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Nero Showtime now with Blu-ray Support

Does it have an arbitrary check for drivers which support HDCP even if playing back via AnyDVD HD?

I would really like a player I can use HDi on even though I only have the onboard Intel GMA.


Faye
 
Does it have an arbitrary check for drivers which support HDCP even if playing back via AnyDVD HD?

I would really like a player I can use HDi on even though I only have the onboard Intel GMA.


Faye
Doesn't seem so. I used an NVIDIA 7900 card without HDCP. But don't get excited, Showtime seems to be as buggy as PowerDVD (maybe even worse).
 
As bad as 6.5? I'd accept something as bad as 7.2 even :)


Faye
 
As bad as 6.5? I'd accept something as bad as 7.2 even :)


Faye

I don't know, never dared to try 6.5. :D

EDIT:
The Nvidia 7900 non HDCP card works fine with PowerDVD 7.1/7.2/7.3, so missing HDCP isn't an issue with PowerDVD. I don't have on-board graphics, so I can't try it with Showtime.
 
Strange and annoying,…

They removed the ~$29.99 price label here for the “Blu-Ray/HD DVD Video Plug-In” Downloadable Serial Number link:

http://www.nero.com/ena/Blu-Ray_HDD...html?NeroSID=3f07794ef109ee2d1f6ddc410a440b2e

And clicking “add to cart” simply sends you to the following page:

http://www.nero.com/ena/index.html?NeroSID=37f1a474da37d34ae661654e51f96a3d

Its the run around :agree:

***edit***

Oooops

this page says $24.99

http://www.nero.com/nero7/enu/Blu_Ray_Plugin.html?NeroSID=1c5b1db257fad5041ea2d11b0a7d8319
 
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Probably anything non-NVidia/ATI would do, James?


Faye
 
OK, I order the “Blu-ray / HD DVD Video plug-in e-mail version” from the online store and I received an e-mail but there was no attached file or link to download it from,….!?!

What gives?

I contacted customer service but I’m guessing this could take a while,…

Any ideas?

***edit***

I don’t get it, they sent a KEY in the e-mail,…..

Am I supposed to just input the key into Nero,…..?

Wouldn’t that mean that the functionality is then built into the latest 7.8.50 version of Nero then,…..

I don’t get it, I was expecting some kind of download,….

I have never bought from their online store before,…

Anyone else buy this Nero “Blu-ray / HD DVD Video plug-in”,…can you tell me how the whole process went for you?

Help?

Please,….

***edit***

OK I got it.

It was a simple matter of adding the Key to Nero. It really seems buggy though. DTS and HD DVD support seems to be there though. There is an HD DVD logo in Showtime as well as DTS,….

Buggy though,….
 
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OK, this “Blu-ray / HD DVD Video plug-in” for Nero needs some further experimentation but it actually seems reasonably stable and usable when using an HD DVD disc. Video quality is good but I suspect it could be better.

My setup is as follows:

ViewSonic N3250W 32" 16:9 8ms HD Ready LCD TV With HDMI
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+
2GB PC3200 RAM
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
eVGA 8800GTS 320MB
ATI HDTV Wonder
ATI TV Wonder 650
Sapphire T550P
PowerColor T550P PCIe
NEC ND-3540A
WD 320 GB HDD
Seagate 500 GB HDD
Maddog BTX/ATX 500W PSU
Vista RC2 (have two Vista Home Premium licenses and multiple MCE 2K5 licenses)
XBox 360 MCE Extender
XBox 360 HD DVD Drive

One major problem with the “Blu-ray / HD DVD Video plug-in” for Nero is that it doesn’t seem to use ANY hardware assistance from the installed GPU / VPU instead putting the full load of decoding on the CPU!!! Using the included and ubiquitous “King Kong” HD DVD the CPU cores were loaded to about ~90%. With effective hardware assistance from the installed 8800GTS CPU utilization should be more on the order of ~20% maybe ~30%. Having said that, the video was relatively smooth despite the lack of the otherwise necessary hardware acceleration.

I wonder if they want another ~$24.99 for a hardware assistance plug-in?

Still, my license of Nero 7 Ultra Enhanced was FREE because I won it in a contest along with some addition computer hardware totaling an approximate ~$1000. Therefore, ~$24.99 + the cost of the Xbox HD DVD drive isn’t that bad for getting off the ground with HD DVD. Users that already have Nero 7 are in a similar position. Just be sure your system is robust enough to take the load.

***Edit***

I Just have to correct that there is indeed a “Hardware Acceleration” option in Nero Showtime with the “Blu-ray / HD DVD Video plug-in” under:

Options > Video > Hardware Acceleration

However, selecting the “Hardware Acceleration” checkbox causes Showtime to either freeze or crash when playing an HD DVD. This could be due in part to the current state of nVidia drivers or some other anomaly so I don’t know that it is Nero’s fault.

***edit***

Just another follow up:

Using the included VC-1 encoded HD DVD “King Kong” title I was able to finally get “Hardware Acceleration” working with the Nero Showtime “Blu-ray / HD DVD Video plug-in”.

CPU utilization with “Hardware Acceleration” ON was in the 60% range
CPU utilization with “Hardware Acceleration” OFF was in the 90% range

I’m of the opinion that CPU utilization should be lower with “Hardware Acceleration” ON but it is a noteworthy improvement nonetheless. One would think PowerDVD 6.5 / 7.1 / 7.3 would have lower CPU usage with “Hardware Acceleration” ON using the same hardware but this should be done on a title by title bases.

***edit**

Just a note on buying the “Blu-Ray/HD DVD Video Plug-In”:

I had some trouble trying to add the plug-in to the cart initially for purchase. I was using IE7 in Vista RC2 and I decided to switch to an HP MCE 2K5 PC with IE6. Once on the MCE 2K5 PC I was able to add the plug-in to the cart and buy it using “America” as the place of purchase.
 
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I just read over at the avs forum that the plug in is available through internet explorer. The system I am on right now is running explorer 6 and it shows up for 29.95. also, the thread on avs forum stated that commercial blu ray discs will not play, only bd-r or bd-re, which already play back in showtime without the plug-in.
 
I've read I think all the posts here but I'm still confused. Heck I feel utterly stupid.

I have Nero 7 Ultra. I think I got a free upgrade to Ultra Enhanced... is there really any diff? Anyway, when I updated to Nero Ulta 7.8.5.0 it tried to automatically associate itself with Blu-Ray. This, to me, means the plugin came with the update? Or am I just crazy? Why would it try to associate itself with Blu-Ray if it couldn't yet play it w/o a plugin?

Ahead is confusing the heck out of me with this.
 
I think the plug in is really just for HD DVD, Blu Ray appears to be built into the free update, but as I and others have said no commercial Blu Ray discs will play with it.
 
I don’t have a Blu-ray burner yet so I cannot speak to that end. I do intend to buy a Blu-ray burner but I may wait until hybrid dual format Blu-ray + HD DVD drives come out.

Anyway further “Blu-ray / HD DVD Video plug-in” experimentation yields the following:

“Hardware Acceleration” sometimes turns itself off and on depending on the situation in Nero Showtime. If “Hardware Acceleration” is turned on in stop mode it should remain on but often doesn’t. Typically I leave “Hardware Acceleration” on.

My video card, video card drivers and monitor all support HDCP so AnyDVD HD isn’t necessary for normal use.

When playing an HD DVD disc from the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive without the benefit of AnyDVD HD and “Hardware Acceleration” ON in Showtime, the system now seems to automatically turn OFF hardware acceleration! The movie “King Kong” will play reasonably well without “Hardware Acceleration” but there are some areas where the smoothness of the video is compromised slightly.

Using AnyDVD HD somehow corrects the problem thus allowing “Hardware Acceleration” to remain ON. The video is 100% smooth with “Hardware Acceleration” ON but there is a very occasional blocky pixilated screen distortion.

Using Nero Showtime to play files from the hard drive however results in “Hardware Acceleration” remaining on ALL the time whether AnyDVD is used or not.
 
No Blu-Ray

Sorry, :disagree:

I´ve got:

Nero 7.8.5
activated HD-Plugin (via original Serial)
Blu-Ray-Burner

but...no chance to Play Blu-Ray Discs with Nero Show Time...only HD-DVD:policeman:

Greetings

Dieter
 
No Go Here

I was finally able to purchase the software however it appears not to work for me. On load of either disc or disc image I get error message "Can't build graph..." My hardware is more than enough for PowerDVD hence I suspect it is ample for Nero.

I've sent in support request and hope that I will get an answer in my lifetime. Last request was on how to purchase (the day the plugin came out) and haven't received any response as yet.
 
A couple days ago I bought it for $25 and I'm in the US (guess they're not selling in the US anymore). Works well for HD-DVD, some menu bugs, but it works.
 
I was finally able to purchase the software however it appears not to work for me. On load of either disc or disc image I get error message "Can't build graph..." My hardware is more than enough for PowerDVD hence I suspect it is ample for Nero.

I've sent in support request and hope that I will get an answer in my lifetime. Last request was on how to purchase (the day the plugin came out) and haven't received any response as yet.

Out of curiosity, what is your system configuration?

###edit###

A couple days ago I bought it for $25 and I'm in the US (guess they're not selling in the US anymore). Works well for HD-DVD, some menu bugs, but it works.

I haven’t actually used the menus yet. It seems as if there is a setting that needs to be adjusted in order to use the menus since whenever I click on a title screen with menus on an HD DVD it has no effect,…

Or was this one of the “bugs” you were referring to?
 
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As to menus they are keystroke activated only in PowerDVD so I assume this may be the same in Showtime.

System is P4D 3.4g, 2 gig DDR2-667, ATI 1950 w/512, X-Box 360 Drive, 22" LG Monitor (HDCP), 2.5 TB storage amoung 6 internal and 3 external drives, and a bunch more stuff
 
Got the Nero plug-in, but nothing else!

I have tried both blu-ray and hd dvd playback, from both hard drive and original disk but to no avail. If someone knows how to crack this gordian knot please let me know. Otherwise, I think everything I've read so far is just like GW, smoke and mirrors.
 
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