PowerDVD Ultra (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray) - Page 3

I can't get it to work, maybe I don't know how, maybe it just doesn't, but none of the settings do anything.

My computer matches all the specs on Cyberlink's homepage, and I'm outputting through DVI to a HDCP-compatible projector. So, will I get full resolution, or will the resolution be compromised in any way?

you will get full resolution, as long as you have HDCP video card/drivers/display when using the DIGITAL route.....

Can anyone with a supported ATI-based card confirm hardware acceleration is working?

i've lurked avsforum for years, but finally have a reason to post.

i picked up an xbox 360 hd-dvd yesterday after reading about the release of pdvd ultra. after installing the drive and buying pdvd ultra, things seem to be working great except for 2 problems:

1) i cannot turn off subtitles on King Kong - if i set them off in the menu, they always return to english sdh.
2) is it possible to get LPCM output for titles w/ True HD or DTS-HD? (i am using a chaintech av710 w/ spdif.)

i have had no decoding issues on my pc: E6600, 7950 GX2 (93.71 drivers), 2GB RAM, but I need to get an HDCP-compliant video card to do any useful testing (currently I am using VGA on an HP L2335 display - 1920x1200).

yes, but not through spdif... powerdvd will decode it if u choose 5.1 channel speaker setting and then have your sound card send the 6 channel thru analog out... just like DVD Audio or SACD

Try pressing "u" on the keyboard until they turn off. That works in PDVD6.5 at least. If it isn't "u", there probably is another hotkey assigned. There's also a button on the control pad.

anyone knows where I can get a forceware driver for the Go Series(7900 GTX)? I tried 92.91, 93.71, 93.81 - I couldn't install either of them, it looks like they don't support the Go Series. I even checked the dell website, still the 80s realese there.

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...p?showforum=68

You must use their supplied modded INF.

thx for the link, no modded INF so far for Dell M1710 (7900 GTX), guess I have to wait or it there an alternative?

edit:

the new dell model has a BD Drive, so there must be a driver or dell will release one soon...

I typically don't post, but here's my results in case it helps anyone. I'll try to answer any questions if I can, but if you have something negative to post, please don't bother.

It appears that PowerDVD Ultra edition is two packages in one. It will only install either the BluRay Edition or the HDDVD Edition. My bet is that big brother Sony or Toshiba or whoever does not want systems capable of playing both Bluray and HDDVD. Nevertheless, Cyberlink's website is quite misleading when they say that the software can play both. Yes, it can, but not on the same OS.

My work around is to simply have two versions of Windows XP. One for BluRay and one for HDDVD. I use BootItNG to choose which OS I need depending on what I want to watch. To get PowerDVD to install the correct version, use the Device Manager to disable one of the drives. The drive that is still enabled will be detected by PowerDVD installer. Once installed, PowerDVD calls itself either PowerDVD HDDVD Deluxe or PowerDVD BD Deluxe depending on which drive is enabled. Then boot to the alternate Windows XP, disable the other drive, and repeat the installation. Viola, a HTPC with both BluRay and HDDVD playback.

My HTPC consists of:

Silverstone Case w/Integrated 7" Touchscreen
Core2 Duo E6600 on 975X Motherboard
BFG NVidia 7950GS with HDCP Support
Sony BluRay Drive
Microsoft XBox 360 HDDVD Drive

I choose this case as it is a nice match for HT equipment, doesn't require mouse/monitor, and has dual 5.25" drive bays. I gutted the Toshiba HDDVD drive out of the Microsoft case and mounted it internally. Note that the drive is not a standard PC drive and requires modifications to make it go internal. The width is different than a standard drive and the rear I/O is not PC friendly. I got it integrated with no problems, but I would recommend that you leave it external unless you are handy at these types of modifications. There should be standard PC HDDVD drives out very soon anyway. I bought this drive since I had the $40.00 off Circuit City coupon and didn't mind getting the free King Kong HDDVD.

I have tried 3 HDDVD's and have no performance issues like mentioned in another post. My samples are King Kong, The Last Samurai, and The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift. PowerDVD has issues when it comes to always wanting to display subtitles. King Kong is particularly annoying. It took me 10 minute of messing, but I finally got the subtitle's off. I'm not sure exactly what finally turned them off - ha. The other two turned off easily. Strange.

I am able to display the output on either the integrated VGA display or the DVI output connected to a HDCP compliant display. Having a graphics card that has HDCP compliance is required to use the DVI output. There is a list somewhere on the Internet that names the graphics cards that support this - Google for it. If you don't have one of these newer graphics cards, then you will only be able to use the VGA connector at a reduced resolution.

Not sure what else to add. My goal was to have one box that would play both formats as well as do other things like Music, etc. That is finally possible now that the software has been released. The software isn't perfect, but definitely usable.

Cheers,

@mhiatt: thanx!

mhiatt - Great post and thanks...clears up a lot of questions.
The site with the list of HDCP enabled graphics cards is here:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1071342

Hi mhiatt, you should be able to get the full 1920x1080 resolution using VGA, according to others who have tried.

I've noticed that some of you have installed, unistalled, and reinstalled the software. What is the activation process like? I'm asking because I'm tempted to try the software on my current single core AMD rig, but if it doesn't work well, I'll switch over to Core 2. Any issues with reinstalling on a different system?
Thanks.

wow, so is this capable of working with single core cpus?

It might with some less demanding encodes, but I don't really expect it will with this generation of drivers and players. Perhaps later when more processing is offloaded to the GPU.

only sort of. batman begins isn't too bad, a few minutesof serenity didn'tlook too bad (which is not to say that there are still not a few CPU underpower related glitches, if you need silky perfection all the time, even for those it doesn't do it), mummy is also watchable but does certainly get some annoying due to underpowered CPU, sleepy hollow getting pretty bad, KK simply not good on single core, way too choppy to try to sit there and actually watch it even if you are trying to not be picky at all.

you really do need dual core, but i am still getting some enoyment from some discs in the meantime while overlooking glitches (again appear to be CPU underpower and not any issue with pwerdvd itself, since the glitches happen near peak CPU utilization time mostly).

i must say though HD DVD is truly amazing. simply blows away my DVDs. wow.
it's a shame there are a numebr of blu-ray only titles since those drives are still a fortune. i imagine it will be months before i ever decide to get one of those, maybe even a year at the way those prices are up there (assuming one of the other format is not dead by then, hopefully not both). ultimately blu-ray should be capable of slightly better image quality once they use both layers and do proper mastering with the latest codecs and not like the crappy first few releases. but must say HD DVD looks so good i now think i could've maybe just lived with it and without the format battle, especially if they are willing to use 2 discs when they should (of course that is not always a given), the drives have arrived a great price point so much sooner i think blu-ray ever will. although one one that has trueHD does seem to have slightly less sharp video, so hopefully it doesn't mean trueHD doesn'tfit well on HD DVD, prob not the case and hope not. i get the impression many more blu-ray discs have trueHD on them. anyway, the HD DVD drives are so much cheaper and do look great.

thanks to trailergod for the info on the audio.

i didn't realize that all 7950 GX2 cards had HDCP-compliant outputs, but after following the link to the [H] forums I was eager to test out my card, and i was amazed when it works. finally, 1080p HD-DVD! i have my card hooked up w/ a DVI-HDMI cable to my Sony KDS-50A2000 and it looks great. after the holiday i plan to pick up some titles to A/B (full metal jacket, syriana) and will report back when i have some notes.

also, thanks to mhiatt i now know the subtitles in king kong are definitely a problem that isn't just my own (i've tried to the "u" key thing but it only toggles between english sdh, spanish, and french).

LiOn (or anyone else interested) I can confirm that PowerDVD Ultra WORKS WITH YXY for full AR control of HD DVD playback.

I just got done setting it up. I used YXY 1.6 for my setup.

Before Zoom player and Theatertek were available, I had used YXY for AR control with both WinDVD and PowerDVD on my 2.40:1 AR screen. I dug up an old copy, installed it, and it works with PowerDVD Ultra as well!

Running on 3.4 Gig single core prescott CPU. Leadtek WinFast PX8800 GTS TDH Video card, connected via HDMI to my Sony Qualia. Running 1080 24PSF. No stuttering, at least on 24FPS sources. I suspect 30 FPS sources would be more than this combination could handle.

I had to reinstall my video drivers to get HW video acceleration working. I also had to select "Stretch to fit Screen" in PDVD's AR control menu to enable YXY to compensate for the anamorphic lens.

Vern.

whitesanjuro: The secret to turning off subtitles in King Kong is to turn them off AFTER you start playing the movie, not before you enter the movie as would be the normal intuitive method. What I did was start playing the movie, then move the mouse which displays the PowerDVD action buttons along the bottom of the screen. Find the icon relating to menu, then select TITLE menu, NOT ROOT MENU, and in this mode, turn off subtitles. You will note that the menu structure superimposed over the running movie, a feature new to HD DVD and not present on DVDs. When you turn off titles in this fashion, they really go off and stay off.

fixed my KING KONG playback problems .. simply had to remove the AMD DUAL CORE optimizer software/driver.....

using DIGITAL route..

Asus 7600GT HDCP HDMI with 93.81_forceware
Xbox360 HD DVD drive
WinXp SP2
AMD X2 5000+
2GB RAM
Panasonic ax100 720p LCD projector (HDCP) connected via HDMI
SB X-Fi sound card


now i discovered another problem... HULK HD DVD wont play properly... PowerDVD Ultra seems to play in file mode....

Is anyone running PowerDVD Ultra successfully with Vista? I am holding off on pulling the trigger on this until I know for sure that it will work with Vista. I currently have my HTPC running Win XP SP2 but will upgrade when Vista becomes available.

The Hulk will not work with ULTRA. Anybody get it to work?

Stupid software...defaults to BD version install if no drives are attached .

EDIT: Eagles has probms when trying to use the DTS-HD soundtrack. Stutters/drops/skips like crazy. Could be that my X mystique or Yami reciever can not decode the DTS-HD.

Tinker ... i got the same problem with HULK ...

I notice that there is an extra text file on the Hulk discs. Never seen one on other discs so far. Seems to be bunch of setup commands, no idea what they do if anything since its just a text file. Maybe the AACS reads it ?????

Just saw the BD movie "RV".
E6600 dual core OC at 3.2 CPU about 20% XFX 7950GT output 1920x1080@24Hz.
Unfortunately I saw some stutters from time to time.
The bad thing is that I discovered using Reclock I cannot use the pause option or Reclock goes in error.
I begin to suspect I cannot reach the smooth vision I get with SD DVD using TT2 and Reclock (Zero Stutters)

When I first tried powerdvdultra, I was not impressed with the pq at all. I found why:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post9271585

Is anyone here (VErn?) who knows how to swich off de-interlacing in the purevideo HD-functions ?

Best Regards

Frank

Can you get screenshots working on PowerDVD ULRTA? If you can I will purchase this right away and post here in the forums.