Cyberlink PowerDVD 9 coming Monday (March 2)

[JadedRaverLA]

Just a quick heads up -- can't really say anything about new features or other improvements right now, but Cyberlink just sent me an email to let me know the U.S. release for PowerDVD 9 will be next Monday (March 2).

Basically, official support is for XP 32-bit and Vista 32 and 64-bit, with "official" support for Win7 coming at its release.

There will be some deals happening for the launch (both for upgraders and new purchasers), so if you were thinking of buying soon, hold off till next week.

[BluGamer]

Uh, 8 is still buggy and they're releasing a new version already? I thought it was 64-bit supported, or is that exclusive to PD9?

[Rojas]

I hope this version supports Vista Aero without having to switch to basic color everytime you run a blu ray disk and how about AVCHD disks are they going
to play now without the (disk in drive is not support) message.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by BluGamer

Uh, 8 is still buggy and they're releasing a new version already? I thought it was 64-bit supported, or is that exclusive to PD9?

Vista-64 is supported. XP-64 isn't... though with the necessary UDF driver installed it should work. That's true of both 8 and 9. Personally, I haven't had any issues with 8 Ultra... but that's just my experience obviously. It is incredibly annoying, though, when companies create a "new and improved" version of their software every 9-18 months and make you pay for an upgrade. Cyberlink, sadly, are masters of this. (OT, but so are Parallels, the VM software for Macs. It seems like a new version every year at a $40 or so upgrade cost. Meanwhile VMWare Fusion works better, is faster, and they've offered free upgrades to current owners even when they did a "major" new release.)

Originally Posted by Rojas

I hope this version supports Vista Aero without having to switch to basic color everytime you run a blu ray disk and how about AVCHD disks are they going
to play now without the (disk in drive is not support) message.

The loss of "aero effects" (I assume that's what you're referring to) is a Vista DWM issue with video overlays. If you have a recent Nvidia or ATI card however, you can set up PowerDVD 8 already to keep transparency and other effects during Blu-ray playback, by having your GPU manage the DWM while playing back a Blu-ray title instead of Vista.

To do this on an Nvidia 8 or 9 series GPU, go to your Start menu, and type "Regedit" (without the quotes) into the search box. Hit enter and the Windows Registry Editor will open. In the left pane, navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Cyberlink\PowerDVD8). In the right pane you'll see a cryptic group of options. Double click "UI_AskAero" and change the Vale Data from 0 to 1, and press OK. Now do the same for "UseNVDWMOn". Restart PowerDVD, and Aero Glass will remain enabled!

The process for recent ATI cards is essentially the same only the second field to change is UseATIDWMOn (or something similar to that).

As for AVCHD discs (I'm assuming we're talking AVCREC formatted discs?), I honestly haven't had a reason to use that in so long that I don't recall what if any issues I had there.

BTW, AVCHD is "technically" the file format, which can exist on any media. A DVD+/-R/RW containing AVCHD media should be burned in the AVCREC format for best compatibility. Maybe that's the issue? Just a thought. Unfortunately, even software companies who should know better often use AVCHD when they mean AVCREC, which leads to a lot of confusion and potential compatibility issues.

[blckman]

This is a real problem for me when a company such as Cyberlink brings out a new version of a product that so many users are having problems with. Many people in these PC forums have drives that recognize both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD disc. Heck, can you believe I have more HD-DVD than Blu-Ray? Yes, I do. One of the problems with all of the High Definition content of all the Powerdvd families is that you lose the ability to playback HD-DVD's with a great deal of these stupid patches. They're dumb in my opinion and it's just my opinion at that. Isn't it very interesting that the company would suggest it will support a particular operating system that hasn't even launched and are still in the beta stages? Interesting though. Thank you for the news and this announcement to me has PROBLEMS written all over it.

[jobrro]

Thanks for the heads up, will definitely be checking this and the deals out come Monday.

Don't really like a major upgrade coming out, doesn't seem like long since version 8 came out. Hopefully version 9 is worthwhile. Windows 7 support is good, and if they fix the transparency thing (without the need to edit the registry) that is good too, but its not like they couldn't have just included those fixes into version 8 (although they still might I guess).

[dadkins]

Transparency/AERO is irrelevent.
When playing a Blu-ray, what difference does it make?
I go fullscreen anyways.

I'm looking forward to PDVD 9.
Thanks for the Heads Up!

[jobrro]

Originally Posted by dadkins

Transparency/AERO is irrelevent.
When playing a Blu-ray, what difference does it make?
I go fullscreen anyways.

I'm looking forward to PDVD 9.
Thanks for the Heads Up!

Yes I go full screen too, it's just that the switch over to classic is annoying, and rather dodgey.

[dadkins]

Originally Posted by jobrro

Yes I go full screen too, it's just that the switch over to classic is annoying, and rather dodgey.

Are you saying you have to do it manually?
Mine just works.
Some transparency(task bar) disappears when a browser opens too, comes back when you minimize.

[jobrro]

No it does it, but it tends to freeze for a few seconds to do it, and a baloon pops up saying it had to change into basic mode. I like my computing experience to be more seamless than that, and it comes off as lazy programming/testing.

[dadkins]

Mine just changes - no popup. No wait/freeze either.
Must be why it doesn't really bother me.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by dadkins

Transparency/AERO is irrelevent.
When playing a Blu-ray, what difference does it make?
I go fullscreen anyways.

I'm looking forward to PDVD 9.
Thanks for the Heads Up!

No problem. As for transparency being irrelevant... definitely not if you have a multi-monitor setup. That "Windows Vista Basic"-look is awful. And it takes about 15 seconds to fix... not sure why everyone is so scared of their registry.

[dadkins]

Originally Posted by JadedRaverLA

No problem. As for transparency being irrelevant... definitely not if you have a multi-monitor setup. That "Windows Vista Basic"-look is awful. And it takes about 15 seconds to fix... not sure why everyone is so scared of their registry.

Doesn't affect me, transitions without issue in a blink.
Single display when watching a movie here so no issue.

EDIT: Let me explain... I have laptops. I can play a BD on one of them (or the HDTV) and if I want to do something while it's playing, I can just grab one of the other machines and do some work while I watch the movie.

Works our well.

[hendra]

Download the Power DVD 9 User Guide from here.

What's New:
• AVCHD and AVCREC playback support*.
• BD-R 1.1*, BD-RE 2.1*, BD Profile 1.1 (Bonus View)*, BD Profile 2.0
(BD Live)* playback support.
• TrueTheater™ video enhancement technologies*.
• PowerDVD Cinema playback mode (with full remote control
support)*.
• PowerDVD MCE plug-in (seamless integration with Windows
Media Center)*.
• the chapter thumbnail viewer.
Note: * Optional features in CyberLink PowerDVD. Check the readme file for
detailed versioning information.

Not worth the upgrade in my opinion, even from version 7. Bullet points 1 and 2 are already supported in version 7 with the latest patch.

[dadkins]

• PowerDVD Cinema playback mode (with full remote control
support)*.
• PowerDVD MCE plug-in (seamless integration with Windows
Media Center)*.

There are somethings I'll like to check out.

[jobrro]

Originally Posted by dadkins

• PowerDVD Cinema playback mode (with full remote control
support)*.
• PowerDVD MCE plug-in (seamless integration with Windows
Media Center)*.

There are somethings I'll like to check out.

I agree, my BD Drive came with an MCE plug in, but it was so-so, and I found it better to stick with the standalone PowerDVD. PowerDVD 8 version I got didn't have the plug in at all, either.

Hopefully the plugin is good, and as seamless as they say .

[dadkins]

Originally Posted by jobrro

I agree, my BD Drive came with an MCE plug in, but it was so-so, and I found it better to stick with the standalone PowerDVD. PowerDVD 8 version I got didn't have the plug in at all, either.

Hopefully the plugin is good, and as seamless as they say .

ArcSoft TMT integrates nicely into MC - XP MCE 2005 and Windows Media Center(Vista).

Having another piece of software to play with is always fun!

More = Better!

[jobrro]

Originally Posted by dadkins

ArcSoft TMT integrates nicely into MC - XP MCE 2005 and Windows Media Center(Vista).

Having another piece of software to play with is always fun!

More = Better!

Had a play with TMT once, but for some reason the app within MCE didn't allow for certain features that the app outside of MCE did, like certain keyboard shortcuts wouldn't work, so would have to navigate with the mouse to pause it or something.

PowerDVD 9 should be out soon now though.

[dadkins]

Yeah, remote works though.
I allow Autorun to popup and ask me what to do when I insert a BD.
MC is on there but I choose ArcSoft from the list.

[jobrro]

If you go to the Cyberlink website, it says Upgrade to PowerDVD 9 on the right, but still takes you to PowerDVD 8... But shouldn't be long now.