Powerdvd and blu-ray crash to desktop

[jetsetwilly74]

Hi foiks.

I'm running an up to date version of powerdvd on the Gigabyte MA-78GM-S2H motherboard. Catalyst drivers are sitting at 8.5 (8.6 caused all sorts of other problems).

If I launch a blu-ray dvd, powerdvd just crashes to desktop without any sort of message. Just to be helpfully inconsistent, very occasionally (and I mean VERY occasionally), it will just decide to work.


All hooked up to a Sony W4000 LCD HDTV.

Additionally, when it does work, the blue-ray disk looks worse (far more grainy) than a standard dvd !

Thanks in advance.

[dadkins]

Can't call it on the crashing.
As for the "far more grainy" thing - depending on what Blu-ray Disc you are playing, yes!
The DVD is of lower resolution so the grain is less visible.
Blu-ray will display the movie as close as possible to the original master.

Depending on who you talk to, grain is either a good thing or a bad thing.

Try some other discs(Pixar/Disney) when it does get fixed.
*MUCH* Cleaner PQ.

[arush5268d]

Originally Posted by jetsetwilly74

If I launch a blu-ray dvd...

Additionally, when it does work, the blue-ray disk looks worse (far more grainy) than a standard dvd !

Thanks in advance.

Just a friendly tip...i'ts not "blu-ray dvd" or "blue-ray." It's just Blu-ray, or BD. Or blu....

[jetsetwilly74]

Originally Posted by dadkins

Can't call it on the crashing.
As for the "far more grainy" thing - depending on what Blu-ray Disc you are playing, yes!
The DVD is of lower resolution so the grain is less visible.
Blu-ray will display the movie as close as possible to the original master.

Depending on who you talk to, grain is either a good thing or a bad thing.

Try some other discs(Pixar/Disney) when it does get fixed.
*MUCH* Cleaner PQ.

Thanks, makes sense, just caught me by surprise ! I'll try to borrow an alternative to prove that's not an issue. Just need to actually be able to play a disk first ! Oh and the disk I was using was I-Robot.

[david2189]

full pc specs??

[jetsetwilly74]

Originally Posted by arush5268d

Just a friendly tip...i'ts not "blu-ray dvd" or "blue-ray." It's just Blu-ray, or BD. Or blu....

Cheers, it's all new to me

[jetsetwilly74]

Originally Posted by david2189

full pc specs??

Case - Antec Fusion
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
Motherboard/Graphics - Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H (3200HD on board)
Memory: 2Gb Corsair
HD - 2* 500GB Samsung HD502IJ
Player - Pioneer BDC202
Screen - Sony 40W4000 HDMI to HDMI

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1
Catalyst 8.5
Cyberlink Power dvd8 ultra

[trshaw]

sounds like a couple of issues, one is bad vid card drivers, other could be PowerDVD settings or vista issues with the Blu-ray drive.

when it does work is it a specific movie, have you tried playing standard DVDs in it also?

might want to reinstall the drive and see if that works. Sometimes vista doesnt like to play nice with other drivers.

[jetsetwilly74]

Normal dvd's seem fine. I tried another blu ray yesterday and had the same bizarre result. First and second times i launched the disk it crashed. It then decided to work the 3rd time so it doesn't look like the choice of disk is relevant.
Any particular power dvd settings that i should check ?

[trshaw]

one other thing to check, the crashing may be a side affect of mismatch with tv/htpc make sure resolution is similar, if for instance watching a 1080p on a 780p tv would be bad.

make sure the vid card is producing correct refreshrate and resolution for the tv.

i'm not fully familiar with powerDVD8, but try looking for video/resolution, hardware acceleration, or something along those lines. it could be a TV issue, or it could be a PC issue...hard to say. keep trying, and good luck

[jetsetwilly74]

Originally Posted by trshaw

one other thing to check, the crashing may be a side affect of mismatch with tv/htpc make sure resolution is similar, if for instance watching a 1080p on a 780p tv would be bad.

make sure the vid card is producing correct refreshrate and resolution for the tv.

i'm not fully familiar with powerDVD8, but try looking for video/resolution, hardware acceleration, or something along those lines. it could be a TV issue, or it could be a PC issue...hard to say. keep trying, and good luck

I think I've ticked all those of as ok, still playing but I'm out of ideas !

Is there any way to capture an error message when it crashes ?

[trshaw]

i read over your specs again and noticed that you have onboard graphics..

If this is true there is your problem, no on board graphics currently in existence (to my knowledge) will handle the output for two reasons (1 is sheer volumes of data, second is HDCP compliance issues).


I can't believe I missed that..

get yourself a good graphics card (these forums should help) Nvidia 8500 or greater (and the ATI equivalent), PCI-e is a must, if not available time for a MB upgrade.

[jetsetwilly74]

Originally Posted by trshaw

i read over your specs again and noticed that you have onboard graphics..

If this is true there is your problem, no on board graphics currently in existence (to my knowledge) will handle the output for two reasons (1 is sheer volumes of data, second is HDCP compliance issues).


I can't believe I missed that..

get yourself a good graphics card (these forums should help) Nvidia 8500 or greater (and the ATI equivalent), PCI-e is a must, if not available time for a MB upgrade.

I'm sure with 9/10 Motherboards you would be dead right but this one is an exception. I bought this one precisely because it's one of the first on board solutions that does support it. There are lots of reviews out there which all have it running Blu-Ray very well.

[statikcat]

Do DVDs play in the drive?

[jetsetwilly74]

Yup, no problem at all.

[rferickson]

Same problems here as original post.

I've had a few BD movies run without a hitch. More often, crash to desktop without warning or error message. Interestingly, it happens at different points. Sometimes in the previews, sometimes in the feature. Usually happens early though. After 2-7 tries, it will play the movie to completion without further hiccups. Odd.

Standard DVDs always play without a hitch - never had a problem.

System -
Vista 32bit
PowerDVD 8 / most recent patch
Gigabyte MA-78GM-S2H w/ most recent catalyst drivers
- on board audio output to SPDIF / on board video via HDMI
AMD 4850e (no overclock)
4gb pc6400 ram (a-data)
ASUS BD/DVD-RW drive

The thing we have in common is the MB - likely culprit?

[jetsetwilly74]

Certainly seems similar. I've yet to have one crash on me once it had started though. The CTD's are all when it's trying to launch the movie. The last few times I've tried to launch the disk it has always failed once or twice and then worked which is very odd for a techincal issue of this nature. You don't often see a problem quite that inconsistent in just launching the application !

[Jaymicksee]

With my PowerDVD Ultra, everything worked fine with HD DVDs but crashed as soon as I tried running a blu-ray disc. I found that if I deselected the option "automatically connect to the internet for product information" in the configuration settings then everything works perfectly - maybe trying this might help some of you guys! Good luck!

[BillEV]

I've been experiencing similar problems with PowerDVD. I am using PowerDVD 7.3 since that's what came with my LG BD multi-drive. I have a gigabyte MA-78GPM-DS2H motherboard (similar to the ones mentioned above but with a dual bios), AMD 2.5Ghz Phenom 9850 Quad-Core processor, 4 GB RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics card. I am using the latest Catalyst drivers which is control center version 8.7 and driver version 8.512.0.0 and am running Vista Home Pemium 64-bit.

The error that i get is:
incompatible graphics driver. please make sure your graphics driver meets minimum requirements criteria. you can find extra info from Cyberlink FAQ website (error code=0012).
Please run the BD/HD Advisor tool for more info.

I have run the Advisor and it has a red dot by the graphics driver meaning its not BD ready even though the driver it shows is 8.512.0.0 and when you click on the "info" button... it brings you to the following link/info...

Which graphics card driver should I install on my computer for the best results when playing Blu-ray Disc titles?

We recommend that you have graphics card drivers that support HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) standard. Both of ATI Catalyst and nVidia ForceWare drivers can support Blu-ray Disc playback. Please make sure you download and install ATI Catalyst 7.12 and nVidia ForceWare 174.53 or later version. Please visit the home page of your graphics card manufacturer to download the most recent drivers.

So my best guess is that the version of PowerDVD that I am using and the latest one is not compatible with the latest Catalyst drivers (which seems silly since Cyberlinks website refers to a graphics driver that is like 7 releases old). I have tried uninstalling the latest Catalyst drivers and going back to version 7.12 since this is the version they specify, but I cant seem to get that old version installed and it seems like 7.12 doesnt even support my card (HD 4870).

So with all that said and done... I'm ready to ditch PowerDVD and try a different software... but which one should I try (and presumably everone else having these problems should probably do the same)???

Hope this helps and hope to get some help!

[Ambs]

I am using PowerDVD 8 Ultra. My problem is similar to other people's mentioned above: after a random amount of playtime, usually no more than five minutes, the screen will go black then the audio will, after a few seconds, also stop. The only thing I can do then is press escape and get back to the PowerDVD, and sometimes this doesn't work, so I am forced to simply eject the BD and start again.

My full system below (all software up-to-date):

Vista Home Premium 64-bit
4GB DDR2 RAM
1000GB Harddisk
ASUS Radeon EAH3870 X2 1GB (with latest Catalyst 8.10 driver)
SoundBlaster Audigy 4
AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core 2.5GHz
ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe Motherboard
HP w2408h Monitor (24", 1920x1200 @ 60Hz)
Pioneer BDC-202 Blu-Ray Combidrive SATA

I have run BD Advisor and it says I have everything I need to run the BDs: all green. What annoys me is that it is clearly capable of running well... but only for a few minutes, so obviously not good enough. I've tinkered with many various settings as suggested above (e.g. the automatic online product info option), but no luck. Any updates on this situation greatly appreciated!