Nero showtime- alternative to PowerDVD and Arcsoft
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Ive TRIED lots of discs, bluray and HD-DVD and most of them work.
The good:
A lot of audio options that make me believe that it doesnt alter the audio if you dont want it to.
Plays from folder / image / file
Works with Intel GFX /nVidia GFX (tested) (probably works with ATI aswell)
Might be cheap if wat is said on their website is true: Showtime 4 is included with Nero 8 essentials which in turn you can get for like 5 odd euro/dollar when bought with some hardware. Add about 25 euro/dollar for the plugin.so you could be all set for 30 euro/dollar which would make it a steal. I still need to confirm this though if I can get my hands on a Nero 8 oem cd next week.
The bad :
its reputation... Nero is a burning program and people use it for burning CD/DVD. It requires an extra plugin to be bought so not everyone that has got nero installed can use it for playback
There are a lot of cracks/copies floating on the net that do not work properly and will end up giving people a bad experience with it.
The good:
A lot of audio options that make me believe that it doesnt alter the audio if you dont want it to.
Plays from folder / image / file
Works with Intel GFX /nVidia GFX (tested) (probably works with ATI aswell)
Might be cheap if wat is said on their website is true: Showtime 4 is included with Nero 8 essentials which in turn you can get for like 5 odd euro/dollar when bought with some hardware. Add about 25 euro/dollar for the plugin.so you could be all set for 30 euro/dollar which would make it a steal. I still need to confirm this though if I can get my hands on a Nero 8 oem cd next week.
The bad :
its reputation... Nero is a burning program and people use it for burning CD/DVD. It requires an extra plugin to be bought so not everyone that has got nero installed can use it for playback
There are a lot of cracks/copies floating on the net that do not work properly and will end up giving people a bad experience with it.
I can't find the plug-in anywhere in download land to just try it before actually BUYING it...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Belgakid /forum/post/12878010
Ive TRIED lots of discs, bluray and HD-DVD and most of them work.
The good:
A lot of audio options that make me believe that it doesnt alter the audio if you dont want it to.
Plays from folder / image / file
Works with Intel GFX /nVidia GFX (tested) (probably works with ATI aswell)
Might be cheap if wat is said on their website is true: Showtime 4 is included with Nero 8 essentials which in turn you can get for like 5 odd euro/dollar when bought with some hardware. Add about 25 euro/dollar for the plugin.so you could be all set for 30 euro/dollar which would make it a steal. I still need to confirm this though if I can get my hands on a Nero 8 oem cd next week.
The bad :
its reputation... Nero is a burning program and people use it for burning CD/DVD. It requires an extra plugin to be bought so not everyone that has got nero installed can use it for playback
There are a lot of cracks/copies floating on the net that do not work properly and will end up giving people a bad experience with it.
I can't find the plug-in anywhere in download land to just try it before actually BUYING it...
The plugin is included with Nero 8 but you will need to activate it by entering a key for it. If you buy the plugin from the Nero site you will get an email with a valid key in it.
Im currently having some issues with SOME HD-DVDs... a visual C++ runtime error. But i think i didnt used to have this problem a while back but since im currently reinstalling my vista32 3 times a day I may have missed something.
All BD's play and some HD-DVDs
Im currently having some issues with SOME HD-DVDs... a visual C++ runtime error. But i think i didnt used to have this problem a while back but since im currently reinstalling my vista32 3 times a day I may have missed something.
All BD's play and some HD-DVDs
Joined
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5,011 Posts
I've been using the methods outlined at the Slysoft forum for stripping out just the main movie from HD-DVD and BD rips to my hard drive in order to save space. A typical movie can be reduced anywhere from about 10% to 50% of its original size by getting rid of the extras. Right now, the Nero Showtime HD plug-in is the only playback app I've seen that will work with the stripped down .m2ts and .EVO files. Note that the processes don't actually shrink the files (i.e., no transcoding takes place) but rather it gets rid of the trailers, subtitles, extra soundtracks, and any unwanted extras that get ripped from the discs. I haven't viewed an entire movie that I've stripped out yet but extensive spot checks of the files indicate no playback problems whatsoever. Note that the HD plug-in really only wiorks with Nero 8, so if you plan on using it with Nero 7 think again. I believe someone mentioned getting an OEM version of Nero and then purchasing the plug-in. I suspect this will be a cost effective approach as I've seen OEM versions of Nero on ebay for next to nothing. The Nero website indicates that the HD plug-in will work with Nero 8 Essentials, which is the OEM version.
It seems to support ALL new HD formats for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimwhite /forum/post/12881972
note that according to Nero's web page it ONLY supports 5.1 audio, and I'm assuming that's SPDIF...
It seems to support ALL new HD formats for me.
I only have nero 7 essentials and not version 8 essentials to play around with and it DOES install Nero showtime, and you CAN use the bluray HD-dvd plugin with it after which it plays back just fine. Nero 7 only includes Showtime 3 and not 4 so it might be better to try and get nero 8.
Quote:
Originally Posted by captain_video /forum/post/12882039
Note that the HD plug-in really only wiorks with Nero 8, so if you plan on using it with Nero 7 think again. I believe someone mentioned getting an OEM version of Nero and then purchasing the plug-in. I suspect this will be a cost effective approach as I've seen OEM versions of Nero on ebay for next to nothing. The Nero website indicates that the HD plug-in will work with Nero 8 Essentials, which is the OEM version.
I only have nero 7 essentials and not version 8 essentials to play around with and it DOES install Nero showtime, and you CAN use the bluray HD-dvd plugin with it after which it plays back just fine. Nero 7 only includes Showtime 3 and not 4 so it might be better to try and get nero 8.
Got it installed and working.
Nero 8.2.8.0 w/ HD DVD/Blu-ray Plug-in on Vista x64
Not sure why, but playing from folders doesn't seem to work. I have to select the files themselves and it starts right up. Unfortunately there aren't subtitles then. Video quality seems very good, but I need to check it out more. BD+ titles don't play. Only have 2.0 audio on this set-up, so I can't answer questions there.
gonna try from disk soon.
Nero 8.2.8.0 w/ HD DVD/Blu-ray Plug-in on Vista x64
Not sure why, but playing from folders doesn't seem to work. I have to select the files themselves and it starts right up. Unfortunately there aren't subtitles then. Video quality seems very good, but I need to check it out more. BD+ titles don't play. Only have 2.0 audio on this set-up, so I can't answer questions there.
gonna try from disk soon.
Joined
·
297 Posts
I have tried watching HD-DVD movies using Nero 7 and 8. I found that Nero 8 freezes before the movie even starts. Nero 7 works every time with no problems.
It also doesn't disable Aero, so it may not be using overlay. How can I check to be sure? This is looking very promising. Much better than Arcsoft on my x64 Vista install.
No hardware acceleration AFAIK. No options I can see and my CPU is at software decode levels during playback. Playback is nice and smooth and looks great.
Playback from disk works, but it downrezzes! WTF! Major issue here. Still seems more promising than Arcsoft's player.
No hardware acceleration AFAIK. No options I can see and my CPU is at software decode levels during playback. Playback is nice and smooth and looks great.
Playback from disk works, but it downrezzes! WTF! Major issue here. Still seems more promising than Arcsoft's player.
can you link me to this? I already do this for all my hd-dvds (editing .xpls and deleting unneeded .evo's) and it works wonderfully, but have no idea how to to this for blu-ray. I would love to get rid of extras/trailers etc for blu-ray...some of the movies are like 35GB+ :/, eats up space on my server fast!
thanks
Quote:
Originally Posted by captain_video /forum/post/12882039
I've been using the methods outlined at the Slysoft forum for stripping out just the main movie from HD-DVD and BD rips to my hard drive in order to save space. A typical movie can be reduced anywhere from about 10% to 50% of its original size by getting rid of the extras. Right now, the Nero Showtime HD plug-in is the only playback app I've seen that will work with the stripped down .m2ts and .EVO files. Note that the processes don't actually shrink the files (i.e., no transcoding takes place) but rather it gets rid of the trailers, subtitles, extra soundtracks, and any unwanted extras that get ripped from the discs. I haven't viewed an entire movie that I've stripped out yet but extensive spot checks of the files indicate no playback problems whatsoever. Note that the HD plug-in really only wiorks with Nero 8, so if you plan on using it with Nero 7 think again. I believe someone mentioned getting an OEM version of Nero and then purchasing the plug-in. I suspect this will be a cost effective approach as I've seen OEM versions of Nero on ebay for next to nothing. The Nero website indicates that the HD plug-in will work with Nero 8 Essentials, which is the OEM version.
can you link me to this? I already do this for all my hd-dvds (editing .xpls and deleting unneeded .evo's) and it works wonderfully, but have no idea how to to this for blu-ray. I would love to get rid of extras/trailers etc for blu-ray...some of the movies are like 35GB+ :/, eats up space on my server fast!
thanks
It works for me with all BD's I tried (except for BD+ but BD+ will only play by taking advantage of a powerdvd bug in an older version so you cant really expect new programs to implement that bug aswell)
Just drag and drop the BDMV folder and it should start playing with menus etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tsb /forum/post/12882377
Got it installed and working.
Nero 8.2.8.0 w/ HD DVD/Blu-ray Plug-in on Vista x64
Not sure why, but playing from folders doesn't seem to work. I have to select the files themselves and it starts right up. Unfortunately there aren't subtitles then. Video quality seems very good, but I need to check it out more. BD+ titles don't play. Only have 2.0 audio on this set-up, so I can't answer questions there.
gonna try from disk soon.
It works for me with all BD's I tried (except for BD+ but BD+ will only play by taking advantage of a powerdvd bug in an older version so you cant really expect new programs to implement that bug aswell)
Just drag and drop the BDMV folder and it should start playing with menus etc.
there is an option to enable hardware acceleration... in fact there is loads of options... more than in other programs Ive seen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tsb /forum/post/12882419
No hardware acceleration AFAIK. No options I can see and my CPU is at software decode levels during playback. Playback is nice and smooth and looks great.
Playback from disk works, but it downrezzes! WTF! Major issue here. Still seems more promising than Arcsoft's player.
there is an option to enable hardware acceleration... in fact there is loads of options... more than in other programs Ive seen.
not sure, but I think it does not use overlay when it plays from the HDD, but uses overlay and downrezzes when I play from disk.
When I make sure Aero is enables w/ HDD playback it keeps playing w/o a hitch. If I try when playing from disk the video stops and I just get a black screen.
When I make sure Aero is enables w/ HDD playback it keeps playing w/o a hitch. If I try when playing from disk the video stops and I just get a black screen.
where is that option, don't see it
also, how do i hit "enter" to get past the web features on some disks?
I also get the C++ errors and lock ups w/ some HD DVD titles from files or folders. Teh movies that do play look excellent. Hopefully the bugs will get worked out.
Work
Army of Darkness
Transformers
Casablance
Zodiac
Don't work
Bourne Ultimatum
The Kingdom
Only BD I have on HDD is Die Hard 4.0
Selecting the file doesn't play. Playing from folder might work, but I can't get past the firmware screen.
The titles that do play probably have the best PQ I've seen on this HTPC. Didn't see much difference w/ MPC, but I do notice a big difference here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Belgakid /forum/post/12882559
there is an option to enable hardware acceleration... in fact there is loads of options... more than in other programs Ive seen.
where is that option, don't see it
also, how do i hit "enter" to get past the web features on some disks?
I also get the C++ errors and lock ups w/ some HD DVD titles from files or folders. Teh movies that do play look excellent. Hopefully the bugs will get worked out.
Work
Army of Darkness
Transformers
Casablance
Zodiac
Don't work
Bourne Ultimatum
The Kingdom
Only BD I have on HDD is Die Hard 4.0
Selecting the file doesn't play. Playing from folder might work, but I can't get past the firmware screen.
The titles that do play probably have the best PQ I've seen on this HTPC. Didn't see much difference w/ MPC, but I do notice a big difference here.
Right click main window, in options , click on video. Make sure you click on video and not video mode or video quality
Quote:
Originally Posted by tsb /forum/post/12882605
where is that option, don't see it
also, how do i hit "enter" to get past the web features on some disks?
Right click main window, in options , click on video. Make sure you click on video and not video mode or video quality
ahh, thanks
I feel dumb now
I get no acceleration with my 2600XT though. CPU usage remains unchanged with or without the box ticked. Don't really care though since my CPU doesn't get stressed at all and PQ is EXCELLENT.
Just wish I could get HD DVD folders to play. My wife needs subs when she watches with me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Belgakid /forum/post/12882650
Right click main window, in options , click on video. Make sure you click on video and not video mode or video quality
ahh, thanks
I feel dumb now
I get no acceleration with my 2600XT though. CPU usage remains unchanged with or without the box ticked. Don't really care though since my CPU doesn't get stressed at all and PQ is EXCELLENT.
Just wish I could get HD DVD folders to play. My wife needs subs when she watches with me.
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