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Was my AnyDVD HD purchase a mistake?

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oddy

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I have been a happy user of AnyDVD for a number of years- only to remove region codes from my DVD's since collection is sourced from more than one country. I run my home theatre system from a PC and neither my graphics card or screen are HDCP compliant. When I saw SlySoft had introduced a HD version of anyDVD that supports BluRay:

"watch movies over digital display connection, without HDCP compliant graphics card and HDCP compliant display"

I decided it was time to upgrade from DVD to BluRay! I purchased a LiteOn BluRay player (that came with PowerDVD), and AnyDVD HD, and joined an internet/mail rental service that has a full range of BluRay titles.

I have been very disappointed to find however that none of the 3 movies I have rented so far have worked. (Last 2 were the Simpsons movie, and Harry Potter 3, first one was some action flick I got from the local video store to test the setup). AnyDVD HD does not report any errors, and PowerDVD just displays a black screen with no sound. I have also tried the evaluation of ArcSoft TotalMedia with no luck (It does give me about 10 seconds of sound however).

Looking through these forums, it sounds like any disk with "BD+" will not work. Is this correct? It also appears that the majority of (new?) titles here in Australia might have BD+?
 
what are your system specs? anydvd hd will remove protection, but sometimes your hardware is just not capable of playing back hd content
 
Looking through these forums, it sounds like any disk with "BD+" will not work. Is this correct?

Mostly correct, yes, unless you have some specific earlier versions of PowerDVD that will play BD+ titles when no AACS is present. Have a look around the forums here to see what version numbers they are. If your PDVD software is older than this, then it won't play BD+ titles at all.

It also appears that the majority of (new?) titles here in Australia might have BD+?

Incorrect. I am an Aussie as well, and currently only 20th Century Fox is using BD+. The Simpsons Movie is a Fox title , so has BD+ but none of the Harry Potter Blu-ray's have BD+ on them.

I suspect your system may not be up to playing blu-rays, or there is some weird software conflict on your system, as I have no trouble playing blu-rays either from disk, or from the hard drive once ripped.
 
Try getting Powerdvd 3319a, it's the last revision that plays folders from the harddrive and has worked with all the BD+ movies I've got including the Simpsons Movie, but as said above you need to post the specs of your machine as it could be down to that as well
 
I'd imagine BD+ must be reasonably close to being bypassed now, anyway. Probably best to just wait until that's done, then hopefully it won't give you any trouble.

Also, ripping rental movies is a no-no, lol.
 
I'm a bit desperate too. Especially since newer Sony titles haven't been workin for me (never had a problem before with any title, even Sunshine worked for me).
It's been pretty quiet in Any DVDs HD update section, so either they have givin up the whole BD project (highly unlikely) or they're gonna be hittin us with the big bomb in the near future (very likely:D).
 
I'm a bit desperate too. Especially since newer Sony titles haven't been workin for me (never had a problem before with any title, even Sunshine worked for me).
It's been pretty quiet in Any DVDs HD update section, so either they have givin up the whole BD project (highly unlikely) or they're gonna be hittin us with the big bomb in the near future (very likely:D).

They're not allowed to give up - BD has won now so the hard work begins :(
 
Are you sure that powerdvd that you came with the play actually supports playing HD?
 
Are you sure that powerdvd that you came with the play actually supports playing HD?

This is what I wonder as well, plus what is the computer specs. Your PC doesn't need to be HDCP compliant but it does need the horsepower.
 
what are your system specs? anydvd hd will remove protection, but sometimes your hardware is just not capable of playing back hd content

Thanks for the many replies this post has generated.

My system specs:
3.0 GHz Pentium 4
nVidia 6800GT
2GB RAM
LiteOn BluRay player DH-4O1S-11
Bundled Software PowerDVD 7.3 BD Edition. (Supposedly equivalent to ultra edition except it only allows you stereo sound)

I have also tried the evaluation version of ArcSoft Total Media. (Anyone proven this product works? I got about 10 seconds of sound out of this for Simpsons Movie, haven't tried with any others yet).

I can't believe this system is not enough horse power to play a high def movie, and if it were lacking I would still expect to see some form of choppy picture displayed. (Can still play recent games like Call of Duty on it at HD resolution and acceptable frame rate).
 
I'd have to say that the system specs are fairly low, your main problem is probably the graphics card, but having said that the CPU is fairly low end for Blu-ray play back (unless it's an mpeg2 encoded one)
 
You should really be playing with a modern video card and a dual core cpu. I know it seems like games would tax a system more than "mere video playback" but this generation of video is pretty intense because of the compression they're using. It requires some decent hardware. That's why I ended up getting an 8800 GT for my HTPC. Others will recommend the ATI 2600 series cards and probably everyone recommends the newer ATI 38xx or nVidia 9xxx series of cards. (Man that 9xxx series looks INCREDIBLE with 2 full HD processors for true HD PiP). Anyway, yea, you should upgrade if you wanna do HD, sorry.
 
Thanks for the many replies this post has generated.

My system specs:
3.0 GHz Pentium 4
nVidia 6800GT
2GB RAM
LiteOn BluRay player DH-4O1S-11
Bundled Software PowerDVD 7.3 BD Edition. (Supposedly equivalent to ultra edition except it only allows you stereo sound)

I have also tried the evaluation version of ArcSoft Total Media. (Anyone proven this product works? I got about 10 seconds of sound out of this for Simpsons Movie, haven't tried with any others yet).

I can't believe this system is not enough horse power to play a high def movie, and if it were lacking I would still expect to see some form of choppy picture displayed. (Can still play recent games like Call of Duty on it at HD resolution and acceptable frame rate).

Processor is at the minimum on horse power, video card is way way below. Besides that you are ok.
 
of course cpu and video card are 2 of the 3 most important components for video playback (the other is ram, 2gb is ok) so not having those up to par will definitely impact your ability to playback HD content.

if the arcsoft player wont work either, i would definitely guess it is because your system is underpowered.
 
Are you guys sure?, while I have 8800GTX in my HTPC, I am running a 6800GT in my spare PC, & it plays OTA HDTV just fine w/ an Athlon XP 3000+, & 1GB of ram, & it played OK w/ an occasional freeze up w/ a 6600GT

I think he should get something if just some choppy video, or is BluRay much harder to play than OTA HDTV?, all I know is they make simular size files when I record

ocgw

peace
 
it depends on the codec used to compress the HD content. if it is a highly compressed codec it will take a lot more horsepower to play.

also, athlon xps were better than pentium 4s back in the day, so that might have something to do with it.
 
OTA HDTV is much simpler to playback that what is found on the HD discs. I've seen a mere Radeon 9250 and a Sempron 1.6 GHz playback 1080i HDTV with no sweat. What's sad is that due to studio paranoia, PowerDVD requires at least a Radeon X1300 or Geforce 7600GT for HD playback. Why those cards work and lesser ones don't is beyond me, because I have tried both cards and neither one does anything to accelerate video decoding. Instead, I have to rely on my dual core CPU which so far has worked great. PowerDVD refuses to play HD discs on my Radeon X800, even though it is definitely a more powerful card, just a generation behind. PowerDVD doesn't even like my laptop's integrated video, but I know it has the CPU horsepower to play HD discs because I have done it with Media Player Classic. It's sad, but welcome to the world of HD discs... :bang:

Of course, with your purchase of AnyDVD HD, you can rip the discs and then transcode them to a less complex format, such as XviD (x264 might be too much for your CPU at these resolutions). This will take a long time per disc though, and is not exactly easy to do yet, as the tools haven't matured to the level that DVD transcoding tools have.
 
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Anyone verified Arcsoft works?

Well I tried my first non HD+ disk last night (5th Element) with the Arcsoft player (I have given up on PowerDVD). The sound came through perfectly but got a black picture. Also because I couldn't see the title screen, and there doesn't seem to be any enabled control or right click to start the movie playing I assume I was just stuck on the intro menu screen because I just got the menu sound effects and music looping.

I'm beginning to wonder if these players will only work if they see a HDCP video card, regardless of protection on the disk? Anyone have Arcsoft working on a PC without HDCP video card and display?
 
Oddy,

sorry to say, but your specified system lacks the power to playback most Blu Ray titles properly. Many titles will have much higher bitrate and more language streams muxed than your average HD TV channel. Other than that there is the realtime decoding of AACS that needs to be handled.

It is really the combination of a higher end HD decoding capable HDCP compliant videocard AND a higher performing dual or quad core cpu that you need. Not just the videocard. I tried using a Pentium 531 too (OS win vista business 64 bit), it will regularly freeze frames ~90-100% load even with an 3870 or 8800 videocard in there. There simply is not enough horsepower with a single core 531/631 cpu. Experience may vary on different OS. I now have an 3870 + an E6850 Core 2 Duo - no more problems.

Your system is not HDCP compliant and its videocard does not have high def decoding capabilities. (the 8800gtx should work when combined with a decent cpu).

Also the cpu will not be performant enough and you'd drop frames.

You really NEED a modern dual core Intel or AMD cpu and a suitable videocard like nVidia 86xx/88xx/9xxx (latter is brandnew, so that may be a risk too) series or AMD 26xx/38xx to be able to handle proper playback.
 
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