• AnyStream is having some DRM issues currently, Netflix is not available in HD for the time being.
    Situations like this will always happen with AnyStream: streaming providers are continuously improving their countermeasures while we try to catch up, it's an ongoing cat-and-mouse game. Please be patient and don't flood our support or forum with requests, we are working on it 24/7 to get it resolved. Thank you.

Discussion Sad news for Cyberlink's PowerDVD users.

Other products from Cyberlink is already a hilarious concept. PowerDVD was their best product and certainly the only one worth buying back in the day. At this point, unfortunately, they've become irrelevant across the board.
 
whatever_gong82 said:
www.mediafire.com

PowerDVD_22.0.3214.62_Patch_DVD230725-02

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.
www.mediafire.com

Always remember to scan all downloads with the latest anti-virus scanner, not responsible for any changes or damages to your machine, etc.

Now, saying all of that, once your machine is cleared and good to go, unless someone on here with more technical knowledge says otherwise, don't ever update your version of PowerDVD after this.
Click to expand...
Update:

The owner of that file took down the link, so unless you've already got this patch before it was taken down, you're on your own.
 
Some of you guys bring out some contractual agreement between AACS and Cyberlink as a reason for discontinuing playback of UHD Blu-rays, but that doesn't explain why they would discontinue support even of unencrypted UHD discs.

The real reason is simple: dwindling demand. Every year fewer and fewer people buy blu-ray discs. Let alone UHD 4k discs. Even fewer people play discs on their computer, as opposed to using a standalone blu-ray player.

PowerDVD sells for $99.99. Cyberlink would need to sell many thousands of copies per year to barely break even and cover the costs of the internal company resources spent on maintaining UHD support (engineering, customer support, etc). But blu-ray playback on computer is dying fast. Much faster than any of you expects. Today I bet PowerDVD represents less than 2-3% of Cyberlink's total revenues. Of these 2-3% an even smaller fraction cares about UHD playback. So the executives likely made this decision based on rational financial reasons. Now they cut support of UHD discs, and can reassign their internal resources to support their other products and services that generate more $$$
 
Last edited:
One disclaimer:

A Forum member privately sent me a PM to let me know about what Cyberlink did last week when they released the patch that removed 4k UHD playback for 4k UHD Blu-ray discs.

I was incorrect about 4K MKVs.

The newest Cyberlink patch was only for 4K UHD Blu-ray discs, ISOs, and folders, NOT 4K MKVs, as mentioned here, and here.
 
So let me get this straight: all this is done by Cyberlink/AACS etc. to protect what? The disc's menus?

Or they just don't want their discs anywhere near a computer? I'm not familiar with UHD discs and just assume they work similarly to BD's.
 
crazjmp42 said:
Some of you guys bring out some contractual agreement between AACS and Cyberlink as a reason for discontinuing playback of UHD Blu-rays, but that doesn't explain why they would discontinue support even of unencrypted UHD discs.

The real reason is simple: dwindling demand. Every year fewer and fewer people buy blu-ray discs. Let alone UHD 4k discs. Even fewer people play discs on their computer, as opposed to using a standalone blu-ray player.

PowerDVD sells for $99.99. Cyberlink would need to sell many thousands of copies per year to barely break even and cover the costs of the internal company resources spent on maintaining UHD support (engineering, customer support, etc). But blu-ray playback on computer is dying fast. Much faster than any of you expects. Today I bet PowerDVD represents less than 2-3% of Cyberlink's total revenues. Of these 2-3% an even smaller fraction cares about UHD playback. So the executives likely made this decision based on rational financial reasons. Now they cut support of UHD discs, and can reassign their internal resources to support their other products and services that generate more $$$
Click to expand...
In the Cyberlink patch from last week, in the thread that I created, I did point out what you're getting at, from Cyberlink themselves.

From my thread, I had this link as well:


In the past few years the usage rate of PowerDVD UHD BD media playback features and the required technical support from hardware companies have gradually declined or directly ceased (e.g., since 2020, newly-released PC platforms that use new CPUs and motherboards do not support the hardware requirements for UHD BD playback).

The UHD BD playback process requires not only player software (such as PowerDVD) but also the corresponding hardware and firmware framework (e.g., CPU, GPU, motherboard, BIOS, etc.) to ensure PCs have required DRM content protections. Therefore, if there is any post-market change/update made to the hardware or firmware to cope with the UHD BD requirements, the player software might not be able to reflect such change/update via a software update.

CyberLink works diligently to meet all UHD BD format requirements from the software perspective, however CyberLink has no control over the hardware/firmware vendors. Therefore, it has been very difficult for CyberLink to keep supporting the UHD BD features in PowerDVD in a format-compliant way.

This is a tough decision, but we have decided to cease the UHD BD playback features and the corresponding online authentication in the latest version of PowerDVD 22 and PowerDVD 365 after October, 2023. As a result, UHD BDs will become unplayable in PowerDVD.

If you’d still like to play your UHD BD collection, please consult with your UHD BD content providers and playback device companies for other available playback solutions.

Here are the recommended playback solutions shared by the Blu-ray Disc Association for your reference: https://us.blu-raydisc.com/hardware/

 
WayToGo said:
So let me get this straight: all this is done by Cyberlink/AACS etc. to protect what? The disc's menus?

Or they just don't want their discs anywhere near a computer? I'm not familiar with UHD discs and just assume they work similarly to BD's.
Click to expand...
Probably a combination of sales for Cyberlink's PowerDVD 22 Ultra, the decline of people buying Blu-ray players/discs, and the other stuff mentioned in my reply above.

All of it came into consideration when Cyberlink did what they just did last week. It was a long time coming, but the results of how many sales Cyberlink had for PowerDVD 22 Ultra this year, longer than any previous version of history of the product, Intel dropping support for the SGX chip that Cyberlink based their protection on (Google that and see why Intel dropped support of their chip, or see here), and the AACS contract, led to what happened last week.
 
The only reason why I purchased PowerDVD was because it can play discs with menus. It was also because it had advantages on YouTube playback, namely HDR videos.

However, there are other players that deal correctly with 4K Blu-Rays, except menus. With AnyDVD HD installed, of course. One such player is the PotPlayer 64 bits, which constantly updates playback features. It can also play HDR 10, with hardware support.

As for YouTube and other streams, Windows 11 now has a feature in the HDR configuration options called "HDR Video streaming", which should be set to On. So, in this regard, PowerDVD is no longer needed.

At any rate, it is sad to know what has been said in the thread. I unchecked the update option, as previously suggested, and if PowerDVD stops playing UHD discs, there is no reason to keep installed and running when I need it.

By the way, I have a full operational home theater, since the mid 1980's. Furthermore, I only use my PC for research, including video media, not playback of video discs to watch movies.
 
Since Cyberlink decided not to allow 4K Blu-Ray playback I decided to search for a suitable player with menus.

Just out of curiosity, has anyone here tried or use DVD Fab's "PlayerFab"? Apparently they have their own region-free features as well, and I wonder if AnyDVD will work concurrently with that player.
 
It has its own decryption built in. It's a decent player.

But if you like powerdvd there's no reason to abandon it at this point. It'll continue to work so long as you don't update it.

Sent from my SM-S928U1 using Tapatalk
 
Thank you for your reply. I am just concerned about the lack of updates that may turn PowerDVD useless for new discs, that's all.
 
Paulo Elias said:
I am just concerned about the lack of updates that may turn PowerDVD useless for new discs, that's all.
Click to expand...
With AnyDVD active to decrypt discs I have yet to find a DVD or Bluray my copy of PDVD 17 can't play directly from the disc or as a ripped ISO/folder/files setup.

I don't own any 4K discs, so I have less than zero need to update PDVD.
 
Paulo Elias said:
I am glad to know! So I will stick to PowerDVD 22 as is.
Click to expand...
If'n it were me who had PDVD 22 I'd stick with it as long as possible.

Seeing how long there has been an extended sale for the latest PDVD tells me people just aren't buyin' it.
 
George++ said:
If'n it were me who had PDVD 22 I'd stick with it as long as possible.

Seeing how long there has been an extended sale for the latest PDVD tells me people just aren't buyin' it.
Click to expand...
Cyberlink has just released PowerDVD 23 back on January 25th, but your point still stands.

PowerDVD 22 had the longest length of being available before the release of PowerDVD 23, from the date it was originally released, May 12, 2022, to January 25, 2024, when PowerDVD 23 was finally released.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top