PowerDVD 7: not happy | The Coffeehouse

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

I got a mail from Cyberlink about upgrading to PowerDVD 7. I didn't even know it was released yet, but since the upgrade from 6 Deluxe was only €20 I figured what the heck, lets do it.

So I went to install it. It uninstalls the old version, and boom, error message (which comes down to access denied on the installation folder). I filed a support incident with Cyberlink (haven't heard back yet), but figured I could explore further by myself for a bit.

I used Filemon to see what was going on, and it turns out the installation is trying to create the folder, which fails with "delete pending". Naturally uninstalling the old version deletes it, but why is that pending and not executed immediately? Further research shows that the installation itself is keeping a handle open to the directory, right from the moment setup starts (even before it does anything). I used Process Explorer to forcibly close that handle, and installation proceeded without error.

So I start watching a DVD. About five minutes in, playback stops. The time is still running, but there's no DVD activity and the image is frozen. I try to click stop, and PowerDVD hangs. Tried it again, same deal. Tried it in the Administrator account, same deal.

This was all under XP x64. So I figured, I have an installation of regular XP sitting on my hard drive, lets try that. Here, installing went fine, and no crashes.

So, either PowerDVD7 is not compatible with XP x64, or with something else I have installed here (the XP installation I used is very empty, it has next to nothing installed). Naturally, I'm not prepared to reboot every time I watch a movie. It could be XP x64 compatibility, but it'd be strange since PDVD6 worked fine in XP x64.

So, I'll wait and see if Cyberlink can make something out of this (which I doubt), otherwise I hope they'll give me my money back (which I also doubt).

So, I'm not happy. Sad

Harlequin
http://twitter.com/TrueHarlequin

It says it supports:
Windows MCE, XP, 2000, ME

I don't see XP x64 in there. Big Smile

x64 people really need to check the requirements first. A lot of posts on this site about x64 issues seems to show that the users have the mindset that XP = XPx64 Cool

Manip

Put it in Windows 2000 compatibility mode.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

If I'd only install software that explicitly stated x64 compatibility, I'd not have very much software.

In fact, I have one game (Myst 5) that explicitly states it's not compatible with XP x64 and it still works. Smiley

Like I said, PowerDVD6 works fine in XP x64, so I saw no reason to think 7 would be different.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

Manip wrote:
Put it in Windows 2000 compatibility mode.

Already tried that, didn't work.

Tom Servo
W-hat?

Does PDVD7 use Nvidia's video engine in the G70-based cards for MPEG2 and H.264?

irascian
Irascible Ian

Are you sure it hasn't installed itself thinking it's a demo version - ISTR the evaluation version only let you play a DVD for 5 minutes at a time.

At least you got the upgrade email - I've upgraded each time but it's hard to see what more I'd want than is already offered by Power DVD 6. Based on what you say I think I'll steer clear. Truth is I only really use it for the screen capture function which I can use to illustrate web DVD reviews.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

irascian wrote:
Are you sure it hasn't installed itself thinking it's a demo version - ISTR the evaluation version only let you play a DVD for 5 minutes at a time.

That'd be a louzy demo version, that allows you to watch for five minutes and then crashes. Smiley

Anyway, no, I'm sure it's the full version.

Tom Servo
W-hat?

If you have a recent videocard, you can tell your player application to use the VMR for rendering (uses D3D instead of overlays to display video). How that option is labelled depends on the software, if it even allows to change it. This allows you to make screenshots.

PerfectPhase
"This is not war, this is pest control!" - Dalek to Cyberman

Just to add that I have just upgraded and it sucks big time. Crashes, hangs and just refusing to play DVD (ripped to hard disk) the PDVD6 had no issues with.

Avoid at all costs! I'm going back to V6.

This is x86 BTW.

Manip

I'm still running version 5.0 and am very happy with it. It plays my disks and my rips just fine with no real issues. When 6.0 was released I did look into it but couldn't see what exactly they did to make it worth my while so passed.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

Manip wrote:
I'm still running version 5.0 and am very happy with it. It plays my disks and my rips just fine with no real issues. When 6.0 was released I did look into it but couldn't see what exactly they did to make it worth my while so passed.

Pixel adaptive de-interlacing was the selling point for me in version 6.

Heywood_J
Trust me, I'm from the Internets

Sven Groot wrote:
PowerDVD6 works fine in XP x64, so I saw no reason to think 7 would be different.

When version 7 breaks something that worked fine in version 6, that's what is known as an "upgrade". [C]

proghack

I have Windows XP x86 and with one DVD PowerDVD freezes after a few minutes (video stops while time counter grows). With other titles it works well. I don't know why.

Rawr_UK

I was having the "video plays for a few minutes then freezes but counter still carries on" problem as described a few times in this thread.

This is PowerDVD 7 on win32. The problem occurs when I play the DVD on my LiteOn drive but not when I play it on my Samsung drive (both drives in the same machine).

Make of this what you will.

PS. Works the same in x64 and Vista, too.

james_chou

Dear Customer,

This is James, the Manager of CyberLink Customer Service. We saw the XP 64bit issue you posted on 5th May. We have release a new build to solve this issue few weeks ago. Please go to CyberLink Website and download the latest build of PowerDVD Trial version(http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/download/trials_1_ENU.html) to see if this problem is solved. Thank you and hope you enjoy CyberLink's products.

James

Heywood_J
Trust me, I'm from the Internets

Sven Groot wrote:
PowerDVD6 works fine in XP x64, so I saw no reason to think 7 would be different.

Breaking things that worked fine in previous versions is known as an "upgrade".

cheong

Heywood_J wrote:
Breaking things that worked fine in previous versions is known as an "upgrade".

Yes. They're obviously turning "unexpected success" in the unit tests to "expected failure"... [6]

androidi

I think I'm going to buy DVD Burner/Player 12 MegaUltra when it will also wash the dishes and do laundry. I don't give a damn whether other users want to use the program to do the laundry or not. Nero & co are you listening?

There's good feature integration and then there's Nero "integration".

Which category does the PowerDVD 6->7 upgrades go? Or is it a minor update actually with little new?

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

androidi wrote:
Which category does the PowerDVD 6->7 upgrades go? Or is it a minor update actually with little new?

Minor update mostly. Some nice new features, mainly to cover up the fact that it can't play HD yet. Wink

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

I've finally gotten it to work, by installing it into a different folder than PowerDVD6 was in. Strangely enough I also don't get the "freeze after a few minutes of playback" anymore. It works fine now.

There's one thing that's been bugging me about PowerDVD since I started using it that they finally fixed. Most stand-alone DVD players will treat the subtitle list as "off, language 1, language 2, etc.". PowerDVD used to do it "language 1, language 2, etc." and had a separate setting whether the subtitles were on or off. This had the advantage that you could disable the subtitles and then re-enable them to the same language as before. It had the disadvantage that a DVDs own programming could not control the setting; you had to use PowerDVD's settings. This meant that if subtitles were previously on, and you'd go into the language menu of a DVD and pick "no subtitles", the subtitles would still be on. This was especially annoying because if a DVD didn't allow you to use the DVD player's own subtitle controls (I hate it when they do that btw) you also couldn't turn them on or off. The only way to change the setting then would be to insert a different DVD, one that does allow you to use the settings, change the setting and put the original DVD back in.

PowerDVD 7 finally treats "Off" just like the other subtitle settings, and finally obeys the DVD programming regarding them. Smiley

AdamR

I've been having this freezing both on my desktop and laptop machine. They both run Windows XP x86, and both upgraded from V6.

Uninstalling (plus removing user settings) and installing to a different folder did not work.

I noticed that when I play a DVD on V7, the two sound options "Dolbey Pro Logic IIx" and "Neo:6" for my 6 speaker system disappear, but reappear when I stop playing.

During playback, it seems that the Dolbey Pro Logic IIx is in effect, although it's not an option.

BTW I'm running deluxe version.

VERY irritating, and supprising that there is no fix yet. Do cyberlink care? Well, looks like I'll have to go back to version 6 Sad