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    Invelos Forums->General: General Home Theater Discussion Page: 1 2  Previous   Next
HD DVD/BD player software
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DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorNadja
Small and broken
Registered: March 13, 2007
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I must have sifted through hundred of google results now, but I can find little concrete information on playing software for these two formats. I've got the necessary monitor and graphics card, and have the drives on the way, but I'm lost for software. I understand PowerDVD now supports them, but I'm agin' that as I use v4 for Profiler purposes. WinDVD apparently plays them both but I'm seeing conflicting reports as to it being tied to certain hardware. Are there any other options?
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantgardibolt
digitally Obsessed
Registered: March 13, 2007
Posts: 1,414
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I tried WinDVD but could not get it to play any HD DVDs earlier this summer.  When I contacted their customer support they said that there were problems with it and they had removed that functionality.  Whether that was related to the supposed cracking of the copy protection and now has been resolved, I don't know, but you'll definitely want to confirm that it actually does what it says it's supposed to do before you buy it.  I think they still have a 10-day trial version.

PowerDVD Ultra = PowerDVD 7.3 is the only version that supports HD DVD and BD so far as I know.  That's what I'm using and it works just fine.  But yeah, it'll make you uninstall v4. 
"This movie has warped my fragile little mind."
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantstefc
Registered: March 14, 2007
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Make sure your CPU is beefy too. I have a dual core AMD 4800+ and powerdvd can struggle with smooth playback of 1080p hd dvd for me. CoreAVC is super smooth with 1080p H264 avi or mp4 files but sadly it is just an H264 playback decoder and I cant find a way to use it as the video decoder for hd dvd playback (although there is probably a way).
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantVega
Registered: May 19, 2007
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What's special about v4 of PowerDVD?  Is there some feature it has that was removed in the later versions?
"Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men" - Douglas Bader
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRossRoy
Registered: March 13, 2007
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I've been a user of WinDVD since v3 and buying each upgrade as they came out, up to v8. v7 was great: Trimension worked like a charm with some anime, DVD-Audio played good, all was fine. Come v8. Completely crippled. NO more trimension, DVD-Audio don't work anymore, etc, etc ,etc. Steer clear of WinDVD. I hate it with a passion nowadays.

I've adopted PowerDVD recently, and I'm back in DVD watching nirvana. Much better product, with much better support.

Don't know about HD playback though.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorNexus the Sixth
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How about Nero 8? The website claims it has "Increased Blu-ray and HD DVD recording and playing support".
First registered: February 15, 2002
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorNadja
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Oh yep, Mister Computer is plenty beefy alright

V4 would appear to be the last version that actually differentiated between stereo and surround 2.0 tracks. Certainly the most reliable method I've used.

I'll have a look into Nero 8, WinDVD seems off the table. I guess if it comes to it I can use virtual machines or some such to keep two versions of PowerDVD going.

EDIT: Nero 8 looks like it's in the game!
 Last edited: by Nadja
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantnuoyaxin
prev. known as ya_shin
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Quoting Nadja:
Quote:
V4 would appear to be the last version that actually differentiated between stereo and surround 2.0 tracks. Certainly the most reliable method I've used.

Actually, v6 also does it, just not in regular playback mode. You have to close the player and then open it by double-clicking on one of the VOB files on the disc, then you can still see if the Surround flag is set or not. Obviously don't know if the newer versions (7.3 was mentioned above) still work the same way.

...on the other hand, I seem to remember reading some Contribution Notes, where someone said that feature was "re-introduced" into PowerDVD 7...?
Achim [諾亞信; Ya-Shin//Nuo], a German in Taiwan.
Registered: May 29, 2000 (at InterVocative)
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorNadja
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Ooh nice, thanks, I'll look into that too. v4 is kind of tetchy
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantgardibolt
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Since I'm using PowerDVD 7.3, I can check it this weekend and see if it does pick up the flagging properly.
"This movie has warped my fragile little mind."
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorNexus the Sixth
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I have a HD DVD ROM in front of me at my desk right now... But the thing is, I don't have a video card that supports 1080p. Will I still be able to watch HD-movies in 720p on my computer?
First registered: February 15, 2002
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorNadja
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As far as I'm aware, if your video card and monitor are both HDCP enabled, you should be able to do all HD resolutions, and if the HDCP chain isn't complete then it is downgraded all the way to 480p/576p.

BTW, I just had a go with PowerDVD v8. It doesn't recognise the 2.0 surround in regular mode, but it does if you open the VOB directly as ya_shin described. So I'm stickin' with it!
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorNexus the Sixth
Contributor since 2002
Registered: March 13, 2007
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Well, I mounted the HD drive in my computer, upgraded to Nero 8 + the HD plugin, but it didn't work. I almost got it running, but just when it was starting to display something the screen reverted back to the desktop. I guess I will just have to replace the graphics card as well. To be continued...
First registered: February 15, 2002
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorNadja
Small and broken
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I'm in a pickle too. I got the drives, just stuck them in, but I've not got a complete HDCP chain.

The cyberlink advisor tells me that everything is green except the connection itself, which is "Digital (without HDCP")". The full log is here. That's the BD one, the HD DVD trips up on the same step.

The only thing that springs to mind for me is that I have the wrong kind of DVI cable? I'm using the dual-link DVI that came with the monitor, might this not be capable?
 Last edited: by Nadja
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantVega
Registered: May 19, 2007
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What make and model monitor do you have?  My first suspicion would be the monitor itself is not HDCP compliant.

But I've also seen reference in a quick Google search of "HDCP compliant dual-link DVI cables" so I have no idea if that means there's the possibility of non-HDCP compliant cables.  I can't imagine that, but hey you never know.
"Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men" - Douglas Bader
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorNadja
Small and broken
Registered: March 13, 2007
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I was thinking much the same. The monitor is a Dell 3007WFP-HC, definitely HDCP-compliant, but none of the supplied materials seem to vouch for the cable either way.
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