user opinions

[maxmcleod]

Which player do you use for Bluray Playback?

[un4gvn94538]

i use the oem software. powerdvd bd edition

[Brian Cash]

I dont know what software my Ps3 uses to my tv but it works great Just kidding I use Power Dvd

[Smokin Cola]

I use PowerDVD Ultra but I'm not happy with it, I've tried 'Total Media Theatre' and that was equally bad for me. Might have to give WinDVD 9 Plus a try.

[maxmcleod]

i just want a player that will play the 4 movies that pdvd doesn't play

[dadkins]

PowerDVD Ultra 7.3.
Uses less resources than WinDVD 9 Plus.
Uses less resources than the factory WinDVD BD for VAIO as well(which refuses to play some newer titles BTW).

I have the trial of ArcSoft TT, but have yet to install and try it.

[wuhan_clan]

maxmcleod, I'm really surprised that Spiderman BDs won't play for you. It was because of these 3 titles that I bought PowerDvD Ultra as the stupid Dell Media Direct software that came with my computer was useless.

Currently, I use WinDvD 9 Plus since I haven't heard anyone complain about it not being able to play certain titles. I think that's the most important factor since none of us would be buying full retail versions if the bundled version worked flawlessly.

A little more CPU consumption is hardly noticeable unless your processor is already maxed.

[Smokin Cola]

Is WinDVD 9 properly multi-threaded ? Because my PowerDVD Ultra doesn't seem to be able to utilize both cores. It's pretty much stuck on the first core. If WinDVD could use both properly I think I'd switch right away (even though I'm peeved at spending all that money on PDVD), I don't seem to be getting any hardware acceleration out of PDVD so might as well go for something that's going to use the cpu properly.

[maxmcleod]

Well here are my findings...
Playback using Arcsoft.... horrible... at least on my setup... stopped it right away, and it couldn't play the same movies that pdvd couldn't play...

When I play movies in pdvd, they play fine with the 4 movies as an exception, i use hardware acceleration, and don't notice much strain on either core...

When I play movies in windvd, I don't notice anything different as far as performance on either core, its pretty much identical to pdvd, only it plays movies that pdvd, can't seem to play on my setup.

I tried spiderman 3, ratatouille, terminator 3 and cars last night on windvd, and they all played flawlessly.
no problems with sound, video or anything...

Im surprised I couldnt' play those on pdvd too, but even their tech support couldn't figure it out, I was emailing back and forth for over a month, and they ended it all saying "its a bug, we can't figure it out, we escalating your problem to the research department"

So im just going to keep both players for a bit to make sure everything can play, and then we'll see who steps it up after that... im thinking windvd will.

[Lord_Stewie]

i vote for powerDVD. when it comes to compatibility its proven to be reliable.

[maxmcleod]

Originally Posted by shadblz

i vote for powerDVD. when it comes to compatibility its proven to be reliable.

For you.... maybe.....
for me its left a void when it comes to playing my movies... only 9 out of 13 play....
windvd has proven to play all 13.. so far windvd, looks better interface wise, and is performing better, playback wise... i haven't noticed any problems whatsoever, and I had 3 tv recordings going at the same time I was watching the 4 troublesome movies, not a single hiccup...

[Blaumann]

~90% of the time i am using MediaPlayerClassic HC with the Cyberlink h264 direct show filter for AVC or the Microsoft DMO filter for VC1.

Arcsoft/PowerDVD for "problematic" discs, that i cannot get to work with MPC. I actually prefer Arcsoft over PowerDVD.

[Obiit]

WinDVD 9 Plus for it's DTS-HD Master support and normal disks.
PowerDVD Ultra 3319a for playing from HD/ISO.

Arcsoft doesn't like my rig.

[BlueAngel7]

PowerDVD 7 Ultra. It took me ages to get this software to work and I would get an error everytime I updated it, but miraculously it worked after the fifth attempt. I also get a flickering red screen occasionally during playback of some titles. WinDVD 9 plus could be the answer.

[Seastrand]

I'm successfully using PowerDVD Ultra 7 on my HTPC. So far (knock on wood), it's played everything I've thrown at it.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by maxmcleod

Which player do you use for Bluray Playback?

Generally I use PowerDVD 7 Ultra for BD playback
I use Total Meida Theatre when PDVD 7 can't play it -(TMT works pretty good on my rig).
WinDVD 9 Plus for SD playback - I know it's not BD, but on a 720p projection system - WinDVD's ALL2HD is very,very, very convincing! Best upconversion that I've ever seen....ever!