The use of Overlay is disturbing. I do not think overlay is *supported* in Vista.

VMR would be better especially for my GeForce card.

- Rich

Havent followed this overlay talk much, but is that why PDVD kicks my Vista out of Aero mode and into Basic mode?

I would like to thank this thread and all that have contributed to this thread for fixing my issues.

Yesterday, I just bought the xbox360 hddvd drive and Ultra 7.1. Everything went well, until I popped in the bundle KK to see how HD looks on my setup. 2 issues on ultra 7.1;

1) I can only see 25% of the whole movie
2) Colour banding with red push
(Total crap! I would say)

Having read this thread prior to buying, I went to checked nvidia display setting and noticed that my AA and AF was not set to application control. However the colour banding was still there.

Having played around with pdvd7.0 deluxe before and also have problem with red push, I uninstall my nvidia 93.71 driver and reinstalled it again. HD KK now looks great!

After the show, I popped in KK dvd and uses the same pdvd player. I could see how soft and lack of contrast KK was. Looks like I am off to amazon to shop for more HD disks. :D

just in case anyone needs the following info;
E6600
Leadtek 7900gs with h/w acc. ticked and using purevideo v.223
2gb on intel bx2 using onboard soundcard passthru to xr55

I will have to respectfully disagree about my system being not calibrated correctly causing banding. This is clearly a software issue - and not hardware, in my eyes.

What display are you using? I tested with D65 calbrated Sony Pearl and BenQ 8720 without any of the issues mentioned (banding and other artifacts).
One tip though: you have to have the latest 7.2 catalysts and to manually set brightness /contrast from the catalyst control panel, in order to have Below Black and Above White information with Overlay.

What display are you using? I tested with D65 calbrated Sony Pearl and BenQ 8720 without any of the issues mentioned (banding and other artifacts).
One tip though: you have to have the latest 7.2 catalysts and to manually set brightness /contrast from the catalyst control panel, in order to have Below Black and Above White information with Overlay.

The overlay controls with Cat 7.2? Cool! I'll try that. It didn't work with PowerDVD with previous versions. The stupid controls in powerDVd are useless.

What display are you using? I tested with D65 calbrated Sony Pearl and BenQ 8720 without any of the issues mentioned (banding and other artifacts).
One tip though: you have to have the latest 7.2 catalysts and to manually set brightness /contrast from the catalyst control panel, in order to have Below Black and Above White information with Overlay.


Interesting, any guidance on what to try with this any standard settings to do??

"manually set brightness /contrast from the catalyst control panel"

Cheers

PowerDVD Ultra is using overlay?! Ugg. How does one confirm this?
HD DVD's do use the 16-235 colorspace, don't they?
And now with overlay, we're expanding them to 0-255.
This is sacreligious. I really wish there was a way to get MCE to use the necessary codecs and display HD DVD content.

Banding was pretty bad with PowerDVD Ultra and Superman Returns. I hope this issue gets resolved quickly.

Ozy

You can use Reclock to check if Overlay is being used - force Reclock to load for PowerDVD (or tell Reclock to ALWAYS load for DirectSound filters - sometimes this is necessary too), and then look for the one or two Reclock icons in the taskbar. Double click on them and look at what it reports.

Another way is to attempt a screenshot, and then paste into MS Paint - if you get a pure black screen that is the same dimensions as the screen/window it is probably overlay. Bonus points if you still have PowerDVD running, and you see the full motion video INSIDE MS Paint. :)

What display are you using? I tested with D65 calbrated Sony Pearl and BenQ 8720 without any of the issues mentioned (banding and other artifacts).
One tip though: you have to have the latest 7.2 catalysts and to manually set brightness /contrast from the catalyst control panel, in order to have Below Black and Above White information with Overlay.

I'm using a Samsung LN-S4695D 46" 1080p LCD.

1080i/p with the XBOX 360 itself looks fine. 1080p via PowerDVD has some banding. It's again, NOT awful, but I can see it (compared the two directly).

I'm using an Nvidia card, so no chance of using Catalysts. :)

just in case anyone needs the following info;
E6600
Leadtek 7900gs with h/w acc. ticked and using purevideo v.223
2gb on intel bx2 using onboard soundcard passthru to xr55

I will never know, it seems, how some people can use Purevideo and not get stuttery video. I enable Purevideo and it stutters. Disabling it = smooth picture, though the banding is the same with or without Purevideo enabled.

And yes, I have the same Leadtek 7900GS. How did you install Purevideo, and how do you get to the Purevideo options? I just downloaded the Nvidia trial but don't see any indication at all of it being installed.

The Purevideo mpeg2 decoder that you download and install is a seperate animal that is not involved in any of this. The purevideo acceleration that is used by PowerDVD is a combination of hardware and driver features to aid video processing. Nvidia really could have saved a lot of confusion if they didn't name both of these 2 different things "purevideo".

The Purevideo mpeg2 decoder that you download and install is a seperate animal that is not involved in any of this. The purevideo acceleration that is used by PowerDVD is a combination of hardware and driver features to aid video processing. Nvidia really could have saved a lot of confusion if they didn't name both of these 2 different things "purevideo".

So you don't need to download the separate 30-day trial Purevideo?

I'm just using the 93.71 drivers from Nvidia, and just ticked the box in the options for h/w acceleration. Then all HD movies stutter. :)

No, you don't need the Purevideo decoder. That's just an mpeg2 decoder used for regular DVD's and recorded TV. PowerDVD has it's own decoders... and makes use of the purevideo hardware/driver features of the card. It doesn't make any use of the purevideo decoder.

You can use Reclock to check if Overlay is being used - force Reclock to load for PowerDVD (or tell Reclock to ALWAYS load for DirectSound filters - sometimes this is necessary too), and then look for the one or two Reclock icons in the taskbar. Double click on them and look at what it reports.

Another way is to attempt a screenshot, and then paste into MS Paint - if you get a pure black screen that is the same dimensions as the screen/window it is probably overlay. Bonus points if you still have PowerDVD running, and you see the full motion video INSIDE MS Paint. :)

Thanks! I got ReClock to work now when I checked "Force ReClock to be loaded in place of DirectSound/Wave Renderers" and "Force ReClock to be loaded in PowerDVD". I only tried the latter before plus lots of other options but it didn't occur to me to try the other one. Now the 640 kbps DD+ soundtracks run smoothly for me, at least the one I tried, Corpse Bride. I'll try more titles.

I tried changing the overlay controls in CCC but they still have no effect on the picture in PowerDVD.

Thanks! I got ReClock to work now when I checked "Force ReClock to be loaded in place of DirectSound/Wave Renderers" and "Force ReClock to be loaded in PowerDVD". I only tried the latter before plus lots of other options but it didn't occur to me to try the other one. Now the 640 kbps DD+ soundtracks run smoothly for me, at least the one I tried, Corpse Bride. I'll try more titles.

I tried changing the overlay controls in CCC but they still have no effect on the picture in PowerDVD.


That is really interesting, I have never used reClock but if it gets rid of my stutter on 640 kbps sound then brilliant. Do you have Poseidon to try by any chance?

Cheers

No, sorry. I have Grand Prix, Ant Bully and Corpse Bride which stuttered before but all play fine now.

No, sorry. I have Grand Prix, Ant Bully and Corpse Bride which stuttered before but all play fine now.

Oh excellent, I would be really grateful if you could try ReClock with Grand-prix

Thanks

Grand Prix plays smoothly now. :) I also remembered Scorpion King had microscopic stuttering, less prominent than with the 640 kbps tracks and less frequent, maybe they were caused by something else in mysystem when I watched the movie, but it's smooth now. That's a 1536 kbps track. I'm very pleased with not having to use analog out any more.

Another thing I noticed now. Reclock reports the video renderer as "VMR9 (renderless)" while PwerDVD reports "Overlay".

Sorry if there are any typos in my recent posts. I'm typing in the dark in my HT.

Grand Prix plays smoothly now. :) I also remembered Scorpion King had microscopic stuttering, less prominent than with the 640 kbps tracks and less frequent, maybe they were caused by something else in mysystem when I watched the movie, but it's smooth now. That's a 1536 kbps track. I'm very pleased with not having to use analog out any more.

Another thing I noticed now. Reclock reports the video renderer as "VMR9 (renderless)" while PwerDVD reports "Overlay".

Sorry if there are any typos in my recent posts. I'm typing in the dark in my HT.


Thank you ever so much for this, I will try ReClock out tomorrow night when I have some time off....

Thanks again,

HD DVD's do use the 16-235 colorspace, don't they?


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CyberLink\PowerDVD\HDDVD]
"COLORSPACE_OPTION"=dword:00000003

In my system , XP SP2 Powerdvd ultra 7.1 7950GT , HDMI connected to DLP HC3000 1280x720P

3 expand level
1 Normal level

But in any cases some bandings is still there with or Without DXVA (Overlay seems in use).

Antonio

Grand Prix plays smoothly now. :) I also remembered Scorpion King had microscopic stuttering, less prominent than with the 640 kbps tracks and less frequent, maybe they were caused by something else in mysystem when I watched the movie, but it's smooth now. That's a 1536 kbps track. I'm very pleased with not having to use analog out any more.

Another thing I noticed now. Reclock reports the video renderer as "VMR9 (renderless)" while PwerDVD reports "Overlay".

Sorry if there are any typos in my recent posts. I'm typing in the dark in my HT.

Sorry to be a pain but which version of ReClock do you use/recommend, the latest I can find is a beta realease from some time ago, is this the right one?

"ReClock DirectShow Filter 1.7 beta 4"

Cheers

No, you don't need the Purevideo decoder. That's just an mpeg2 decoder used for regular DVD's and recorded TV. PowerDVD has it's own decoders... and makes use of the purevideo hardware/driver features of the card. It doesn't make any use of the purevideo decoder.

Thank you for the clarification. Can you explain the stuttering with h/w acceleration enabled then with 93.71 Nvidia drivers, either with my 7900GS HDCP and my 7600GS (with AnyDVDHD to bypass HDCP for that card)? Two different systems..

Sorry to be a pain but which version of ReClock do you use/recommend, the latest I can find is a beta realease from some time ago, is this the right one?

"ReClock DirectShow Filter 1.7 beta 4"

Cheers

I'm using Version 1.6. I haven't tried any newer versions.

I'm using Version 1.6. I haven't tried any newer versions.

Thanks again.

No problem.

antonio, thanks for that registry settings! I'll have to give it a try - I believe PowerDVD 6.5 is giving me PC levels even though it is operating in VMR9 mode.

Oh - and I'm glad Reclock is working for you guys! :)

Max I hope it works.

I have to recheck Powerdvd 6.5 but I had navigation problems with european titles.
Yes I think Powerdvd 6.5 use VMR9 :

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/4183/kingkong2kh2.jpg

Interesting, any guidance on what to try with this any standard settings to do??

"manually set brightness /contrast from the catalyst control panel"

Cheers

Sure, you just enter Catalyst control panel, (advanced mode) , then Video, Video Adjustments, you untick "Let the application control the video adjustments", then you adjust the brightness & contrast with a DVE or other pattern disc. In my system I set Brightness at 29 and contrast at 86.
Regarding the alleged banding I suspect it is an Nvidia problem, as with the ATIs I havent seen any.

Another easy way to see if you are using overlay or vmr9 if you have powersrip installed, is to go to "color profiles" then to play with the gamma setting: if it affects the whole image (desktop + powerdvd window) then it is VMR9. If only the desktop and not the window, it is overlay.

Finally, I do not trust what powerdvd or reclock report regarding VMR9, as reclock always reports vmr9 renderless and powerdvd overlay!

Yay!

OK, so since I was so ticked off, I "acquired" a version of PowerDVD 6.5.

SOME problems solved! No more banding, AND I can turn on Hardware Acceleration and it works! I don't seem to go above 50% CPU usage at all now during Batman Begins. A lot of the time it's at around 25%-35%! Yay!

PowerDVD 7.2 = junk.
PowerDVD 6.5 = ??

Mission Impossible 3 won't play on it properly (who knows what others?)

System:

Shuttle SN27P2
AMD X2 4200+
2GB DDR-2 800
Geforce 7600GS with AnyDVDHD to bypass HDCP.

^ ^ ^

So there you go. No HTPC option basically works right now. Hopefully the next version of PowerDVD will work.

*SIGH*

antonio, it appears that registry setting has no effect for PowerDVD 6.5. It still outputs PC levels. :(

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CyberLink\PowerDVD\HDDVD]
"COLORSPACE_OPTION"=dword:00000003

In my system , XP SP2 Powerdvd ultra 7.1 7950GT , HDMI connected to DLP HC3000 1280x720P

3 expand level
1 Normal level

But in any cases some bandings is still there with or Without DXVA (Overlay seems in use).

Antonio


Excellent post Antonio. This registry trick does indeed work with PowerDVD Ultra.
How did you come across this information?

I'm curious about some of the other registry settings, particularly these:

DX_HDDVD_VideoRenderer=dword:4
NV_Overlay=dword:1
(edit...changing the value of these keys has no noticeable effect on HDDVD playback)

If PowerDVD is using overlay by default, I wonder if it's possible to force VMR9 through the registry. I also wonder if overlay is the reason that enabling hardware acceleration results in a black screen for me, and if VMR9 would allow hardware acceleration to work properly.

Thank you for the clarification. Can you explain the stuttering with h/w acceleration enabled then with 93.71 Nvidia drivers, either with my 7900GS HDCP and my 7600GS (with AnyDVDHD to bypass HDCP for that card)? Two different systems..

I think its simply that hardware acceleration in PowerDVD is broken.
For me, with an 8800GTX, enabling hardware acceleration just gives me a black screen. For now, I just have it disabled.

I think its simply that hardware acceleration in PowerDVD is broken.
For me, with an 8800GTX, enabling hardware acceleration just gives me a black screen. For now, I just have it disabled.

Just seems odd that for some people it works.

What I wish for is for Cyberlink to fix PowerDVD 6.5 so that it works with current movies (MI:3 etc), and then I'd be happy since hardware acceleration works, and there's no banding in 6.5.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CyberLink\PowerDVD\HDDVD]
"COLORSPACE_OPTION"=dword:00000003

In my system , XP SP2 Powerdvd ultra 7.1 7950GT , HDMI connected to DLP HC3000 1280x720P

3 expand level
1 Normal level

But in any cases some bandings is still there with or Without DXVA (Overlay seems in use).

Antonio
wow, excellent find w/ the registry entry
works fine w/ powerdvd 7.1
even after calibrating my xbr2 from the posts here something seemed off and too dark....setting it to Normal Level really opened it up and the scenes appear the way they should now!

thanks

I'm curious about some of the other registry settings, particularly these:

Sorry , experimental settings :)

I have not found how to enable VMR9.

Yay!

OK, so since I was so ticked off, I "acquired" a version of PowerDVD 6.5.

SOME problems solved! No more banding, AND I can turn on Hardware Acceleration and it works! I don't seem to go above 50% CPU usage at all now during Batman Begins. A lot of the time it's at around 25%-35%! Yay!

PowerDVD 7.2 = junk.
PowerDVD 6.5 = ??

Mission Impossible 3 won't play on it properly (who knows what others?)

System:

Shuttle SN27P2
AMD X2 4200+
2GB DDR-2 800
Geforce 7600GS with AnyDVDHD to bypass HDCP.

^ ^ ^

So there you go. No HTPC option basically works right now. Hopefully the next version of PowerDVD will work.

*SIGH*

I am pretty sure it has to do with Nvidia, since the 6.5 and 7.2 have identical crystal clear image in my display with an ATI X1950Pro. I am not sure though if the hardware accelaration works, since it is grayed during playback. On the other hand it doesnt bother me at all, since the Cpu usage is always at about 20-30% (Core2pro 6600) and playback is super smooth. Any other ATI users to confirm this?

I am pretty sure it has to do with Nvidia, since the 6.5 and 7.2 have identical crystal clear image in my display with an ATI X1950Pro. I am not sure though if the hardware accelaration works, since it is grayed during playback. On the other hand it doesnt bother me at all, since the Cpu usage is always at about 20-30% (Core2pro 6600) and playback is super smooth. Any other ATI users to confirm this?

Nvidia or not, Cyberlink changed the way their program is rendered between 6.5 and 7.2. I've no doubt it will get fixed in due course. Now...the waiting game! :)

William, as I posted earlier, with my old X800 card, the 6.5 was in VMR9 while with the new X1950pro, it is now rendered with Overlay! So, I am not sure it is a Cyberlink problem or if is related with the graphic card and/or the graphics driver. We ll see...

OK I give up. I have powerdvd Ultra 7.2 Disk and download link. Make me an offer.

jay@jaydunigan.com

Hi WilliamG,

There are so many things to ticked and not do, we might not have done all of it as there are lots of combo in it.

Since you are also using the same card as me, can you try the following and see if it helps?

After pdvd ultra was installed, uninstall nvidia driver 93.71 reboot, reinstall 93.71, reboot again. in pdvd ultra tick use h/w acc. and do not do anything to nvidia control panel esp. tick use inverse telecine.

check if u still get the banding and stuttering and let us know.

Thank you for the clarification. Can you explain the stuttering with h/w acceleration enabled then with 93.71 Nvidia drivers, either with my 7900GS HDCP and my 7600GS (with AnyDVDHD to bypass HDCP for that card)? Two different systems..

William, as I posted earlier, with my old X800 card, the 6.5 was in VMR9 while with the new X1950pro, it is now rendered with Overlay! So, I am not sure it is a Cyberlink problem or if is related with the graphic card and/or the graphics driver. We ll see...

Very bizarre....

Hi WilliamG,

There are so many things to ticked and not do, we might not have done all of it as there are lots of combo in it.

Since you are also using the same card as me, can you try the following and see if it helps?

After pdvd ultra was installed, uninstall nvidia driver 93.71 reboot, reinstall 93.71, reboot again. in pdvd ultra tick use h/w acc. and do not do anything to nvidia control panel esp. tick use inverse telecine.

check if u still get the banding and stuttering and let us know.

I will do that today. Here's a quick question. I've never even seen any nVidia options such as inverse telecine etc. Where are those options hidden? I don't want to mess with them but if there's something there that's on or off and shouldn't be, I'd like to be able to check.

Thanks, and I'll report back about the uninstall/reinstall of drivers. :)

I will do that today. Here's a quick question. I've never even seen any nVidia options such as inverse telecine etc. Where are those options hidden? I don't want to mess with them but if there's something there that's on or off and shouldn't be, I'd like to be able to check.

Thanks, and I'll report back about the uninstall/reinstall of drivers. :)


in the nvidia control panel under adjust color settings i believe - will be a sharpen edges and noise sliders

in the nvidia control panel under adjust color settings i believe - will be a sharpen edges and noise sliders


Thanks! :)

Just tried the uninstall/reinstall of 93.71. No difference. Still banding with PowerDVD 7.2 Ultra, and still stutters with h/w accel enabled. :(

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CyberLink\PowerDVD\HDDVD]
"COLORSPACE_OPTION"=dword:00000003

In my system , XP SP2 Powerdvd ultra 7.1 7950GT , HDMI connected to DLP HC3000 1280x720P

3 expand level
1 Normal level

But in any cases some bandings is still there with or Without DXVA (Overlay seems in use).

Antonio

So what exactly does this do...i mean, i have mine set at 1 and i think it should have been set at 1 to begin with. After trying all the calibrations listed for the xbr2, it looks like it should look w/ the settings instead of getting no detail in the shadows or dark scenes....
What does the colorspace option depend on...the tv, the media, or what? MI:3 HD-DVD and the Mummy HD-DVD really opened up and got more detailed in the dark scenes, but superman now looks like crap, like a bad upconverted dvd...or maybe thats just how superman hddvd is?

but neway, just wondering why and when you should use the expanded level vs the normal.

thanks

If your display is calibrated for video levels 16-235 (as it should be if your serious about watching movies), you should have this set at 1...normal.
If your display is calibrated for PC levels 0-255 (which I guess Cyberlink assumed EVERYONE who uses their software would), then leaving this at 3 will expand the video levels to PC levels. This introduces banding, and if your display is at video levels, you will get clipping.
For optimal image quality, it is best to calibrate your display for video levels, and output the video content at the levels that they were mastered at.

It baffles me that Cyberlink would force us to screw up the video levels, without at least giving us an option in the configuration tabs. I've been running the software for a couple of weeks, and hadn't even thought to check on this, because I just assumed that video levels would be untouched, as they are with any other respectable playback software. Now I know why I wasn't seeing as much shadow detail as I was expecting. I'm very greatful to Antonio for helping us correct Cyberlink's mistake.

As for Superman, I haven't seen the HD version yet myself, but I've read many reports that indicate that it's just a bad transfer.

If your display is calibrated for video levels 16-235 (as it should be if your serious about watching movies), you should have this set at 1...normal.
If your display is calibrated for PC levels 0-255 (which I guess Cyberlink assumed EVERYONE who uses their software would), then leaving this at 3 will expand the video levels to PC levels. This introduces banding, and if your display is at video levels, you will get clipping.
For optimal image quality, it is best to calibrate your display for video levels, and output the video content at the levels that they were mastered at.

It baffles me that Cyberlink would force us to screw up the video levels, without at least giving us an option in the configuration tabs. I've been running the software for a couple of weeks, and hadn't even thought to check on this, because I just assumed that video levels would be untouched, as they are with any other respectable playback software. Now I know why I wasn't seeing as much shadow detail as I was expecting. I'm very greatful to Antonio for helping us correct Cyberlink's mistake.

As for Superman, I haven't seen the HD version yet myself, but I've read many reports that indicate that it's just a bad transfer.


Can you explain this calibration numbering system, and how you go about editing them? Thanks!

I tried a BD mpeg4 movie with MP10 on my X2 3800+ and it's at 95 percent usage, compared to 75 percent with a HD-DVD movie using PD.

Usually, VLC and MPC take the least resources. However, it really depends on the BD title, if it's using MPEG2 or AVC.

Can you explain this calibration numbering system, and how you go about editing them? Thanks!

There is a sticky thread at the top of this forum that is dedicated to this topic.

HOW-TO: Calibrating Display to Match HTPC Output (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=523614)

Matching color levels is fundamental to achieving an accurate, desireable image.

Does anyone have any idea why version 6.5 works perfectly and 7.1 say's I don't have the right video drivers?

My system is P4 3.0 gig processor, 1 gig of ram (dual channel 400 speed), ATI 9800 pro.
Anydvd trial.

The other strange thing is that "homeade" HD-DVD's play perfectly with 7.1 version (I do get the "not the right video drivers" box but it lets me cancel and it works fine)? My store bought HD-DVD's get the box but turns off the video. You can see it starting for a split second.

What advantages do the 7.1 player have over the 6.5?

does PowerDVD play nice with MCE? That is, can I play mkv/h264 files with it in the MCE front end?

There is a sticky thread at the top of this forum that is dedicated to this topic.

HOW-TO: Calibrating Display to Match HTPC Output (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=523614)

Matching color levels is fundamental to achieving an accurate, desireable image.

Thank you. That post looks very complicated. I don't believe it's possible to get rid of the banding in PowerDVD 7.2. In 6.5, without calibration, the image is perfect. Such a shame that some movies don't work in 6.5. :(

I would love to be proven wrong, though. If someone kind enough would like to show me some screenshots of 7.2 + nvidia cards without banding, that would be very sweet.

A particular part of a movie I used to test for banding is the scene in Batman Begins where Christian Bale gets decked by Liam Neeson, and when he's lying there, there's this light toward the left of the screen that clearly bands in 7.2, and doesn't band in 6.5. I'll try to get a timestamp later, but it's the scene where Bale visits the big mansion in the mountains for the first time, and just when Neeson takes the flower from Bale.

Thank you. That post looks very complicated. I don't believe it's possible to get rid of the banding in PowerDVD 7.2. In 6.5, without calibration, the image is perfect. Such a shame that some movies don't work in 6.5. :(


Both are complete bugfests :-) In a few weeks Cyberlink will release a patch that should fix the more ridiculous issues, so I'd just wait for that. As it is, it isn't possible to fix banding in 7.2 for the simple reason that it forces overlay, which always does a colour expansion. Unfortunately, that expansion is done badly (there are better methods, eg ffdshow+RGB32 option), thus banding.

Barring a major hackjob on PDVD to replace the expansion method (very hard) or to allow VMR9 (probably still difficult because of HDCP issues), there's not much can be done.

Does anyone have any clue as to why PD7.2 kills Overlay-use in MPC? This is in Vista 32-bit Ultimate. I can play .ts files in PD7.2 (MPEG2 and AVC), but when I try to play them in MPC, only VMR9 will work.

Overlay and VMR7 only give me a black screen (audio is fine). If I uninstall PD7.2, Overlay works in MPC. Even if I block all Cyberlink filters, Overlay still doesn't work.

Any ideas?

Both are complete bugfests :-) In a few weeks Cyberlink will release a patch that should fix the more ridiculous issues, so I'd just wait for that. As it is, it isn't possible to fix banding in 7.2 for the simple reason that it forces overlay, which always does a colour expansion. Unfortunately, that expansion is done badly (there are better methods, eg ffdshow+RGB32 option), thus banding.

Barring a major hackjob on PDVD to replace the expansion method (very hard) or to allow VMR9 (probably still difficult because of HDCP issues), there's not much can be done.

I REALLY hope these bugfixes come soon. Seems like HD-DVD is crippled on computers as it is.

Thank you. That post looks very complicated. I don't believe it's possible to get rid of the banding in PowerDVD 7.2. In 6.5, without calibration, the image is perfect. Such a shame that some movies don't work in 6.5. :(

I would love to be proven wrong, though. If someone kind enough would like to show me some screenshots of 7.2 + nvidia cards without banding, that would be very sweet.

A particular part of a movie I used to test for banding is the scene in Batman Begins where Christian Bale gets decked by Liam Neeson, and when he's lying there, there's this light toward the left of the screen that clearly bands in 7.2, and doesn't band in 6.5. I'll try to get a timestamp later, but it's the scene where Bale visits the big mansion in the mountains for the first time, and just when Neeson takes the flower from Bale.

if you mean around 10 min mark. i don't see any banding there at all.
running 8800 GTS on XP with latest nvidia drivers. powerdvd 7.1 HD DVD

what display are you using?
some LCD are prone to banding, maybe it's that (dell 2407 pre-A03 revision is notorious)?

if you mean around 10 min mark. i don't see any banding there at all.
running 8800 GTS on XP with latest nvidia drivers. powerdvd 7.1 HD DVD

what display are you using?
some LCD are prone to banding, maybe it's that (dell 2407 pre-A03 revision is notorious)?

The exact time stamp I can pause and see banding is at 9:50.

Another good one is at 11:16. The wall of the room bands severely in PowerDVD 7.1.

Yes, it's an LCD. Samsung LN-S4695D, but I have no banding in 6.5 PowerDVD, so...

Here's an under-exposed screenshot of 9:50 so you can see the banding on the left, and also on the right, though not as bad. Also note the difference in Liam Neeson's forehead. You can see the banding there, too. PowerDVD 6.5 just looks gorgeous.

I wish Cyberlink could see these pictures.


POWERDVD 7.2
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a127/wgrose/IMG_0614.jpg


POWERDVD 6.5

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a127/wgrose/IMG_0620.jpg

You can clearly see the banding doesn't exist in PowerDVD 6.5.

PowerDVD 6.5 crashes and doesn't work with many movies, though..

So that's that. I'm tired of my equipment being blamed.

I won't post anymore on the subject, as others probably have even bigger issues than me. I will just try to wait (im)patiently for an update to the program.

So does anybody know how to get out of the Universal screen saver when using PowerDVD 7.1? I paused a movie for a few minutes tonight, and when I came back there was a Universal Screen save running. To my astonishment, pressing pause again, or even Play paused/played the screen saver and not the actual movie. I tried hitting escape, I tried bringing up the Title or Root menu (unsuccessfully), but I could not for the life of me get that @!)(*#$) screen saver to stop. I finally had to pull up right-click menu, and on the "Go To" submenu find the Title corresponding to the movie and guess at which chapter would get me close to where I was.

So does anybody know how to get out of the Universal screen saver when using PowerDVD 7.1? I paused a movie for a few minutes tonight, and when I came back there was a Universal Screen save running. To my astonishment, pressing pause again, or even Play paused/played the screen saver and not the actual movie. I tried hitting escape, I tried bringing up the Title or Root menu (unsuccessfully), but I could not for the life of me get that @!)(*#$) screen saver to stop. I finally had to pull up right-click menu, and on the "Go To" submenu find the Title corresponding to the movie and guess at which chapter would get me close to where I was.

It's yet another bug. I had that while watching The Mummy Returns. Left the room and came back to find the screen saver running. Couldn't get out of it. *sighs*

William,

Your comparison screenshots quite clearly show the red push with Ultra which I saw on my setup as well (so its unlikely to be your camera). Maybe its just me - but the off colors are an unacceptable picture distortion that negates the quality features of a HD DVD, much more than the banding, which is visible but not as distracting.

I'm hoping that the color accuracy gets fixed in the next release. I could compensate by calibrating my projector for Ultra, but then all my other sources would be screwed up (or I would need to define different calibration sources per source, ugly...).

Regards,
Dean

I did notice the same thing to these screenshots. Of course it is unacceptable but it just seems that the color saturation in the overlay settings of the Nvidia card is way off. If properly calibrated it should have the exact same result as the Powerdvd 6.5 which uses VMR9.
In my ATI, there is no such problems (oversaturated colors and banding).

The exact time stamp I can pause and see banding is at 9:50.
.......


Thanks for the examples. Yes, that's a classic colour expansion done badly.

Amusing colours though, the guy looks slightly satanic with that red face.....

I bought Ultra last night and am building my second htpc sometime today for hd-dvd playback. Is it possible to just use the Ultra decoder with another player and get the same playback support (i.e. playback hd-dvd in WMP11 or whatever using the codecs from PowerDVD)? Thanks for any pointers!

And has anyone got he xbox drive taken apart and even modded into their htpc case? Maybe even leaving the circuitry in palce but getting it in the casE?

I agree the video and color reproduction does not look right on 7.2 perhaps this is the overlay issue?

The sound from LPCM and DTS-HD on Blu-Ray is quite good. However, on HD DVD DD+ and DD TrueHD, they are overloading the center channel and sound thin with a bit of echo. Not good at all. Right now, I am using the motherboard analog out. The is no comparison to my HD-A1 analog outs. I am not sure if this is software or the motherboard sound.

I should get a SoundBlaster X-FI Elite Pro sound card today, so tonight I can see if a top flight sound card can help.

As it stands right now, Blu-ray sound is far superior to the HD DVD sound even on TrueHD sound tracks :confused:

- Rich

Willaim,
do u own any other movies that u notice this banding? I wanted to compare one of my screenshots with yours and see...i don't' see any banding, but maybe its just not noticeable to me...also wanna compare/see color differences.

thanks

Willaim,
do u own any other movies that u notice this banding? I wanted to compare one of my screenshots with yours and see...i don't' see any banding, but maybe its just not noticeable to me...also wanna compare/see color differences.

thanks

I have yet to test that scene in batman begins but I think there's definate banding issues with Constantine. If you go to the very end of the movie when Keanu is standing on the roof. The lights, if I remember had about 3-4 rings around them. Annoying but it's a short scene. Can anyone confirm?

Willaim,
do u own any other movies that u notice this banding? I wanted to compare one of my screenshots with yours and see...i don't' see any banding, but maybe its just not noticeable to me...also wanna compare/see color differences.

thanks

Yes, every movie has banding. It just depends on the scene. King Kong does, though it's not as obvious. A really easy test with King Kong is just to load the main menu. On the left, by the menus in the white are, you can see the banding really easily in 7.2, whereas it's much softer and blended in 6.5.

eh, no KK or Constetine.
I have MI:3, Superman Returns, Mummy, Vendetta, Fearless, Sleepy Hollow, The Departed...i really havent noticed any banding..
well, in superman returns i have actually, that movie looks like crap, especially the sky, i can see blocking a LOT and the quality is really bad :(

eh, no KK or Constetine.
I have MI:3, Superman Returns, Mummy, Vendetta, Fearless, Sleepy Hollow, The Departed...i really havent noticed any banding..
well, in superman returns i have actually, that movie looks like crap, especially the sky, i can see blocking a LOT and the quality is really bad :(

MI:3, when Cruise comes back from his failed trip, there's a fair amount of banding around the light on the wall. It's the chapter after the helicopter chase scene, I believe, where he's hugging the girl in their house. :)

WilliamG, I see the same banding issues with 7.1 - I have an NVIDIA 7900GT, Windows XP, tested with the 92.91 and 93.71 drivers. I have not tested with the hacked 97.92 drivers yet.

I am using PowerDVD 6.5 - it looks much better. It uses VMR9 and it still does level expansion to PC levels, but no banding.

Overlay on nvidia cards is not the same as overlay on ATI cards I believe. I find 7.1 is much sharper than 6.5 on my setup with my ATi card and 1280x720 resolution.

I wish I had Batman now so I could check. I don't see any banding in the area of the King kong menu that you mention, WilliamG.

I could not get the Sony OEM 6.6 to work without stuttering. 7.2 works fine with my 8800 GTS. Not sure why though. Maybe it was the VMR versus Overlay.

- Rich

WilliamG, I see the same banding issues with 7.1 - I have an NVIDIA 7900GT, Windows XP, tested with the 92.91 and 93.71 drivers. I have not tested with the hacked 97.92 drivers yet.

I am using PowerDVD 6.5 - it looks much better. It uses VMR9 and it still does level expansion to PC levels, but no banding.

Unfortunately, a lot of movies don't work with 6.5. King Kong, MI:3 etc etc.

Keep me posted if you get any drivers to work properly, though it's clear to me, at this stage, that Cyberlink changed the way their program worked from 6.5 to 7.2 - for the worst.

Has anyone gotten PureVideo HD acceleration to work for NVIDIA 7600 GT with AGP, or any other AGP based NVIDIA card?

After a failed ATI Avivo attempt I had read good things about how PureVideo HD actually works. Therefore I exchanged the ATI for a NVIDIA 7600GT in the form of a WinFast A7600 GT TDH 256MB AGP card.

Unfortunately, PureVideo HD does not work.

I am using PowerDVD Ultra 7.1 with an Xbox 360 HD DVD drive and AnyDVD HD to avoid the HDCP requirement.

First I tried VC-1 content. I heard audio for a second or two, then PowerDVD crashed.
Next up was H.264. This played stutteringly, but the PureVideo checkbox had been disabled so clearly without hardware acceleration.

I am able to get MPEG-2 DirectX VA to work for HD MPEG-2 transport streams, but HD DVD remains a failure. My system is a Northwood P4 at 3.25 GHz, and can almost play HD DVD VC-1 without assistance. It is AGP 4X and does not have SSE3. The Cyberlink HD advisor is green except for HDCP, and yellow for CPU (upgrade recommended -- yes, I know)

I have tried driver versions 93.71 and 93.81. Next I will try a Prescott P4 with SSE3.

According to PureVideo support, both H.264 and VC-1 acceleration should work with the AGP version of 7600 GT... Can anyone confirm this?

Video acceleration is broken many (the majority?) of us with the current PowerDVD. If I enable h/w acceleration in PowerDVD 7.1, I get stuttery video. I had perfectly smooth video in PowerDVD 6.5 with h/w acceleration.

This is tested with the same results with 2 cards: 7900GS HDCP 256MB Leadtek card, and also with a 7600GS non-HDCP (with AnyDVD HD) - both PCI-E cards.

On a slightly different topic, has anyone been able to playback xvid files through PDVD Ultra? I am using version 7.1. I have tried both network streamed and local xvid files unsuccessfully. When i go into the program to choose a media file to play, select a specific xvid movie, the player comes up, but the time code stays at 0:00, nothing happens, and very very slowly (as if its freezing and unfreezing), the location and title of my movie scrolls over the time code. I have to cntrl-alt-delete to quit PDVD everytime.

Any ideas?

WilliamG,

From your screen shots, you seems to have the red push (I dont have the exact movie, maybe the universal logo with the sunrise from King Kong HDDVD, might be useful to me, as I see lots of banding previously). But for me it seems, after I reinstall my nvidia driver, the red push was gone and colour looks natural, similiar to my dvd if not better.

Btw did you install pdvd ultra and reinstall the driver after that and not the other way round?

I also have purevideo installed. Wonder also if checking h/w accel. will purevideo colour setting be used instead? Anyway h/w accel. gives you stuttering, doing this might not be a good idea as your movie will not be watchable.

Wonder if 8800gts or Ati will solve your problem, as some people had reported success on these.

Note: the above are from someone who just played his first full HD movie.

denn

The exact time stamp I can pause and see banding is at 9:50.

Another good one is at 11:16. The wall of the room bands severely in PowerDVD 7.1.

Yes, it's an LCD. Samsung LN-S4695D, but I have no banding in 6.5 PowerDVD, so...

Here's an under-exposed screenshot of 9:50 so you can see the banding on the left, and also on the right, though not as bad. Also note the difference in Liam Neeson's forehead. You can see the banding there, too. PowerDVD 6.5 just looks gorgeous.

I wish Cyberlink could see these pictures.


POWERDVD 7.2
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a127/wgrose/IMG_0614.jpg


POWERDVD 6.5

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a127/wgrose/IMG_0620.jpg

You can clearly see the banding doesn't exist in PowerDVD 6.5.

PowerDVD 6.5 crashes and doesn't work with many movies, though..

I had to run an experiment on banding with different displays and video boards.

My HTPC uses a 7900GS board hooked up to a Panasonic plasma through DVI. For the experiment, I used an X1600 board from my desktop (which happened to be my previous HTPC), and a Samsung 19” desktop LCD screen. PowerDVD was set not to expand color space (registry entry set to 1). All connections were through DVI. The drivers were 93.71 for the 7900GS and 6.12 (or 6.11 maybe?) for the X1600.

For source material I used the Focus logo, which displays the worst case of banding I’ve seen so far. Here is what I found:

7900GS --> plasma: Horrible banding -- this is the problem we are trying to solve

X1600 --> desktop LCD: No banding at all

X1600 --> plasma: I see some banding, but it’s not too noticeable unless you are looking for it, so it’s quite possible that the plasma screen is exaggerating the problem. At this point I’m beginning to wonder what the remaining combination is going to reveal. Finally,

7900GS --> desktop LCD: Horrible banding again.


So, it appears that the problem is either the 7 series hardware, as someone has suggested earlier, or the driver, in combination with PowerDVD, of course. This was my first nVidia board ever, but I think I’ll be going back to ATI soon.

Just for reference, the same Focus logo on an SD-DVD on the 7900GS and the plasma screen using MCE and PureVideo decoder showed just a tiny bit of banding, barely noticeable. Also, playing the same clip through PowerDVD looked about the same, but I’m not sure whether overlay was used for that, or just that the DVD was mastered differently.

I hope you’ve found this long post informative.

Definitely interesting, though I blame Cyberlink more than I blame nVidia. Again, PowerDVD 6.5 works FINE, IQ-wise, whereas 7.1 is broken.

I have tried reinstalling drivers while PowerDVD is installed, to no avail.

We all just need to wait and see what happens, but currently there is no way for most of us to properly enjoy HD-DVD on a PC without severe trade-offs.

I agree, I have been disappointed with HD-DVD on the PC.

Hopefully with time these issues will be fixed - patched PowerDVD, more options when WinDVD and other new HD DVD software arrive, although with AACS protection now able to be bypassed we may not see as much official support for HD DVD / Blu Ray for the PC now. Even if the commercial player products (PowerDVD, WinDVD) stopped supporting HD DVD / Blu Ray, it may be possible to use tools like MPC to play HD movies, which they can do now but only video, as the sound cannot be decoded without proprietary HD Dolby/DTS decoders which are not available in the public domain.

Regards,
Dean

Are there any other programs on the horizon to help up with Bray/HD-DVD playback... cyberlink is really letting us down.

I agree, I have been disappointed with HD-DVD on the PC.

Hopefully with time these issues will be fixed - patched PowerDVD, more options when WinDVD and other new HD DVD software arrive, although with AACS protection now able to be bypassed we may not see as much official support for HD DVD / Blu Ray for the PC now. Even if the commercial player products (PowerDVD, WinDVD) stopped supporting HD DVD / Blu Ray, it may be possible to use tools like MPC to play HD movies, which they can do now but only video, as the sound cannot be decoded without proprietary HD Dolby/DTS decoders which are not available in the public domain.

Regards,
Dean

Actually, with AACS being decrypted, software sales should rise. There were/are a lot of people out there with capable PCs, but lack HDCP support in either their video card or display.

^ Not to mention that there are a lot of people with borderline-capable PCs that have enough juice to handle 1080p only when decryption is done beforehand.

------

General question: do the latest versions of PowerDVD or WinDVD integrate into the MCE 10' interface yet, or are they still separate apps?

Are there any other programs on the horizon to help up with Bray/HD-DVD playback... cyberlink is really letting us down.

directDVD from orion studios is an interesting app. it allows certain plugins for manipulation of sound as well.

The mpeg2 decoders (which aren't that good), can be used by MCE.
But for HD DVD playback, you still need to launch the app seperately.
I would LOVE to be able to play HD DVDs from within Media Center...but I don't expect that's going to happen for XP.

Has anyone gotten the NIN-Beside You In Time HD-DVD working on their PC? I am using PowerDVD 6.5 and anyhddvd. All my other discs work perfectly. Please let me know.Eric

ps. It goes into file mode when I try to play it and it doesn't work correctly...

I had to run an experiment on banding with different displays and video boards.

My HTPC uses a 7900GS board hooked up to a Panasonic plasma through DVI. For the experiment, I used an X1600 board from my desktop (which happened to be my previous HTPC), and a Samsung 19” desktop LCD screen. PowerDVD was set not to expand color space (registry entry set to 1). All connections were through DVI. The drivers were 93.71 for the 7900GS and 6.12 (or 6.11 maybe?) for the X1600.

For source material I used the Focus logo, which displays the worst case of banding I’ve seen so far. Here is what I found:

7900GS --> plasma: Horrible banding -- this is the problem we are trying to solve

X1600 --> desktop LCD: No banding at all

X1600 --> plasma: I see some banding, but it’s not too noticeable unless you are looking for it, so it’s quite possible that the plasma screen is exaggerating the problem. At this point I’m beginning to wonder what the remaining combination is going to reveal. Finally,

7900GS --> desktop LCD: Horrible banding again.


So, it appears that the problem is either the 7 series hardware, as someone has suggested earlier, or the driver, in combination with PowerDVD, of course. This was my first nVidia board ever, but I think I’ll be going back to ATI soon.

Just for reference, the same Focus logo on an SD-DVD on the 7900GS and the plasma screen using MCE and PureVideo decoder showed just a tiny bit of banding, barely noticeable. Also, playing the same clip through PowerDVD looked about the same, but I’m not sure whether overlay was used for that, or just that the DVD was mastered differently.

I hope you’ve found this long post informative.

Amen brother!
Thanks for the confirmation.

Definitely interesting, though I blame Cyberlink more than I blame nVidia. Again, PowerDVD 6.5 works FINE, IQ-wise, whereas 7.1 is broken.

I have tried reinstalling drivers while PowerDVD is installed, to no avail.

We all just need to wait and see what happens, but currently there is no way for most of us to properly enjoy HD-DVD on a PC without severe trade-offs.

William, how could you blame Cyberlink for a problem present only with Nvidia cards/drivers?

In any way, with ATI X1950Pro AND this Powedvd ultra version AND Anydvd HD AND reclock, I enjoy a wonderful smooth HD-DVD picture which exceeds by far the clarity of the desktop Toshiba HD-E1 I had in my hands for 2 weeks for a review! I really don't see any severe trade-offs, I am sorry..

William, how could you blame Cyberlink for a problem present only with Nvidia cards/drivers?

In any way, with ATI X1950Pro AND this Powedvd ultra version AND Anydvd HD AND reclock, I enjoy a wonderful smooth HD-DVD picture which exceeds by far the clarity of the desktop Toshiba HD-E1 I had in my hands for 2 weeks for a review! I really don't see any severe trade-offs, I am sorry..

Hi takisoft,

Do you know if the ATI X1950Pro is supported by Powerstrip? Do you use Powerstrip to adjust the resolution and the video refresh in order to get the smooth playback? Are you using instead the ATI Center? Which catalyst version?

Thank you very much :)

Hi.

I'm using a Nvidia 7950 (V 93.71 drivers) with Power DVD 7.1/7.2. I have a XBOX 360 drive *and* a Sony BD drive. I use a Intel 6600 processor (stock speed), ASUS p5b-deluxe motherboard, Windows XP MCE 2005 and I play movies on a Sharp XV-Z20000 (1080p) at 100".

I have found some interesting items in my struggles.

The most interesting item I want to bring up here is the red "tint" seen on movies. I see this on both Blu-ray movies and HD DVD movies, but I've found the "fix" in Blu-ray movies.

When playing Blu-ray movies, the red tint can immediately be solved by opening up the NVidia control panel, going to the "Video" section and then going to the RBG gamma tab. Enabling and disabling the RGB gamma checkmark makes a marked shift in color - away from red, and a lot closer to correct. Rebooting makes everything red again. Just enabling RGB gamma doesn't make things stick through a reboot - as soon as the "switch" is changed, the red goes away, but rebooting puts it back again. This lends some credibility to the fact that this might be an NVidia problem.

OK, so now let's look at HD DVD movies. I have a XBOX 360, so being able to play HD DVD movies on the computer was less important to me than Blu-ray movies (where I don't have any ability to play BD movies except for the computer). Once I got Blu-ray red problem "solved", though, I moved over to HD DVD movies, thinking this "solution" might be good for HD-DVD as well.

Unfortunately, when this solution is applied, HD DVD movies will no longer play at all. The checkmark can be done at any time - immediately on boot or while a HD DVD movie is playing, and from that point on, playing HD DVD movies doesn't work any more. Blu-ray movies work fine, though. After this change is applied, the problem can be called "stuttering", but with it taking 10 seconds to show a frame, and then the frame is immediately blanked - it's basically non-functional.

Does anyone else see similar issues? Obviously, if you don't have a Blu-ray drive, you won't be able to see that this switch fixes the "red" issue, but you may be able to play movies after flipping this switch on your HD DVD movies.

- Pete

My fix was to return the 7950 and install an 8800. Problem solved, not to mention a far higher quality image with the image quality in PDVD set to "Best" or "Auto" when using the 8800 compared to the 7950.

Vern

How did you get MPC to play HD-DVD? I think it should work with BR due to them using mpeg most of the time, but I had no luck to get video working with HD-DVD. On the other hand I have no problem playing sound from HD_DVD, it seems to me that somehow I have right codec installed and MPC can decode it without any problem directly from EVO files, without any demuxing etc. Not sure if it is multi channel since I only use my TV speakers but it sounds pretty good as far as I can tell. To be honest I rather have video than sound, it seems to me it would be easier to get some type of sound, especially that there is more than one stream and different codecs could be used (AC3, DTS), so there is always a chance something should work at least sometimes, but video is like a wall, VC1 or nothing.

I agree, I have been disappointed with HD-DVD on the PC.

Hopefully with time these issues will be fixed - patched PowerDVD, more options when WinDVD and other new HD DVD software arrive, although with AACS protection now able to be bypassed we may not see as much official support for HD DVD / Blu Ray for the PC now. Even if the commercial player products (PowerDVD, WinDVD) stopped supporting HD DVD / Blu Ray, it may be possible to use tools like MPC to play HD movies, which they can do now but only video, as the sound cannot be decoded without proprietary HD Dolby/DTS decoders which are not available in the public domain.

Regards,
Dean

Hi takisoft,

Do you know if the ATI X1950Pro is supported by Powerstrip? Do you use Powerstrip to adjust the resolution and the video refresh in order to get the smooth playback? Are you using instead the ATI Center? Which catalyst version?

Thank you very much :)

Hi there!
Yes, it is supported by powerstrip and I use it in order to have the exact BenQ timings, but it works fine with the standard timings as well.
My Catalyst version is 7.2.

Does anyone else see similar issues? Obviously, if you don't have a Blu-ray drive, you won't be able to see that this switch fixes the "red" issue, but you may be able to play movies after flipping this switch on your HD DVD movies.

Disinstall the drivers , Driver Cleaner , install the drivers .
Switch immediately to old control panel in order to avoid the new control panel VIRUS.
No more problems with colors , Overlay and VMR9.

For HDDVD bandings you have to switch to ATI :)

Cheers
Antonio

Disinstall the drivers , Driver Cleaner , install the drivers .
Switch immediately to old control panel in order to avoid the new control panel VIRUS.
No more problems with colors , Overlay and VMR9.

For HDDVD bandings you have to switch to ATI :)

Cheers
Antonio


Could you explain about the control panel virus??

Cheers

Could you explain about the control panel virus??

It is very simple to explain , if I use it and save some settings I have random problems.
You can see in this thread the red push in Overlay.
VMR9 levels are not correct , if I use DVE pal for example + print screen and I verify the RGB levels they are not correct 15 16 17 instead of 16 16 16 for example.
So I don't use it.

Cheers

Ok now tell us how to switch to the old version of the control panel then.

I can't guarantee anything :)


http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1354/panel2wt6.jpg
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2470/panel1br7.jpg

William, how could you blame Cyberlink for a problem present only with Nvidia cards/drivers?

In any way, with ATI X1950Pro AND this Powedvd ultra version AND Anydvd HD AND reclock, I enjoy a wonderful smooth HD-DVD picture which exceeds by far the clarity of the desktop Toshiba HD-E1 I had in my hands for 2 weeks for a review! I really don't see any severe trade-offs, I am sorry..

I blame Cyberlink, because 6.5 puts out a perfect picture, and 7.1 does not. Therefore, to my eyes, Cyberlink changed from VMR to overlay between the two versions, despite the fact that current nvidia drivers were out long before Cyberlink released 7.1. You think they could have tested their program better, non?

Just my opinion, and yes, I'm bitter about the whole thing. :p

Again, it is apparent that the problem lies with the overlay function of the Nvidia cards/ drivers and not with Cyberlink program. After all, if it was the fault of the program, it should have affected ATI's as well... (IMO always...)

But how come PowerDVD 7.x cannot use VMR9 then? I'd say it is PowerDVD's problem - especially since I can play HD-DVDs after demuxing the video and audio and using Microsoft's and FFDShow's VC-1 decoders! And guess what - perfect video! ;)

But how come PowerDVD 7.x cannot use VMR9 then? I'd say it is PowerDVD's problem - especially since I can play HD-DVDs after demuxing the video and audio and using Microsoft's and FFDShow's VC-1 decoders! And guess what - perfect video! ;)

Could you elaborate a bit on that last point?

Ozy

Well. VMR9 is noticeably softer than Overlay with ATI cards, and I like the sharp picture I'm getting now. I'm running a 1280x720 so the situation might be different if the picture is not downscaled. Many factors might influence why something looks best. I wish Cyberlink would let us select which to use in the player. I would be annoyed if they suddenly locked it to VMR9, just like nvidia owners are annoyed that it's rendering in overlay.

I use TheaterTek and VMR9 for DVD playback because overlay adds EE with the upscaled picture.

I think its simply that hardware acceleration in PowerDVD is broken.
For me, with an 8800GTX, enabling hardware acceleration just gives me a black screen. For now, I just have it disabled.

it works for mew with 8800 GTS.
well, KK does sometimes start out blank and one other movie did once. both can be gotten going, but with KK it can be a pain. other that, no blank screen problems, no banding, no stuttering.

first, i thought batman begins was HD DVD only at this point (did they release the blu-ray?).which brings me to second point. i thought version 7.2 was for blu-ray not HD DVD? don'tyou mean you are watching with 6.5 and 7.1?
third,i noticed that 7.1 HD DVD and 7.2 blu-ray seemed to default to different color spaces, either default can look wrong depending what your display expects, they also seemed to use a different renderer.

anyway, i have only run batman begins hd dvd under 7.1 and on an nvidia 8800 GTS mine looks smooth like your 6.5 version (it also looked smooth on 7800 GT) on that scene.

i don't know what to say.

otoh, i absolutely can not get powerdvd ultra to work on vista. i see everyone and their brother at least getting it to run. mine instantly crashes no matter if i fresh install vista again or not. and my fusion hdtv stutters like mad under vista MC and also make the HD drive poll constantly,during tuning using using fusion software it instantly crashes. i also can't make vista MCE use the correct color spacefor my computer LCD and it looks washed out and horrible.



The exact time stamp I can pause and see banding is at 9:50.

Another good one is at 11:16. The wall of the room bands severely in PowerDVD 7.1.

Yes, it's an LCD. Samsung LN-S4695D, but I have no banding in 6.5 PowerDVD, so...

Here's an under-exposed screenshot of 9:50 so you can see the banding on the left, and also on the right, though not as bad. Also note the difference in Liam Neeson's forehead. You can see the banding there, too. PowerDVD 6.5 just looks gorgeous.

I wish Cyberlink could see these pictures.


POWERDVD 7.2
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a127/wgrose/IMG_0614.jpg


POWERDVD 6.5

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a127/wgrose/IMG_0620.jpg

You can clearly see the banding doesn't exist in PowerDVD 6.5.

PowerDVD 6.5 crashes and doesn't work with many movies, though..

So does anybody know how to get out of the Universal screen saver when using PowerDVD 7.1? I paused a movie for a few minutes tonight, and when I came back there was a Universal Screen save running. To my astonishment, pressing pause again, or even Play paused/played the screen saver and not the actual movie. I tried hitting escape, I tried bringing up the Title or Root menu (unsuccessfully), but I could not for the life of me get that @!)(*#$) screen saver to stop. I finally had to pull up right-click menu, and on the "Go To" submenu find the Title corresponding to the movie and guess at which chapter would get me close to where I was.

yeah a pain in the ass bug.

I did notice the same thing to these screenshots. Of course it is unacceptable but it just seems that the color saturation in the overlay settings of the Nvidia card is way off. If properly calibrated it should have the exact same result as the Powerdvd 6.5 which uses VMR9.
In my ATI, there is no such problems (oversaturated colors and banding).

i thought he said he purposely underexposed the photo?

if not, then his problem is simply the color space, gamma mess. it is easy to get the control panel to forget to handle the gamma properly and make it look like a dark underexposed mess like that. re-install nvidia drivers and touch nothing. try chaning the cyberlink colorspace registry setting. if that doesn'twork then do go into nvidia panel to adjust the expansion, if need be, you may need to tick and untick gamma and stuff a few times, sometimes it gets confused.it'svery weird and touchy. with one of my boot partions i originall had to set certain registry bits for nvida and do color panel stuff, then later they had a different effect and i had toundo. anyway, crossing fingers i do have zero banding and proper PC levels for my monitor now and no banding with either7.1or 7.2 and running 8800 GTS.

WilliamG, I see the same banding issues with 7.1 - I have an NVIDIA 7900GT, Windows XP, tested with the 92.91 and 93.71 drivers. I have not tested with the hacked 97.92 drivers yet.

I am using PowerDVD 6.5 - it looks much better. It uses VMR9 and it still does level expansion to PC levels, but no banding.

sometimes is startsusing wrong color space,if you mess around you can make both versions of renering and 7.1 and 7.2 come out ok.

it works for mew with 8800 GTS.
well, KK does sometimes start out blank and one other movie did once. both can be gotten going, but with KK it can be a pain. other that, no blank screen problems, no banding, no stuttering.

Hmm...KK has been my reference for all testing. Next HD DVD I get from Netflix, I'll try hardware acceleration again.

But how come PowerDVD 7.x cannot use VMR9 then? I'd say it is PowerDVD's problem - especially since I can play HD-DVDs after demuxing the video and audio and using Microsoft's and FFDShow's VC-1 decoders! And guess what - perfect video! ;)

Max, as I mentioned earlier, the wierd thing is that with the 6.5 version, I do have VMR9 in an older ATI X800 card but NOT in my brand-new ATI X1950 pro with the latest catalysts ! I also tried it with older catalyst versions, without any difference..
With the Ultra edition, in both ATI cards the overlay is always used.
In any case, even with overlay, the image is outlstanding with no banding or BB/AW clipping.

Anyword from cyberlink about upcoming patches and bug fixes?

Hi,

hope somebody can help me (it´s hard for me to read all the threads and posts to find the location for the searched information in english language :confused: ):

Is it possible to install PowerDVD Ultra in a way, so that I can use it for both, BD and HD-DVD, in one computer-session - means: without booting another partition or something like this ?

Or am I always forced to decide BD / HD-DVD at the installation?

Hope, this is the right thread for the question (sitting here with an english dictionary :eek: )

Is it possible to install PowerDVD Ultra in a way, so that I can use it for both, BD and HD-DVD, in one computer-session - means: without booting another partition or something like this ?

Yes, you can install both parallel. Follow this guide (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=952686)

Thank you very much :) ... any idea, why Cyberlink does not have this feature in their software?

Thank you very much :) ... any idea, why Cyberlink does not have this feature in their software?

It is supposed to be part of the 7.3 build we are all waiting for, scheduled to be this week!!!!

Cheers

It is supposed to be part of the 7.3 build we are all waiting for, scheduled to be this week!!!!

Cheers


Awesome!!!!

I will have to figure out how to completely undo the dual install though.

- Rich

Awesome!!!!

I will have to figure out how to completely undo the dual install though.

- Rich


Yeah, all I need now is a cheap Blu-ray player :rolleyes:

Yeah, all I need now is a cheap Blu-ray player :rolleyes:

I think a BD-ROM drive would be better.

You already have cheap ones but they are expensive :rolleyes:

- Rich

I think a BD-ROM drive would be better.

You already have cheap ones but they are expensive :rolleyes:

- Rich

Yep either a MS BD-ROM or I'm going to have to hope my Lotto numbers come up

I really do wonder how long it will be before the blu-ray drive prices are reasonable?

Cheers

Yep either a MS BD-ROM or I'm going to have to hope my Lotto numbers come up

I really do wonder how long it will be before the blu-ray drive prices are reasonable?

Cheers

Who knows. There was nothing at CES. You would expect that if Sony is offering a $600 player later this year you should be able to buy a drive for it before then.

- Rich

hi, I have 7.1 ultra. Interestingly, I am able to run both hddvd and BD at the same time without follow the guide at Doom9.
When I open the program, it has the bluray icon in the left lower corner, I can use it to play the bluray movie file without problem. In addition, when I choose the HD DVD movie in the Xbox 360 addon drive as the source, it automatically swith to hddvd. Anyone else able to do that? Cause I don't understand why the trouble to go through to complicated guide.

Yep either a MS BD-ROM or I'm going to have to hope my Lotto numbers come up

I really do wonder how long it will be before the blu-ray drive prices are reasonable?

Cheers

after scouring ebay for weeks i managed to find one for 'only' $350 (less really since it included disks). it is tough to find them under $400 and even under $450 might take a week or two.

hi, I have 7.1 ultra. Interestingly, I am able to run both hddvd and BD at the same time without follow the guide at Doom9.
When I open the program, it has the bluray icon in the left lower corner, I can use it to play the bluray movie file without problem. In addition, when I choose the HD DVD movie in the Xbox 360 addon drive as the source, it automatically swith to hddvd. Anyone else able to do that? Cause I don't understand why the trouble to go through to complicated guide.
Definitely doesn't work for me, unless you have a new build.

hi, I have 7.1 ultra. Interestingly, I am able to run both hddvd and BD at the same time without follow the guide at Doom9.
When I open the program, it has the bluray icon in the left lower corner, I can use it to play the bluray movie file without problem. In addition, when I choose the HD DVD movie in the Xbox 360 addon drive as the source, it automatically swith to hddvd. Anyone else able to do that? Cause I don't understand why the trouble to go through to complicated guide.


Could you possibly find out what your build date is?

Cheers

hi, I have 7.1 ultra. Interestingly, I am able to run both hddvd and BD at the same time without follow the guide at Doom9.
When I open the program, it has the bluray icon in the left lower corner, I can use it to play the bluray movie file without problem. In addition, when I choose the HD DVD movie in the Xbox 360 addon drive as the source, it automatically swith to hddvd. Anyone else able to do that? Cause I don't understand why the trouble to go through to complicated guide.

What BD drive your using? Sony or Lite-On?

What BD drive your using? Sony or Lite-On?
No BD drive connected to my PC. I do have a PS3 if you know what I mean. So I guess it may not work for anyone. But I can confirm the 7.1 can install the BD part without the drive. Basically, I first installed the 7.1 with the xbox 360 addon connected, and selected the hddvd option. Then I disconnect the hddvd drive and run the 7.1 BD setup. This time I used the setup.exe in the BD folder. After the setup complete, the program showed the BD icon. I connected the xbox360 addon back, and 7.1 automatically switch to hddvd if I choose the xbox drive as the source.
For those do have a BD drive, maybe you can try the above steps but only connect your BD after installation complete. I can not find the build day of my 7.1. It does have a SR number: DVD061206-05.

LG Electronics has cut the retail price of its GBW-H10N Blu-ray Disc Super Multi DVD writer by 33% to US$605 for the Taiwan Market, according to this DigiTimes report. This drive currently features the quickest Blu-ray writing speed of 4x for single layer BD-R media. This price production is LG’s aim to clear out its inventory of the drives and increase its market share in preparation for new Blu-ray disc writers hitting the market during the first half of this year.

So far, none of the other Blu-ray writer manufacturers have announced any price cuts yet for their Blu-ray drives. When it comes to 18x DVD writers, OEM quotations have fallen to around US$25 as a result of strong competition.

It is nice to finally see a significant cut in Blu-ray writer pricing, especially for this 4x drive, as hopefully this will start competition with the other manufacturers to push their prices down also. However, the pricing has a long way to come down yet before they become affordable to most consumers and the media is still far more expensive per gigabyte than double layer recordable DVDs. At present, they would make a good alternative to DAT drives and entry level DLT drives for servers, especially when it comes to recovering files.

Super Multi Blue Blu-ray Disc Rewriter
http://www.lge.com/products/model/detail/gbw-h10n.jhtml

LG GBW-H10N Blu Ray Burner Review
http://www.burnworld.com/blu-ray/burners/lg-gbwh10n.htm

LG GBW-H10N
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=19673

Personally, I want somebody to come out with a BD ROM drive, I don't need a writer in my HTPC. I paid $199 for the 360 HD-DVD drive and that included a movie. If there were a similar option on the BD side I'd be dual format right now.

ditto...
Although I'd still feel like a tool for spending $400 on drives to play both formats.
A better solution would be for all these Blue Ray only titles to get released on HD DVD as well. The industry really is pushing the limits of how much bull$hit I'm willing to deal with to be entertained.

Personally, I want somebody to come out with a BD ROM drive, I don't need a writer in my HTPC. I paid $199 for the 360 HD-DVD drive and that included a movie. If there were a similar option on the BD side I'd be dual format right now.

Yes!
I cannot figure out why there isn't one. Some guesses:

1) Used them up on PS3's
2) Want you to just buy the PS3
3) The CE side hates the PC

I think it is all of the above ;)

- Rich

WilliamG,
finally picked up Batman Begins HD-DVD :)

i went to the scene you posted and i see no banding at all nor is my color as red/dark as yours. using 7.1 w/ 8800gts.

Even with your screenshot of 6.5 you are really loosing a lot of shadow detail and your image is overall very dark. I had the same problem and i changed the colorpsace of powerdvd to normal, you might want to give that a try.

I'll post a screenshot of mine at the same spot as yours when i get home.

Has anyone found a fix for the subtitles being on by defualt in Power DVD??
I only have King Kong and Batman Begins so far and on both I have to turn off subtitles after starting the movie. Anyway to fix this for good? Thanks.

WilliamG,
finally picked up Batman Begins HD-DVD :)

i went to the scene you posted and i see no banding at all nor is my color as red/dark as yours. using 7.1 w/ 8800gts.

Even with your screenshot of 6.5 you are really loosing a lot of shadow detail and your image is overall very dark. I had the same problem and i changed the colorpsace of powerdvd to normal, you might want to give that a try.

I'll post a screenshot of mine at the same spot as yours when i get home.

I have a dual install. For HD DVD (7.1), the colorspace is wrong I think. I have to turn the brightness up to +10. For BD (7.2), I can leave it at close to 0.

Perhaps this will all get fixed in 7.3.

- Rich

I have a dual install. For HD DVD (7.1), the colorspace is wrong I think. I have to turn the brightness up to +10. For BD (7.2), I can leave it at close to 0.

Perhaps this will all get fixed in 7.3.

- Rich

I notice that any color correction I make in 7.1, affects 7.2. I have to go back and change the brightness with whatever version I'm currently using.

And I agree, I hope it gets fixed with 7.3.

Also, sometimes I get no video, just audio, when playing HD-DVDs or AVC .ts files. Rebooting the machine fixes the problem. BDs always play back perfectly. It's gotta be a bug (along with killing Overlay-use in MPC, that I mentioned before).

I can't remember if I mentioned this before - but it appears PowerDVD 6.5 does levels expansion - 16-235 is expanded to the 0-255 levels range. I have not found a way to turn this off - the COLORSPACE registry hack didn't work for me.

Oh well. I'm working on a solution to HD-DVD playback without using PowerDVD at all - but it is very ugly - demux the video and audio, recombine them in an MKV, then create a graph for use in Zoomplayer or TheaterTek. But this requires massive amounts of hard drive space - 3x the space taken by the movie, and probably a couple of hours of work to demux and remux. Audio playback is still an issue - there are no free decoders and PowerDVD doesn't supply a DirectShow filter that works with the new formats.

hi, sorry to bother you, maybe it's been said before, but i can't get an anamorphic output (for anamorphic lens) with pdvd ultra. any ideas? thanks!

I think some people are using YXY to accomplish this. Have you tried that?

no not really. if there is no way pdvd can do it by itself i'll try that one! thanks!

WilliamG,
finally picked up Batman Begins HD-DVD :)

i went to the scene you posted and i see no banding at all nor is my color as red/dark as yours. using 7.1 w/ 8800gts.

Even with your screenshot of 6.5 you are really loosing a lot of shadow detail and your image is overall very dark. I had the same problem and i changed the colorpsace of powerdvd to normal, you might want to give that a try.

I'll post a screenshot of mine at the same spot as yours when i get home.

I haven't even calibrated the image yet for 7.1, that's why. There's absolutely no point given the banding I experience.

What driver are you using with your 8800? I'm using 93.71 with my 7600 or 7900. Also curious if you can go to the information and tell me if the 8800 is using VMR or overlay?

That information will help! Thanks!

I picked up an internal Blu-Ray drive today so I decided to email Cyberlink to see about support for both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD in one program. They responded by sending me 7.3 which supports both and works great.

So, dump .1 and .2 for .3? Dthigpen, experience with previous editions?

So, dump .1 and .2 for .3? Dthigpen, experience with previous editions?

7.1 worked just fine when I had a HD-DVD drive only. 7.3 works just great with both my existing HD-DVD drive and my new Blu-Ray drive. Have played both using the newest version of AnyDVDHD to circumvent the need for HDCP. 7.3 also has the Purevideo HD Icon on the startup screen (using a Geforce 8800 GTS 640M under Vista Ultimate) and when playing back regular DVDs, HD-DVDs, and Blu-Ray discs, Hardware Acceleration remains checked when I go into configuration.

I would recommend anyone using multi-install workarounds to just contact tech support via the member sections on the web site so you can get the upgrade and operate correctly until they release it to the public.

I haven't even calibrated the image yet for 7.1, that's why. There's absolutely no point given the banding I experience.

What driver are you using with your 8800? I'm using 93.71 with my 7600 or 7900. Also curious if you can go to the information and tell me if the 8800 is using VMR or overlay?

That information will help! Thanks!
Display Information:
Display Mode: DirectDraw
FourCC Code: YUY2
Surface Type: Overlay

Driver: 97.92

and i guess the redness in your picture is b/c of the camera...since i had the same result when i took a picture, the picture comes out overly red, i cant seem to take a good picture, but here are 2:

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7677/bb003xc1.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1672/bb012pq1.jpg

Thank you for the reply! I may have to try 97.92 to see if that works better...

Currently on 93.71.

Do you have h/w accel enabled?

Also, would you mind getting me a screenshot of 11:16, as well. That shot has SEVERE banding, so I'm interested to see that on your setup.

Thanks so much.

Do you have h/w accel enabled?

Also, would you mind getting me a screenshot of 11:16, as well. That shot has SEVERE banding, so I'm interested to see that on your setup.

Thanks so much.
No, H/W accel is off.
god, pictures come out really bad and very red :P
but here is 11:16

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/1503/bb005lr3.jpg

Anyone know how to always have subtitles off during HD-DVD playback??

I'm using PowerDVD 7.1 and while I know how to turn off the subtitles once the movie is playing, I'd like to have them off by default.

Thanks for the screenshot. Yep, you have a clean-ish ceiling there. I'd have to reinstall 6.5 to compare, but you'd know if you had banding by the shimmering in the ceiling/wall to the right.

I tried 97.92 and had the same problems. Not sure what the deal is. :(

All I know is it ticks me off!

Thank you for taking those screenshots, though. I'll have to wait it out, I guess.

Anyone know how to always have subtitles off during HD-DVD playback??

I'm using PowerDVD 7.1 and while I know how to turn off the subtitles once the movie is playing, I'd like to have them off by default.

E-mail Cyberlink and tell them they suck and to fix it. Other than that, there is no way to fix this bug.

Thanks for the screenshot. Yep, you have a clean-ish ceiling there. I'd have to reinstall 6.5 to compare, but you'd know if you had banding by the shimmering in the ceiling/wall to the right.

I tried 97.92 and had the same problems. Not sure what the deal is. :(

All I know is it ticks me off!

Thank you for taking those screenshots, though. I'll have to wait it out, I guess.

I have a 7950 NVidia card and I've been fighting banding, color and driver problems, and stuttering when hardware acceleration is turned on. I ordered an ATI HDCP XT 1650 because people with ATI seem to be having good luck (Newegg, $135).

I uninstalled the NVidia drivers, swapped cards, and installed the latest ATI drivers (drivers only - no Catalyst). Boom, problems fixed. Smooth playback, no color banding (huge difference), no red tint - it just worked. Also, with hardware acceleration on, my 6600 Intel is usually running about 20-25% load on the few movies I checked CPU load on (pretty unbelievable, really). I'm using PowerDVD 7.3.

I'm kinda pissed because this is a 45 day old NVidia card, but ... problem solved, so I guess I'm happy.

I spent *many* hours on this problem, tweaking, twisting, reinstalling drivers, etc. I assume that NVidia will correct the problem sometime, but if you don't want to wait, or you don't want to fight this any more, try picking up an ATI card.

- Pete

So with 7.3 we cannot disable hw/acc.?

Does PowerDVD Ultra convert TrueHD to Dolby Digital 5.1 on SPDIF when playing HD DVD? Or do you need an hardware encoder for DD on the sound card to do this?

I picked up an internal Blu-Ray drive today so I decided to email Cyberlink to see about support for both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD in one program. They responded by sending me 7.3 which supports both and works great.



7.3 doesn't appear to be released yet??

7.3 doesn't appear to be released yet??

As I clearly stated in my posted, I contacted Cyberlink technical support and they sent me version 7.3.

As I clearly stated in my posted, I contacted Cyberlink technical support and they sent me version 7.3.

Yeah, well done, not really the point, I spoke to them yesterday and they told me the final release for 7.3 could still be more than a week away, it is not available on their site yet!

As I clearly stated in my posted, I contacted Cyberlink technical support and they sent me version 7.3.

Any other major changes you've noticed so far???

Any other major changes you've noticed so far???

Hardware accelration for all HD formats under Vista, as well as the PureVideoHD Icon now showing on the startup screen.

dthigpen, can you verify if 7.3 uses VMR9 now? If you use Reclock it can let you know.

I have a 7950 NVidia card and I've been fighting banding, color and driver problems, and stuttering when hardware acceleration is turned on. I ordered an ATI HDCP XT 1650 because people with ATI seem to be having good luck (Newegg, $135).

I uninstalled the NVidia drivers, swapped cards, and installed the latest ATI drivers (drivers only - no Catalyst). Boom, problems fixed. Smooth playback, no color banding (huge difference), no red tint - it just worked. Also, with hardware acceleration on, my 6600 Intel is usually running about 20-25% load on the few movies I checked CPU load on (pretty unbelievable, really). I'm using PowerDVD 7.3.

I'm kinda pissed because this is a 45 day old NVidia card, but ... problem solved, so I guess I'm happy.

I spent *many* hours on this problem, tweaking, twisting, reinstalling drivers, etc. I assume that NVidia will correct the problem sometime, but if you don't want to wait, or you don't want to fight this any more, try picking up an ATI card.

- Pete

Your 7950 experience is also my experience. Are you comparing 7.3 with the 7950 to 7.3 with the XT 1650? Or does 7.3 just fix all the problems?

dthigpen, can you verify if 7.3 uses VMR9 now? If you use Reclock it can let you know.

I'll try it out when I get home.

Max, the reclock report is innacurate. It reports VMR9 renderless when it is in fact overlay (do the check with powerstrip gamma or try to make a screencap & then paste into paint=black picture=overlay).
BTW I also use 7.3 and it finally can open both hd-dvd and BR at the same time!

Max, the reclock report is innacurate. It reports VMR9 renderless when it is in fact overlay (do the check with powerstrip gamma or try to make a screencap & then paste into paint=black picture=overlay).
BTW I also use 7.3 and it finally can open both hd-dvd and BR at the same time!

Well there's your answer. (I'm loving 7.3, by the way)

Your 7950 experience is also my experience. Are you comparing 7.3 with the 7950 to 7.3 with the XT 1650? Or does 7.3 just fix all the problems?

7.3 fixed none of the banding or color problems. It allows BD and HD DVD on the same instance, but that's the only change that I really noticed that affected me (a few other incidentals, but nothing picture quality related). I had 7.3 installed for about a week with the 7950 trying to get it working right (I had it *almost* working well enough to watch movies on without getting distracted by color issues, but not quite well enough).

When I installed the ATI card, that's the only change I made and the picture quality improvement was significant. Don't expect 7.3 to solve your problems. Complain to NVidia, or buy an ATI card. (I suspect that the 8800 NVidia might solve the problem too, but I couldn't stomach buying another $300+ NVidia card with its own set of driver issues, especially when $135 gets a supported ATI card).

- Pete

You guys are hooking your PCs up to your TV, well I don't have an HDTV, just my Dell 24" LCD, and the colors look fine to me.

Strange - Reclock properly reported VMR9 for PowerDVD 6.5 - I even did the screenshot and MS Paint overlay color test. I would say that PowerDVD 7.x is screwed up and is reporting very strange things to the renderer - that could explain why there are so many problems.

darkjedi - colors (aside from banding) would look okay because most LCD monitors only work with PC levels - assuming your PowerDVD is set to PC levels colorspace (aka value of 3 in the COLORSPACES registry setting).

the people with 7.3, any chance they included a integrated solution for playing hd/br inside of mce ?

arghh, just played around with yxy, can't get the vertical stretch working. anyone here who did it? thanks!!!

Play a disc, right click, Aspect Ratio, and select the stretch to fit screen option in PDVD. It works just fine after you do that.

Vern

kinda weird. when i use pdvd on my desktop (using 1280x960) and i select stretch to fit screen, i get the vertical strech, no probelm. bloody pdvd, what do i need an anamorphic strech on a 4:3 crt screen!!!!!!!!!!!!!
when using it with my pj (native 1,78:1) it won't do anything when selecting stretch to fit... xyx just keeps shifting the window around
tell you what, as soon as zp supports hddvd, pdvd goes down... at least on my machine.

7.3 fixed none of the banding or color problems. It allows BD and HD DVD on the same instance, but that's the only change that I really noticed that affected me (a few other incidentals, but nothing picture quality related). I had 7.3 installed for about a week with the 7950 trying to get it working right (I had it *almost* working well enough to watch movies on without getting distracted by color issues, but not quite well enough).

When I installed the ATI card, that's the only change I made and the picture quality improvement was significant. Don't expect 7.3 to solve your problems. Complain to NVidia, or buy an ATI card. (I suspect that the 8800 NVidia might solve the problem too, but I couldn't stomach buying another $300+ NVidia card with its own set of driver issues, especially when $135 gets a supported ATI card).

- Pete

Thank you for this information. What an annoyance. I can't believe Cyberlink won't admit this is a problem with THEIR software. I sincerely believe it IS Cyberlink's problem. Nvidia's drivers have been around a lot longer than Cyberlink's HD-compatible DVD/Blu-ray software. And Cyberlink DID change something from 6.5 to 7.x, since 6.5 looks PERFECT.

Just...gah!

Thank you for this information. What an annoyance. I can't believe Cyberlink won't admit this is a problem with THEIR software. I sincerely believe it IS Cyberlink's problem. Nvidia's drivers have been around a lot longer than Cyberlink's HD-compatible DVD/Blu-ray software. And Cyberlink DID change something from 6.5 to 7.x, since 6.5 looks PERFECT.

Just...gah!

If it works with an ATI card, then I'd suspect the nvidia drivers.

Play a disc, right click, Aspect Ratio, and select the stretch to fit screen option in PDVD. It works just fine after you do that.

Vern
Also you CAN NOT be in full screen mode.

Thank you for this information. What an annoyance. I can't believe Cyberlink won't admit this is a problem with THEIR software. I sincerely believe it IS Cyberlink's problem. Nvidia's drivers have been around a lot longer than Cyberlink's HD-compatible DVD/Blu-ray software. And Cyberlink DID change something from 6.5 to 7.x, since 6.5 looks PERFECT.

Just...gah!

I blame the NVidia Overlay system on this problem. Maybe Cyberlink is incorrectly forcing the use of Overlay, but NVidia's bugged overlay system is the thing that's banding. Who knows, really, who's responsible. I think the responsibility is somewhat shared. This is relatively bleeding edge stuff.

I was just messing around a bit more. I got the Nine Inch Nails HD DVD in the mail today and AnyDVD doesn't remove the content protection on that title, so I had to play it protected.

It turns out there's a problem with the ATI implementation too - I can't get it to recognize my video stream as HDCP compliant, and looking through the posts here, it seems like I'm not the only one - it's pretty prevalent. As long as you take off the AACS stuff with AnyDVD, the ATI card works perfectly, but if you need to play a title where PowerDVD requires a HDCP protected path, there's still a potential problem there (honestly, this happened to me with the NVidia drivers occasionally too, so I'm not sure where the problem really lies with ATI alone, but there are quite a few posts on problems with ATI cards with HDCP). I gave the ATI card a full thumbs-up yesterday, but it looks like I was a bit premature on that. Take that into consideration on your future plans. I'll post back here if / when I find a solution (I'm hoping Cyberlink support can help with this...).

- Pete

Does Purevideo HD (x264) decoding work in Vista?

I was really hoping we'd get VMR9 rendering with 7.3. I'm pretty aggrevated with this software. This overlay crap has got to go.
I'd love to get some indication that TheaterTek is going to get involved with HD playback.

Does Purevideo HD (x264) decoding work in Vista?

I can say that with the 100.65 Drivers and PowerDVD Ultra 7.3, yes it is.

I blame the NVidia Overlay system on this problem. Maybe Cyberlink is incorrectly forcing the use of Overlay, but NVidia's bugged overlay system is the thing that's banding. Who knows, really, who's responsible. I think the responsibility is somewhat shared. This is relatively bleeding edge stuff.

I was just messing around a bit more. I got the Nine Inch Nails HD DVD in the mail today and AnyDVD doesn't remove the content protection on that title, so I had to play it protected.

It turns out there's a problem with the ATI implementation too - I can't get it to recognize my video stream as HDCP compliant, and looking through the posts here, it seems like I'm not the only one - it's pretty prevalent. As long as you take off the AACS stuff with AnyDVD, the ATI card works perfectly, but if you need to play a title where PowerDVD requires a HDCP protected path, there's still a potential problem there (honestly, this happened to me with the NVidia drivers occasionally too, so I'm not sure where the problem really lies with ATI alone, but there are quite a few posts on problems with ATI cards with HDCP). I gave the ATI card a full thumbs-up yesterday, but it looks like I was a bit premature on that. Take that into consideration on your future plans. I'll post back here if / when I find a solution (I'm hoping Cyberlink support can help with this...).

- Pete

Essentially the impression I'm getting is that HD-DVD on PCs is pretty worthless right now. So many issues! That Toshiba XA2 is looking so much more tempting as days go by...

I can say that with the 100.65 Drivers and PowerDVD Ultra 7.3, yes it is.

So h.264 will get hardware decoded with 100.65 and PDVD 7.3?

Essentially the impression I'm getting is that HD-DVD on PCs is pretty worthless right now. So many issues! That Toshiba XA2 is looking so much more tempting as days go by...
Worthless? Not at all! :) But you know what? Software and drivers are getting better all the time and that is part of the fun with HTPCs. The ability to tweak, try new things, fudge a little here & there is what I enjoy. Of course, HD DVD is relatively new so some of these things are to be expected, but all in all HD DVD is VERY exciting, whether you're using an HTPC or a stand alone player.

Btw, the price on the HD-A2 is coming down really fast, so now is an excellent time to get a stand alone if you're opting for one. Even the HD-XA2 can be had for $699 - $749. Toshiba even has a promotion right now with something like 5 free HD DVDs (and www.********************* adds 2 more free HD DVDs on top even that).

Essentially the impression I'm getting is that HD-DVD on PCs is pretty worthless right now. So many issues! That Toshiba XA2 is looking so much more tempting as days go by...

You are joking right? Read this review (http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/hreview_hdxa2030207.html) and you will find out that there are issues with desktop players as well..

William, reality check: just because you cannot get good results with your graphics card, it doesnt mean that HD-DVDs are worthless on PCs!
In fact, in my opinion, if properly calibrated, an HTPC is right now the Premiere solution for HD-DVD and BluRay playback, as it offers outstanding picture quality, supports all lossless audio formats via analog not to mention native judder-free 1080p24/28/72 support.
So, if you cant wait for Nvidia to resolve its issues, go buy an ATI card, couple it with AnyDVD HD & reclock and you are good to go! Jeez!

You are joking right? Read this review (http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/hreview_hdxa2030207.html) and you will find out that there are issues with desktop players as well..

William, reality check: just because you cannot get good results with your graphics card, it doesnt mean that HD-DVDs are worthless on PCs!
In fact, in my opinion, if properly calibrated, an HTPC is right now the Premiere solution for HD-DVD and BluRay playback, as it offers outstanding picture quality, supports all lossless audio formats via analog not to mention native judder-free 1080p24/28/72 support.
So, if you cant wait for Nvidia to resolve its issues, go buy an ATI card, couple it with AnyDVD HD & reclock and you are good to go! Jeez!

I'm pissy! Can't you tell. :o Let me be pissy, darn you! :p

It's all a waiting game with PCs. Always waiting for some driver to be released...

But, I will argue it's not just MY graphics card. There's clearly a problem with ALL 7xxx series Nvidia graphics cards, since I've tried a 7600 and a 7900 on two different machines with the exact same results. It's especially frustrating since PowerDVD 6.5 worked great (for the 1.4957 movies 6.5 works properly with :rolleyes: ).

By the way, thanks for the link to that review. Very interesting. You are indeed correct that even standalones experience their problems. Dare I say Blu-ray is a much more stable format in my experience?

Oh, that's another can of worms.... Recently, I tried a Panasonic BR player and it was sooo slooow....

Oh, that's another can of worms.... Recently, I tried a Panasonic BR player and it was sooo slooow....

Hehe. I have a PS3 for Blu-ray, and it's fantastic. So fast, so stable, etc, and it doesn't experience that chapter-skip-stutter the 360 HD-DVD drive has, whether connected to 360 or PC! By this I mean when you skip a chapter, the first few frames literally skip. For some reason it bugs me. :p

That said, my standalone HD-A2 didn't have this problem, so I'll chalk it up to USB.

I have also seen PS3 and it is indeed very good, except of the slightly jerky motion (it must be the 3:2 pulldown). In any case, I rate it best among the other BR's players I've seen (Samsung & Panasonic).

I was really hoping we'd get VMR9 rendering with 7.3. I'm pretty aggrevated with this software. This overlay crap has got to go.


PDVD 7.3 doesn't use overlay anymore. You can tell cos in Vista, it has to switch to aero basic to do overlay. It did in 7.2, doesn't in 7.3.

Not sure about colour expansion though, don't have time to test atm.


Correction: this is wrong, was playing video files. Playing back discs it uses overlay as per 7.2 :mad:

arfster, have you confirmed the use of VMR9? You could try the IrfanView trick, or open MS Paint and fill the canvas with the color 16,0,16 and see if it stays that color or magically transforms into the PowerDVD window.

Oh - are you only running Vista? I guess you can't test XP then?

In Vista, maybe PDVD7.3 is using the new renderer, forget what it's called. Supposedly, TT2.5 is going to use it.

Well I have some good news and bad news. Having beaten Cyberlink up about why some people are getting 7.3 and others being fobbed-off I got home today to find a link to the 7.3 duely downloaded installed fine. ATI hardware acceleration seems to be enabled now, sat back and

ERROR CODE 0013

Incompatible graphics driver, funny I'm using the latest Cat 7.2's

Run advisor and ALL GREEN

Oh well another ticket, bet I can't go backwards now either....

Has anyone else got version 7.3 working with an ATI X1950Pro on Cat 7.2s??

Cheers

arfster, have you confirmed the use of VMR9? You could try the IrfanView trick, or open MS Paint and fill the canvas with the color 16,0,16 and see if it stays that color or magically transforms into the PowerDVD window.

Oh - are you only running Vista? I guess you can't test XP then?


Sorry, I was wrong, it is still using overlay. On media files it's using some form of VMR (or perhaps EVR), both of which work fine with Aero. On actual HDDVD discs, it switches to overlay :-((

I don't have XP on this machine, could install it on the 2nd disk though if needed.

Ouch! Well, if it is using Overlay even in Vista, I seriously doubt it would work in XP.

One last thing to try as a last resort - you could inspect the registry settings and see if VMR was disabled there. I doubt it though.

Hey, if you load an EVO file instead of the HD-DVD directory, will it use VMR?

Sorry for making you do all these dumb tests arfster. :)

Blah, 7.2 now can't play my h264 discs at all, regardless of whether acceleration is on/off (vista, 6600gt, 100.65). It just stalls at the start.

However, if I decrypt and fire the EVOBs through graphedit using the latest haali splitter as source, it appears the cyberlink AVC decoder won't connect to overlay at all. It connects and plays to VMR9 perfectly though! This is something I've seen before: overlay and cyberlink don't really get on in Vista, but at least in previous version you got a picture. This might be unique to the combination of my drivers and somewhat elderly graphics card, you never know.

Using the graphedit setup on decrypted stuff, CPU usage is at 55%, and turning opn DXVA makes no difference (not a surprise with a 6600GT) - although at least it doesn't crash it. This CPU usage is about the same as previous versions.

VC1 discs seem to get a nice benefit with 7.3 - I'm at 30% for Batman Begins without DXVA, but 16% with. This should be nice for slower machines, as it means VC1 discs should play on just about anything.

re: 7.3

Motion is much better for me, I used to get horrific stuttering on full camera plans which is somwhat reduced. Doubt the software is entirely to blame here, and I welcome the improvement. I'm actually wondering if it's something to do w/ the Nvidia drivers coz I remember something in release notes about 60hz being messed up.

Total Recall now plays without messing around w/ AnyDVD HD.
Subtitles issue seems gone.
Hardware acceleration now works.
You can indeed play either HD-DVD or Blu Ray from the same install, and both have sections in the options menu.

Shall do more testing, but it's a very definite step in the right direction!

Using 100.65 Vista drivers, on 8800GTS @ 1080p/60hz.

CDJay

Update: using Directshow haali>cyberlink>vmr9, there is _no_ colour expansion happening. I've taken screenshots, and black is 16/16/16. Don't have working audio yet though.

Now, if I can just persuade PDVD via the registry to use vmr9, we're sorted . For some reason it's defaulting to overlay, probably because they presume most people are using PCs to playback, and thus want the colour expansion of overlay.

PDVD 7.3 does not work with the Sapphire HDMI driver anymore (sound, but black screen). I have to use Cat. 7.2, but there I have to switch from HDMI to DVI-D / AnyDVD (non-HDCP). Also there is still no ATI Hardware Acceleration.

EDIT: Found a newer and working HDMI driver Version 8.301 on the Visiontek Website. :D

Is 7.3 available? If so can someone post a link?

- Rich

Is 7.3 available? If so can someone post a link?

- Rich

Submit a ticket to support via the Members section of the website letting them know you have both a HD-DVD and Blu-Ray drive and they'll send you the link and a new CD Key.

Is anyone else getting an error message in 7.3, saying their driver is incompatible?

I ran the cyberlink advisor and everything is green. I updated my graphics driver to the latest version to be sure, and even that didn't help.

Everything worked fine in 7.2.

My specs are:

Core 2 Duo E6400
1GB ddr2
ATI X1950XT (HDCP)
LG L19W4T (HDCP) VIA DVI
XBOX 360 HD-DVD

:confused:

Is anyone else getting an error message in 7.3, saying their driver is incompatible?


Yes. Error 0013. Several people above have reported this same error, and I'm getting that error too (very similar hardware to yours). AnyDVD HD takes care of it for movies that it works on, but there are a few movies that don't work with AnyDVD, and with those you just can't play until we figure out the ATI problem. I submitted a support ticket to ATI yesterday and haven't heard back yet.

- Pete

Is anyone else getting an error message in 7.3, saying their driver is incompatible?

:confused:

Cat 7.2: Error message / HDMI 8.301 Driver: No error message

Athlon X2 4200 @ 4700
ATI X1600 Pro HDMI (HDCP)
LG 32LX2R (HDCP) via HDMI / LG 901 CRT via VGA to DVI Adapter

Submit a ticket to support via the Members section of the website letting them know you have both a HD-DVD and Blu-Ray drive and they'll send you the link and a new CD Key.

I did that last night. No response so far...

- Rich

I was getting the error message. A simple uninstall-reinstall seemed to take care of the problem. I was only getting the error when I tried to play a HD-DVD disc. Blu-Ray worked fine.

sorry to bother you all again, but anamorphic stretch with pdvd ultra still won't work for me. does 7.3 support anamorphic stretch? where do i get the correct verison of yxy. my current just keeps shifting the image around, no matter what i do.

I did that last night. No response so far...

- Rich

Took them about 4 hours to respond to my ticket submitted in the morning (PST) two days ago.

Took them about 4 hours to respond to my ticket submitted in the morning (PST) two days ago.

I gave up and called tech support since I gave them the $29, I figured I should get something for it.

Thanks,

Rich

I gave up and called tech support since I gave them the $29, I figured I should get something for it.

Thanks,

Rich

$29? Cost me $99, heh.

I just finished watching my first h.264 AVC HD-DVD: Lucky # Slevin.

ATI Hardware Acc. AVIVO is possible with 7.3, but CPU usage did not drop - very strange. Also altough CPU usage never got over 85 % (mostly between 60 and 80%) the image had quite strong stutters with and without AVIVO. It seems like a h.264 problem with PowerDVD.

Looks like I'm gonna have to go back to 7.2 until this error thing is resolved.

$29? Cost me $99, heh.

$99 + $29 for the phone support option.

- Rich

7.1 = Video
7.3 = No video

Back to powerdvd 7.1 for me. Can't get any video after I start the movie, menu's work fine along with sound.

XP
E6600
8800GTS With 97.92 drivers
stereo 2 channel selected

Installed 7.3.

No video or sound from HDD with or w/o AnyDVD HD.

Message:

"Cyberlink PowerDVD has encountered a problem and needs to shut down"...and get the hell out of my computer.

I was smart enough to back up my system before installing.

Nice try, Cyberlink.

CPU: C2D 1.8->3.29
VideoCard: XFX 7600GT nVidia
Driver: 97.xx
OS: XP SP2

Guys quoting problems: could you pls mention a quick summary of your systems? (processor, gpu, driver version). It makes it easier to see any pattern, and if by any chance PDVD support people wander by we have more chance of a fix :-)

Hi folks,

I just installed 7.3 and played a h.264 ts file captured from BBC HD (Beyonce concert). CPU usage is about 50% (3500+ single core @ 2700Mhz, 7600GT 93.81). As far as i remember the CPU usage was about 70-80% on this file using 7.0x.

Can anyone confirm h.264 DXVA performance improvements ?

However, I'm wondering why they can't fix the small stripe at the bottom that appears on many h.264 ts and other files...

Hi folks,

I just installed 7.3 and played a h.264 ts file captured from BBC HD (Beyonce concert). CPU usage is about 50% (3500+ single core @ 2700Mhz, 7600GT 93.81). As far as i remember the CPU usage was about 70-80% on this file using 7.0x.

Can anyone confirm h.264 DXVA performance improvements ?


What's the CPU usage if you turn off hardware acceleration?

What's the CPU usage if you turn off hardware acceleration?

100% solid

edit: think i will compare the new decoder and the 7.0.2211a decoder tomorrow using perfmon.

PowerDVD 7.3:
NVIDIA 7600 GT AGP: PureVideo VC-1 crashes, PureVideo H.264 does not work.
Software playback works, but too high CPU usage for my system. 97.xx driver.
ATI 9800 Pro: Avivo VC-1 hangs. Software playback reports "incompatible driver version". Software playback used to work. Catalyst 6.12 (7.1 and 7.2 completely borked)

Conclusion: useless upgrade for me. Hoping for improvements whenever NVIDIA gets around to a new XP driver.

Is anyone else getting an error message in 7.3, saying their driver is incompatible?Yep, I’m now getting the "incompatible driver error 0013" with an NVIDIA 7950 GT as well, so it’s not just a problem with ATI cards. It looks like an HDCP related bug introduced in PowerDVD Ultra 7.3.

At least using AnyDVD HD to decrypt the discs works for me, and effectively gets around this new bug. But the previous version (7.1) worked flawlessly with all my HD DVDs, without ever having to use AnyDVD.

UPDATE: The problem goes away if I enable hardware acceleration (DXVA) in PowerDVD. I never needed this before since I’ve got plenty of CPU power, and found that I could actually get smoother playback with DXVA disabled.

PowerDVD 7.3:
NVIDIA 7600 GT AGP: PureVideo VC-1 crashes, PureVideo H.264 does not work.
Software playback works, but too high CPU usage for my system. 97.xx driver.
ATI 9800 Pro: Avivo VC-1 hangs. Software playback reports "incompatible driver version". Software playback used to work. Catalyst 6.12 (7.1 and 7.2 completely borked)

Conclusion: useless upgrade for me. Hoping for improvements whenever NVIDIA gets around to a new XP driver.

New Nvidia drivers for XP 100.87

hXXp://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1595
or
ftp://ftp.leadtek.com/entertainment_graphics/Drivers/020907_V10.5/100.87/

Change XX to tt

New Nvidia drivers for XP 100.87

hXXp://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1595
or
ftp://ftp.leadtek.com/entertainment_graphics/Drivers/020907_V10.5/100.87/

Change XX to tt
Thanks. I tried the first installer, but it does not work. Setup.exe is looking for *.hl_ files, while they are already converted to *.hlp. In any case, hopefully this means a new official driver is forthcoming soon.

klillevo, try using the other URL that jerrytdss posted (replace the hXXp with http) - the notes there say setup.exe doesn't work, and you have to install the driver the hard way, using Device Manager.

Version 101.41 are here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_101.41.html

Haven't tried em myself, 100.65 seems to work for HTPC use.

That's official NVIDIA Vista drivers. Some people are still on XP, which has clearly been put on the backburner now that everyone with Vista is complaining so loudly :)

Version 101.41 are here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_101.41.html

Haven't tried em myself, 100.65 seems to work for HTPC use.


100.87 is for XP

Has anyone with 7.3 experienced lockups or sudden reboots? I just got it yesterday and the only title I've tried to play so far is the HD-DVD version of Ray and once it locked up on me and once it rebooted. I'll test with more titles (including Bluray once I get those) and try upgrading my video drivers as well (NVidia card).

On a slightly different note: Since I am stuck with a crappy old 3.2 GHz P4 AGP system, I have more or less resigned myself to Xbox 360 playback for now. I believe it will still take a long time for VC-1 and H.264 hardware acceleration to work well. I have tried both NVIDIA's (7600 GT) and ATI's (X1600) latest offerings and both are useless (with XP and AGP). It took MPEG-2 a while as well, but it has been a great aid for 2-3 years now.

It seems it is possible to get hw accel to work with Vista, PCI-E cards, and CPUs that do not really require acceleration, so it is a strange situation right now.

On the Nvidia site, I get
ForceWare Release 90
Version: 93.71
Release Date: November 2, 2006

I don't see 100.87 for XP or MCE. I have a 7900

100.87 is for XP

Well I have some good news and bad news. Having beaten Cyberlink up about why some people are getting 7.3 and others being fobbed-off I got home today to find a link to the 7.3 duely downloaded installed fine. ATI hardware acceleration seems to be enabled now, sat back and

ERROR CODE 0013

Incompatible graphics driver, funny I'm using the latest Cat 7.2's

Run advisor and ALL GREEN

Oh well another ticket, bet I can't go backwards now either....

Has anyone else got version 7.3 working with an ATI X1950Pro on Cat 7.2s??

Cheers


Just for completeness my system that doesn't work is:

AMD x2 4200 (Skt 939)
2Gig Corsair RAM
HIS X1950Pro (512Mb) [ATI-CAT 7.2 drivers]
MS XBox HD-DVD

Incidentally it looks like my Hulk disc still tries to start in 'file mode' so they haven't even fixed that problem!

Back to the old release I think

Cheers

I thought I'd post here my calibration findings using PowerDVD Ultra, the latest Nvidia video drivers 100.87 and AnyDVD. On my machine (XP, 3800x2 + 6600GT with a large screen projector) I get a distinct red push that makes faces look sunburnt, and it spoils the HD quality in my opinion.

I used the EVO HD calibration files found at http://www.w6rz.net/ and took a snapshot of the color calibration bars and imported into MS Paint. With the color filters provided by the DVE calibration DVD, I was happy to see that the red push can be easily corrected by turning down the red, which on my projector (Canon SX50) is now -10. I feared that the adjustment would include red shades or affect the other colors, but by just adjusting the red level the color bars I can get the colors through the plastic filter perfect.

The gray bars are not as easy to calibrate, as I still get some white & black crush (can't distinguish the last 2 black and white bars) which I think is a combination of overlay and my projector. I can tune black/white levels much easier in VRM9 but unfortunately PowerDVD only uses overlay. If someone else knows how to tweak black levels in overlay, please let me know.

Another tweak is to go into the nVidia display panel and set all the video settings back to default (50%). I find tuning is better done on the projector rather than in Nvidia control panel. I do however use the Nvidia sharpening as it helps when projecting on a large screen (I use FFDshow + avsynth shapening for normal DVD and it makes a difference).

Last tip for nVidia users is to setup custom timing for 48Hz, which makes motion flow much smoother, although I can detect a slight pause every 10 seconds or so, but is much better than the 3:2 pulldown effect when using 60Hz.

Finally I'm happy with HD playback on the PC. These tweaks make a big difference, especially if you use a larger projector screen. Now all that remains is for PowerDVD to be more stable (I get occassional crashes, subtitles stuck on and menus sometimes working).

Hope this info helps someone else.

Regards,
Dean

Excellent post Antonio. This registry trick does indeed work with PowerDVD Ultra.
How did you come across this information?

I'm curious about some of the other registry settings, particularly these:

DX_HDDVD_VideoRenderer=dword:4
NV_Overlay=dword:1
(edit...changing the value of these keys has no noticeable effect on HDDVD playback)

If PowerDVD is using overlay by default, I wonder if it's possible to force VMR9 through the registry. I also wonder if overlay is the reason that enabling hardware acceleration results in a black screen for me, and if VMR9 would allow hardware acceleration to work properly.

in another thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8360407&highlight=vmrcccsstatus#post8360407

the following was noted

• Video color-space range for DVI-only1 outputs is erroneously set to standard mode (16-235) instead of extended mode (0-255). A new detection feature to apply Standard CSC mode to TV outputs (including NTSC, PAL, 480i, and 576i), included DVI-only outputs by mistake.

Note: The driver correctly applies extended mode to analog outputs, and standard mode to TV outputs (including NTSC, PAL, 480i, and 576i). A future driver release will correct this and apply the extended-mode color space to DVI-only outputs.
You can work around this issue by forcing either standard or extended mode as follows:

1 Launch regedit and determine the current primary display card by looking in
HKey_Local_Machine\Hardware\DeviceMap\Video
and note the GUID (global unique identifier assigned by Windows), which is the long string in brackets { } at the end of the entry
"\device\video0".
2 Look in
HKey_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\ {GUID}\0000
where {GUID} is the number derived from the previous step.
1. “DVI-only” means only one display is connected, and it is to the DVI output.
16 N V I D I A C o r p o r a t i o n
: O p e n I s s u e s i n V e r s i o n 9 1 . 4 7 f o r 3 2 - b i t O p e r a t i n g S y s t e m s
3 Open the "0000" directory and create a new DWORD called VMRCCCSStatus and give it a value of
0x3 - to force use of the standard YUV range of 16-235
0x1 - to force use of the extended YUV range of 0-255

It seems that registry hack did not work for me either. still see some banding with 7800gtx/ANYHDDVD at resolutions as low as 1280x720.


does anyone have any insight into where (at what level in the OS) these 2 registry hacks work their magic? They seem similar and would appear to be working at the driver level or application level.

That's official NVIDIA Vista drivers. Some people are still on XP, which has clearly been put on the backburner now that everyone with Vista is complaining so loudly :)

Hrrm, for some reason I had the idea 100.x was Vista-land. Going to be a bit confusing now they overlap :-)

Good to see they're still doing some work on XP - I had the suspicion they'd just given up.....

I just installed 7.3 and Vista. Prior to that I was running a dual installation on XP Pro. I also installed an X-FI sound card on at the same time.

Too many variables. Arghh. Anyway, I now get some stutter and occasionally loose HDCP for a second. My 4600+ CPU is running less than 60% in best quality mode playing Serenity.

I was using the Beta drivers from the NVidia site. What are the best ones to use for Vista?

- Rich

sorry to bother you all again, but anamorphic stretch with pdvd ultra still won't work for me. does 7.3 support anamorphic stretch? where do i get the correct verison of yxy. my current just keeps shifting the image around, no matter what i do.

I'm using v1.6, downloaded from here (http://www.keohi.com/keohiHDTV/htpc/yxy/yxy.html)

Are you sure you're using the right buttons to stretch? There is one set that just moves the window, then another set to the right of those that resizes/stretches the window. Also as Vern pointed out, you have to change PowerDVD to "stretch to fit window" under the Aspect Ratio menu.

Read the help file for YXY, it explains the correct steps you need to take to make it work.

I read thru this entire post (and fell asleep thru a page or 2 so I might have missed it) but is there a solution to get The Hulk playing via PowerDVD? I've luckily been immune to most of the problems in this thread (except for the occasional banding) so I took a risk of buying The Hulk. Luck just ran out. I don't remember the exact error but it was something like: Can't find file on Drive R:\ or something like that.

Is there a solution or a workaround for this problem yet?

I read thru this entire post (and fell asleep thru a page or 2 so I might have missed it) but is there a solution to get The Hulk playing via PowerDVD? I've luckily been immune to most of the problems in this thread (except for the occasional banding) so I took a risk of buying The Hulk. Luck just ran out. I don't remember the exact error but it was something like: Can't find file on Drive R:\ or something like that.

Is there a solution or a workaround for this problem yet?

I'm afraid I haven't heard of one yet. It appears that 7.3 hasn't fixed the problem either (it tries to open in file mode not disc mode).

Best bet it to raise a ticket with Cyberlink, as the more people complain the more likely they are to do something about it.

Cheers

klillevo, try using the other URL that jerrytdss posted (replace the hXXp with http) - the notes there say setup.exe doesn't work, and you have to install the driver the hard way, using Device Manager.
Sadly, when trying to update via the device manager, Windows reports that it can not find a better match in the directory I selected (the unpacked driver files). Also, I could not find the notes, or I would not have asked here.. Do you happen to remember the instructions or the note filename?
Thanks!

EDIT: Never mind. I got it: By selecting "I will choose which driver to install, then Have Disk, and browse to the location" forces windows to install the driver.

EDIT2: result of 100.87: PureVideo VC-1 now plays black video, then hangs, instead of crashes. Also, the NVIDIA Control Panel crashes upon opening it. So I went back to the official 93.71.

I simply can't get smooth playback from either HD-DVD. I've ripped using SlySoft AnyDVD HD ripped to drive and I've tried direct from media. Blu-ray playback is trouble free FWIW.

This isn't a case of insufficient resources; the system is up to snuff. The system is:

MSI Diamond Plus 7600GT w/ HDMI out
nVidia Drives v 93.71
MS HD-DVD Drive
Core 2 Duo E6600
2GB RAM

Any thoughts/suggestions? Everything looks/works great except HD-DVD. I'm beginning to think that HD-DVD isn't ready for primetime on HTPC. Of course we can't try the Nero or Intervideo solutions yet as they aren't released to market. Arrrggghhhh.

Best,

Nvidia XP driver 100.87 with installer that works (8800 only I believe);

hXXp://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13239

Change XX to tt See post 8 for link.


Cyberlink 7.3 now working fine after upgrading from Nvidia driver 97.92 to 100.87

I simply can't get smooth playback from either HD-DVD. I've ripped using SlySoft AnyDVD HD ripped to drive and I've tried direct from media. Blu-ray playback is trouble free FWIW.

This isn't a case of insufficient resources; the system is up to snuff. The system is:

MSI Diamond Plus 7600GT w/ HDMI out
nVidia Drives v 93.71
MS HD-DVD Drive
Core 2 Duo E6600
2GB RAM

Any thoughts/suggestions? Everything looks/works great except HD-DVD. I'm beginning to think that HD-DVD isn't ready for primetime on HTPC. Of course we can't try the Nero or Intervideo solutions yet as they aren't released to market. Arrrggghhhh.

Best,

Are you using Reclock? If not, try it by forcing it.
Also, what is your refresh rate? It should be at least 60hz for a proper 3:2 pulldown or ideally 48/72.

I simply can't get smooth playback from either HD-DVD. I've ripped using SlySoft AnyDVD HD ripped to drive and I've tried direct from media. Blu-ray playback is trouble free FWIW.

This isn't a case of insufficient resources; the system is up to snuff. The system is:

MSI Diamond Plus 7600GT w/ HDMI out
nVidia Drives v 93.71
MS HD-DVD Drive
Core 2 Duo E6600
2GB RAM

Any thoughts/suggestions? Everything looks/works great except HD-DVD. I'm beginning to think that HD-DVD isn't ready for primetime on HTPC. Of course we can't try the Nero or Intervideo solutions yet as they aren't released to market. Arrrggghhhh.

Best,

A few suggestions for you; Later video drivers, Different video card, and VGA out as a test if the problem is HDMI related

jerrytdss, why do you use hXXp instead of http? It always seemed to work for me. Weird.

Sucks that 7.3 is no less buggy than 7.1 or 7.2. Grrrrr.

If things don't get better soon we may have to do the horrid demux and remux into MKV trick just to watch a friggin' movie.

Are you using Reclock? If not, try it by forcing it.
Also, what is your refresh rate? It should be at least 60hz for a proper 3:2 pulldown or ideally 48/72.

Reclock wasn't being forced to load with PowerDVD, now it is. Improved video, still a bit rough, but dramatically improved. Audio is still prone to dropping quite often.

Display accepts 1080p24/1080p60. Recock is set for a target of 23.97. I may change it to 24 to see what happens.

Cheers,

A few suggestions for you; Later video drivers, Different video card, and VGA out as a test if the problem is HDMI related

These are all good suggestions; but media files from local disk or network mounts, DVD-Video and Blu-ray are all smooth.

It is not HMDI related. The only later drivers are the 100.XX beta drivers and I don't want to go with beta drivers.

Cheers,

I am so fed up with this 7.3 crap. It's even more buggy than 7.1.

As I mentioned some posts ago, yesterday I wanted to watch Lucky # Slevin, a h.264 title. Stuttering all over the place. I thought it was the codec but I was wrong. It's PowerDVD itself. Today I wanted to watch The Searchers, a VC-1, title. VC-1 never hass been a problem before. But guess what, EXACTLY the same stuttering crap in 7.3. Went back to 7.1, everything smooth again with the same settings.

My card: X1600 Pro with HDMI connection.

With PDVD 7.3, I can no longer play HDDVDs thru my Sapphire 1600 pro HDMI. Keep on getting incompatible driver message. Tried both CC7.1 and 7.2 and still no go. Looks like time to get Anydvd. This really sucks!

With PDVD 7.3, I can no longer play HDDVDs thru my Sapphire 1600 pro HDMI. Keep on getting incompatible driver message. Tried both CC7.1 and 7.2 and still no go. Looks like time to get Anydvd. This really sucks!

Change Hardware Acel setting for Incompatible driver message.

HD DVD (advanced codecs, H.264 and VC-1)
===============================
Video card acceleration:
ATI: can not be enabled or "incompatible driver"
NVIDIA: VC-1 crash, H.264 not enabled (works for some lucky 8800 or PCI-E owners)

Software mode:
This is currently the best alternative with a powerful enough CPU. Avoid ATI which will give you "incompatible driver" in this mode, and no/few successful reports in accel mode.

Blu-Ray (simple codec, MPEG-2)
======================
Since Blu-Ray has more space per disc, most releases have so far been MPEG-2, for which video card acceleration has worked for years. Thus, BD has one advantage for HTPC, sadly. *) I prefer HD DVD myself, for now, but am very disappointed in video card support for advanced codec acceleration

I tried the ForceWare 100.87 drivers, but those were problematic. The same is true of PowerDVD 7.3.

The best combination I've found is ForceWare 94.20 and PowerDVD 7.2. These drivers seem to give me the best performance even on my modest system (dual core opteron 165 @ 2.25 GHz, 1GB RAM, Geforce 6600).

Forceware 94.20 (http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1593)

I get between 60-80% CPU usage with hardware acceleration turned on. It's pretty good for the most part, but I do get some judder. If my display is at 60Hz, how should I setup ReClock to try and minimize the judder?

Reclock wasn't being forced to load with PowerDVD, now it is. Improved video, still a bit rough, but dramatically improved. Audio is still prone to dropping quite often.

Display accepts 1080p24/1080p60. Recock is set for a target of 23.97. I may change it to 24 to see what happens.

Cheers,

John, set your desktop resolution/reftesh at 1080p24 and leave reclock to Auto (no need to change it to 24, reclock will make the appropriate adjustments).Alternate solution: set your desktop at 1080p/48 and reclock to Auto. That should give you smooth playback.
PS If problems persist, Try setting reclock to work on Directdraw more instead of direct3d.