8..

Feedback??

With both 7.3 and 8.0 installed, I was able to get full HD Audio in 7.3 by copying the "=CLSID_HDTR_CLAUD" line from the 8.0 CLDShowX.ini to the 7.3 ini (replace or comment the existing one). You can use the same technique to use all of the 8.0 filters in 7.3 but make sure you skip the HDDVDNav entry.

Saw IV played with full 7.1 DTS MA (via analog out).

I believe all G92-based cards support Purevideo HD. So those would include the 8600, the 8800GT and the 8800GTS 512 MB.

someone said the 8800 GTS 640MB skips out on some of the AVC stuff.
sadly that's the one I have.
I do play games though so I can't use any old $60 card.

For me, aside from the black and a few timing options, it works GREAT with Purevideo HD. To everyone with an NVidia card: even a fancy 8800GTS, in many cases this is your problem! You would not believe how difficult the VideoCard process was (I even RMA's a mistake after hours of research!) Until the newest generation 9xxx cards, "PureVideo HD" only existed in a handful of cards on the market (perhaps 5%,) and it had little to do with expense (Mine is a Leadtek 8600 GT with HDMI.)

(Before you dismiss my claim, remember, "PureVideo" is a completely different thing; in addition, even Newegg and TigerDirect have it confused on their sites and outright have it wrong!)

There are only two ways (that I know of) to tell: Look at your VideoCard box for a "PureVideo HD" label. And when playing bluRay, your cpu should be trickling (mine runs at 3-5%)

Sorry for the tangent (that I have made before ;) but I feel that people should know that $60 will solve a problem that a majority of users did not even know they had!

Like someone said before, Purevideo HD comes with all nVidia cards that started with the 8500/8600 generation. I think 8400 cards also have it. The mess is with the 8800 cards. The way they named them is pretty stupid. For instance, the 8800GTS with 320/640MB (no Purevideo HD) is less powerful than the newer 8800GT (which does have PVHD). Then the new 8800GTS with 512 MB (with PVHD) is based on the same chip as the GT, and thus is more powerful.

Also, PVHD only fully decode H.264 video, so with VC-1 HD discs your CPU might be running higher, but not too high anyway. But even with H.264, in my experience many blurays are bloated with "features" and stuff, so most of my blurays run the CPU much higher than 20%. Case in point: Resident Evil: Extinction.

With both 7.3 and 8.0 installed, I was able to get full HD Audio in 7.3 by copying the "=CLSID_HDTR_CLAUD" line from the 8.0 CLDShowX.ini to the 7.3 ini (replace or comment the existing one). You can use the same technique to use all of the 8.0 filters in 7.3 but make sure you skip the HDDVDNav entry.

Saw IV played with full 7.1 DTS MA (via analog out).
Interesting. I tried this with TrueHD content, but got no sound. I only have SPDIF though, to an Onkyo 605, so that was probably expected. When/if ATI decides to support THD out through HDMI, perhaps it will work.

I'm using analog out so that may make a difference.

Probably, the Onkyo does not have 6-ch direct input. My old receiver does, maybe I will give that a try. Thanks.

Also, PVHD only fully decode H.264 video, so with VC-1 HD discs your CPU might be running higher, but not too high anyway. But even with H.264, in my experience many blurays are bloated with "features" and stuff, so most of my blurays run the CPU much higher than 20%. Case in point: Resident Evil: Extinction.

I suspect that PDVD's downsampling of HD audio is also responsible for higher CPU utilization. My rip of Across the Universe, with audio converted to FLAC and played in Zoom Player with the Cyberlink H.264 decoder, uses much less CPU than any of my other Blu-Rays when played in PDVD.

I believe all G92-based cards support Purevideo HD. So those would include the 8600, the 8800GT and the 8800GTS 512 MB.

(Edit: Edited the heck out of this as it's somewhat off-topic. See my response a few posts down for more if you care.)

However, I will sum up: I have had three 8600 GT cards, and only one of them had the correct version of "PureVideo HD" to allow for flawless BlueRay/HD playback with 4% CPU usage instead of the CPU being pinned.

A great source of card info:
http://www.gpureview.com/geforce-8600-gt-card-513.html#

A card without PureVideo HD (even though it was labelled as such on the above site:)
http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=256-P2-N751-AR

One with it:
http://www.leadtek.com/usa/3d_graphic/overview.asp?lineid=1&pronameid=363

Basically, if you bought an NVidia card a while ago, and in PowerDVD for HD material you have "Hardware Acc enabled (PureVideo)," and your CPU is running over 20%, you probably do NOT have PureVideo HD....no matter what any site tells you (unless you physically see the sticker on the box.)

If some 8600ers would not have Purevideo HD there would be two different chips, cause Purevideo HD is in the chip. What is true is, that many 8600GT are not HDCP compliant.

My Zotac 8800GT runs AVC-Blurays at approx. 20 % CPU on my AMD X2 5000+. There is no sticker on my box, but a huge advertisement of Purevideo HD on the back.


Also see this file:
http://www.nvidia.de/docs/CP/11086/PureVideo_Product_Comparison.pdf

Notice that there were some Purevideo driver issues with 8600GT cards especially in WinXP but Vista too. I think these have been fixed in the latest drivers.

I apologize, I was in a rush and did not mean to go off-tangent [again!] I thought my earlier post was on a different thread (as it should be.)

[edit for those that read the board as religiously as I do...]

Rathbone, I have seen that chart; I believe it to be true ...now.

(Edit: for G92 (i.e. "new") cards, you are definitely correct: http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/g92-part1.html )

This is for people that bought their cards before 2008....

From my research, it seems they finally integrated the functionality into the core chipset. However, this was not the case just a few months ago. For product-branding differentiation for the same essential chipset, all cards are created with different optional features (e.g. all GeForce 8600 GT cards are by no means equal.) (I think of it like American Oil/Fuel industry and companies like Shell trying to differentiate their allotment from the American universal oil pipeline with additives and branding.) Thus NVidia created the "logo system" to clearly allow a maker to display their added/optional functionality.

However, it seems that it is now integrated into the core chipset, which makes the "logo" implicit.

But there is an added confusion,: ...there are different "PureVideo HD" VERSIONS! This may be what we are talking about! (See the Wikipedia link below...)

Instead of my rants, here are some links for those who care:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/purevideo_hd_faq.html (Notice the compatibility-link is dead! This used to show a small subset of compatible cards!)
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=328&type=expert (This is purposely a little old, as my comments are toward people with oldr cards. And it explains the logo process and evolution/availability.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PureVideo#PureVideo_HD

The more I think about it, the more I do not mind posting all of this even if it is slightly off-tangent. I am considering taking this card and throwing it into my 4-year-old box since for <$100 this thing does all the work. (If you understood my post[s] you would know that I am not advocating a specific brand, as that in itself is irrelevent...) And I know I am not the only one hungry for any information that may make my their HTPC significantly better.

I apologize, I was in a rush and did not mean to go off-tangent [again!] I thought my earlier post was on a different thread (as it should be.)

I am currently commuting home but I will edit it down but pullup my research links if anyone cares. Basically NVidia makes the chipsets and different companies put their branding on it. From my research, the "HD" processing was a secondary chipset that was arbitrarily included (like any other features that follow the "label" standard on the physical box....Heck PowerDvD does the exact same thing on their silly intro screen!)

To add further confusion there are even different versions! For instance I have full VC-1 hrdware acc in PowerDvd on my $80 card...

Well I'm almost home; I will consolidate my tangents this evening, but I hope this helps others as on the third try PowerDvd works magnificently with it. I almost regret buying the quad-CPU when the cheap card is doing most of the work!

However, only recently has this chipset become commonplace.. NVidia used to have a [small] discrete list of comparable cards on their own site a couple months ago. I am assuming that this is currently standard, but this is not the place for this subtopic, except my desire to tell anyone with PowerDvd/Divx acceleration problems that $80 or so may solve an issue they did not know they had.

Very interesting... I would like to find out more about this. You have link to nVidia's list of cards that support PureVideo HD?

Very interesting... I would like to find out more about this. You have link to nVidia's list of cards that support PureVideo HD?

LOL vddobrev...I just deleted half of that post thinking I was going too far off-topic. Well thank you. My "new" version of the post (and the one a few posts behind) contain a few links.

However, interestingly enough, the link from the NVidia site is now dead. This leads me to believe that it is now completely standard and part of the core chipset.

But this is and was not the case with older cards. It is unfortunate that there is no way to see if "PureVideo HD" (and what version!) is running underneath PowerDVD (aside from CPU usage...)

http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_hd.html

Very interesting... I would like to find out more about this. You have link to nVidia's list of cards that support PureVideo HD?

there were times I thought my 7900gs ran better than the 8600gts. Lately 50% for hddvd and 5-25% for BD. It works and tired of guessing if it's PV enabled or not.

Well, last year we were running the PowerDVD versions that let you disable HW acceleration for these cards. While running those, and HD-DVDs (I didn't have blu-ray at the time), there was a very significant difference between HW accelerated and non-HW accelerated. My processor was a Pentium Dual-Core E2160 OC'd at 2.25GHz, so not too weak, not too powerful.

I tried the ATI HD2400 and HD2600, and they both accelerated greatly VC-1 and H.264, as per the specifications. Then I tried my 8600GTS (MSI Diamond Plus HDMI) and it worked the same, but only for H.264 (also as per the specs). The CPU usage was very low, maybe less than 10%. I think 4% is way too low (if you're running Vista I guess). There is always some background process using 1 or 2%.

In any case, many movies are still very low, but what I was saying is that some blurays are bloated as hell and do consume a lot of CPU power. I'm sure that ATI people are also having trouble with discs like RE:E with very high CPU usage.

Myurkus, check in your Wikipedia link, under "Naming Confusions". The Purevideo HD that's in these cards (as far as I know, all of the 8400, 8500 and 8600 cards) is the one that's called there "Purevideo 2". It only fully decodes H.264. The CPU usage we're seeing with some blurays is due to bloat from features, not from the inability of these cards to decode. The CPU varies greatly with different discs.

Also, I don't think anybody else cares if we discuss this here, it's of all our interest I guess how PowerDVD works with these cards.

Do you think NVIDIA video cards with PureVideo HD work better than ATI video cards like 3850/3870? In other words, does PureVideo HD video cards result less CPU usage than ATI video cards like RE:E for example?

Peter

Do you think NVIDIA video cards with PureVideo HD work better than ATI video cards like 3850/3870? In other words, does PureVideo HD video cards result less CPU usage than ATI video cards like RE:E for example?

PeterNo. I had issues getting HA working on my 2400 Pro with PDVD 8. Cyberlink support was less than helpful, telling me that it was a driver issue. Funny, since HA worked perfectly with 7.3 on the same system. I finally got it somewhat working by using the ATI tweaks but in doing so it caused 7.3 and TMT to stutter. I just switched out my 2400 Pro for a 9600GT 2 days ago and it works with 8, 7.3 and TMT but with the same CPU usage that I got on 7.3 and TMT with the 2400 Pro. You would think that the 9600GT would perform MUCH better.

Another downside is that I cannot get custom timings/resolutions working with the Nvidia drivers.

BTW: RE3 was one of the first movies I tested.

Picture quality is relatively the same. CPU performance roughly the same except for VC1 blu-ray movies take up a bit more CPU resources on an Nvidia card. I would only worry about CPU usage if you have a relatively slow computer.

Do you think NVIDIA video cards with PureVideo HD work better than ATI video cards like 3850/3870? In other words, does PureVideo HD video cards result less CPU usage than ATI video cards like RE:E for example?

Peter

No. I had issues getting HA working on my 2400 Pro with PDVD 8. Cyberlink support was less than helpful, telling me that it was a driver issue. Funny, since HA worked perfectly with 7.3 on the same system. I finally got it somewhat working by using the ATI tweaks but in doing so it caused 7.3 and TMT to stutter. I just switched out my 2400 Pro for a 9600GT 2 days ago and it works with 8, 7.3 and TMT but with the same CPU usage that I got on 7.3 and TMT with the 2400 Pro. You would think that the 9600GT would perform MUCH better.

Another downside is that I cannot get custom timings/resolutions working with the Nvidia drivers.

BTW: RE3 was one of the first movies I tested.

They offload about the same amount from the CPU, but it doesn't mean they work as hard themselves. The offloading for a 9600GT for H.264 would be much easier for it than for a 2400 pro. If you can read your GPU usage and temperature changes, that'll probably show it.

They offload about the same amount from the CPU, but it doesn't mean they work as hard themselves. The offloading for a 9600GT for H.264 would be much easier for it than for a 2400 pro. If you can read your GPU usage and temperature changes, that'll probably show it.Good point, I didn't think of that.

I have an AGP 3850 graphics card and it works very well with socket 478 P4 3 GHz 1 MB L2 cache and 2 GB DDR 400 (2-3-2-5) RAM. I have seen many Blu-ray movies and only one movie stuttered which is RE:E. If you saw my earlier post that my system was running DDR 266 when it should have been 400 and I fixed it and the stuttering was further reduced. I believe there is more bottleneck in RAM speed than CPU clock.

Anyway I was thinking about upgrading my HTPC using PCIe graphics card and of course new motherboard in the near future. I have not decided which GPU to get: ATI or NVIDIA. I am very impressed with ATI 3850. I will wait till future Blu-ray movies start to cause problems with my current HTPC before upgrading. I must have the wimpiest HTPC system and it works well. Anybody else have a wimpier HTPC than mine and doesn't stutter except for RE:E?

Peter

http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_hd.htmlWasn't he asking for this: http://www.nvidia.com/docs/CP/11036/PureVideo_Product_Comparison.pdf

check in your Wikipedia link, under "Naming Confusions". The Purevideo HD that's in these cards (as far as I know, all of the 8400, 8500 and 8600 cards) is the one that's called there "Purevideo 2". It only fully decodes H.264. The CPU usage we're seeing with some blurays is due to bloat from features, not from the inability of these cards to decode. The CPU varies greatly with different discs.

LOL - look back at my post, I specifically mention that too. :) I went and did a bit of research. I am looking at 8600 GT models (not GTS) and I found out that some of the cards I was looking at were in fact older. But by version G84 it appears to be fine. However, XP or 64-bit (not to mention DHCP) support seems to be shaky.

It upsets me that there is no way to tell exactly what is happening as there are too many variables such as like "bloatware," CPU, memoy, Audio etc etc..

I do not want to exaggerate my claims so here are some examples with it working (8600 GT G84, Intel Q6600 Quad Processor, Vistax86, driver 174.74) ...if it is much higher then something is wrong...

This is running VC-1 ("Planet Earth"):

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/mikeyurkus/VC1Usage.jpg



This is running AVG ("The Day After Tomorrow"):

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/mikeyurkus/AVCCapture.jpg


Well I hope this helps people with older computers, as hardware acc. is still way too much of a "black box." At least it appears that PureVideo HD IS now common on all new chipsets.

(BTW - after all of this, for me my biggest problem is still the "black crush" problem. Right now I have my TV's colorspace set to 0-255, but that makes whites too high. I really hope they fix this issue soon!)

LOL - look back at my post, I specifically mention that too. :) I went and did a bit of research. I am looking at 8600 GT models (not GTS) and I found out that some of the cards I was looking at were in fact older. But by version G84 it appears to be fine. However, XP or 64-bit (not to mention DHCP) support seems to be shaky.
I didn't mean that to be my point actually, my point was that the Wiki entry says that all 8400, 8500 and 8600 series have the Purevideo 2 version of Purevideo HD, and I was saying the difference in CPU usage you saw could be because of other factors. Now that you mention XP it's even more evident. nVidia was notorious for their bad XP drivers if I remember correctly, at least last year, and if I remember correctly they did not enable acceleration for XP until much later in the game. But it was a driver issue, not a GPU one. In Vista, I never had much trouble with a 8500GT and a 8600GTS.

As far as I know, all 8600 cards are based around the G84 GPU. The only cards whose names they messed up are the 8800GTS, which for the 640/320MB versions use the G80 core, and for the 512MB versions use the newer and better G92, and besides from the name, they're pretty different. The 8800 GT's name is also misleading because as per nVidia's conventions they implied less power than the 8800GTS, but they were better (at the time), and even cheaper.

It upsets me that there is no way to tell exactly what is happening as there are too many variables such as like "bloatware," CPU, memoy, Audio etc etc..

I do not want to exaggerate my claims so here are some examples with it working (8600 GT G84, Intel Q6600 Quad Processor, Vistax86, driver 174.74) ...if it is much higher then something is wrong...

This is running VC-1 ("Planet Earth"):

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/mikeyurkus/VC1Usage.jpg



This is running AVG ("The Day After Tomorrow"):

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/mikeyurkus/AVCCapture.jpg


Well I hope this helps people with older computers, as hardware acc. is still way too much of a "black box." At least it appears that PureVideo HD IS now common on all new chipsets.

(BTW - after all of this, for me my biggest problem is still the "black crush" problem. Right now I have my TV's colorspace set to 0-255, but that makes whites too high. I really hope they fix this issue soon!)

But you're using a fracking quad-core! By the way, with some (most? I can't remember) HD-DVD's I have seen less or equal CPU usage from my measly Pentium Dual-Core 2160 at 1.5GHz (because EIST was enabled, and it reduces the frequency to 6x250 from the max 9x250 I overclocked it to, when CPU usage is low). With blu-rays I see higher usage overall with HW accelerated cards.

Your Q6600 might also be running at 6x multiplier if you have EIST enabled, but still, the majority of people I think are running dual-cores and will probably see higher CPU usage anyway especially if EIST is enabled and CPU usage is still not high enough to kick in the higher frequency.

But you're using a fracking quad-core!

That was part of the reason I went through the trouble of screenshotting and upping those images. While I want people to be sure they are running PureVideo HD, it dawned on me that many may be running it perfectly and second-guessing themselves after my post. (Not to mention that the more I think about it, the more I realize that we could go on for weeks thinking about other possible factors leading to those results. ...I wish there was a specific "yes your PureVideo HD monitor version[x] is running properly!" monitoring value. (I have even gone as far as trying Rivatuner monitors, Everest, etc...it seems nothing reports the proper usage of the thing.))

In all, you are not being confrontational and I appreciate it, but regardless I concede that I believe you are correct.

My main point for starting all of this is the curiosity of why only my third shot at an 8600 GT (and the only one with the sticker on the box) actually properly ran Purevideo HD and did not peg even my quad processor and studder frames in PowerDVD. (This is on my machine with all of the other variables as controlled as possible.)

The final card that "worked" was a "Winfast PX8600 GT" which is slightly different. Perhaps there is another variable in action that I am not aware of? Regardless, the important part is that it is working flawlessly (aside from the blacks issue.) I suppose that is all that really matters.

Wow, Vista really gobble up so much RAM: 1.5 GB!!!!!! In my Winodws MCE 2005 and while playing Blu-ray movie, I don't think it uses more than 500 MB. Mine shows a fraction of the total of 2 GB.

Peter

Wow, Vista really gobble up so much RAM: 1.5 GB!!!!!! In my Winodws MCE 2005 and while playing Blu-ray movie, I don't think it uses more than 500 MB. Mine shows a fraction of the total of 2 GB.

Peter

Yeah, it consumes more RAM, but a fair bit of it is taken by PowerDVD (I reckon more than 300MB). With DDR2 prices falling, and 2GB being more than enough for 95% of systems out there, I don't think it's that much of a deal, and I think provided you have enough RAM, Vista does run faster.

That said, I have been able to run a well-protected (AV/antispyware, Firewall) Vista Home Premium x86 installation at under 500MB RAM usage (at startup), and an XP Home one at less than 400 (more near the 300 mark I think). I always have to disable Indexer and UAC, Windows Firewall, Defender, and any other unneeded processes (NOD32 and Comodo Firewall do it better). Vista has more of those, and you can slim it down if you disable them for a near-XP RAM experience.

Wow, Vista really gobble up so much RAM: 1.5 GB!!!!!! In my Winodws MCE 2005 and while playing Blu-ray movie, I don't think it uses more than 500 MB. Mine shows a fraction of the total of 2 GB.

Peter

The more RAM you have, the more Vista will use. No sense in having a bunch of RAM if the operating system won't use it.

On my laptop with 1 GB of RAM, Vista uses around 400 MB when I'm not doing anything, but on my desktop with 2 GB of RAM Vista idles at around 600 MB. About the same number of services are running on both.

Ha....yeah I started with 2GB and moved to 4GB of ram (even though I rarely use the x64 version of Vista on my dual-boot computer. (Notice that you do not get the full 4GB in any x86 system...)

Anyway, I think the NVidia "PureVideo" gods are making me pay for this thread...Can anyone please help with a different problem?

I decided I did not like PowerDVD's normal-DVD resolution. I already had the regular PureVideo Decoder (another confusing point...this is the one you pay for) and ZoomPlayer.

Thus I decided to reinstall both tonight. I had to manually re-map the old PowerDVD filters because Cyberlink liked taking over, but it plays fine in ZoomPlayer now (and looks MUCH better!) However, something must be corrupted because now when I hit "Advanced" under the "Video" settings in PowerDVD....it freezes up in a loop...almost pegging my CPU!

It seems I'm not alone:


I've just installed Sonic Cineplayer 4.3 to test out evo file playback, but PowerDVD 7.3.2911 now crashes if the advanced video configuration button is activated.

The crash details indicate a problem with ffdshow.dll; have uninstalled ffdshow and now the crash details indicate a problem with cinemaster.dll

This lack of interoperability is becoming a nightmare, but it has shown me that evo file playback without PowerDVD is not just possible, but has distinct advantages.


But oddly enough, PowerDVD still plays all formats and even lets me into that screen while a disc is playing. However, I cannot get to that screen in a stopped state. (Which allows full interlace customizations.)

Does anyone have any idea why this is? I checked filmerit and everything looks good, I played with the XP Defaulters, did every internet search I could think of, and even poked around the registry looking for the hardware interlace-guids. ...Nothing! I've also tried uninstallig/re-installing PureVideo a few times.

Does anyone have any ideas why PowerDvd is doing this? I am so close to my perfect system...I can't believe this is the only thing holding me back!!!

Thanks much in advance!
----------------
Update: I found out what it is! (But I still don't exactly know why.) I looked in ProcessExplorer and saw that PowerDVD was trying to hit the registry. So I gave it Administrator Privilages (UAC in Vista :| ) and sure enough it worked! (And it worked with normal permissions from then on...)

But of course that implied that it was making a registry change. Sure enough, I went back to ZoomPlayer and the NVidia Audio Decoder was suddenly not registered! ({6C0BDF86-C36A-4D83-8BDB-312D2EAF409E}) ....So I re-registered the thing and it worked again. However, we were back at square one with PowerDvd freezing until you let it unregister the thing with admin rights. It seems that Cyberlink really has it in for this poor Audio Decoder. Don't they know there are enough hex-value merits for all the nice decoders to get along?

...Wow, I really need to get to bed. Obviously this is not fully solved. I want to find out why they are fighting over this etc. But I will say that regular DVDs look a TON better.... I almost forgot what I was missing!

I'm running Vista Media Center on a Gigabyte MA78G with a Phenom 9500. I've installed the latest haalisplitter, ffdshow tryouts by xxl and powerdvd8, where I enabled hardware acceleration. ffdshow has h.264, mpeg2 and mpeg1 disabled. With Vista MC Decoder Utility I selected PDVD for video decoding.

When I want to play HD-mkv's from within Vista Media Center I get a warning after a couple of seconds saying that the video can't be played because it can't find the required codecs.

If I enable all filters in ffdshow and thus bypass PDVD the video and audio stutters all over the place.

Anyone?

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.

I was having this issue tonight watching Aliens vs Predator: Requiem Blu-ray tonight. Played the DTS MA track (the core DTS track anyway) over SPDIF. Almost seemed to be related to chapter changes, though it occasionally happened at other points as well. The DTS light on my receiver never turned off. PDVD build 3730

With both 7.3 and 8.0 installed, I was able to get full HD Audio in 7.3 by copying the "=CLSID_HDTR_CLAUD" line from the 8.0 CLDShowX.ini to the 7.3 ini (replace or comment the existing one). You can use the same technique to use all of the 8.0 filters in 7.3 but make sure you skip the HDDVDNav entry.
I installed PDVD 3730a update and then opened the CLDShowX.ini to copy the CLAUD entry from PDVD 8, but I found the HDDVDNav entry was already commented out.

This seems very peculiar, because the 3730a CLDShowX.ini doesn't have any active HDDVDNav entry, yet is still working for HD DVD navigation.

I installed PDVD 3730a update and then opened the CLDShowX.ini to copy the CLAUD entry from PDVD 8, but I found the HDDVDNav entry was already commented out.

This seems very peculiar, because the 3730a CLDShowX.ini doesn't have any active HDDVDNav entry, yet is still working for HD DVD navigation.The 7.3 ini has the HDDVDNav commented by default. It will auto load the Nav filter in this case. If you comment out the HDDVDNav line in the PDVD8 ini, you can then copy the whole file to the 7.3 folder. You will then be using all the version 8 decoders in 7.3 but still have HDDVD navigation. Doing this will not break anything in version 8.

Edit: I should say that 3730a has it commented by default. Previous versions may not.

Ok, I just installed my LG multi HD/BD drive in my HTPC and everything is working fine with the OEM version of PowerDVD 7.3. However, upon install, it did say that a patch was required. So, I downloaded the patch(all 70mbs, thinking it might be upgrading to 8.0). But, alas it was not. However, I at least have both HD and BD playback support for the drive. Now, according to this thread and an onscreen message I was getting from PDVD, playback is only 2.1. Correct? And if I want Dolby Digital, or DTS, I will need to upgrade to 8.0 Ultra. Is that a true statement? Ok, so if I upgrade to 8.0 Ultra, will it still support HD discs? I understand that HD playback support was dropped in version 8.0(Seems silly to drop a format that was already included, when a large base of your users may require it. :confused:)

So, what's the deal? Will v8.0 of PDVD support HD playback or not. Also, if I using S/PDIF out on my Gigabyte MA78GM mobo am I not getting 5.1 decoding anyway? Comments?

Will v8.0 of PDVD support HD playback Comments?

Only if you install the HD-DVD patch. (floating somewhere around the internet)

Ok, I just installed my LG multi HD/BD drive in my HTPC and everything is working fine with the OEM version of PowerDVD 7.3. However, upon install, it did say that a patch was required. So, I downloaded the patch(all 70mbs, thinking it might be upgrading to 8.0). But, alas it was not. However, I at least have both HD and BD playback support for the drive. Now, according to this thread and an onscreen message I was getting from PDVD, playback is only 2.1. Correct? And if I want Dolby Digital, or DTS, I will need to upgrade to 8.0 Ultra. Is that a true statement? Ok, so if I upgrade to 8.0 Ultra, will it still support HD discs? I understand that HD playback support was dropped in version 8.0(Seems silly to drop a format that was already included, when a large base of your users may require it. :confused:)

So, what's the deal? Will v8.0 of PDVD support HD playback or not. Also, if I using S/PDIF out on my Gigabyte MA78GM mobo am I not getting 5.1 decoding anyway? Comments?

the update patch should be 3730a the latest/last before V8. You will not get V8 free. It costs $60 but in AnyDVD HD forum you will able to find a $10 discount code and it will cost you $50. It worth to me the sound a lot better!

I'm not sure what do you mean by 2.1...

You don't need V8 for DTS and DD. Any V7 will have that. I use SPDIF optical for a year on V7 and without any problem. Btw, the most stable and best versions are 3319a, which allow you to playback from HDD, and 3730a without HDD playback. But if you just have join this wagon then you will not able to get 3319a since CL won't give out that any longer.

Last, yes, you won't get HD-DVD playback in current V8. I heard when they first introduced it has HD-DVD plaback but the one I downloaded last week, you need to hack it in order to have HD-DVD playback. It is easy and you will complete the process and able to play HD-DVD in 2 mins or less.

Hope answer all your questions. If not, let me know.

Ok, I just installed my LG multi HD/BD drive in my HTPC and everything is working fine with the OEM version of PowerDVD 7.3. However, upon install, it did say that a patch was required. So, I downloaded the patch(all 70mbs, thinking it might be upgrading to 8.0). But, alas it was not. However, I at least have both HD and BD playback support for the drive. Now, according to this thread and an onscreen message I was getting from PDVD, playback is only 2.1. Correct? And if I want Dolby Digital, or DTS, I will need to upgrade to 8.0 Ultra. Is that a true statement? Ok, so if I upgrade to 8.0 Ultra, will it still support HD discs? I understand that HD playback support was dropped in version 8.0(Seems silly to drop a format that was already included, when a large base of your users may require it. :confused:)

So, what's the deal? Will v8.0 of PDVD support HD playback or not. Also, if I using S/PDIF out on my Gigabyte MA78GM mobo am I not getting 5.1 decoding anyway? Comments?

The OEM version of PowerDVD Ultra that ships with the LG drive only includes decoders that support 2-channel audio.

Although this is a little confusing, if the DVD, HD-DVD, or Blue-ray includes DTS or DD5.1 and you have an amplifier or speakers hooked up using SPDIF and that amplifier or speakers supports decoding of DTS or DD5.1, then since it doesn't need to "decode it", then the OEM version of PowerDVD can simply pass the digital DTS/DD5.1 stream out the SPDIF port without any decoding. This gives you high quality 5.1 audio with only the OEM version of PowerDVD Ultra.

If you pay Cyberlink for an upgrade to the "retail version" you will now get multi-channel audio decoding. This means that it can decode all of the regular audio "types" into PCM and your sound card can produce multi-channel audio without an amplifier or speakers that support DD5.1/DTS.

Note that to get high quality multi-channel audio out of your sound card, you do require a high end sound card (not just the motherboard audio output). SPDIF on the other hand always produces high quality audio, even with a cheap (or no) card since everything is done in digital. With SPDIF all of the decoding is done in the amplifier, so if you have a decent amp (and speakers), you'll have decent sound.

One issue right now is if you pay for the upgrade to the latest retail PowerDVD Ultra, you'll get PowerDVD Ultra v8. v8 does not support HD-DVD currently without an unsupported hack (installing portions of a beta v8 that have leaked onto the web).

I'm not sure if retail version of PowerDVD Ultra v7 is still available for purchase or not. Personally I prefer version 7.3 at the moment because it supports HD-DVD and I don't want more "junk" cluttering up my system. If v8 supported HD-DVD out of the box I might be more interested (especially if it integrated with Media Center better than v7 - it doesn't do that either...).

Ok, I just installed my LG multi HD/BD drive in my HTPC and everything is working fine with the OEM version of PowerDVD 7.3. However, upon install, it did say that a patch was required. So, I downloaded the patch(all 70mbs, thinking it might be upgrading to 8.0). But, alas it was not. However, I at least have both HD and BD playback support for the drive. Now, according to this thread and an onscreen message I was getting from PDVD, playback is only 2.1. Correct?

Correct. The bundled OEM version included with most DVD-roms and confirmed with the LG GGC H20L Super Multi Blue only gives you 2 channel audio.


And if I want Dolby Digital, or DTS, I will need to upgrade to 8.0 Ultra. Is that a true statement?
Partially correct. You may still be able to find the 7.3 ULTRA retail version elsewhere....ebay maybe.


Ok, so if I upgrade to 8.0 Ultra, will it still support HD discs? I understand that HD playback support was dropped in version 8.0(Seems silly to drop a format that was already included, when a large base of your users may require it. :confused:) So, what's the deal? Will v8.0 of PDVD support HD playback or not.


The short answer is no. PDVD 8 does not officially support HD playback....but hacking information can be found that will enable HD playback in 8.0. Some people choose instead to run multiple versions to retain HD playback.


Also, if I using S/PDIF out on my Gigabyte MA78GM mobo am I not getting 5.1 decoding anyway? Comments?
2 channel audio, possibly pro-logic, is what you get using the OEM version of PowerDVD....not DD 5.1.

Later, Conrad

I think your cause of the your problem is the same as in this thread from the TheaterTek forum as TheaterTek uses the Purevideo codec: http://www.theatertek.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=10309




Ha....yeah I started with 2GB and moved to 4GB of ram (even though I rarely use the x64 version of Vista on my dual-boot computer. (Notice that you do not get the full 4GB in any x86 system...)

Anyway, I think the NVidia "PureVideo" gods are making me pay for this thread...Can anyone please help with a different problem?

I decided I did not like PowerDVD's normal-DVD resolution. I already had the regular PureVideo Decoder (another confusing point...this is the one you pay for) and ZoomPlayer.

Thus I decided to reinstall both tonight. I had to manually re-map the old PowerDVD filters because Cyberlink liked taking over, but it plays fine in ZoomPlayer now (and looks MUCH better!) However, something must be corrupted because now when I hit "Advanced" under the "Video" settings in PowerDVD....it freezes up in a loop...almost pegging my CPU!

It seems I'm not alone:





But oddly enough, PowerDVD still plays all formats and even lets me into that screen while a disc is playing. However, I cannot get to that screen in a stopped state. (Which allows full interlace customizations.)

Does anyone have any idea why this is? I checked filmerit and everything looks good, I played with the XP Defaulters, did every internet search I could think of, and even poked around the registry looking for the hardware interlace-guids. ...Nothing! I've also tried uninstallig/re-installing PureVideo a few times.

Does anyone have any ideas why PowerDvd is doing this? I am so close to my perfect system...I can't believe this is the only thing holding me back!!!

Thanks much in advance!
----------------
Update: I found out what it is! (But I still don't exactly know why.) I looked in ProcessExplorer and saw that PowerDVD was trying to hit the registry. So I gave it Administrator Privilages (UAC in Vista :| ) and sure enough it worked! (And it worked with normal permissions from then on...)

But of course that implied that it was making a registry change. Sure enough, I went back to ZoomPlayer and the NVidia Audio Decoder was suddenly not registered! ({6C0BDF86-C36A-4D83-8BDB-312D2EAF409E}) ....So I re-registered the thing and it worked again. However, we were back at square one with PowerDvd freezing until you let it unregister the thing with admin rights. It seems that Cyberlink really has it in for this poor Audio Decoder. Don't they know there are enough hex-value merits for all the nice decoders to get along?

...Wow, I really need to get to bed. Obviously this is not fully solved. I want to find out why they are fighting over this etc. But I will say that regular DVDs look a TON better.... I almost forgot what I was missing!

Correct. The bundled OEM version included with most DVD-roms and confirmed with the LG GGC H20L Super Multi Blue only gives you 2 channel audio.

Partially correct. You may still be able to find the 7.3 ULTRA retail version elsewhere....ebay maybe. Don't ask me where I got mine and I won't have to lie.



The short answer is no. PDVD 8 does not officially support HD playback....but hacking information can be found that will enable HD playback in 8.0. Some people choose instead to run multiple versions to retain HD playback.


2 channel audio, possibly pro-logic, is what you get using the OEM version of PowerDVD....not DD 5.1.

Later, Conrad
Conrad,

Thanks for the reply. You confirmed my suspicions. I did Google the known hack and found it immediately. I may try and implement it this weekend after I get home from my business trip.

As to upgrading... I guess there's is no way to 'legally' upgrade to the full version of 7.3 since Cyberlink does not offer it anymore and have dropped support. After the recent demise of HD, you'd think they would have offered it to existing legal owners and users who have just acquired an HD or multi drive like LG. I have other versions, and the more recent 8.0 Ultra, but never did buy 7.3 Deluxe. As you say, I'm sure there are copies for sale on the Internet. I'll try the hack on v8.0 Ultra and see how that goes first...

So I just got the LG Drive and my Radeon HD 3870 up and running, and it's been handling the DVDs beautifully, so I thought, "It's about time I tried to play back some HD Media."

So I went down to the local electronics store, picked up a Blu Ray copy of "300", popped it in the drive and fired up PDVD.

Black screen for 9 seconds, then track change to another black screen with the Warner Logo sound, then change to another black screen with what sounds like menu music, then the program locks up. I popped on the TMT trial and got a HDCP compliance warning, so I installed the AnyDVD trial and the warning went away on TMT, but it still did not work, which was expected as that's not supported on XP with ATI, but PDVD should work. So I loaded it up and, again, black screen, black screen, black screen, crash.

System is:

Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor
Biostar GF7050V-M7 Motherboard w/2 gigs mem (sadly on one stick)
Onkyo SE200PCI Sound Card
Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Ultimate Video Card (Driver 8.476.0.0)
IO Data Gigabit NIC
Seagate Baracuda SATA 7200RPM HDD
LG GGW-H20N Blu Ray/HD DVD Optical Drive (with latest firmware)
Windows XP SP2

I've tried both HDMI and VGA out to the projector. Neither works. I do not currently own a 10 meter DVI cable. The Projector is HDCP compliant.

Interestingly enough, the Cyberlink HD Advisor alternately insists the system is and isn't HDCP compliant...oh, and like many apps, that my drivers are out of date (newest on ATI's site).

Is this a symptom of PDVD with any of these components or am I just up the infamous creek without the damnable paddle?

I have a HTPC with a MSI 8500GT video card, LG Comno drive using PowerDVD Ultra to play Bluray. This is all connected to a Samsun Flat screen 1080P and works fine. I just purchased a Integra 9.8 Receiver and am running the HDMI from the PC to the 9.8 and from the 9.8 to the Samsung. It works in Vista but when powerDVD plays a movie it goes blank and I get a message about HDCP problem. All the connections are HDMI.

Can I get it to work or do I have to just leave the HDMI connected to the TV from the PC and just use the Toslink connection to the receiver.

Thanks,
John

John,

my setup is MSI 8600GTS (DVI) -> (HDMI) Integral 9.8 -> (HDMI) JVC RS1.

Although I don't have exactly the same playback chain as you do, I can report I have not had any problems with PowerDVD and HDCP in my setup.

You could try different Nvidia drivers, upgrade powerDVD and or get anyDVD which will simply remove HDCP.
You can also check that the Integra is set in "through" mode, i.e. doesn't do any scaling.

Good luck,

/Anders

So I just got the LG Drive and my Radeon HD 3870 up and running, and it's been handling the DVDs beautifully, so I thought, "It's about time I tried to play back some HD Media."

So I went down to the local electronics store, picked up a Blu Ray copy of "300", popped it in the drive and fired up PDVD.

Black screen for 9 seconds, then track change to another black screen with the Warner Logo sound, then change to another black screen with what sounds like menu music, then the program locks up. I popped on the TMT trial and got a HDCP compliance warning, so I installed the AnyDVD trial and the warning went away on TMT, but it still did not work, which was expected as that's not supported on XP with ATI, but PDVD should work. So I loaded it up and, again, black screen, black screen, black screen, crash.

System is:

Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor
Biostar GF7050V-M7 Motherboard w/2 gigs mem (sadly on one stick)
Onkyo SE200PCI Sound Card
Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Ultimate Video Card (Driver 8.476.0.0)
IO Data Gigabit NIC
Seagate Baracuda SATA 7200RPM HDD
LG GGW-H20N Blu Ray/HD DVD Optical Drive (with latest firmware)
Windows XP SP2

I've tried both HDMI and VGA out to the projector. Neither works. I do not currently own a 10 meter DVI cable. The Projector is HDCP compliant.

Interestingly enough, the Cyberlink HD Advisor alternately insists the system is and isn't HDCP compliant...oh, and like many apps, that my drivers are out of date (newest on ATI's site).

Is this a symptom of PDVD with any of these components or am I just up the infamous creek without the damnable paddle?
I had a similar HDCP issue with two 8800 gts in sli connected to a home theatre projector. Since I have four dvi video outputs (using two cards) I found that only ONE of the outputs has HDCP compatibility with my projector. Using any of the other three outputs still renders a digital connection and image - playing DVDs was perfectly fine with powerdvd, but if I tried to play HD content I got error messages and the BDadvisor said my display was not HDCP compliant. So.... try switching out the connection on your video card to the projector if this is an option to you. Worked for me after some trial and error.

I had a similar HDCP issue with two 8800 gts in sli connected to a home theatre projector. Since I have four dvi video outputs (using two cards) I found that only ONE of the outputs has HDCP compatibility with my projector. Using any of the other three outputs still renders a digital connection and image - playing DVDs was perfectly fine with powerdvd, but if I tried to play HD content I got error messages and the BDadvisor said my display was not HDCP compliant. So.... try switching out the connection on your video card to the projector if this is an option to you. Worked for me after some trial and error.

Unhooked the VGA and connected the DVI in that DVI port (with the HDMI adapter and that took care of the Driver and HDCP issues, but still the same playback response. Cyberlink Advisor now gives me green (good) for everything except the ATI card itself (which it marks as grey for unknown).

I'm really at my wit's end on this one. At this point all I can think of is that maybe I need to do a wipe and reinstall. This install of XP predates me coming to Japan by a couple of years and I've been here for a couple years. Only reason I haven't done that yet is that not all of the software is here in Japan...in fact, I'm not even sure if I have my XP disc here...

Get a trial version of AnyDVD HD and see if you at least get something to play. This will tell you is definitely is a HDCP problem.

Are you using the LG version of PDVD or did it prompt you to a newer version that has no LG in the splash screen?

Sleater: PDVD usually only allows viewing on one display - hdcp requirement. Some have workarounds. Don't know where