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"Official" PowerDVD Ultra 8 thread

post #1 of 2309
4/3/08 at 5:02pm
Thread Starter 
This thread is dedicated to the new version of PDVD Ultra

Works:
- All my BD ISO's all work, no stuttering on my G35 at all (MPEG2, MPEG4-AVC, VC1)
- All HD MPEG-2's (e.g. from Tivo S3/HD TTG) all work great
- HD Picture quality seems slightly improved actually, a little more detail/depth, and the color seems slightly better
- SD Picture quality seems significantly improved - SD DVD's look a lot better
- AVC-HD (e.g. from Sony HD video camera) works great

Not working:
- HDMI audio is a bit of a joke, no different than before if you want multi-channel HD audio (still sends 5.1 channels for 2.0 channel sources with 3 or 4 blank channels, for example)
- Crashes if you set to HDMI and DD/DTS passthrough (no matter SD or HD source)

Basically, PDVD8 is like the production version of PDVD 7 beta. Everything works like it should have with PDVD 7. Nothing particularly new, but nothing seems broken either.

(My configuration - HA off, Weave, HDMI Audio/PCM, Best picture quality, everything else default. C2D 2.66, 2GB, G35 at 1080/60p.)

Specific BD disks that seem not to work:
- Across the Universe

FAQ
- PDVD 8 only supports BluRay, no HD-DVD
- PDVD 8 peacefully co-exists with PDVD 7, including the 3319a/3370 toggle
- Doesn't support HDD playback using directory trees (only ISO mounting using DaemonTools)
- DTS-MA/HD support included now
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post #2 of 2309
4/3/08 at 5:07pm
Is this a free update? If not, then Cyberlink should give me a free upgrade path to 8 since I purchased 7 just 3 days ago.
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post #3 of 2309
4/3/08 at 5:16pm
What is the status of HD DVD disk playback? in this version.
Playback of HD DVD via ISO'S ?
Is 8 for BD only?
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post #4 of 2309
4/3/08 at 5:24pm
Anyone noticed whether CPU usage has increased, decreased or no change with version 8 over 7?

Peter
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post #5 of 2309
4/3/08 at 5:25pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Nagy View Post

Anyone noticed whether CPU usage has increased, decreased or no change with version 8 over 7?

Peter

I've turned off HA (which barely works with the G35 anyway), and CPU usage is reasonable (~60%) with HD audio tracks. So it seems improved.
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post #6 of 2309
4/3/08 at 5:26pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Davinleeds View Post

What is the status of HD DVD disk playback? in this version.
Playback of HD DVD via ISO'S ?
Is 8 for BD only?

BD only
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post #7 of 2309
4/3/08 at 5:55pm
All my BDs work as well except Across the Universe. Menus dont work and it will not play.
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post #8 of 2309
4/3/08 at 6:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AbMagFab View Post

BD only

The most expensive version is slated to have HDDVD playback
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post #9 of 2309
4/3/08 at 6:46pm
Thread Starter 
Edited first post:

- SD DVD picture quality is significantly improved, on par with other players
- AVC-HD works great (set to Weave)

- HDMI + DD/DTS pass through always crashes it instantly (HD, SD, anything)
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post #10 of 2309
4/3/08 at 6:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by UFGrayMatter View Post

The most expensive version is slated to have HDDVD playback

No mention of it in the version comparison. http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/produ...are_1_ENU.html

Do you have a link to something that says otherwise?
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post #11 of 2309
4/3/08 at 7:00pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by vladd View Post

No mention of it in the version comparison. http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/produ...are_1_ENU.html

Do you have a link to something that says otherwise?

There was some post somewhere that said they were going to have an add-on later this year with HD DVD, and I think they implication was also adding DTS-HD.
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post #12 of 2309
4/3/08 at 7:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AbMagFab View Post

There was some post somewhere that said they were going to have an add-on later this year with HD DVD, and I think they implication was also adding DTS-HD.

DTS-HD is listed as supported in the chart I linked. I won't hold my breath for the add-on.
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post #13 of 2309
4/3/08 at 7:51pm
Well I figured out why my BDs werent working... when I have D3DOverrider set to 'Force Triple Buffering' in DX9, PDVD8 doesnt like it and gave Internal Error when trying to play any BDs, so when it's disabled BDs work fine.

And yes, it decodes the full DTS-HD Master Audio in 7.1 channels. Well done Cyberlink

Even when I have PDVD set to 6 channels (I'm only 5.1), in Information it still says DTS-HD MA 7.1 on New Line discs

I'm so glad Cyberlink sorted out the activation stuff, they even replied to my inquiry after it was fixed saying they had rectified their servers.

Can't find anything to fault sofar, looks like my $100 was well spent
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post #14 of 2309
4/3/08 at 8:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FACP View Post

Is this a free update? If not, then Cyberlink should give me a free upgrade path to 8 since I purchased 7 just 3 days ago.

A couple of years ago, I bought PDVD 6.0 a couple of weeks before PDVD 7.0 was released and they gave me a free upgrade to 7.0. YMMV.

I'm still waiting on HDMI soundcards other than the G35 motherboard... I'm wanting to consolidate everything into my HTPC, but I'm still using a standalone BD player for the lossless audio movies.
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post #15 of 2309
4/3/08 at 8:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by UFGrayMatter View Post

The most expensive version is slated to have HDDVD playback

This rumor got started by a very bad article about PowerDVD 8 that contradicted itself. It is not reliable at all, and it even contradicted a screenshot of features that they themselves published in the same article. I wouldn't have any trust in that statement. Why on earth would they bring HD-DVD LATER ON (as they said)? The person who wrote that article said they've used PowerDVD "for years" or something... it didn't seem like it. It was poorly written and factually VERY inaccurate.
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post #16 of 2309
4/3/08 at 9:20pm
Hi, I was wondering if there was any other Canucks who had bought this yet. When I go to the checkout and select Canadian $'s,it says its $67 CAD, but if you do a currency conversion it should less than $61 CAD? I was wondering what it appears as on a credit card. Thnx
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post #17 of 2309
4/3/08 at 9:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dhy8386 View Post

All my BDs work as well except Across the Universe. Menus dont work and it will not play.

I wonder what version number we'll get up to before they FINALLY fix the Across the Universe problem
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post #18 of 2309
4/3/08 at 10:23pm
Does anyone know if you can play Blu-Rays or HD-DVDs with the trial version?
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post #19 of 2309
4/3/08 at 10:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gtg465x View Post

Does anyone know if you can play Blu-Rays or HD-DVDs with the trial version?

No on both for the trial. The registered full version will only play BluRay. No HD DVD support.
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post #20 of 2309
4/3/08 at 10:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gtg465x View Post

Does anyone know if you can play Blu-Rays or HD-DVDs with the trial version?

You can't play Blu-Ray disks with the trial version, you need the Ultra upgrade/retail version.
HD DVD not supported in any version of PDVD8, use latest PDVD 7.3 for that.

EDIT: too slow
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post #21 of 2309
4/3/08 at 10:44pm
Well that sucks. Looks like it would be a downgrade from 7.3.3730 Ultra if it can't even play HD-DVDs. I'm actually really happy with my current version, but the OP saying that SD quality is greatly improved (and possibly HD) got me interested.

The new Remix feature looks useless. The Collect and Connect features look alright, but they don't exactly get me excited. I'm guessing all of these features add significant bloat.

Can anyone confirm that there are decent resizing features for Blu-Ray? I would like to zoom in some on 2.35:1 Blu-Ray/HD-DVD movies, but 7.3 doesn't allow it.
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post #22 of 2309
4/3/08 at 10:46pm
What version are you guys buying? Are you paying the full 99.99$ for the Ultra-Version or are you buying the Upgrade from Ultra 7 which costs 59.99$. I would go for the upgrade but only if I could keep working with PowerDVD 7 Ultra as well. I've still got a lot of HD DVDs.
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post #23 of 2309
4/3/08 at 10:50pm
I wonder if having version 7 and 8 installed simultaneously causes any codec conflicts.
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post #24 of 2309
4/3/08 at 11:11pm
I planned to run some tests this weekend to see if the version 8 codecs can be used in 7.3. If I do get the time to try it, I'll post my results.
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post #25 of 2309
4/4/08 at 12:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AbMagFab View Post

This thread is dedicated to the new version of PDVD Ultra

Works:
- All my BD ISO's all work, no stuttering on my G35 at all (MPEG2, MPEG4-AVC, VC1)
- All HD MPEG-2's (e.g. from Tivo S3/HD TTG) all work great
- HD Picture quality seems slightly improved actually, a little more detail/depth, and the color seems slightly better
- SD Picture quality seems significantly improved - SD DVD's look a lot better
- AVC-HD (e.g. from Sony HD video camera) works great

Not working:
- HDMI audio is a bit of a joke, no different than before if you want multi-channel HD audio (still sends 5.1 channels for 2.0 channel sources with 3 or 4 blank channels, for example)
- Crashes if you set to HDMI and DD/DTS passthrough (no matter SD or HD source)

Basically, PDVD8 is like the production version of PDVD 7 beta. Everything works like it should have with PDVD 7. Nothing particularly new, but nothing seems broken either.

(My configuration - HA off, Weave, HDMI Audio/PCM, Best picture quality, everything else default. C2D 2.66, 2GB, G35 at 1080/60p.)

Specific BD disks that seem not to work:
- Across the Universe

So no hard-drive playback I presume???
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post #26 of 2309
4/4/08 at 1:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Favelle View Post

So no hard-drice playback I presume???

When you said plays blu-ray iso's does this mean you can play off the hard drive via mounting an iso to a virtual drive?
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post #27 of 2309
4/4/08 at 1:38am
As I still want to play my back catalogue HD-DVDs I contacted Cyberlink's support regarding this issue. Here is there reply...

Quote:


Thank you for contacting CyberLink Online Support.

We understand your concern related with PowerDVD software.

PowerDVD 8 can playback any type of disk. Namely CD, DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disks.

Moreover, you can install PowerDVD 7.3 and PowerDVD 8.0 on the computer at a time.

Hope this helps.
Keith
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post #28 of 2309
4/4/08 at 1:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AbMagFab View Post

This thread is dedicated to the new version of PDVD Ultra

Works:
- All my BD ISO's all work, no stuttering on my G35 at all (MPEG2, MPEG4-AVC, VC1)
- All HD MPEG-2's (e.g. from Tivo S3/HD TTG) all work great
- HD Picture quality seems slightly improved actually, a little more detail/depth, and the color seems slightly better
- SD Picture quality seems significantly improved - SD DVD's look a lot better
- AVC-HD (e.g. from Sony HD video camera) works great

Not working:
- HDMI audio is a bit of a joke, no different than before if you want multi-channel HD audio (still sends 5.1 channels for 2.0 channel sources with 3 or 4 blank channels, for example)
- Crashes if you set to HDMI and DD/DTS passthrough (no matter SD or HD source)

Basically, PDVD8 is like the production version of PDVD 7 beta. Everything works like it should have with PDVD 7. Nothing particularly new, but nothing seems broken either.

(My configuration - HA off, Weave, HDMI Audio/PCM, Best picture quality, everything else default. C2D 2.66, 2GB, G35 at 1080/60p.)

Specific BD disks that seem not to work:
- Across the Universe

But it still downconverts the audio via analog out to 16/48, thats a shame!
The annoying aliasing effect with 8600 GTS is still there too.

CL is one of the worst software companies I have ever seen, shame on these morons.
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post #29 of 2309
4/4/08 at 2:08am
Can you actually hear an improvement with DTS-HD MA tracks?
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post #30 of 2309
4/4/08 at 2:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rathbone View Post

Can you actually hear an improvement with DTS-HD MA tracks?

Yes, the sound is remarkable improved with PDVD8. Heard Queen Live (only DTS-HD though) yesterday on PDVD7 and PDVD8 and PDVD8 really sounds a lot better, richer, wider. Just imagine, how it would sound with real 24/96 output!!!
Also heard Eragon with DTS-HD MA track and thats really the first time I was so much impressed by sound from PDVD that i got emotionally touched.

As a side note: I also own Arcsofts TMT with real 24/96 output and it sounds much worse than PDVD8!!!
Maybe 24/96 is not a big difference to what we can already get out of PDVD!?
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