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PowerDVD upgrade. Worth or not?

1860 Views 8 Replies 4 Participants Last post by dauger, Jun 23, 2008

Panayotis Melas

Discussion Starter · Jun 20, 2008

I have the LG GGW-20L combo drive in my HTPC, which came along with the Cyberlink software, including the "light" version of the PowerDVD 8.

I am thinking of upgrading to the Ultra full version, which reportedly allows BD/HD-DVD playback at full 1080p resolution and supports all latest sound formats.

I have three questions:

1) Can I upgrade to the full version, by paying less than the current price (the full version is selling via Cyberlink site at $ 99.99)? And if yes, does anyone know how much I have to pay?

2) Does this vesrion meet all the claimed specs? I am especially interested if it plays the new sound formats.

3) Does it play at 1080p/24?

I am sorry if these questions have been already answered, but I could not go through all the 24 pages of the other thread . If yes, I would appreciate the link.

Thanks in advance

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720p

· #2 · Jun 20, 2008

1) My LG GGW-20L came only with a 2 channel PDVD7.3 version, upgrade to 8Ultra was $89.95, a massive $10 saving over the retail price.

2) As of today PDVD8 Ultra received the DTS-HD Master Audio certification, the only format it was missing so far. The update is free as are all updates and will come sometime next month. [hdmi 1.3 sound card required for bitstreaming (no downconversion to 16-bit/48Khz)]

3) It plays 1080p/24 just fine.

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dauger

· #3 · Jun 20, 2008

EDIT: I read a bit more. Power DVD 8 does not play HDDVD and after the latest patch it cannot be installed side-by-side with PDVD 7.3.

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Socio

· #4 · Jun 20, 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by dauger /forum/post/14124008

EDIT: I read a bit more. Power DVD 8 does not play HDDVD and after the latest patch it cannot be installed side-by-side with PDVD 7.3.

Read through this PowerDVD 8 thread there is a work around for HD DVD playback and it works.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1015475

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Panayotis Melas

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jun 21, 2008

Thank you all, for your replies.

Quote:
Originally Posted by 720p /forum/post/14123297

1) My LG GGW-20L came only with a 2 channel PDVD7.3 version, upgrade to 8Ultra was $89.95, a massive $10 saving over the retail price.

I can't tell which is my (installed) version. In the "ReadMe" file of the device software CD someone can read about the PowerDVD Ultra features and capabilities, but I assume that this is only a "Read Me" Guide and a prompt for the user to buy the full version. Unfortunately, I have not yet fully integrated my HTPC with my system, so I cannot tell which version is installed. I presume that this is a "light" version of the PDVD 8.

Quote:
Originally Posted by 720p /forum/post/14123297

2) As of today PDVD8 Ultra received the DTS-HD Master Audio certification, the only format it was missing so far. The update is free as are all updates and will come sometime next month. [hdmi 1.3 sound card required for bitstreaming (no downconversion to 16-bit/24Khz)]

I have the Sapphire ATI HD 3870 512MB video card and the Auzentech Meridian 7.1 sound card. I intend to connect the DVI output of my video card to the HDMI input of my projector (JVC DLA-RS2), through the specially supplied DVI-to-HDMI adaptor. I don't have an HDMI equipped AV receiver/amplifier, therefore, I am expecting the software to extract the new multi-channel sound formats from the analog outputs of my sound card. Can this be done?

Quote:
Originally Posted by 720p /forum/post/14123297

3) It plays 1080p/24 just fine.

As I said above, the connection to the projector will be with the use of the DVI-HDMI adaptor. I have heard that you cannot use any commercially available adaptor. Is this true? And if it is, does this affect the video performance or it is just for the sound data stream, that is supposed to pass through the DVI connector, if the connection goes to an AV amp?

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720p

· #6 · Jun 21, 2008

pdvd can decode all hd formats in software and output them via analogue, the dacs in your sound card need to be good for good sound quality which they are on the meridian

dvi-hdmi adaptors do not affect the quality it's just a different connector, the dvi-hdmi connector that comes with your ati is a special one as it carries audio as well, normal dvi connectors do not (in your case you won't be using the audio part)

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Panayotis Melas

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jun 21, 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by 720p /forum/post/14129136

pdvd can decode all hd formats in software and output them via analogue, the dacs in your sound card need to be good for good sound quality which they are on the meridian

dvi-hdmi adaptors do not affect the quality it's just a different connector, the dvi-hdmi connector that comes with your ati is a special one as it carries audio as well, normal dvi connectors do not (in your case you won't be using the audio part)

Thank you 720p for your reply.

(Somebody told me that the PDVD downsamples the Hi-Res sound formats, as they come out from the analogue outputs of the sound card, but I doupt if this is correct. Have you heard anything about it?)

Fyg, I managed to find my PDVD version. It is the OEM version 7.03.3104.

It is part of the Hi-Def Suite, which came with the LG drive.

The start menu prompts and allows the user to visit the Cyberlink site for an upgrade. I used this prompt and the upgrade price is $84.95. Not much of a discount, but it is discounted.

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720p

· #8 · Jun 21, 2008

pdvd downsamples everything to 16bit/48KHz as does every blu-ray software player today

this will be fixed in a future update by powerdvd but in order to work a protected audio path (PAP) must exist, the new intel g45 IGP and ati 4800 series cards should have it but not 100% confirmed yet I believe

to recap for no downsampling in audio you will need support for PAP in both hardware (sound card) and software (pdvd)

In my opinion downsampling is not such a huge issue as it is made to be, over 90% of disks are still only 16bit/48KHz and if you happen to come across one or two disks that have higher resolution/sampling rate I'll bet you have a hard time telling them apart if at all.

What I can tell you is that lpcm is definately worth it over dd/dts.

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dauger

· #9 · Jun 23, 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by Socio /forum/post/14126198

Read through this PowerDVD 8 thread there is a work around for HD DVD playback and it works.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1015475

That's partially where I got the info from:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...7#post14088457

I can't remember offhand where I read that the latest patch won't play nice with pdvd 7.3, but I do know that I read it somewhere over the past few days.

I'm probably just reading/understanding things incorrectly.

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