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PowerDVD 9... start your bashing in 3, 2, 1...

andy o

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I'm more than a little peeved. Most likely they will ask for our money, and I feel we've NEVER had a quite complete version of 8! I was expecting the mythical 8.5 with properly working HDMI! Forget about that "full HD" nonsense, I will be happy with just properly-mapped, bug-free regular PCM HDMI.

PowerDVD 9 info at AVS
 
Wow, I'm really looking forward to that.

The only thing that would be awesome for me is the TrueTheater Technology.
--- TrueTheater HD: upscales SD contents to 1080p.

--- TrueTheater Motion: converts frame rate from 24fps to 72fps for smooth playback.

--- TrueTheater Stretch: adjusts aspect ratio automatically according to the screen size.

--- TrueTheater Lighting: adjusts color/contrast/brighness automatically.

--- TrueTheater Surround: supports virtual surround sounds for 2ch speakers.

well, I think about buying a new Software Player. Now I have to decide between PowerDVD 9 und WinDVD 9.

Any news that corel is bringing out Version 10?

Best Regards,
BurnerHEAD
 
I have a feeling that besides a new girl on the main screen, we won't see any significant improvements. My feeling tells me also that they will break some more stuff... No buy from me!
 
I will not be buying PowerDVD 9 any time soon. I will get their trial and test it out to see if there are any real inprovements over PDVD8 or ArcSoft TMT. I am extremely happy with TMT and doubt I will ever switch. I have been waiting for PDVD to release support for the ALC889 audio chipset to do HD audio bitstreaming, but that looks like it will not arrive until Q3/Q4 of this year.
 
The Realtek 889 chip won't do bitstreaming, just presumably won't do downsampling over analog. There is no HDMI device there that I know of, and also, in that AVS thread people are discussing this. I really don't care too much about getting "full res" audio. I would like bistream to avoid all the dumb mapping problems with different software and stuff like that. Also, your receiver will be smart about how many channels is actually getting, and will give you the corresponding options, without you having to configure Vista manually.
 
Actually, the 889 chipset DOES support bitstreaming. If you read the notes on the RealTek site, it states that it will support bitstreaming of HD audio with their proprietary driver, and the player must support it:

* Content Protection for Full Rate loss-less DVD Audio, Blue-Ray DVD and HD-DVD audio content playback (with selected versions of WinDVD/PowerDVD)


What it doesn't mention is whether or not HDMI is supported. In order to have enough bandwidth for HD audio bitstreaming, it requires HDMI (or DVI.)
 
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Actually, the 889 chipset DOES support bitstreaming. If you read the notes on the RealTek site, it states that it will support bitstreaming of HD audio with their proprietary driver, and the player must support it:

* Content Protection for Full Rate loss-less DVD Audio, Blue-Ray DVD and HD-DVD audio content playback (with selected versions of WinDVD/PowerDVD)


What it doesn't mention is whether or not HDMI is supported. In order to have enough bandwidth for HD audio bitstreaming, it requires HDMI (or DVI.)

How can you do bitstreaming without HDMI? Anyway, that quote does not mean bitstreaming, it could only mean it won't downsample over analog. However the link DOES mention HDMI, probably in the future it (with new products) will be capable of sending non-downsampled audio, if not bitstreaming over HDMI. But if you already have an 889 chip, I don't see how it could be done.
 
No thanks. I'll pass. I do, however, want to point out that those of us who bought 8 with the "promise" of bitstreaming audio support in "q3" look at the claims that 9 will get it in "q3" and are laughing our ass' off. This is nothing short of a GINORMOUS joke at this point. How many broken promises and broken builds do people need before they stop wasting their money on this company? To those considering this "upgrade", by all means go for it. I just won't be joining the money wasting crowd this year.
 
It's now available from the Cyberlink website, I've paid for the upgrade and downloaded, installing now!
 
Fool! Er, I mean good luck! :D LOL! Seriously, though, let us know your impressions. I don't hold out much hope of it being better, but, you never know. I do hope since you paid for it that it's a big improvement for you.
 
The Realtek 889 chip won't do bitstreaming, just presumably won't do downsampling over analog. There is no HDMI device there that I know of, and also, in that AVS thread people are discussing this. I really don't care too much about getting "full res" audio. I would like bistream to avoid all the dumb mapping problems with different software and stuff like that. Also, your receiver will be smart about how many channels is actually getting, and will give you the corresponding options, without you having to configure Vista manually.

ReClock is your friend. It will configure the speaker channels for you, if you set PowerDVD8 to HDMI output.
 
Apparently PDVD 9 integrates directly with MCE. That way I could play blu-ray directly from MCE without dropping out of MCE and into PDVD. If that is true it would be a very welcome addition.

Des anyone know if this is true?
 
PowerDVD Ultra 9 First Impressions

All,

Just bought PowerDVD 9. Posted my first impressions over at AVS. Ill copy the post here. I probably cant test some of the features many are curious about because my AVR is a few years old. Id be happy to "lend" someone my copy for testing since I do not believe you should have to buy this crap if it doesn't work. One of the Slysoft Moderators, you all seem like trustworthy peeps, and are all quite capable so if you want to report on this for the group, id be curious as well.

__________

I figured there will be many people interested in this new version and we should probably start an official thread.

I just bought this as an upgrade to my PDVD Ultra 7 version. Yes, you can install it along side PDVD7. I bought the upgrade so it only cost me 59.99.

i am running Vista 32, on an Intel DG45 mini-tix board. Using the onboard x4500 HD chip. Connected via HDMI to my Sammy 5265 LCD. SPDIF only.

First impressions:
- Interface is nice, similar to 8 although i only played with 8 initially.
- Seems the other "Extra" garbage in 8 is gone. The only thing still there is Moovielive which you dont have to accept and so far has only popped up once asking if i want to sign up.
- I think the PQ is better than PDVD7. Colors seems more accurate and darks are darker. I need to test this more.
- So far no compatability issues. Iron Man, Dark Knight, Black Hawk Down, Simpsons, all the Bournes work fine. The only issue i experienced was some weird artifacting in Iron Man. Its not there in 7.
- Like the new media center integration. You can now launch PDVD to play BRAY within media center and have access to all the settings, etc. (although will still need to mount with VCD or Daemon first unless your playing a disc)This has nice consequences for apps like MyMovies once they update that to launch the PDVD process within Media center. No longer need to launch a separate app. Again, no compatibility issues. Played all the same movies inside media center with no problem. However, you cant launch DVDs (not BRs) from your hard drive from within this app in media center. Looks like you would have had to launch it first within PDVD outside media center than you can go back and watch within media center. Or save all your DVDs as ISOs.
- The new DVD upconverting feature is nice. Has an FFDSHOW like affect. There is an option to split screen it so you can see how its working. Does not create alot of noise and artifacts and i thought it made Gladiator look very nice.
- Unfortunately, I have a 5.1 system and no HDMI inputs on my AVR so i cannot test all of those audio features that people are curious about. Sorry.
- ANYDVD HD works fine.
- Hardware acceleration works flawlessly with my Intel DG45 mini-itx board. When running HA, unfortunately you do not have access to the new PDVD TrueTheater settings.

Ill post some more once i do further testing.
 
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Do you have aero enabled? And if you do does PD9 disable it when playing blu-ray discs? Thanks.
 
That's what the review above says. That it doesn't drop to the desktop or any of that funky stuff anymore. So, it sounds like it, yes.
 
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