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Discussion Sad news for Cyberlink's PowerDVD users.

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Paulo Elias

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I have just installed the upgrade to PowerDVD 22, with perfect playback of UHD discs in my PC. However, when searching for updates, as advised upon first use, I stumbled into a message in the Cyberlink's support page that says, and I quote:

"As of November 2023, the Ultra HD Blu-ray disc ("UHD BD") playback feature is no longer supported in CyberLink PowerDVD 22 and PowerDVD 365."

Needless to say, I am very sad and felt betrayed, spending my money and time to upgrade a software that will no longer work with UHD Blu-Ray. For the record, I use PowerDVD as a reference playback application for films on video. My PC works with an LG monitor with Vesa's Display HDR600, which helps evaluate, test and compare my discs. Thus far, PowerDVD yields a top notch picture quality, even for non-UHD video sources.

For a moment, I was tempted to write a support ticket, complaining about the decision, but to what end? Cyberlink was always making efforts to prevent UHD playback, while most of their efforts were not even supported by Intel itself, deprecating their latest software protection scheme.

This decision is totally arbitrary, not to mention shameful. And, apparently, there is nothing we can do to sort this out. I have other playback application that will continue to play UHD discs, but those do not support full menus.
 
SamuriHL said:
Use anydvd. Problem solved.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Sorry, I am a long time user of AnyDVD, and so far I fail to see how it is going to prevent Cyberlink to support their support of UHD Blu-Ray.
 
Quite simple. Once the protection is removed, powerdvd plays it just fine. There's no need to "update" powerdvd. It'll simply work from Disc, iso, or folder. The only thing going away in their "support" for uhd is their aacs license and the ability to decrypt uhd's officially.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk
 
SamuriHL said:
The only thing going away in their "support" for uhd is their aacs license and the ability to decrypt uhd's officially.
Click to expand...

I'm so glad you stated that!


I thought this meant Cyberlink would block play of UHD's altogether!!

That would-a been the end of my rocky relationship with PDVD - lol.


Paulo Elias said:
Thus far, PowerDVD yields a top notch picture quality, even for non-UHD video sources.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with you Paulo, though I know not everyone is a fan.

The picture quality has been great for me.

I have other UHD software players, but I'd hate to lose PDVD as an option.



T
 
testiles said:
I thought this meant Cyberlink would block play of UHD's altogether!!
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That makes no sense at all. Why would they "block" it? Why do people jump to such conclusions? The only thing going away is their ability to decrypt AACS 2.x titles. And that is because the technology they use to secure it, SGX, is deprecated by Intel. Cyberlink is bound by an AACS LA license agreement for protecting AACS 2.x decryption. As they are no longer able to do that, they will lose their license. They have ZERO incentive to remove the code for playing decrypted titles and no requirement to do so.
 
SamuriHL said:
Why would they "block" it? Why do people jump to such conclusions?
Click to expand...

I don't think the industry was ever too happy about PDVD being able to play UHD's, so was thinking Cyberlink may have succumbed to pressure from them to discontinue it.


But you're right there's a big difference between "no longer supported" and "no longer playing".



T
 
testiles said:
I don't think the industry was ever too happy about PDVD being able to play UHD's, so was thinking Cyberlink may have succumbed to pressure from them to discontinue it.
Click to expand...

Nope. Given that just about literally everything out there now (VLC, Kodi, MPC, etc etc) can play "UHD" to varying degrees, Cyberlink is under no obligation to the license holders if their license is revoked. In fact, exactly the opposite. Under a license agreement their hands were more tied than they will be now if they no longer have to worry about encryption.

testiles said:
But you're right there's a big difference between "no longer supported" and "no longer playing".
Click to expand...

Yup.
 
I've just looked at my Cyberlink Members Zone account and I have 21 legally bought and paid for versions of PowerDVD Ultra over the years, going all the way back to PowerDVD 10 Ultra.

For some reason I can't get PowerDVD 10 to work on my 2 Windows 11 Pro laptops, but it works fine in Windows 10 Pro. Outside of PowerDVD11, I have at least one version of PowerDVD Ultra since version 10. Oh well. I can now save my money for other things, since AnyDVD decrypts UHD Blu-ray discs/folders/ISO files without too much hassle.

Besides, VLC/MPC/JRiver are doing a great job playing the UHD stuff once AnyDVD is done decrypting it, or MakeMKV by itself or in conjunction with AnyDVD.

Now I'll have even less motivation to purchase a newer version of PowerDVD Ultra, since future versions won't even play UHD Blu-ray discs/folders/ISO files.
 
Can someone clarify the situation with POWERDVD, will older versions continue to play UHD? i was planning to upgrade to version 22 ultra from version 20 when i upgrade to 21 will it work or not? I don't really understand the situation, it's confusing :(
 
If you mean will PowerDVD continue to decrypt UHD's? No, they won't. If you mean will PowerDVD continue to play decrypted UHD's? Yes.
 
SamuriHL said:
Cyberlink is under no obligation to the license holders if their license is revoked. In fact, exactly the opposite. Under a license agreement their hands were more tied than they will be now if they no longer have to worry about encryption.
Click to expand...

Ok, got it!


whatever_gong82 said:
I've just looked at my Cyberlink Members Zone account and I have 21 legally bought and paid for versions of PowerDVD Ultra over the years,
Click to expand...

Wow.

Got quite a few myself but you got me beat - LOL!


whatever_gong82 said:
For some reason I can't get PowerDVD 10 to work on my 2 Windows 11 Pro laptops, but it works fine in Windows 10 Pro.
Click to expand...

10?

Wait, I'm using 22, how old is that?

Maybe time to give up on that one? :=)


whatever_gong82 said:
Besides, VLC/MPC/JRiver are doing a great job playing the UHD stuff once AnyDVD is done decrypting it, or MakeMKV by itself or in conjunction with AnyDVD.

Now I'll have even less motivation to purchase a newer version of PowerDVD Ultra, since future versions won't even play UHD Blu-ray discs/folders/ISO files.
Click to expand...

I think the deal is going forward PDVD will play them the way VLC/MPC/JRiver etc all do, i.e. after AnyDVD has decrypted them.


I kind of agree though, there's less motivation.

But as I said before I like the PQ with PDVD, and I'm used to its features since it's been my go-to player for so long.

So, as long as it plays UHD's fine in conjunction with AnyDVD, I'll most likely continue to use it.


Lukas said:
will older versions continue to play UHD?
Click to expand...

Good question.


SamuriHL said:
If you mean will PowerDVD continue to decrypt UHD's? No, they won't. If you mean will PowerDVD continue to play decrypted UHD's? Yes.
Click to expand...

... and good answer. LOL!





T
 
Last edited:
For the paranoid people out there, I just updated PowerDVD 22 to the September patch on my _AMD_ system. I stress AMD here because it is *NOT* compliant with their official UHD playback AT ALL. Anyway, I mounted a protected UHD ISO image that AnyDVD decrypted and it plays back 100% fine on that system. Personally, I see absolutely no need to take any further updates to PowerDVD at this point. It simply works as I said since post 2 in this thread. And that's all you really need.
 
SamuriHL said:
That makes no sense at all. Why would they "block" it?
Click to expand...
PowerDVD often doesn't make sense. It is just historic fear, because they like to remove features:
HD-DVD lost the format war, PowerDVD drops HD-DVD support a week later. 3D Blu-ray isn't quite dead yet, but Cyberlink removes 3D Blu-ray support without need. (PowerDVD 19 was the last version supporting 3D playback?)
But as long as AnyDVD is used this all doesn't matter. Old PowerDVD versions still playback 3D content just fine. PowerDVD 7 is just too old to play HD-DVDs on modern Windows OS. :)
 
SamuriHL, I do hope you're right. In fact, lack of support for UHD Blu-Rays per se does not necessarily mean PowerDVD will stop playing UHD discs. On the other hand, their message is somewhat cryptic, since it does clearly state what kind of support is going away.

I am sure that no paranoia or false alarm anxiety is necessary when looking at such a warning message, given that Cyberlink is historically addicted to UHD Blu-Ray protection schemes. My PC is fitted with an AMD Ryzen processor. Until AnyDVD took matters in its own hands, I could never play a UHD Blu-Ray with PowerDVD.
 
James said:
PowerDVD often doesn't make sense. It is just historic fear, because they like to remove features:
HD-DVD lost the format war, PowerDVD drops HD-DVD support a week later. 3D Blu-ray isn't quite dead yet, but Cyberlink removes 3D Blu-ray support without need. (PowerDVD 19 was the last version supporting 3D playback?)
But as long as AnyDVD is used this all doesn't matter. Old PowerDVD versions still playback 3D content just fine. PowerDVD 7 is just too old to play HD-DVDs on modern Windows OS. :)
Click to expand...
That's why I said don't update and checked that the latest patch works just fine. There's literally no reason to ever take another update at this point forward.

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