Hi,

I installed the version of PowerDVD 8 that came with my LG Blu-ray/DVD combo drive (CH10LS20), and have installed the software update from the program itself. The problem is that I'm unable to play either DVDs or Blu-ray discs:

* For DVDs, the player doesn't start playing the disc. If I click the Play button, PowerDVD waits for a few seconds then stops - never getting to the disc menu.

* For Blu-ray, I receive a message that the format is not recognised, so those cannot be played either. I was under the impression that the software update would have installed the required codecs if they weren't present in the original version that came on the disc included with my drive.

I noticed there are buttons / menus to 'activate' the product. Is this necessary for the player to work? It accepts some 30-character code (split into 6 text boxes of 5 characters each), but there is no such code on the installation CD sleeve or anywhere among the contents of the retail package of the drive.

My player edition/version (as reported by PowerDVD itself) is PowerDVD BD - OEM 6CH with the MPEG4 AVC pack and Mobility pack; version 8.0.3228f.50. The BD region setting is greyed out with nothing selected (should be 'B') and zero changes remaining, though it correctly shows my location as New Zealand in the drop-down above.

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit on a machine with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ processor, 2GB RAM and GeForce 8600GT graphics card. The DVD & Blu-ray tested were from the Inception Blu-ray 4-disc set (which includes the DVD version). Blu-rays are Region B, DVDs are Region 4.

Any ideas as to why PowerDVD isn't playing my movies? I'm able to play DVDs using the VLC player just fine, though this can't (yet) play blu-rays. What can I do to get PowerDVD to work (short of contacting LG and/or CyberLink directly for their advice)?

Many thanks.
Daniel