Blu-ray movie LIMITLESS crashed with Power DVD, but it played perfectly with Total Media

Rusell

Newbie Joined: Aug 25, 2010 19:37 Messages: 28 Offline

Solved by

Oct 23, 2011 22:50

Here is a log of my recent Blu-ray movie watching:
1. 10-21-11 Friday: Using Power DVD 9 Ultra, I tried to play X-Men First Class (Netflix's Blu-ray rental disk). I got a red-screen message telling me I needed an upgrade to watch the movie. Blu-ray compatibility updates for Power DVD 9 Ultra were no longer being released.
2. 10-21-11 Friday: I upgraded to Power DVD 11 Ultra. The base price was $64.95, but with extended download service, a backup disc, and tax, the total was $90.08.
3. 10-21-11 Friday: Downloading and installing Power DVD 11 Ultra went smoothly, as did key activation, and updating to the most recent build (2211.53).
4. 10-21-11 Friday: With my upgraded Power DVD, I tried watching X-Men First Class. It played for a while; then my system crashed. No blue screen; just a total crash. I had to turn off my power switch, turn it back on, and reboot. I tried to play it again; again it crashed. It was getting late; so I thought I would wait until morning to try some possible remedies.
5. 10-22-11 Saturday morning: I checked my hardware to see if I had up-to-date drivers. My Soundblaster X-Fi was okay, but I was behind with my NVidia GTX 295 and Logitech G9 laser mouse. I updated those drivers, and I was able to watch X-Men First Class without any trouble.
6. 10-22-11 Saturday afternoon: I tried watching Limitless (Netflix Blu-ray rental disk) with my new Power DVD 11 Ultra, but it crashed. It was the same kind of crash I had gotten with X-Men First Class. But this crash occurred with up-to-date drivers. I tried disabling my Soundblaster and enabling my onboard Realtek sound, but I still got a crash. I re-enabled my Soundblaster and got a third crash. I said to hell with it, and I made a couple of posts here on this forum. (As I write this, no one has replied to those posts.)
7. 10-23-11 Sunday afternoon: Some months ago, after not being able to play Green Zone with Power DVD 9 Ultra, I bought and installed ArcSoft's Total Media 3 Platinum. Total Media played Green Zone, and I left Total Media installed for a short while. But I had no further trouble with Power DVD 9 Ultra; so I uninstalled Total Media. Until now. After reinstalling Total Media 3 Platinum and updating it, today I was able to watch Limitless from beginning to end, without the slightest glitch. (For experimental purposes, I would have tried playing X-Men First Class with Total Media, but I had already mailed the disk back to Netflix.)

In conclusion, over the past three days, ArcSoft has scored two big points for me, and CyberLink has scored none:
Point 1: It seems that ArcSoft is still providing updates for its old Total Media Theater 3 Platinum, whereas CyberLink is not doing so for Power DVD 9 Ultra.
Point 2: ArcSoft's old software played Limitless perfectly. CyberLink's new software crashed Limitless so often, I was not able to finish watching it.

CyberLink-Michael

Senior Contributor Location: Europe Joined: Apr 18, 2007 04:05 Messages: 7418 Offline

Oct 24, 2011 05:15

Hi,

Welcome to our forum - sorry to hear that you face problems with PowerDVD 11.

In order to investigate we need more information about the issue and your platform - please help to provide all the info we ask in the welcome thread:

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/16915.page

thanks and br
Michael Technical Support

Werde Facebook Fan

Rusell

Newbie Joined: Aug 25, 2010 19:37 Messages: 28 Offline

Oct 24, 2011 17:27

On Friday 10-21-11 I tried to watch X-Men First Class, Blu-ray rental disk from Netflix, with Power DVD 9 Ultra. I got a red-screen message telling me I could not do that, and that I needed to upgrade my version of Power DVD. I bought, downloaded, installed, and updated the upgrade version of Power DVD 11 Ultra. Since then I have tried watching X-Men First Class, Limitless, and The Adjustment Bureau (Blu-ray rental disks from Netflix for each) with my new Power DVD Ultra 11 build 2211.53. I got crashes while watching each one of them.

Notes:
1. I was finally able to completely watch the X-Men FirstClass. I was able to watch only a small part of Limitless. It crashed three times before I gave up on it. I was able to watch about 9/10 of The Adjustment Bureau before it crashed.
2. Using Total Media Theater 3 Platinum, I was able to watch Limitless from beginning to end without any trouble whatsoever. Also using Total Media Theater 3 Platinum, I watched the last part of The Adjustment Bureau without any trouble.
3. Before The Adjustment Bureau crashed, 9/10 of the way through, I experienced sporadic flashes of pixelization using Power DVD Ultra 11. On the movie's title-screen menu, I got a flash of pixelization from both Power DVD 11 Ultra and from Total Media Theater 3 Platinum, but Total Media did not give me any pixelization during the last 1/10 of the movie. (Note: I did not see your posted workaround to resolve the pixelization. If I experience the pixelization in another movie, I will try it.)
4. I normally use a soundcard, Creative Labs Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Game, for all my PC activities (it is noticeably better, especially for DVDs and Blu-rays, than my onboard Realtek). I never had any trouble with my soundcard while using Power DVD 9 Ultra. But since I was getting those crashes with the new Blu-ray disks and Power DVD 11 Ultra, I disabled my X-Fi and enabled my onboard sound (normally disabled in my BIOS). I updated the Realtek drivers, but I still got crashes with Power DVD 11 Ultra. With respect to my X-Fi soundcard, the only thing I did not try was to eliminate all trace of Creative Labs software from my system before trying Power DVD 11 Ultra with Realtek.
5. If you can resolve this crash issue, I will continue to use Power DVD. But if I am forced to choose between Realtek onboard sound and my Creative Labs X-Fi soundcard, I will use Total Media 3 Platinum for watching new Blu-rays.

Here are answers to the welcome-thread's requests for information:

Power DVD 11 Ultra version 11.0.2211.53
SR No.: 110929-01
TR No.: 111011-002
Administrator Account
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bits Build 7601: Service Pack 1
Manufacturer: CyberPower Inc.
Retail version of Power DVD 11 Ultra, downloaded as upgrade version for Power DVD 9 Ultra
Used VGA: I do not know where to get this information.
Used VGA driver version: I do not where to get this information.
Audio Device and driver: Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Gamer, driver version 6.0.1.1375
Audio Setting in Power DVD: 1)Speaker Environment – Headphone 2) Output Mode: Stereo
Audio Setting in Creative Control Panel: Speakers – Headphone
ODD Drive: What's that?
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor 300GB 10,000 RPM
Used Display: NVidia Ge Force GTX 295 (driver v. 8.17.12.8562)
Single Display Monitor: HDMI connection from NVidia video card to Samsung SyncMaster 2443 24" Widescreen LCD (5ms, 50,000:1, 1920x1200)
Display Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
Antivirus/Firewall: AT&T Internet Security Suite (powered by McAfee)
Internet Browser: Windows Internet Explorer 9 version 9.0.8112.16421
Do I use virtual ODD? Not that I know of.
CPU: Intel Core i7 Extreme 975
Motherboard: MSI X-58 Pro-E (MS-7522)
Memory: 6GB DDR3 (3 x 2GB) Spec Tek Incorporated
Mouse: Logitech HID-compliant G9 Laser Mouse (driver v.5.33.10.0) (USB)
Optical Drive: LiteOn iHOS104 Internal 4x SATA BD-ROM

Filename	DxDiag.txt	Download
Description
Filesize	50 Kbytes
Downloaded:	276 time(s)

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at Oct 24. 2011 23:57

CyberLink-Michael

Senior Contributor Location: Europe Joined: Apr 18, 2007 04:05 Messages: 7418 Offline

Oct 28, 2011 02:24

Hi,
we can not reproduce the issue on any of our test platform - can you please provide the eventlog entry for further investigation:

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/16915.page#91780

As you mention that the application is crashing on your side there must be an eventlog.

BR
Michael

Technical Support

Werde Facebook Fan

Rusell

Newbie Joined: Aug 25, 2010 19:37 Messages: 28 Offline

Nov 04, 2011 20:37

Quote: Hi,
we can not reproduce the issue on any of our test platform - can you please provide the eventlog entry for further investigation:

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/16915.page#91780

As you mention that the application is crashing on your side there must be an eventlog.

BR
Michael

You were not able to reproduce them? Good for you. It was not a pleasant experience.

I was not imagining those crashes. It has been a couple of weeks since they happened, but I remember trying to check the Event Log. Unfortunately I got the following damnable message, which I get every time I try to view the event log, and I have not been able to remedy the situation:

"Event Log Service is unavailable. Verify that the service is running."

For now, I have given up on PowerDVD 11 Ultra. I have uninstalled it, and I have restored PowerDVD 9 Ultra. I will not try using the latter for newly released Blu-ray disks, but I might use it for standard DVDs and old Blu-rays. During the months that I used PowerDVD 9 Ultra, I never got a single crash like the half-dozen or so that I got during the few days I tried watching Blu-rays with the new PowerDVD 11 Ultra. I do not have an SSD, and it was awful having to wait for my system to reboot.

Also, as I wrote above, I watched Limitless and The Adjustment Bureau Blu-rays with ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre 3 Platinum without any crashes.

Since I started this thread, I have bought myself a new combo HDTV/monitor and a BD-player. For viewing new Blu-ray disks, I intend to use either my ArcSoft software or my new LG BD630. If I decide to pay for another software upgrade, it will be to ArcSoft, not to CyberLink.