Powerdvd 6.5 vs Powerdvd 7.2 Ultra

[bachuka]

Is anyone having a problem with Powerdvd 7.2 Ultra? I have a problem with it playing .ifo files when I double click it off of the HD. Also, I cannot play .xpl file when I double click it. With version 6.5, I can double click the .ifo file and the .xpl file and it plays both fine.

[Metro]

Are you sure it's 7.2? I see the version that's doing the rounds claiming to be 7.2 actually reports that it's 7.1 when you install it. I've had assorted problems with this version (7.1) including lockups if you try to fast-forward a standard DVD, random crashes and occasional refusal to play perfectly good filesets (which version 6 played happily). I thought it was probably my system, but since it plays decrypted HD-DVD perfectly I'll stick with its foibles for now.

[Galileo2000]

Are you sure it's 7.2? I see the version that's doing the rounds claiming to be 7.2 actually reports that it's 7.1 when you install it. I've had assorted problems with this version (7.1) including lockups if you try to fast-forward a standard DVD, random crashes and occasional refusal to play perfectly good filesets (which version 6 played happily). I thought it was probably my system, but since it plays decrypted HD-DVD perfectly I'll stick with its foibles for now.

Sarah,

Ultra installs 7.1 HD version when it sees HD DVD drive attached to the system.

In all other cases (no drive attached, Blu Ray drive attached) it installs 7.2 which is Blu Ray version.

There is no .ifo file in HD DVDs btw.

[2bigkings]

hi,

version 6.5 can play hd-dvd directly from the hd, but powerdvd ultra (7.1) can't this.
You have to go to "open media files on hd" and make a playlist with all your hd-dvd files and then it works! don't start the files by doubleclick.

regards

[zagortenej]

version 6.5 can play hd-dvd directly from the hd, but powerdvd ultra (7.1) can't this.
You have to go to "open media files on hd" and make a playlist with all your hd-dvd files and then it works! don't start the files by doubleclick.

regards

PowerDVD 7.2 Ultra can also play HD-DVD from HD (use 'open movie on hard disc drive'), provided the movie was decrypted properly. I tried it with my first full HD-DVD rip and it works just fine.

[2bigkings]

i checked it and you're right. but i think it only works with a rebuilt menu? if you only copy the feature.evo / map files / discid.dat and the other files you have to make a playlist and it works also.

now i don't have to make a playlist longer, t hanks.

[bachuka]

Thanks all. I think I'll stick to version 6.5 now since I really like the ability to double click the ifo for regular dvd's and xpl files for hd dvd's. Has anyone have luck doing this with WinDVD? Also, on another note, I noticed 6.5 has some macro-blocking problems that 7.2 does not. Anyone else notice this?

One other thing, just found out on Powerdvd v7.2, you can double click the DISCID.DAT file and it will play the hd dvd off of the hard drive

[2439rf8hasjdert4]

I found the 7.2 "doing the rounds" crashes when I try to play files. 6.5 doesn't work either. Maybe it's because I'm using Vista...

[olisun]

I thought I will post my query in this thread as it is specific to PDVD.

Background: I was struggling to get SPDIF to work in PDVD under XP when playing back HD-DVD and it would always revert back to 2 peakers and PDVD would crash.

I installed ACFilter but I still couldn't get the SPDIF to work and then I installed the sound card drivers once again and SPDIF started working fine...

I noticed that PDVD 6.5 doesn't support hardware acceleration on XP.. I tested this with both normal DVD's and HD-DVD and in the information screen it shows at HA not in use... I noticed loats of blockiness when there are fast action scenes and PDVD 6.5 crashes during movie playback and when I try to move the player from my TV to PC monitor and vice versa... I tried to use PDVD 7.1 and 7.2 in XP but they are both sluggish and crash in XP... Enabling HA on 7.1 and 7.2,renders them in unresponsive mode.

Next I installed Vista Ultimate final on a different partition (my company is Microsoft certified partner so we get all the releases a few months in advance)... I installed PDVD 6.5 first and it does not work in Vista. Next I installed first PDVD 7.1 and then 7.2 and both the versions work flawlessly in Vista... HA works fine and my CPU is less than 50% during HD-DVD playback and there is no blockiness during playback during the fast action scenes (running at 1920 X 1080i).

BUT I noticed there was no SPDIF option in the audio tab of PDVD all versions... This is due to the issue with sound card driver in vista ( I am using the Asus P5P800 SE M/B with Soundmax AD1888 audio chipset)... Next I installed an old SBLive 5.1 card and the modified Creative driver to enable SPDIF, which it does but still I cannot see SPDIF as an option in Vista...

Now either PDVD is buggy and rely only on certain Vista API's to enable SPDIF or Vista does not pass on proper information to third party applications in order them to function properly.

Does anybody know of any soundcard which does stream the audio in SPDIF and work fine in Vista?

[blutach]

I really think this thread belongs in Software Players as it has little relevance to Decrypting.

Moved.

Regards

[bachuka]

I was able to get spdif to work on XP with a diamond sound card as well as a creative lab external sound card. I use the coaxial out on both cards. I think you have to enable spdif on the sound card as well as PDVD.

[olisun]

I was able to get spdif to work on XP with a diamond sound card as well as a creative lab external sound card. I use the coaxial out on both cards. I think you have to enable spdif on the sound card as well as PDVD.

SPDIF works fine for me in XP but I am trying to get it working in Vista

[KoD]

It might have to do with the fact that S/PDIF is considered an "unsecure" audio path in Vista not covered by the "protected audio path" so at best you'll get stereo content out of it if your software player even bothers with it (similar to how you get only downscaled video). You see, in Vista, all "premium content", including audio, must go out of your PC only through interfaces that are considered "safe/protected" like HDMI.

All hail our Vista overlord !


For reference, there are few available documents that are actually up-to-date describing the new content restriction features in Vista. Two of them are here WHDC (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/stream/AVstream.mspx). Look at the "How to Implement Windows Vista Content Output Protection WinHEC 2006 presentation" and the "Output Content Protection and Windows Vista WinHEC 2005 one" but the latter one is a little bit outdated it seems.

[olisun]

That means I will have to get a graphics card which has got HDMI output??

Damn... more expenses....

[KoD]

Don't hurry on buying a HDMI video card... if you read the second document I linked to, you'll notice the high degree of fuzzyness around the whole issue. You might discover you can only have 48KHz 16 bit stereo only content over HDMI as well. Lol.

My guess of what actually happens is this: you are playing a HDVD/Bluray/similar content for which there is a restrictions policy in Vista. Your player doesn't care the content you are trying to play is not protected and activates the whole HDCP thingy. This in turns enables the restriction policy that asks the new audio engine in Vista to disable the S/PDIF outputs (while the analog outputs can very well still be allowed, although a module can be used to reduce the quality of the audio content sent to the analog outputs).

Might be even simpler than that, might be only a matter of audio driver that is not yet Vista compliant. (Vista's new audio engine requires a new driver; this driver must be signed for Vista to trust it - I suspect your modified Creative driver isn't).

An interesting thing in that document is that video/audio drivers need to be signed for Vista to consider using them when playing protected content. That is, 3rd party efforts like the kx Audio drivers for Creative cards will probably never be accepted for playing protected content.

And guess what, any postprocessing filters like ffdshow need also to be signed for Vista to load them when playing protected content. Which will never happen. Lol^2

[olisun]

I went out an bought a SB X-Fi extreme audio card before I read this post and guess what?, the blasted SPDIF option is not available...

It looks like currenly only the realtek chipset based cards work well in vista