Cyberlink PowerDVD 23 Ultra Blu-ray player software for the year 2024 (user review)
Cyberlink PowerDVD 23 Ultra (latest 64 bit Blu-ray player software for the year 2024 (user review)
On January 3rd 2024 the retail box version of PowerDVD 23 Ultra was listed for pre-ordering on the Amazon website for $99.99. However, it is my understanding that Cyberlink did not officially release PowerDVD 23 Ultra until sometime around the last week of January 2024. One negative about PowerDVD 23 Ultra according to the Amazon website is that the retail box appears to not ship with a CD-ROM installation disc like all prior versions of PowerDVD offered, since the product description on the Amazon website only says “Retail Box with download card” and the installation disc is not mentioned in the product description (however today I noticed that if one zooms in on the picture of the retail box on the Amazon website it says “Includes an installation disc and digital download”). So, it is unclear if this year Cyberlink stopped offering physical optical CD-ROM installation discs, since the product description just says retail box with download card, but zooming in on the retail box suggests the installation disc might come with. While I understand that if one was in a retail store it would make sense to buy the retail box version with a download card, however if no installation CD-ROM is offered anymore going directly to Cyberlinks website and paying $99.99 and bypassing Amazon directly makes perfect sense, since then one does not need to wait for the product key download card to arrive, and instead Cyberlink can email the product key with download link instantly after purchase. As a fan of physical media, I will miss the optical installation CD-ROM discs and DVD-ROM discs that so many companies use to offer with software installations (at least Intuit TurboTax every year still offers a physical optical disc for installation). Currently only Microsoft offers DVD-ROM discs for Windows installations and most other companies have gone to the download link method with a product key. So currently for new PowerDVD 23 Ultra customers that have never owned prior versions of PowerDVD, there is currently two choices, one either pays $99.99 and buys the retail box at Amazon with the download card (which might also come with a CD-ROM according to the fine print on retail box), or one pays $99.99 directly from Cyberlinks website to download PowerDVD 23 Ultra directly. However, if one is an existing PowerDVD 21 Ultra or PowerDVD 22 Ultra owner they can upgrade to PowerDVD 23 Ultra download version at 50% off for only $49.99 instead of $99.99. Every year I pay around $99.99 plus taxes for the retail box version, but since this year Amazon product description only said “Retail Box with download card”, I went to Cyberlink directly and downloaded the software. But today as I was writing this user review, I zoomed in on the small print on the retail box and see that the retail box claims both an installation disc and digital download is included. So, I missed out on getting the retail box from Amazon since it was unclear what I was buying from them.
PowerDVD 23 Ultra retail box with download card at Amazon for $99.99
PowerDVD 23 Ultra direct download from Cyberlink website is $99.99 for new customers, or $49.99 for existing PowerDVD 21 Ultra and PowerDVD 22 Ultra customers
PowerDVD 23 Ultra is officially compatible with the Windows 11 operating system, however even though my 9 year old desktop computer has the latest TPM 2.0 chip with secure boot technology, my PC lacks the latest CPU requirements to use the Windows 11 operating system, and therefore I am using the Windows 10 Professional 64 bit operating system instead. Windows 11 requires a recent new desktop or Notebook computer with the latest CPU within the last 3 to 4 years. However, PowerDVD 23 Ultra is fully functional with both the Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating system.
Is PowerDVD 23 Ultra a downgrade or an upgrade when compared to prior versions of the program?
If one owns a large collection of Blu-ray 3D discs and native 4K Blu-ray discs then upgrading to PowerDVD 23 Ultra is a downgrade since the Cyberlink company no longer supports Blu-ray 3D and 4K Blu-ray discs (Only standard 2K Blu-ray discs, 480i DVD discs, and audio CD’s are supported when it comes to physical optical disc media). Many years ago PowerDVD 10 Ultra added Blu-ray 3D disc playback. And PowerDVD 17 Ultra added native 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback. For those that need Blu-ray 3D support they should stick with Cyberlink PowerDVD 19 Ultra since that was the last official version that supports Blu-ray 3D discs. In PowerDVD 20 Ultra Blu-ray 3D support was removed (or I should say never supported Blu-ray 3D). For those that need native 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback they should stick with PowerDVD 22 Ultra since that was the last official version that supported native 4K Blu-ray discs (make sure one does not install the latest firmware update or software patch that removes native 4K Blu-ray disc support). In PowerDVD 23 Ultra native 4K Blu-ray disc support was removed (or I should say never supported 4K Blu-ray). Of course, those consumers that need both Blu-ray 3D and native 4K Blu-ray disc playback from a Windows PC should be using PowerDVD 19 Ultra since that software is the last software that supports both Blu-ray 3D and native 4K Blu-ray discs. However, to play the latest new release Blu-ray disc movies with the latest AACS security keys a firmware update is needed once every 6 months or so. Installing the latest firmware update will most likely remove Blu-ray 3D support and native 4K Blu-ray disc support. Also, at a certain point Cyberlink will stop supporting older versions of PowerDVD and a firmware updates will stop and customers will need to pay around $99.99 to upgrade or sometimes $49.99 to upgrade to the latest version of PowerDVD Ultra which currently for the year 2024 is PowerDVD 23 Ultra. There is a possibility that one day that Cyberlink might drop native 2K Blu-ray (100% standard Blu-ray disc) playback from a future version of PowerDVD Ultra in 3 to 5+ years. But that is just speculation after long time consumers have seen the company drop Blu-ray 3D and 4K Blu-ray playback. If standard 2K Blu-ray disc support is ever dropped, then I will never be upgrading to a newer version of PowerDVD again, since that is the main reason many people purchased PowerDVD Ultra in the first place. Worst case scenario is that one day Cyberlink might drop 480i DVD disc playback and audio CD playback, and become a Cloud based media download player, but the player would need to be called something like PowerMedia player instead of PowerDVD player if DVD player support is dropped. In Cyberlinks defense the company was forced to drop both Blu-ray 3D and native 4K Blu-ray disc playback, since that feature was removed from all PC hardware as soon as consumers started installing the latest firmware updates to graphics cards, motherboards, etc. Nine years ago, in the year 2015 I built a high-end Intel based desktop computer with a native 4K HDCP 2.2 computer monitor that could stream and download native 4K content from the web, however when the 4K Blu-ray format launched in 2016, I and the 99% of other consumers that owned a PC with a native 4K BD-ROM drive could not play 4K Blu-ray discs since it required a special Intel CPU and motherboard that used SGX hardware-based security technology. But the problem is only 1% of the Intel based computers on the market had that SGX security technology and 99% of the other new computers lacked that technology. And SGX security was only offered on low to medium end computers and not the high-end motherboards. To make matters worse the Blu-ray Disc Association only approved Intel based SGX security technology as the only security technology allowed to playback native 4K Blu-ray disc, and just a few years ago Intel stopped making CPU’s and motherboards with the SGX technology. To make a long story short SGX is a dead security technology and since all new firmware/software updates to computers remove the ability for consumers to playback Blu-ray 3D discs and 4K Blu-ray discs, Cyberlink had no other choice but to remove both Blu-ray 3D and 4K Blu-ray disc playback capability from its PowerDVD Ultra product line. At this point the only way to playback Blu-ray 3D and 4K Blu-ray discs is to purchase a standalone 4K Blu-ray player from Sony or Panasonic or another company that is not Windows based.
Windows Media Player dropped native DVD support and only the playback of audio CD’s occurs starting with Windows 10. There are over 1.4 billion Windows 10 and Windows 11 users combined, and the ability to playback Blu-ray 3D and 4K Blu-ray discs from a Windows PC is not possible anymore, and might never be possible. At this point the only thing that could bring back both Blu-ray 3D and 4K Blu-ray disc playback to a Windows PC, would be if the Blu-ray Disc Association makes a business deal with Microsoft. Microsoft has knowledgeable computer programmers that could make a secure software, secure hardware, or secure hybrid software/hardware technology around the TPM 2.0 chip or other security technology that would allow all Windows based AMD CPU’s and Intel CPUs to playback both Blu-ray 3D and 4K Blu-ray discs. It would also be ideal to have a Windows Media Player that supports DVD-Audio disc and Super Audio CD (Blu-ray Audio is already supported on 100% of Blu-ray players since the year 2006). If Windows 12 becomes a reality one day all new Windows 12 PC’s could ship with a new version of Windows Media Player that supports 4K Blu-ray disc, Blu-ray 3D disc, 2K Blu-ray discs, 480i DVD discs, and audio CD’s. Maybe even a new 4K Blu-ray Windows Media App one day that can be downloaded from the Microsoft store for existing Windows 10 and Windows 11 users. The Blu-ray Disc Association if they want to restore 4K Blu-ray disc playback and Blu-ray 3D playback from a Windows PC are going to need to make business deal with Microsoft. For now, 4K Blu-ray disc playback and Blu-ray 3D playback is not possible on a Windows PC anymore.
One might be wondering why I purchased PowerDVD 23 Ultra if both Blu-ray 3D and 4K Blu-ray disc playback is not supported. The answer is I personally never owned the equipment to playback Blu-ray 3D and 4K Blu-ray disc from a Windows PC. So, for me and my family members I have been using a year 2016 OPPO UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player to playback native 4K Blu-ray discs. While many consumers lost the ability to play Blu-ray 3D and 4K Blu-ray discs from a Windows PC, those were features I wanted to use but personally lacked the computer hardware technology to playback those formats. So, my point is PowerDVD 23 Ultra is a very small upgrade for people that only need to playback standard 2K Blu-ray discs, 480i DVD discs, and audio CD’s. But a big downgrade for people that lost native 4K Blu-ray disc playback and Blu-ray 3D playback.
Some positives and a few negatives of Cyberlink PowerDVD 23 Ultra (mostly a 64-bit application).
There are a lot of signs that the world is transitioning away from physical optical disc media to Internet cloud-based streaming or download media playing. The latest computer graphics cards and computer monitors support native 8K video playback (one of my family members owns an 8K graphics card but the graphics card is connected to a 1080P computer monitor, instead of a 4K or 8K computer monitor). I have owned a 4K computer monitor since the year 2015 but have not yet upgraded to an 8K computer monitor. YouTube is currently offering native 8K streams and possible one day around the year 2026+ Netflix, Amazon, VUDU, and other streaming providers might offer 8K movie streams with lossless audio or lossy audio. In addition, professionals and consumers starting around the year 2019+ could purchase an 8K camcorder to create homemade 8K family videos. In the year 2019 Cyberlink was smart enough to have their computer programmers add native 8K video playback support starting with PowerDVD 19 Ultra. And every year the 8K feature is improved upon. With PowerDVD 23 Ultra continuing the support for 8K video file playback. I do not personally own an 8K camcorder but one of my family members has an old year 2017 Sony 4K camcorder and I was able to use PowerDVD 23 Ultra on a native 4K computer monitor to playback 3840 x 2160P videos using the MPEG-4/AVC codec with studio master 2.0 LPCM stereo sound. But I do not own an 8K camcorder to test the 8K video playback capability of PowerDVD 23 Ultra, I am sure the software most likely does a good job with 8K videos. I searched on the Internet and with my Microsoft Edge 64 bit web browser I was able to playback native 8K YouTube demo videos, but they were downscaled to 4K quality on my 9 year old computer monitor. But the 8K YouTube streaming demo videos looked amazing even though I had to downscale them to 4K quality on my 4K computer monitor. But the 8K YouTube videos are being played back on the Microsoft Edge 64 bit browser, and YouTube is the most popular streaming service in the world, and most likely one main reason being that YouTube is free. However, I needed to try and find some 8K demo videos that I could download and play on my PowerDVD 23 Ultra software interface. The problem I ran into is I could not find any free native 8K demo material to download, the websites that claimed 8K video downloads were offering videos in native 4K quality and not true 8K quality. The one website that claimed to offer 8K demo video downloads wanted a minimum of around $300 for each download, therefore I passed on testing the 8K video playback feature with PowerDVD 23 Ultra. If I could have found a free 8K demo to download in theory PowerDVD 23 Ultra would have played the native 7680 x 4320P video back but it would have been downscaled to 4K quality due to the limitations of my 9-year-old desktop computer monitor. But that is one of the amazing features of PowerDVD Ultra, is that 8K has been offered since the year 2019, with the ability to playback native 8K video files downloads from the web or 8K camcorder video file playback.
PowerDVD 23 Ultra offers better HDR10 support for 8K and 4K web based video downloads but no HDR10+ or Dolby Vision HDR support. Also Intel and NVIDIA RTX Video Super Resolution is supported. I did not test all the new instant karaoke features that PowerDVD 23 Ultra supports.
PowerDVD 23 Ultra does not support Blu-ray 3D and 4K Blu-ray, and therefore when I insert a native 4K Blu-ray disc into the computers 4K BD-ROM drive the following PowerDVD 23 Ultra message pops up on the screen:
“There is a disc with an unsupported format in drive F:” (the drive letter for the 4K BD-ROM drive will usually be D, E, or F depending on one’s hardware configuration).
That being said playing standard Blu-ray discs, DVD discs, and audio CD’s was almost flawless on my 9 year old desktop computer system (PowerDVD 23 Ultra also appears to load faster when compared to prior versions). Mixing down 7.1 lossless audio tracks to 2.0 PCM by the software sounded fine with the Blu-ray disc titles I used. Bitstreaming lossless audio to a A/V receiver is a non-issue since the A/V receiver does the decoding of the audio. Also, I know people with a 17-year-old Notebook computer and a BD-ROM drive that are also having no problems with playing standard Blu-ray discs, DVD discs, and audio CD’s while using PowerDVD 23 Ultra. I tested the BD-LIVE function on some Blu-ray discs and it also worked perfectly fine (some studios like Showtime still support BD-LIVE for old legacy titles). PowerDVD 23 Ultra like almost all prior versions offers unlimited persistent storage for BD-LIVE, bookmarks, and resume play if one unchecks the box that says “Limit the size of cache storage to”. Also under more settings make sure the “Enable network for BD-live” is checked for those that want to use BD-LIVE (ones entire solid state drive is used for temporary cache storage). Clearing the cache storage fixes rare Blu-ray disc playback or disc loading issues sometimes for both standalone Blu-ray players and PowerDVD 23 Ultra. Scanning forward at 32 times speed and scanning backwards at 16 times speed was nice and smooth and is the maximum scanning speed possible by the program. PowerDVD 23 Ultra just like prior versions of PowerDVD automatically adjusts the graphics card frame rate (Hz) output from the default 60Hz mode to 30Hz (29.97Hz) when playing back material that is 30fps like DVD discs with 3:2 pulldown, and also some BD-LIVE material that was 30fps. Also, the graphics card switched to 24Hz (23.976Hz) when native 1080p/24 material was played from a Blu-ray disc. Since my computer monitor is native 3840 x 2160P with native 60Hz, any 24Hz and 30Hz material gets converted to 60Hz by the computer monitor. But if one hooks up an external display like a Pioneer plasma the native 1080p/24 from the graphics card well be triple flashed to 1080P at 72Hz by the Pioneer plasma display. Or native 2160P/24 at 96Hz if one hooks up a 4K LCOS projector and is able to play 4K camcorder images (some 4K videos might be 30fps or 60fps instead of 24fps).
PowerDVD 23 Ultra has an optical disc information screen that shows basic information like the video and audio codec located on the disc, disc resolution, and audio and video bit rates. However, PowerDVD 23 Ultra still does not show the frame rate on the disc and if the source material is interlaced or progressive. Therefore, movie reviewers still need to use the 2016 OPPO UDP-203 Blu-ray player that mentions the native frame rate of the disc and if the image is progressive or interlaced. Plus, the OPPO UDP-203 informs one what the output frame rate and output resolution is. Hopefully a future version of PowerDVD well offer frame rate and progressive/interlace information. Next to the resolution all they need to do is place a letter “I” or a letter “P”. Then have a native Hz info on screen also. But for some reason PowerDVD Ultra does not offer the same level of detail as one gets from a high-end standalone 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc player.
My desktop computer uses a Windows 10 Professional 64-bit operating system. Programs that run in 64 bit mode instead of 32 bit mode are more powerful and faster (that is true 99% of the time as long as the programmer designed the program correctly). Cyberlink PowerDVD 19 Ultra was the very first PowerDVD software program to offer native 64-bit software code for the main program. While it’s true that PowerDVD 23 Ultra also runs in 64 bit mode, that is only true for the main program and many times PowerDVD 23 Ultra runs in a hybrid 64 bit and 32 bit mode. For example, when playing an audio CD, PowerDVD 23 Ultra runs in 64-bit mode, but when one plays a video from a DVD, or Blu-ray disc, PowerDVD Ultra must access 32-bit software code to play that video. In the ideal world when and if Cyberlink makes PowerDVD 24 Ultra for the year 2025+, they should rewrite the program so that its 100% 64-bit application code running instead of the hybrid 64 bit and 32-bit code that is currently being used for video. For example, while viewing the “Platform” column under “Details” tab in Windows Task Manager, one gets to see all the 64 bit and 32-bit software programs that are running. As soon as one clicks on the PowerDVD 23 Ultra desktop icon, the main core program called “PowerDVD.exe” well run-in 64-bit mode on a 64-bit Windows operating system. Then for a second or two “PowerDVD22Agent.exe” which is also 64 bit well briefly run and then close as soon as “PowerDVDMovie.exe” software is launched automatically. The problem is the “PowerDVDMovie.exe” software is only running in 32-bit mode. While audio CD’s only use the 64 bit “PowerDVD.exe” program, when one wants to play any video-based program from a DVD or Blu-ray they are accessing the 32 bit “PowerDVDMovie.exe” software code. Therefore PowerDVD 23 Ultra is not 100% 64 bit and only the main program, therefore it has to always access 32-bit software code in order to play video-based material. In the ideal world the next version of PowerDVD, which in theory will be called PowerDVD 24 Ultra, most likely will be released in 2025+, and hopefully the Cyberlink company programmers will have re-written the software so that the “PowerDVDMovie.exe” portion of the software uses 64-bit code instead of 32-bit software code. If that was to occur then the program would no longer be a 64 bit and 32-bit hybrid but 100% 64-bit software program.
If one does not need support for playing back Blu-ray 3D discs or native 4K Blu-ray discs, I highly recommend PowerDVD 23 Ultra. Overall PowerDVD 23 Ultra appears to be a little bit better when compared to PowerDVD 22 Ultra. PowerDVD 23 Ultra is also the best Blu-ray software for a Windows PC for those that own a BD-ROM drive and want to playback standard Blu-ray discs, DVD discs, and audio CD’s. Its true that PowerDVD 23 Ultra is the best and number one software to use to playback standard 2K Blu-ray discs and 480i DVD discs (plus audio CDs are supported). However, many consumers are going to instead purchase a standalone 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc player from Sony or Panasonic so that they can playback native 4K Blu-ray discs and Blu-ray 3D discs. I always wanted to playback 4K Blu-ray discs on a Windows computer when doing brief user reviews, but for the past 8 years all my 4K BD-ROM drive was good for is getting the GB information from the 4K Blu-ray disc (PC built in 2015 but first 4K BD-ROM drive came out around 2016). I really wish the Blu-ray Disc Association would make a business deal with Microsoft and fix this issue of Windows no longer supporting native 4K Blu-ray disc playback and no longer supporting Blu-ray 3D playback. With over 1.4 billion Windows devices in use, it should be possible to get 14 million consumers out of the 1.4 billion to purchase an internal or external 4K BD-ROM drive if 4K Blu-ray support were to return to Windows one day. Its all up to the Blu-ray Disc Association if they want to get this issue resolved.
While the PowerDVD 23 Ultra retail box with download card remains at $99.99 (price drop on download version is now $89.99 for new users). It appears that Cyberlink is having a hard time getting existing PowerDVD 21 Ultra and PowerDVD 22 Ultra users to purchase the so called upgrade, since the upgrade price dropped from $49.99 to $44.99.
There is a problem with PowerDVD 23 Ultra when the program encounters a bad disc
There is a problem with PowerDVD 23 Ultra when the program encounters a very bad scratched optical disc (and most likely in all prior PowerDVD Ultra versions, but I only verified the problem in PowerDVD 23 Ultra since the prior versions I use to use are long gone). The reason why I did not notice this problem earlier is because in my personal Blu-ray, DVD, and audio CD collection, almost 100% of all my optical discs are in perfect condition with no scratches on the disc surface. Also, Blu-ray has a protective scratch coating that is scratch resistant but not scratch proof. Once and awhile while renting a Blu-ray disc, there will be a very bad scratched Blu-ray disc that consumer will experience playback problems. The other issue even if one purchases a used Blu-ray disc because the new Blu-ray disc is out of print, used Blu-ray discs are more acceptable to having scratches from prior owners of the disc, which equals playback problems sometimes if the scratches are very deep on the disc surface. There are some online dealers that offer professional repair of Blu-ray, DVD, and audio CDs for a fee of around $14.99 for 5 optical discs (around $74.99 for 50 optical discs). These companies use a professional machine that removes scratches and sometimes makes the bad optical disc playable once again (ideal for used out of print optical discs). One of the best quality optical disc repair machines is the ECO-Master for $21,995 and cheaper models run at $6,995 for the Eco Auto Smart and $1,895 for the ECO-Pro 2.
Therefore, sometimes it’s cheaper to buy a new Blu-ray, DVD, or audio CD then to try and get a damaged disc repaired. But for rare used out of print optical discs using a repair service or owning an automated optical disc repair machine is ideal. I have never purchased an optical disc repair machine or used an optical disc repair service since again almost 100% of my optical discs in my private collection are scratch free or if there are scratches from a brand-new optical disc it does not have playback problems since minor scratches can be handled by the Blu-ray player.
There is a problem with PowerDVD 23 Ultra when the program encounters a very bad scratched optical disc
The OPPO UDP-203 has a RS-232 interface for an AI program that wants to use the wired remote-control feature of the player. On my year 2016 OPPO UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player if I rent a movie on Blu-ray that is scratched, most the time the player will play through the scratches perfectly fine, unless the rental Blu-ray is very badly scratched. Also, brand new 4K Blu-ray discs and standard Blu-ray discs sometimes come with scratches that are unplayable and the discs needs to be returned for a replacement. I just recently ran into a bad brand new Blu-ray disc that had massive number of deep scratches on the disc surface, plus over the last few weeks some badly scratched Blu-ray discs (some new and some used out of print titles). The advantage of the software/hardware design of the year 2016 OPPO UDP-203 is that when it has playback problems from a scratched optical disc, the player will instantly scan forward past the scratch after sometimes freezing for a second or two, but the player never needs to be power cycled or locks up when it runs into a badly scratched optical disc. For example, a badly scratched Blu-ray disc results in the OPPO UDP-203 player scanning past the bad area of the disc a few seconds or a few minutes depending on how badly the optical disc has been damaged. And this is the way all standalone 4K Blu-ray players and standard Blu-ray players should handle badly scratched optical discs, by scanning forward past the bad area of the disc instead of locking up and requiring a power cycle. But the problem with PowerDVD 23 Ultra when connected to a high-end Pioneer 4K BD-ROM drive, is that if any badly scratched optical disc is played, as soon as the damaged part of the disc is played, the 4K BD-ROM drive locks up instead of scanning forward automatically past the bad section of the optical disc. Maybe this issue occurs on all brands and models of BD-ROM drives when using PowerDVD 23 Ultra or maybe this issue is an incompatibility with PowerDVD 23 Ultra communicating with Pioneer 4K BD-ROM drives. But this bug needs to be fixed, since as soon as the bad area of the optical disc is reached the PowerDVD 23 Ultra program is locking up the 4K BD-ROM drive to the point that one cannot eject the disc with the disc eject button on the drive and one cannot even manually skip forward or backward with the program. Something is happing with PowerDVD 23 Ultra with the communication with a 4K BD-ROM drive that is causing the 4K BD-ROM drive to lockup on damaged discs. Even doing a reboot of Windows will not cause the 4K BD-ROM drive to stop freezing since Windows gets stuck in shutting down since its waiting for the SATA data burst to end. The only two things that will unfreeze the 4K BD-ROM drive from reading a bad optical disc, is to power cycle the computer or instead use task manager in Windows to shut down the PowerDVD 23 Ultra program. But many times, ending task on PowerDVD 23 Ultra will not shut down the program when a disc freeze from a scratch occurs (sometimes after pushing the end task on PowerDVD 23 Ultra around 20 times the program will end and unfreeze the 4K BD-ROM drive). The Cyberlink programmers need to do a firmware update to PowerDVD 23 Ultra so that the program does not lock up a 4K BD-ROM drive when a very badly damaged area of the optical disc is reached.I never played a very bad scratched disc back with PowerDVD Ultra before, only just recently, and that is why I never noticed the problem before. But the software does not know what to do with a bad area of the optical disc and instead just locks up the 4K BD-ROM drive until the PowerDVD 23 Ultra program task is manually ended by Windows task manger or the computer is power cycled. The Cyberlink computer programmers should be able write a program code that detects when a 4K BD-ROM drive or regular BD-ROM drive reaches a bad area of the optical disc, and instead of freezing the entire player and requiring a computer power cycle, the PowerDVD 23 Ultra program should be telling the 4K BD-ROM drive to scan forward a few seconds or few minutes until it reaches the disc surface that is not damaged (This is what all standalone Blu-ray players and BD-ROM drives should do, instead of freezing and requiring a power cycle they should be scanning forward past the bad section of the Blu-ray disc). If one has all perfect Blu-ray, DVD, and audio CD’s they will never experience this problem with PowerDVD 23 Ultra, but if one runs into a bad disc it is a nightmare since not even a Windows reboot fixes the issue since Windows is waiting for the SATA BD-ROM drive data burst to end before Windows shuts down. Only power cycling the computer fixes the lock up 100% of the time or ending task on PowerDVD 23 Ultra in Windows task manger sometimes fixes the problem if end task is pushed around 20 times. Cyberlink needs to fix this issue. I no longer have any defective scratched discs in my personal collection, but maybe I should keep one around in order to test standalone 4K Blu-ray players and 4K BD-ROM computer drives. Since they all should perform like the OPPO UDP-203 and scan forward past the bad disc section instead of freezing and being power cycled. I believe the year 2017 Sony UBP-X800 works like the OPPO UDP-203 when playing a bad area of an optical disc, but I have not personally tested to make sure the Sony performance is like a OPPO when playing a very bad defective optical disc.
Back in the year 2019 I purchased some Pioneer BDR-211UBK (also called BDR-211M) 4K Ultra HD BD-ROM drives for $129.95 each. I am also running the latest Pioneer firmware update that is version 1.54 from the year 2023. But sadly, when I recently played a out of print used rental Blu-ray disc that has major deep scratches from being damaged by a prior rental customer, while the year 2016 OPPO UDP-203 will only freeze for a few seconds and skip ahead a few minutes past the bad area of the disc. However, the latest Cyberlink PowerDVD 23 Ultra program when it encounters a very deeply scratched disc will lockup and freeze and loses all communication with the BD-ROM drive. The Cyberlink programmers need to write a firmware update so when a consumer is playing an optical disc that is extremely damaged with a lot of scratches, that instead of the BD-ROM drive sitting there for 10 to 15 minutes trying to play the exact same spot on the disc, instead the PowerDVD 23 Ultra program needs to tell the BD-ROM drive to skip ahead a few seconds and keep skipping ahead until it finds an area of the disc that is not damaged. There are both rental and sometimes brand-new optical discs that sometimes have faint deep scratches that are sometimes not visible to the human eye, and in the ideal world all computer and standalone Blu-ray players should perform like the OPPO UDP-203 and skip ahead a few seconds or a few minutes until the unplayable damaged portion of the optical disc is skipped over. That is better then having to power cycle the computer or standalone Blu-ray player.
On November 24th 2022 Pioneer released the new and improved Pioneer BDR-S13U-X which is offered on Amazon’s website for $290. Even though the “Ultra HD Blu-ray” logo was removed from the drive, the spec sheet still claims it still reads 4K Blu-ray discs but of course no legally licensed Windows software exists to playback 4K Blu-ray discs. Some of the reasons for the jump in price from the $129.99 list price of the year 2019 Pioneer BDR-211UBK drive I own and the year 2022 Pioneer BDR-S13U-X for $290, is because of two factors. Inflation in computer components and also since there is less demand for optical drives they are now more expensive do to being made in lower QTY’s. But even if I purchased this new $290 Pioneer drive, I believe the PowerDVD 23 Ultra program would have the same exact problem when reading a very damaged scratched rental disc no matter which optical drive is attached. The PowerDVD 23 Ultra program is what controls the BD-ROM drive, and the programmers just need to tell the BD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives what to do when trying to read a very bad scratched disc. The entire PowerDVD 23 Ultra program locks up for 10 to 15 minutes when reaching a bad area of the disc, and sometimes after 10 or 15 minutes of being freezed in the same spot, it will stop and pop up a message that the disc cannot be read. But if one does not want to wait 10 or 15 minutes, they have to either power cycle the computer or try and end tasking on PowerDVD 23 Ultra in Windows task manger so the program and BD-ROM drive do not remain locked up. I really hope this issue is fixed with a firmware update from Cyberlink, but if one has all perfect optical discs with no major scratch damage, like I do in 99.9% of my collection, then one will never experience this problem with PowerDVD 23 Ultra or prior versions of PowerDVD Ultra.
Problem is occruing on all brands and models of optical drives including DVD-ROM only
I just verified that damaged DVD discs are also having the same issue in PowerDVD 23 Ultra and it has nothing to do with the Blu-ray format, it’s a problem with all damaged optical discs played in PowerDVD 23 Ultra. On a year 2016 OPPO UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player I placed a very bad DVD disc in the player that has bad data blocks from a bad 480i DVD stamping process. When the bad area of the DVD disc was reached the OPPO UDP-203 froze for a second and then skipped ahead several minutes past the bad section of the DVD disc to the good area of the disc. But when placed in the Pioneer BDR-211M 4K Blu-ray drive and also when placed in a top of the line 18 times speed ASUS DVD-ROM drive both the DVD-ROM drive and BD-ROM drive locked up while using PowerDVD 23 Ultra, since PowerDVD 23 Ultra does not know what to do when it reaches a bad area of an optical disc including a standard DVD disc. PowerDVD 23 Ultra just froze on the bad 480i DVD disc and would not communicate with the ASUS DVD-ROM drive, and would not tell the drive to advance ahead a few minutes to the good portion of the DVD discs. I really hope Cyberlink fixes this issue with a firmware update since it is affecting all optical drives even customers that have a standard SATA DVD-ROM drive in their computer.
But 95% of PoweDVD owners most likely will not experience this problem as long as their optical discs are in perfect condition with no major scratches and no major bad data blocks during the stamping process.
Back in the year 2019 I purchased some Pioneer BDR-211UBK (also called BDR-211M) 4K Ultra HD BD-ROM drives for $129.95 each. I am also running the latest Pioneer firmware update that is version 1.54 from the year 2023. But sadly, when I recently played a out of print used rental Blu-ray disc that has major deep scratches from being damaged by a prior rental customer, while the year 2016 OPPO UDP-203 will only freeze for a few seconds and skip ahead a few minutes past the bad area of the disc. However, the latest Cyberlink PowerDVD 23 Ultra program when it encounters a very deeply scratched disc will lockup and freeze and loses all communication with the BD-ROM drive. The Cyberlink programmers need to write a firmware update so when a consumer is playing an optical disc that is extremely damaged with a lot of scratches, that instead of the BD-ROM drive sitting there for 10 to 15 minutes trying to play the exact same spot on the disc, instead the PowerDVD 23 Ultra program needs to tell the BD-ROM drive to skip ahead a few seconds and keep skipping ahead until it finds an area of the disc that is not damaged. There are both rental and sometimes brand-new optical discs that sometimes have faint deep scratches that are sometimes not visible to the human eye, and in the ideal world all computer and standalone Blu-ray players should perform like the OPPO UDP-203 and skip ahead a few seconds or a few minutes until the unplayable damaged portion of the optical disc is skipped over. That is better then having to power cycle the computer or standalone Blu-ray player.
On November 24th 2022 Pioneer released the new and improved Pioneer BDR-S13U-X which is offered on Amazon’s website for $290. Even though the “Ultra HD Blu-ray” logo was removed from the drive, the spec sheet still claims it still reads 4K Blu-ray discs but of course no legally licensed Windows software exists to playback 4K Blu-ray discs. Some of the reasons for the jump in price from the $129.99 list price of the year 2019 Pioneer BDR-211UBK drive I own and the year 2022 Pioneer BDR-S13U-X for $290, is because of two factors. Inflation in computer components and also since there is less demand for optical drives they are now more expensive do to being made in lower QTY’s. But even if I purchased this new $290 Pioneer drive, I believe the PowerDVD 23 Ultra program would have the same exact problem when reading a very damaged scratched rental disc no matter which optical drive is attached. The PowerDVD 23 Ultra program is what controls the BD-ROM drive, and the programmers just need to tell the BD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives what to do when trying to read a very bad scratched disc. The entire PowerDVD 23 Ultra program locks up for 10 to 15 minutes when reaching a bad area of the disc, and sometimes after 10 or 15 minutes of being freezed in the same spot, it will stop and pop up a message that the disc cannot be read. But if one does not want to wait 10 or 15 minutes, they have to either power cycle the computer or try and end tasking on PowerDVD 23 Ultra in Windows task manger so the program and BD-ROM drive do not remain locked up. I really hope this issue is fixed with a firmware update from Cyberlink, but if one has all perfect optical discs with no major scratch damage, like I do in 99.9% of my collection, then one will never experience this problem with PowerDVD 23 Ultra or prior versions of PowerDVD Ultra.
It's probably the drive's fault, not PowerDVD's. Computer disc drives tend to "give up" after trying to read a scratched portion of the disc, whereas the drives in set-top players will just keep trying to read it anyway.
It's probably the drive's fault, not PowerDVD's. Computer disc drives tend to "give up" after trying to read a scratched portion of the disc, whereas the drives in set-top players will just keep trying to read it anyway.
Nope, its the other way around. With two computer disc readers I have been able to fully extract disc contents from rotted and heavily scratched discs that standalone players could not read.
Nope, its the other way around. With two computer disc readers I have been able to fully extract disc contents from rotted and heavily scratched discs that standalone players could not read.
Maybe your drives are from a different company. HDTV1080P uses Pioneer drives.
I just verified that damaged DVD discs are also having the same issue in PowerDVD 23 Ultra and it has nothing to do with the Blu-ray format, it’s a problem with all damaged optical discs played in PowerDVD 23 Ultra. On a year 2016 OPPO UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player I placed a very bad DVD disc in the player that has bad data blocks from a bad 480i DVD stamping process. When the bad area of the DVD disc was reached the OPPO UDP-203 froze for a second and then skipped ahead several minutes past the bad section of the DVD disc to the good area of the disc. But when placed in the Pioneer BDR-211M 4K Blu-ray drive and also when placed in a top of the line 18 times speed ASUS DVD-ROM drive both the DVD-ROM drive and BD-ROM drive locked up while using PowerDVD 23 Ultra, since PowerDVD 23 Ultra does not know what to do when it reaches a bad area of an optical disc including a standard DVD disc. PowerDVD 23 Ultra just froze on the bad 480i DVD disc and would not communicate with the ASUS DVD-ROM drive, and would not tell the drive to advance ahead a few minutes to the good portion of the DVD discs. I really hope Cyberlink fixes this issue with a firmware update since it is affecting all optical drives even customers that have a standard SATA DVD-ROM drive in their computer.
But 95% of PoweDVD owners most likely will not experience this problem as long as their optical discs are in perfect condition with no major scratches and no major bad data blocks during the stamping process.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BijouMan
It's probably the drive's fault, not PowerDVD's. Computer disc drives tend to "give up" after trying to read a scratched portion of the disc, whereas the drives in set-top players will just keep trying to read it anyway.
It’s a problem with PowerDVD 23 Ultra not telling a BD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives to jump ahead a few seconds or minutes when reading a bad section on a optical disc like a standard definition 480i DVD. This problem was verified on a top-of-the-line ASUS DVD-ROM drive and a top-of-the-line Pioneer BD-ROM drive (see my last post). Again, this problem will only occur on a damaged optical disc like a DVD disc when it’s been either badly scratched or there is stamping problems in the DVD that causes bad data blocks.
For some reason after upgrading I no longer get surround sound. Double checked settings and all are ok. Strangely, Windows 11 Media Player has no problem with it, as dialog is firmly on the center channel along with surround channels working. Have no idea what to do. Bummed out. ��
For some reason after upgrading I no longer get surround sound. Double checked settings and all are ok. Strangely, Windows 11 Media Player has no problem with it, as dialog is firmly on the center channel along with surround channels working. Have no idea what to do. Bummed out.
Did you give the Leawo Blu-ray Player a try at it?
As of October of last year, I started a thread at the RedFox Forum, after the announcement made by Cyberlink that PowerDVD 22 would no longer support UHD Blu-Ray playback. And I had just upgraded to that version. At first, UHD playback was perfectly normal, but an update to the software would render it useless to that end.
As a longtime AnyDVD HD user I was obviously concerned, hence that thread (https://forum.redfox.bz/threads/sad-...d-users.88631/). I was, of course, advised NOT to update, and, in addition, to disable updating in the program's configuration settings, which I did.
PowerDVD 23 officially no longer supports UHD playback. Therefore, I will never upgrade PowerDVD again.
I use PowerDVD in my PC for evaluation and testing only, in reference to my home theater installation, which uses an Oppo 203 UHD dedicated playback.
Mind you, it was RedFox to let us play UHD discs in our PCs, via AnyDVD HD. The infamous SGX censorship was overcome long-time before it was deprecated by Intel. A lot of trouble, even for Intel users, was caused by this mess, probably the reason why Intel dropped it.
PowerDVD is not the only PC player that is capable of playing UHD discs. I still have installed PotPlayer 64 bits that will do it. The only resource missing is the access to menus, but the playing itself is flawlessly. HDR 10 is also correctly displayed, since Dolby Vision is not normally supported in PC monitors.
Quite frankly, it is a shame. I was a PowerDVD fan before and now, sadly, I turned it down and will stick with my current version 22 install, as long as possible.
Thanks for sharing. It is my understanding that only Cyberlink PowerDVD and Corel WinDVD Pro are the only officially licensed Windows profile 2.0 BD-LIVE Blu-ray players by the Blu-ray Disc Association. To my knowledge the BDA has not authorized any other Windows software to playback Blu-ray discs. Using unlicensed software usually means the encryption is being broken that leads to legality issues in some countries. Currently Cyberlink and Corel do not support the playback of 4K Blu-ray discs and possible never will unless the BDA works with Microsoft and the Windows PC hardware developers to come up with a new solution for secure playback of 4K Blu-ray discs on a Windows PC.
As long as one is only playing back standard Blu-ray discs (also called 2K Blu-ray discs), 480i DVD discs, and audio CD's, PowerDVD 23 Ultra is fine and will work on a 17-year-old desktop/laptop with a BD-ROM drive. People that want 4K Blu-ray disc playback usually end up purchasing a Sony or Panasonic standalone 4K Blu-ray player that does not use the Windows operating system and perhaps Linux or another operating system in the standalone 4K Blu-ray players.
PowerDVD is not the only PC player that is capable of playing UHD discs. I still have installed PotPlayer 64 bits that will do it. The only resource missing is the access to menus, but the playing itself is flawlessly. HDR 10 is also correctly displayed, since Dolby Vision is not normally supported in PC monitors.
Quite frankly, it is a shame. I was a PowerDVD fan before and now, sadly, I turned it down and will stick with my current version 22 install, as long as possible.
Is PotPlayer better than Leawo Blu-ray Player? What components does your PC have to play UHD discs?
Powerdvd is like shxx when it comes to playback UHD discs on Windows.
Don't remember anymore when I stopped using it although I'd been an avid user of it since version 4.
The current solution for this is PlaverFab that I've been using for years combined with a so-called UHD friendly drive made by such manufacturers as LG, ASUS or Buffalo. You need to have a specific firmware that are tuned to bypass all those protection crap. The only thing left then is to replace the original firmware in the drive with the specific one. With this, everything works fine in a Win10-11 environment even with those later processors that don't have SGX.
I do own a Oppo 203 and a 75" LG OLED for dedicated playback but the windows environment is sometimes actually needed for this.
PowerDVD 23 Ultra bug when playing back lossy 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus soundtracks
PowerDVD 23 Ultra needs a software update to fix a bug regarding lossy Dolby Digital Plus audio. For example PowerDVD 23 Ultra will correctly on the show information screen display audio as lossless 7.1 DTS-HD Master core audio or lossless 7.1 Dolby TrueHD core audio when playing a lossless 11.1 DTS X soundtrack or a lossless 11.1 Dolby Atmos soundtrack. However, when PowerDVD 23 Ultra plays a lossy 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack that has a bit rate of 1,152kbps, the problem is instead of displaying “Dolby Digital Plus 7.1” the software instead incorrectly displays “Dolby Digital Plus 5.1” and then is only able to output 5.1 channels. However, when the exact same Blu-ray disc is placed in a year 2016 OPPO UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player the standalone Blu-ray player reports the audio as lossy 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus and when bitstreamed to a year 2011 Pioneer Elite A/V receiver the A/V receiver receives lossy 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus audio and outputs it at 7.1 channels according the A/V receiver display screen.
To make a long story short PowerDVD 23 Ultra cannot handle 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus audio and reduces it to 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus audio. But a firmware update to PowerDVD 23 Ultra should be able to fix this issue.
Another disturbing issue is that it use to be until recently that 100% of all Dolby Atmos Blu-ray discs were true lossless Dolby Atmos releases with lossless 7.1 Dolby TrueHD core audio. Sadly, that is no longer true since the Christian studio Angel Studios started coming out just recently with lossy 11.1 Dolby Atmos titles that use lossy 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus core audio just like the streaming providers offer.
It has been verified that After Death is one of the rare lossy 11.1 Dolby Atmos releases that uses lossy 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus core audio at 1,152kbps. So no longer 100% lossless audio offered for Dolby Atmos titles on the Blu-ray format but sometimes lossy Dolby Atmos on Blu-ray. Lossy 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus core audio with lossy 11.1 Dolby Atmos use to be exclusive to streaming only, but audiophiles now realize that Angel Studios refuses to offer lossless audio on the Blu-ray format for some unknown reason.
Powerdvd is like shxx when it comes to playback UHD discs on Windows.
Don't remember anymore when I stopped using it although I'd been an avid user of it since version 4.
The current solution for this is PlaverFab that I've been using for years combined with a so-called UHD friendly drive made by such manufacturers as LG, ASUS or Buffalo. You need to have a specific firmware that are tuned to bypass all those protection crap. The only thing left then is to replace the original firmware in the drive with the specific one. With this, everything works fine in a Win10-11 environment even with those later processors that don't have SGX.
I do own a Oppo 203 and a 75" LG OLED for dedicated playback but the windows environment is sometimes actually needed for this.
Lao I hope you read this, because I too, am trying to play my UHD discs in PlayerFab, but it's telling me I have an "unfriendly" drive, even though it's an LG wh16ns40 and I flashed it with fw DE_LG_WH16NS60_1.02_MK.bin from Marty McNuts' firmware pack. Can you please tell me which specific firmware I need to flash my with so that PlayerFab sees it as a "friendly drive"?
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Cyberlink PowerDVD 23 Ultra Blu-ray player software for the year 2024 (user review)
Linear Mode
