PowerDVD9 working in Sage?

[Wheemer]

I downloaded PowerDVD9 a few days ago to evaluate it. It seems to be working well for Mpeg2 decoding, and not at all for H.264.

I had to manually edit my properties file to change the setting from powerdvd8 to 9.

Is anyone else using this new version? How's it working for you?

[hellsingfan]

Its working better than 8, at least for me.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by Wheemer

I downloaded PowerDVD9 a few days ago to evaluate it. It seems to be working well for Mpeg2 decoding, and not at all for H.264.

I had to manually edit my properties file to change the setting from powerdvd8 to 9.

Is anyone else using this new version? How's it working for you?

In PowerDVD v9 (some say this started late in the life of v8) Cyberlink decided to restrict the use of some of its decoders to inside PowerDVD. There is some talk only Ultra has the restriction and the Deluxe version doesn't. Don't know for sure though.

There's more about it in the avsforum.

[jdamore]

Originally Posted by Wheemer

I downloaded PowerDVD9 a few days ago to evaluate it. It seems to be working well for Mpeg2 decoding, and not at all for H.264.

I had to manually edit my properties file to change the setting from powerdvd8 to 9.

Is anyone else using this new version? How's it working for you?

I'm not sure if this would be related to the issue but with V.9 you can not play Blu-ray (h,264?) while in the the trial. (purchase required for BD).

[Taddeusz]

Yea, I have PowerDVD 8 Ultra and the last few updates have killed the H.264 and VC-1 DirectX codecs. I've had to revert back to a particular version for it to get the codecs back. Cyberlink is really ticking me off with this. From what I've heard 9 Ultra is the same way. Although the quality of the Cyberlink codecs is the best I've seen this may be the last version of PowerDVD I will use. I'll use it till it's worthless. I may change to a different product once the time comes though.

[Ryokurin]

Good thing I didn't buy it then. I was strongly considering it, just to get rid of the 7.2 version I got with my blu-ray drive. God I would have been pissed.

[Wheemer]

It is terribly stupid for Cyberlink to have done this... They are closing the door to a lot of customers that don't want to use their interface.

I've just installed the latest CoreAVC codec, and the results look great.

My main concern with these codecs was to ensure my Nvidia video card was being used to the best of it's abilities. Since CoreAVC supports CUDA, I think I'm all set.

I'm now using the PowerDVD 9 Mpeg2 decoder and CoreAVC for H.264

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by Wheemer

Since CoreAVC supports CUDA, I think I'm all set.

All this very early support for CUDA without support for the same thing from ATI ticks me off. Can't wait till OpenCL comes out and CUDA gets depreciated so that stuff will work on any card.

[panteragstk]

I like the MPC codecs, but sage won't let me use them. The only way I've been able to get sage to do hardware acceleration with vc-1 is by using an mkv container. I have no idea what codec it is using because in my log it just says "video decoder". .m2ts uses the cyberlink vc-1 from pdvd 7 and hw acceleration is broke in the version I have. I personally can't stand cyberlink and their continued release of beta software, but I use it, so I can't complain...Except I just did...

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I like the MPC codecs, but sage won't let me use them. The only way I've been able to get sage to do hardware acceleration with vc-1 is by using an mkv container. I have no idea what codec it is using because in my log it just says "video decoder". .m2ts uses the cyberlink vc-1 from pdvd 7 and hw acceleration is broke in the version I have. I personally can't stand cyberlink and their continued release of beta software, but I use it, so I can't complain...Except I just did...

At least in Vista I've messed around with all kinds of ways to try and get Cyberlink's VC-1 codec to be used by default but to no avail. I believe that DirectX is set up to always favor Microsoft's decoder for VC-1 no matter how high of a merit you put on an alternate. The Microsoft VC-1 decoder has no merit.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

At least in Vista I've messed around with all kinds of ways to try and get Cyberlink's VC-1 codec to be used by default but to no avail. I believe that DirectX is set up to always favor Microsoft's decoder for VC-1 no matter how high of a merit you put on an alternate. The Microsoft VC-1 decoder has no merit.

You could always use dshow manager to unregister the microsoft decoder. you can always re register it later if you needed to.

[Taddeusz]

Well, I made a complaint to Cyberlink about their codecs. This is the response I got back:

Thank you for contacting CyberLink Technical Support.

We understand your concern related with codec sharing.

Please note that PowerDVD 8 does not share the codecs with any other application.

You will not be able to use codecs from PowerDVD 8 with any other application.

We regret for the inconvinience caused to you.

So, apparently they aren't interested in the extra customers they stand to gain by allowing other programs to use their products. Looks like it's time to move on once 2217a of PowerDVD 8 Ultra stops being useful to me. Which may or may not be when I upgrade to Windows 7. We'll see. I know their main customers are OEM but I'm sure they make a better profit on retail and online. Too bad for them.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

So, apparently they aren't interested in the extra customers they stand to gain by allowing other programs to use their products. Looks like it's time to move on once 2217a of PowerDVD 8 Ultra stops being useful to me. Which may or may not be when I upgrade to Windows 7. We'll see. I know their main customers are OEM but I'm sure they make a better profit on retail and online. Too bad for them.

Does anyone know why Cyberlink is doing this? Is it somehow DRM-related? I wouldn't think they'd support their codecs when they're used in third party applications anyway, so I don't see why they'd care.

[Wheemer]

Given all the media playback option out there, I would think PowerDVDs interface must be close to the bottom in preference... They must think they had some monopoly on PureVideo or something.