New PowerDVD 8 Update to build 1730

[Tanquen]

Do you have Daemon Tools installed?

Yes, I'm using ISO files.

 

[SamuriHL]

Yes, I'm using ISO files.

Yea, it's likely the Daemon Tools SPDT driver causing your problem. It was documented in one of the AnyDVD release threads. 6.4.3.6 maybe. For an experiment, disable or uninstall Daemon Tools SPDT driver and then install Virtual CloneDrive. See if that makes any difference.

 

[Tanquen]

Hey, thanks. I never noticed that program before. Some time ago I found a how to on this site and it used Daemon Tools. As CloneDrive is freeware and by SlySoft, why isn’t everyone using it? I’ll give it a try tonight and report back.

 

[SamuriHL]

Cause it doesn't support Vista x64 for one, and some people just like Daemon Tools. VCD is very good though. I prefer it to DT myself.

 

[Tanquen]

I just read about the no Vista 64bit or 32Bit only. I don’t have a 64Bit install yet. Just XP and Vista 32bit in a multi boot setup. I will be adding a Vista 64Bit just to start playing with. Has there been a consensus on which OS is better overall for HD playback? Also, have you seen a way to make the files of two drives show up in one folder?

 

[SamuriHL]

You're talking about a RAID configuration. Not my cup of tea yet. And Vista isn't bad. XP is faster, hands down. Server 2008 rules all.

 

[peterbus]

Cause it doesn't support Vista x64 for one, and some people just like Daemon Tools. VCD is very good though. I prefer it to DT myself.

vcd is the best without a doubt but if you use mm then its only dt,bummer:bang:

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

[OT]

Minus the downside of some driver issues here and there with Vista x64 I would recommend Vista x64 to anyone who is installing Vista on a system that is newer. You can make use of more RAM and with Vista inherently being a more memory hungry OS compared to XP it never hurts to have more RAM. More memory can be useful in gaming and media-related activities (ie editing).

I just read about the no Vista 64bit or 32Bit only. I don’t have a 64Bit install yet. Just XP and Vista 32bit in a multi boot setup. I will be adding a Vista 64Bit just to start playing with. Has there been a consensus on which OS is better overall for HD playback? Also, have you seen a way to make the files of two drives show up in one folder?

RAID 0 allows you to combine two HDDs so they are seen as one however remember than if you lose one of those drives it means that you lose the data from both drives unless you've made a backup elsewhere. Do some reading on RAID.

I have no experience with Vista 32-bit but the 64-bit release runs HD content very nicely for me. I've checked it out using both 4 and 8 GB of DDR2 memory and it was smooth sailing both ways. I'm also using an EVGA NVIDIA 8800 GT Superclocked 512 MB so it's just a bit overclocked. Vista [x64, at least] is a bit slow on only 2 GB of DD2 memory, IMHO. I'll wait out the new videocard wars between NVIDIA and ATI and it would have been stupid of me to spend more money on an NVIDIA 9xxx series card when the 8800 GT handles HD & BD video without batting an eyelash on my system.

In the end the system smoothness and stability will depend on the hardware used and how you set the system up. I built my system from scratch so I got to hand pick all the hardware and I put it together so if it runs well I can pat myself on the back and if it runs miserably then I have only myself to blame.

[/OT]

 

[Tanquen]

You're talking about a RAID configuration. Not my cup of tea yet. And Vista isn't bad. XP is faster, hands down. Server 2008 rules all.

No, I’m fairly knowledgeable when it comes to RAID setups. I have one now and I know that some of the OSs can support software RAID. I was thinking more along the lines of the new Vista MKLINK command but something that works. I even found a post about it but it no work. You can make a link to a folder but I don’t see the point, you can do that with a shortcut. I did not want to use RAID for fear of losing one drive and portability. I have 4 1TB drives and just want to see all the ISOs in one list. Would the Just a Bunch Of Disks RAID work the way I want?


I thought Vista and 2008 where the same with a few things disabled in Vista. Like XP and server 2003. Well I think they all are really, even if they say it's all new code.

The Post:
Take Directories d:\Blogdata and d:\Images . Now you want to see data of both the directory into a new place say d:\Blog. Now we will use MKLINK /J option to do it. /J stands for directory junction.
Steps to make a junction directory / symlink
• MKLINK /D c:\blog d:\BlogData
• The above steps create a hard link and all data under D:\blogdata directory can be seen in c:\blog.
• Now type MKLINK /J c:\blog d:\images
• Now your d:\images will be added to the symlink you have already create.
• Now when you browse c:\blog you will be able to see both directories data.

 

[SamuriHL]

I have no idea. You're outside my comfort zone of knowledge on this one. I keep things simple, personally. One drive, no screwing around.

 

[Tanquen]

Ok, I just thought that it would be the kind of thing guys here would be doing if it can be done. Thanks for all the help though. Now where is that CloneDVD2HD link?

 

[SamuriHL]

Ok, I just thought that it would be the kind of thing guys here would be doing if it can be done. Thanks for all the help though. Now where is that CloneDVD2HD link?

I thought we all settled on CloneBD? That'll come eventually. It's a monumental task to write such a thing. For now we have the movie only guide I put together. It works. If you need to shrink it, I suggest adding RipBot to your arsenal as well. Certainly not 1 click, but, not horrible, either.

 

[Tanquen]

It looks like Virtual CloneDrive is a little worse. Maybe my system is just a little under powered to run titles with DTS and whatever changes they made. I swear I did not see this before but now the last three movies that I’ve checked that are DTS have this issue. My multi meter on the sidebar will bounce up into the red on both cores. I’ve got an FX60 with 2GBs of RAM. When the 4870 comes out I’ll be getting a fast Intel dual or quad core setup. The last time something like this happened, was months and months ago with the last Resident Evil title but there were a number of people that could not play it and or would get random lag or shuttering and my CPUs would be maxed out.

P.S. I like CloneHD better. Sorry, Sony just make me sad.

P.P.S. I'll take a look at this RipBot. Thanks!

P.P.P.S. Should the Hardware Acceleration be ghosted? I've got an ATI 1900...

 

[SamuriHL]

If it's spiking the CPU that's bad. Is it happening with the original or just with ISO's?

 

[Tanquen]

If it's spiking the CPU that's bad. Is it happening with the original or just with ISO's?

I'll try an original Disc but I've never watched a whole movie form the Disc before, how passé.

My CPU is listed as Recommended but my video card lists as meeting the minimum. ???

Recommended: Athlon 64-FX, FX-60 (2.6 GHz) or FX-62 (2.8 GHz), Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.2 GHz), 4400+ (2.2 GHz), 4600+ (2.4 GHz), 4800+ (2.4 GHz) or 5000+ (2.6 GHz), Turion 64 X2 TL-60 (2.0 GHz)

Minimum: ATI Radeon X1600 series, X1800 series, X1900 series
Recommended: ATI Radeon HD 2400, 2600, 2900 series, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400, 3600, 3800 Series


The CPUs bounce around 55% to 70% for the most part but sometimes spike and then the movie will lag. I can make it spike just by moving other windows around. What about your CPU and it’s usage?

Now I must find food.

 

[andy o]

I'll try an original Disc but I've never watched a whole movie form the Disc before, how passé.

My CPU is listed as Recommended but my video card lists as meeting the minimum. ???

Recommended: Athlon 64-FX, FX-60 (2.6 GHz) or FX-62 (2.8 GHz), Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.2 GHz), 4400+ (2.2 GHz), 4600+ (2.4 GHz), 4800+ (2.4 GHz) or 5000+ (2.6 GHz), Turion 64 X2 TL-60 (2.0 GHz)

Minimum: ATI Radeon X1600 series, X1800 series, X1900 series
Recommended: ATI Radeon HD 2400, 2600, 2900 series, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400, 3600, 3800 Series


The CPUs bounce around 55% to 70% for the most part but sometimes spike and then the movie will lag. I can make it spike just by moving other windows around. What about your CPU and it’s usage?

Now I must find food.

That sounds about right. With a G35 (no HW assist) and a C2D E8400 (3.0 GHz) I was getting sometimes 70-90% and some rare spikes (but never stuttering though). It seems the FX-60 would be a bit worse than that one. Are you sure you tried the same discs than before? The newer blurays especially are harder on the CPU if you don't have HW acceleration because H.264 is getting used more.

 

[PrincipalityFusion]

No, I’m fairly knowledgeable when it comes to RAID setups. I have one now and I know that some of the OSs can support software RAID. I was thinking more along the lines of the new Vista MKLINK command but something that works. I even found a post about it but it no work. You can make a link to a folder but I don’t see the point, you can do that with a shortcut. I did not want to use RAID for fear of losing one drive and portability. I have 4 1TB drives and just want to see all the ISOs in one list. Would the Just a Bunch Of Disks RAID work the way I want?

If you have a hardware controller or your motherboard supports it, i would configure your 4 drives in a RAID 5 setup. You get most of the speed of RAID0 with a decent amount of security. This is because the parity data is spread among all four disks. But because of how the algorithm works, you loose the space of 1 disk. So you would end up with a 3 Tb disk (or 2.73 to be more exact).

My movies are stored on a 5 disk RAID5 array controlled by an Areca 1260 controller. Where a setup like this really shines is when you are streaming more than a couple of high definition videos at one time. I tried an experiment where i had 2 movies streaming wirelessly to my HTPCs and 1 movie going through ethernet and all played smoothly. I tried this with 1 disk and got some studdering and serious hard drive thrashing.

Also, another good thing is that the RAM buffer for each disk is additive. So for example, my drives have 32Mb of ram for each disk giving an effective RAM buffer of 160Mb. I get almost no hard drive activity just streaming 1 high definition movie.

 

[SamuriHL]

I'll try an original Disc but I've never watched a whole movie form the Disc before, how passé.

My CPU is listed as Recommended but my video card lists as meeting the minimum. ???

Recommended: Athlon 64-FX, FX-60 (2.6 GHz) or FX-62 (2.8 GHz), Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.2 GHz), 4400+ (2.2 GHz), 4600+ (2.4 GHz), 4800+ (2.4 GHz) or 5000+ (2.6 GHz), Turion 64 X2 TL-60 (2.0 GHz)

Minimum: ATI Radeon X1600 series, X1800 series, X1900 series
Recommended: ATI Radeon HD 2400, 2600, 2900 series, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400, 3600, 3800 Series


The CPUs bounce around 55% to 70% for the most part but sometimes spike and then the movie will lag. I can make it spike just by moving other windows around. What about your CPU and it’s usage?

Now I must find food.

I've got an X2 4200+ running Vista 32 with 2 gigs of ram. However, I think the video compensates more than anything. I've got an 8800 GT in there and so generally my cpu utilization stays right around 30-40% with the occasional spike. That may seem high to some people considering the 8800 GT, but, the cpu utilization is mostly in sound processing as I'm using my built in realtek sound for now. With the latest versions of PowerDVD everything has been smooth as butter.

 

[Tanquen]

PrincipalityFusion- Thanks for the RAID info but again I’ve done RAID setups (I set them up for our customers all the time) but I did not want to give up the 30 (some odd) % of the drive space required. Maybe when I can buy 2TB+ drives for $175 each. Right now I rather risk losing one of the drives rather than give one up from the start. I can always copy the moves again. I was just looking for a way to see all the files in one folder.

SamuriHL – I’ve tried a few ISOs and the original discs and I can now see that it looks like the newer movies are the issue not the DTS audio. I have some older movies that play with the CPU usage happily around 20-40% but new ones like 28 Weeks and Cloverfield are at 60-75% for the most part with spikes that sometime cause lag. Do you know what the Hardware acceleration deal is for ATI cards? I have a couple of ATI X1900s and there is an ATI Avivo check box. When a movie is playing it is grayed out. Is it doing anything or is a newer card required. Man, I really need that 4870 to come out… and how!

Thanks for the info guys.

 

[SamuriHL]

Weird. Cloverfield is VC-1 and 28 Weeks Later is AVC. So it doesn't seem to be dependant on video codec. Cloverfield doesn't have BD+, either, so, that's not it. Hardware acceleration could very much be the issue, though. If it's not enabled, it'll rely on the CPU. With some of these codecs, the cpu will definitely spike. I'm not sure what's going on with the older movies...probably because they're not profile 1.1 or BD Live titles maybe. Profile 1.1 caused a bunch of problems when they first came out. In any case, it sounds like an acceleration problem maybe. Other than that, I don't really know.