Problems with Corel WinDVD 9 when using BD-LIVE and other issues with some titles

[HDTV1080P]

I purchased 2 copies of Corel WinDVD 9 back in August and installed both of them on two high quality PC's that I built. For 90% of the older BLU-RAY titles I am experiencing no problems at all or very little problems. Every time I click on a product update to check for a firmware update the Win DVD 9 software informs me that there is no update available at this time. My question is how often is the Corel WinDVD 9 updated? I tried playing the Casino Royale collector's Edition on the Sony BDP-S350 and the profile 1.1 (pip) and profile 2.0 (bd-live) works fine. When I try playing Casino Royale collector's Edition with Corel WinDVD 9 everything including picture and picture works fine accept BD-LIVE. I thought Corel WinDVD 9 was suppose to support BD-LIVE, but it does not work with Casino Royale.
Also Kill Bill volume 1 and volume 2 has issues with several video and audio digital artifacts in some areas of the movie when using Corel WinDVD 9. Kill Bill volume 1 and 2 works fine with the Sony BDP-S350 and other BLU-RAY players. I noticed that Kill Bill BLU-RAY's are at a super high quality bit rate and use almost the entire 50GB of space on the disc.
This is not a PC hardware issue. I have played dozens of older BLU-RAY discs and most work just fine. I need a firmware update for the above 3 titles but it appears WinDVD 9 does not issue firmware updates to often.

Here are some of the stuff that is in the two PC's I am using, this is not a PC hardware issue, I am able to watch both a BLU-RAY and DVD at the same time on the same PC while doing a virus scan and surfing the Internet all at the same time.

1. 10,000 RPM 300GB hard drive
2. Quad Core processor
3. 8GB of 2000MHZ DDR3 memory running at 1600MHZ speed do to limitations in the Top of the line motherboard.
4. 5X Pioneer BLU-RAY drive
5. 18X SATA DVD-ROM
6. 24 inch ASUS MK241H 1920 X 1200 that can only refresh at 60HZ for 1080P mode.
7. Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit Edition
8. All the latest software drivers and windows updates installed
9. 1250 Watt Power supply

Over the past few months I have built 3 PC's using the ASUS striker II extreme motehrboard and I have discovered that only the following configurations work with no memory errors with a quad core processor.
1. 2GB of 2000MHZ DDR3 memory works fine at 2000MHZ speed.
2. 4GB of 2000MHZ DDR3 memory works fine at 1800MHZ speed.
3. 8GB of 2000MHZ DDR3 memory works fine at 1600MHZ speed.

[rdodolak]

If you have a retail copy you'll need to wait until early 2009.

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satelli...=1219673192767

Corel® WinDVD® Receives BD-Live™ Certification, Giving Users the Ability to Interact with the Internet While Enjoying their Favorite Blu-ray Discs

OTTAWA - July 09, 2008

Corel Corporation (NASDAQ:CREL) (TSX:CRE), a leading developer of graphics, productivity and digital media software, today announced that Corel® WinDVD® Blu-ray Disc® playback software has received BD-Live™ certification, also known as BD Profile 2.0. By receiving certification for BD-Live, WinDVD has passed the stringent standards and guidelines set by the Blu-ray Disc Association to ensure the best possible user experience.

With BD-Live support, WinDVD users will be able to enjoy a full spectrum of Internet-connected activities including social networking, multiplayer gaming, online shopping as well as the ability to download movie trailers and subtitles - all while viewing Blu-ray Disc movies and videos.

"Corel continues to be a leader in supporting the adoption and enjoyment of Blu-ray technologies, and the BD-Live certification of WinDVD is no exception," said Denise MacDonell, Senior Director of Product Management, Digital Media at Corel. "Our WinDVD users will be able to experience the latest online capabilities while watching Blu-ray movies. Whether they are downloading movie trailers from the internet, purchasing movie memorabilia, playing games with multiple players or interacting with friends through the latest social networking sites, our users will benefit from a truly connected movie experience."

WinDVD with BD-Live support is available to OEMs immediately and will be available to retail customers beginning in early 2009.

Have you install the latest update (stil no BD-live feature though)?

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satelli...=1217273655849

The automatic product update feature never worked for me.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

If you have a retail copy you'll need to wait until early 2009.

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satelli...=1219673192767




The automatic product update feature never worked for me.

I might purchase another BLU-RAY software product from a diffrent company. Any other computer software companies support BD-LIVE yet? Computers are ideal for BD-LIVE, I am surprised of the lack of BLU-RAY playback software on the market. I have the retail version of WinDVD 9 Plus. The retail version costs more then the OEM version. You would think the retail version would be the same quality. So it looks like I am going to have to wait until 2009 for a update.
The auto update feature says there is no updates availible, also I do not see any about screen button that tells me what version of WinDVD Plus 9.0 I am using.
Thanks for your time and information. It is too bad everything has to be so complicated any more when it comes to BLU-RAY on a PC.

[McBain]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

Any other computer software companies support BD-LIVE yet?

http://www.arcsoft.com/products/totalmediatheatre/
http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/products/main_1_ENU.html

[dadkins]

ArcSoft TMT works great with BD-Live

[rdodolak]

Had I been aware of this issue I won't have bought th retail version as well. I've heard good things about both ArcSoft and Cyberlink as recommended by the previous posters. If I remember correctly, I believe ArcSoft does offer a trial version w/ Blu-ray support. Unfortunately, most of these companies do not which makes it difficult to find out which software works the best on your machine w/o forking over a bit of cash.

The other thing that I don't like is that when you play a movie, I get a notice stating that WinDVD 9 doesn't support Windows Vista Aero and my settings are change to Basic until WinDVD is closed. There should be absolutely no reason for that and it should have been fixed, then again we're talking about Corel.

You can find out what version you have currently install via one of two ways:

1. Move your mouse cursor down to the bottom of the window, by the user controls, and click the right mouse button. Select about from the popup menu.

2. Click on the Setup button (looks like a little cog wheel up in the upper right hand corner) and select the Information tab.

If the patch is installed you should see 9.0 B14.091

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Had I been aware of this issue I won't have bought th retail version as well. I've heard good things about both ArcSoft and Cyberlink as recommended by the previous posters. If I remember correctly, I believe ArcSoft does offer a trial version w/ Blu-ray support. Unfortunately, most of these companies do not which makes it difficult to find out which software works the best on your machine w/o forking over a bit of cash.

The other thing that I don't like is that when you play a movie, I get a notice stating that WinDVD 9 doesn't support Windows Vista Aero and my settings are change to Basic until WinDVD is closed. There should be absolutely no reason for that and it should have been fixed, then again we're talking about Corel.

You can find out what version you have currently install via one of two ways:

1. Move your mouse cursor down to the bottom of the window, by the user controls, and click the right mouse button. Select about from the popup menu.

2. Click on the Setup button (looks like a little cog wheel up in the upper right hand corner) and select the Information tab.

If the patch is installed you should see 9.0 B14.091

Thanks for the information about the hidden about menu. The version I am using says B14.084, etc. Also it mentions on the same about screen that it supports all the advanced audio formats like DTS-HD Master Audio, etc ( as long as ones sound card supports it). What is upsetting is that when I click on product update it says it is checking for product updates and then it comes back with the message that "There are no updates available at this time." So it looks like I need to manualy install the patch. The Sony BDP-S350 standalone was so much easy to use for software updates. A friend of mine has a HP Notebook with Quickplay on it, Quickplay has automatic software updates that actually work for the auto mode. I have had excellent experience using quickplay. Quickplay has software updates every month or so and I have had only minor playback problems. I have not tried playing back a BD-LIVE on Quickplay yet. The PIP for Quickplay several months ago worked but had issues, hopefully a software update corrected that.
There are player reviews for standalone players, hopefully in the future there will be player reviews for BLU-RAY computer software since each software package costs around $100. I would even be willing to pay a yearly subscription for software updates if these computer software companies like Corel WinDVD would start offering timely updates like Quickplay does. Kill Bill volume 1 and 2 and other titles have video and audio glitches under the version of Win DVD 9.0 I am using, plus the most important feature called product update does not work. Then of course I have to wait until 2009 for BD-LIVE update.

[HDTV1080P]

Updated info on WinDVD 9.0 plus

Thanks again for the patch info rdodolak. After the automatic update failed to work I installed the patch manually on two PC's. The patch fixed some problems but did not solve all of them. Before the patch the software would try and access BD-LIVE but was unable to connect to the web. Before the patch Kill Bill had video and audio issues in some scenes.
1. After the patch the software displays a message mentioning that the BD-LIVE feature function is not supported by WINDVD 9.0 Plus player when one tries to access BD-LIVE feature on the disc. I will have to wait until sometime in 2009 for BD-LIVE if I want it.
2. After the patch Kill Bill appears to be working correctly for the video. No more video problems with that title. Now I do hear audio problems when using 5.1 uncompressed PCM sound track. For example 8 minutes and 29 seconds into the Kill Bill movie an audio beep is heard and in other areas of the movie one hears a loud beep once and a while. This only happens on the Kill Bill titles playing under WinDVD 9.0 Plus and all the other 5.1 or 7.1 sound tracks are fine that I have tried. So the software update corrected video issues but the audio issues remain with some titles.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

The other thing that I don't like is that when you play a movie, I get a notice stating that WinDVD 9 doesn't support Windows Vista Aero and my settings are change to Basic until WinDVD is closed. There should be absolutely no reason for that and it should have been fixed, then again we're talking about Corel.

I have the same issue, it does not happen when launching the software as long as no BLU-RAY disc is in the BD-ROM drive. It only happens when I stick a BLU-RAY disc in. The problem of course is with WinDVD 9.0. Hopefully a software update will fix this. I may purchase another brand of software since I am tired of all the issues like automatic software update feature not working and no BD-LIVE support until 2009.

[HDTV1080P]

Since Win DVD 9 Plus BLU-RAY does not work with BD-LIVE until the 2009 software update is released, I have decided to purchase another BLU-RAY software package for my computer. According to the ARCSOFT website it only lists Vista 32 bit as a the only supported Vista software. Has anyone been able to successfully install and run ARCSOFT under Vista Ultimate 64 bit Edition with SP1?
http://www.arcsoft.com/products/totalmediatheatre/?bl=4
I might just purchase the software anyways to see if I can get it to work under 64 bit. Most computer software works fine with 64 bit. Just hardware products like printers sometimes need replaced if the manufactory did not pay a programmer to write a 64 bit driver for a printer.
All HP and Lexmark printers have 64 bit drivers, just once and a while one will find a rare hardware or software product that will not work with Vista 64 bit. Technically all 32 bit software is suppose to work under 64 bit as long as it does not use 32 bit hardware drivers. Vista 64 bit requires 100% 64 bit hardware drivers.

[rdodolak]

I came across this discussion regarding the missing trial in the ArcSoft forums.

http://www.arcsoft.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1084

Originally Posted by ArcSoft_Jason

The TMT trial is not available at the moment. It will be available again in the near future.

I wish they would hurry up and repost the trial so I can check it out!

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by McBain

http://www.arcsoft.com/products/totalmediatheatre/
http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/products/main_1_ENU.html

I just ordered CyberLink PowerDVD 8 Ultra English retail box for a total price of $88.90 delivered with an estimated time of delivery of 5-10 days. I also ordered ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater BD international multi-language retail box for a total price of $79.23 after shipping. Nothing beats having the original retail box with original CD-ROM and instruction manual. I never liked downloaded versions.
Now I will own all 3 BLU-RAY software packages. WIN DVD Plus 9.0, CyberLink PowerDVD 8 Ultra, and ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater BD. If I have time I will post a brief review on which software is the best quality. Building a high-end workstation that is used for causal BLU-RAY watching gets to be expensive. I had $3,500 into each PC now with the extra software I been purchasing I will have close to $4,000 into this project. With 3 separate BLU-RAY players on the computer I should be able to play BD-LIVE and just about any movie title now. If one player does not work I just try the other 2. If 3 players do not work then I have a standalone BD-LIVE player in the other room that should always work.

[Elst]

Guys,

I sit here reading your posts and I slowly shake my head in disbelief.

A few months ago all I heard was 'Blu Ray! Blu Ray! Blu Ray!' and the guys in the blue corner shouted that loud that they killed us guys in the red corner (HD DVD). Now we come to this: 3 proprietary programs for playing BD on the PC and each of them are as useless as the other!

I bought PowerDVD 7 Ultra to play both BD and HD DVD. After 3 or 4 updates/patches the app' doesn't work properly anymore! I got only 2 chances to change my region code for BD (every one else gets 5) and I get no menu/script when I try to watch HD DVD!

Arcsoft, Cyberlink and Intervideo have let us down - big style! This format and it's software should have been thoroughly tested and allowed to mature just a little more before bringing it to market. I'm not even going to mention the film studios continuing attempt to have absolute control over how we use this software and how we watch films!

HDTV1080p has now has bought all 3 programs in the hope of finding a happy medium. I wish him well. It's something I wouldn't have done I'll be honest and I'll tell you for why: I shouldn't have to. Each of these apps should be Doing Exactly What They Say On The Tin - they should be playing BD discs smoothly and reliably!

Can I respectfully suggest we post these quality-issue-messages not only on Blu-Ray.com but on the forums of the 3 protagonists mentioned? Hopefully, if we all shout loud enough we can all get the quality products we thought we were buying in the first place!

Long live Hi-Def!


Elst.

[dadkins]

Pssst! Elst...
Uninstall the player software and reinstall it.
You will get all 5 region changes back!
Upgrade from PDVD 7 to PDVD 8 Ultra - you'll have a better experience.

I bought all three... because I could!
I never have to worry about a disc not playing - it'll play! One way or another, it will play

[Elst]

Dadkins,

Thanks for the advice.

I'm more than happy with PowerDVD 7 Ultra now that I can get it to do what I want - and that is to play both Blu Ray and HD DVD.

I've done the uninstall/re-install routine quite a few times and was always hampered by the BRF.dat file. That's sorted now and I've got my 5 count back.

Can I say Dadkins that it's not the program itself (or programs themselves?) that I'm moaning about, it's the attitude of the manufacturers. It's not as good as it should be. That's all.

I guess I'm still a bit of a Red at heart but I will confess Blu is better. Much better in fact and of the three Cyberlink is the best. No question. The Dark Knight on Blu Ray is nothing short of excellent and a real tour-de-force hi-def viewing.

So for anyone having trouble with PowerDVD I too would suggest uninstalling/re-installing. I would use an uninstalling app like Revo Uninstaller (which is excellent by the way) so that all the key registry entries are removed.

After reinstalling, update PowerDVD with the patches the program 'asks' for. That is, there's usually a pop-up advisng there's a critical update available. What I wouldn't do is go to the Cyberlink 'site and download ALL the updates/patches available. That's where I went wrong.

'Hope that helps. Have fun!

[dadkins]

No worries!
I have all three players.
I can play any BD!

[Elst]

Hey, Dadkins?

Which one do you think plays best and why?

I think Cyberlink, then WinDVD, then Arcsoft - in that order. Cyberlink's PQ is just that little bit sharper and the colours a touch more vibrant than the others...but only just!

I downloaded crack**, er hem, I mean, evaluation copies of WinDVD and Arcsoft and compared the three. Mind you, I might be doing WinDVD and Arcsoft a disservice as any possible updates might have improved the apps.

What say you?

Elst.

[dadkins]

PQ, I have to say PowerDVD.
Overall BD playback has to go to ArcSoft
WinDVD has been relegated to DVD playback only.

[saljr]

We should see lot more improved with hardware and software by next year. 2009 CES Show on Jan 8-11. That why I'm waiting until next year.