Corel WinDVD11 thread - Page 2

Hi Cybrsage,

We tried to reproduce your issue and were not able to.
Here is what we did:
(1) Connect PC to a receiver via the HDMI cable.
(2) Connect the receiver to 7.1 speakers and HDTV (HDMI)
(3) Configure the PC to output 7.1 channel
>> Right click on the speaker system tray icon
>> Playback devices
>> Configure
>> choose 7.1 channel
(4) Run WinDVD and set to 8 speakers to play
>> Tools -> Enhancement -> LPCM out
(5) Play any Blu-ray disc
(6) Confirm there are audio on all 7.1 channels
(7) Stop the movie and quit WinDVD
(8) Reboot the PC and play the Blu-ray disc again
(9) Confirm that we could still hear audio on all channels!!

As far as I could tell, Step (3) might be the step that is missing from your set up? Do you mind to try it again and explicitly set the 7.1 channels on the system as well?


Sincerely yours,
Ted S.
sMedio Software Team

Your post lead me to do a lot more testing and I found the exact set of events which cause it to happen (my PC is set to 7.1 output, so that is not the cause):

1. Play a BluRay in WinDVD 11, see that it is set to 8 Channels
2. Stop the BluRay but do NOT close WinDVD 11..
3. Connect to the PC which has WinDVD 11 on it via Remote Desktop
4. Receive the error saying it WinDVD 11 cannot be run over a remote desktop session, which closes WinDVD 11.
5. Reboot the PC upon which WinDVD 11 is installed.
6. Play a BluRay in WinDVD 11, see that it is set to only 2 Channels.

If WinDVD 11 is closed prior to the Remote Desktop session being established, it keeps the 8 Channels info. If it is left open when the Remote Desktop session is established, it closes via the previously mentioned error and resets the number of Channels to 2.

I use Remote Desktop a lot to that PC to do maintenance, etc., on it, which is why I thought it was caused by the reboot. I now see it is caused by the specific set of events I mentioned.

Hi Cybrage,

Many thanks for your time and testing.

One possibility is that when you establish a remote desktop session, the original Digital Output audio device (where the 8.1 channel is set) also gets switched. sMedio WinDVD receives an audio device change event and adjusts to the audio setting. In this case, it is possible that the 8.1 channel is not available for the "newly switched" audio device. Thus, the channel setting is default back to 2 channels and got saved and carried over when WinDVD exits. (Please also note that WinDVD can't run on remote desktop is expected behavior due to requirements from AACS and Blu-ray Association.)


Hopefully this answers your question and concerns.

Sincerely yours,
Ted. S
sMedio Software Team

Thank you for your testing which showed me it was not the reboot. I suspect you are correct about why it reverts to 2 channel - my remote desktop source PC only have 5.1. When done with the remote desktop, I reboot the remote machine (the one with WinDVD on it), which is why I assumed it was the reboot. Problem solved!

Hi Cybrsage,

I am glad to hear that problem is solved! Let me know if there is any thing I could help!


Sincerely yours,
Ted S.
sMedio Software Team

What is the difference between Corel WinDvd Pro 11 and the sMedio version? What are the specific enhancements done by sMedio over the Corel version?
It seems you added Win 8 support. Is Corel still developing WinDvd ? I can see new titles not working without Cinavia support.

Hi rickcfer,

Two major Improvements we made are:
(1) adding Windows 8 support
(2) adding compatibility to more graphics cards

This version is simply the first collaboration between Corel and sMedio to quickly bring WinDVD Pro 11 to the market for Windows 8 users.

As for whether Corel is still developing WinDVD, I apologize that I am not in a position to comment it. However, sMedio for sure will continue to invest and develop WinDVD going forward.

Cinavia is supported in WinDVD Pro 11. Can you elaborate more on the problem you have encountered?


Sincerely yours,
Ted S.
sMedio Software Team

Sorry for the late reply, I was in Texas. I haven't tried your version as yet. I currently use TMT 5 but considering the problems of boot time and Nvidia card support for the latest TMT 6 ,I am most certainly going to give it try.
Glad to hear it supports the newer protection schemes.

I would switch to sMedio WinDVD, but unfortunately it can't play blu-ray from folder. Will blu-ray folders support be added in future versions? PowerDVD and TMT already have it...

Does your version of WinDVD 11 come with some kind of plugin for Windows Media Center?