PowerDVD 20 Ultra + AnyDVD HD still blocking screencapping etc.

Hi, I own a copy of AnyDVD HD and PowerDVD 20 Ultra. Near the end of 2020 I was using both of these to watch my Blu-rays with my friends online, it worked flawlessly. Then I had to reinstall Windows for other reasons and I installed these both softwares again. It worked fine for a while, then out of nowhere a pop up appears when I put a disc in, I thought it was a random popup and I ignored it and pressed "OK" without reading. I recall it saying something about ACCS and whatnot, but when I pressed that button the software flashed and I could no longer screencap the PowerDVD 20, even with AnyDVD HD running. It's such a pain because now I need PowerDVD to watch a UHD disc (yes, the drive is UHD "friendly" (LG BH16NS55)) and I can't watch it with friends or screenshot it because of this. I've tried reinstalling PowerDVD, didn't work. Running AnyDVD as administrator, didn't work. I tried running PowerDVD in TV mode, didn't work.

I would like some help on figuring out what I can do to fix this. If there is none you know of, can you suggest a good UHD player?

Thank you.

 

Guide for flashing UHD drives for AnyDVD
Discussion in 'CD/DVD/BD Drives' started by coopervid, Sep 13, 2020.

From your description it sounds like you clicked on a firmware update to the LG BH16NS55 which upgraded the firmware. That wouldn’t normally happen unless you ran software that offers to update out of date firmware.

That firmware update (if that’s what happened) would result in what you are seeing with AnyDVD HD.

Read the above post on the forum, it may be possible to re-flash the drive.
It’s a free option, rather than having to buy a UHD player.

 

Thanks for the reply, but I actually successfully flashed the drive from 1.05 to 1.02 yesterday so I could play UHD media and the issues started before 2021. The issue is whatever PowerDVD did to patch AnyDVD. I even tried using PowerDVD 19, no luck. The best I can remember from the popup was something to do with ACCS protection and enabling it.

P.S. I was having issues with AnyDVD not being able to read my UHD disc so I cross-flashed it to ASUS BW16D1HT 3.03 and it worked perfectly, it had to do with me having an AMD CPU and whatnot and it's mostly unrelated. I fixed that much, but throughout it all the issue with PowerDVD not being able to be screencapped persisted.

 

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. I meant UHD player software for Windows 10. My optical drive is not the issue, I can guarantee that.

 

Difficult to see how PowerDVD could impact the operation of AnyDVD, unless maybe the drive has somehow been revoked.
Check if the VLC works, it supports UHD.

Did you try reverting PowerDVD back to the original version after completely uninstalling it ?
Maybe one of the updates to PowerDVD is responsible.

Was this the message you saw ?
“AACS License Key Update: An important component of CyberLink PowerDVD requires periodic updates. New movies may not play back if the component is not updated now. Would you like to update now?”

 

I am very sure it was the ACCS update I agreed to won the popup. Issue is I can't get rid of it now. I was surprised how PowerDVD bypassed the bypasser (AnyDVD) and still does even after an update from it. I don't see anyone talking about this, either. I have no idea what is wrong. My copy of AnyDVD is 100% functional and does as it's told, it's served be very well. It bypassed anti-screencap on every software I use, including Corel WinDVD 12. PowerDVD is the only one I'm having issues with, as much as I love the menu support on WinDVD, it does not support UHD playback.

I will try VLC and hope it works. FYI, I really like the menu support, I would prefer to keep the menu fully operational.

 

I tried VLC, I had no idea it support native Blu-ray playback now, let alone UHD. It's a little unoptimised but it works well enough. I would highly prefer PowerDVD, though. But this is great! Thanks, man. I never even would've thought to use VLC.

 

You need to follow steps to get blu-ray menu support in VLC.
Google “play your Blu-ray with menus in VLC”.

I never update PowerDVD in response to the AACS License Key Update message, but still can’t see how that would cause your problem. It sounds more like a codec issue.
What exactly happens with PowerDVD playback. Does HD blu-ray playback work, what happens with UHD blu-ray playback ?

 

I got the menus to work in VLC but they're really laggy and screen tear a lot. I have a 3900X too. Also all discs play normally in PowerDVD, but when I try to take a screenshot, record or stream it does not show. It only shows for me.

Also, I would like to correct myself, this whole time I was saying "ACCS", I meant AACS.

 

Saw this on cyberlink’s FAQ, may be relevant...
“Hardware acceleration must be turned off before screen capture will work. This makes some decoders write to standard video memory.”

 

I just tried this. This did nothing to help, unfortunately. It still hides the video.

 

Also saw this may be relevant if you have a 4K display...
It could be that you were OK before installing one of the PowerDVD 20 updates and that broke it.
“having a 4K display causes PowerDVD to to turn on it's so-called "High performance mode - for UHD videos and DISPLAYS(!)". This automatically deactivates a bunch of functions, including the snapshot function. PowerDVD 16 and 17 will let you to uncheck this option (More Video Settings -> Miscelanous)”

 

Yes, I also tried disabling those. Didn't work, either. I have a 1920x1080 display, aswell so resolution shouldn't be an issue.

 

I haven’t tried it (I’m running PowerDVD 17), but the most likely explanation is that Screencapture has probably been disabled because of DRM.


Tried it.....
On PowerDVD 17 I get this message trying to snapshot during blu-ray playback...
“The snapshot feature for this type of video is disabled for copyright reasons”

 

AnyDVD used to bypass this for me. Infact it still does, the message doesn't appear, the video is just invisible to screencap.

 

I was playing a decrypted blu-ray when I saw the message.

I don’t believe AnyDVD is by passing this lockdown, it’s simply that the message doesn’t get displayed when decrypting on the fly when playing a blu-ray, with AnyDVD running.

 

But every single Blu-ray I played would go through and work, and now none work. The screenshot button also gets disabled now, if I force it to work then the video just vanishes and whatever is behind it shows.

 

No doubt it did work at some point in the past, but the whole DRM issue meant Cyberlink had to comply and disable the feature.

Cyberlink are using an operating system "feature" that disables screen capture for video apps designed to play copy-protected video.

 

That's a shame because I used PowerDVD for a long while and I liked the player so I got AnyDVD to be able to screenshot, record and stream the Blu-ray. Now I just randomly can't, there wasn't even an update. I have no idea why this happened.

 

You can use VLC to get screenshots of your decrypted Blu-ray disc/ISO.