The artifacts come back regularly, like a cycle. The movie can be free of them for like a couple of seconds, and then they come back, intensify, and go away for the same amount of time, etc, etc, etc... My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7

Just curious to know if there is a difference.

Have you tried ripping the movie to hard disc and then playing with Power DVD from there? Same result?

Kevin

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Nice idea, just tried - same issue... My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7

Well, I have some news.

I made a big cleanup of ATI/AMD drivers.

After uninstalling the actually installed Catalyst completely (display related stuff of course, not chipset or USB drivers), I ran Driver Cleaner to remove all traces of any remaining ATI/AMD video related driver.

Then, I rebooted, and proceeded to install Catalyst 11.8 ( aka August 2011 ), which are the last before the release of the Star Wars movies.

Since Windows 7 automatically reinstalls some 2012 ATI driver (which also had the problem, I checked), I had to manually force Windows 7 to accept the August 2011 driver part of the installation, by going in the device manager, video card, right click + update driver software, Browse my computer, Let me pick from a list, and install an old driver prior to August 2011. Then I could normally install the 11.8 catalyst since the driver would then be considered "newer".

And guess what...

The problem is gone! Star Wars looks like it should look again.

So it's definitely a nasty problem with one of the latest AMD drivers. I'm going to investigate more tomorrow to try to find out which one exactly screws everything up, I don't intend to stay with a 1.5 year old driver.

If anyone has a similar issue with Star Wars or any other disc, this is something worth trying.

I'll keep you guys informed when I find the exact driver which screws things up, but for now, I'm tired and it's 00:20 here in Europe My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7

Nicely done!! Your own Persistence paid off!!
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Quote: Nicely done!! Persistence paid off!!

Still strange that it only happened with the SW movies though... makes you wonder on which side the bugs is.

But anyway, I'm happy - this was driving my mad - thank you all for your support and help so far

EDIT:

Since I couldn't sleep, I just made a big jump from 11.8 to Catalyst 12.10 (from last October) since they were the first to introduce, I quote from the release notes, "Unified Video API: Video playback has been integrated into the DirectX® 11 API, for simultaneous video and gaming content. Transcoding performance may also be improved for supported applications.". I wondered if that couldn't have been the change introducing that problem.

I was kinda expecting to see the now familiar artifacts, but nope, the 12.10 do NOT have the bug, you can safely use them.

This narrows the search, and it seems Michael may be right (as usual) with the 13.1 screwing up DXVA.

I'm gonna wait for the next WHQL drivers then, since there are none between October and now beside the 13.1, only beta drivers. The 12.10 are good drivers and work just fine, better safe than sorry. AMD users, if not too late, I advise to stick to the 12.10 drivers for now. My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7

hi,

Ive been experiencing the exact same problem that you are describing. i had it on arcsoft, windvd and powerdvd same artifacting error...

threw the kitchen sink at the problem updating drivers, firmware , tweaking gfx setings etc...nothing would work.. in the end used the amd driver cleaner from their website and went back to catalyst 11.4 and hey presto artifacts problem is gone....

Now if i can solve the high cpu usage and slight stuttering during busier scenes (space battle near beginning of ep3 is a perfect example..) it will be perfect...

Will try 12.1 as u report good results for that one...

btw im running on an amd e350 system...on windows 7 x64 , has nyone had this issue on the 32bit version?

Does anyone have any general performance tweaks or catayst setting that they have found works wel on an e350 system for bd playback...

12.10 not 12.1 - they work just fine here, no artifacts.

The stuttering is most likely sadly due to the CPU usage, on weaker CPUs, it can affect playback fluidity. There's one way to fix that... Use AnyDVD HD and its "Speedmenu" system to access the movie instead of the regular menu. The thing that makes one core go to 100% seems to be somewhere in the menu system. When I use "Speedmenu", the SW discs behave just like any other disc, without eating a ton of CPU time. My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7

For info, this issue still exists with the latest Catalyst 13.3 beta 3 - I had to revert to 12.10 after trying them since I had the same artifacts when playing the Star Wars blu-rays.

The issue also appears when I try to play back the discs with players like MPlayer Home Cinema or PotPlayer (with AnyDVD obviously), so it's not PowerDVD related but definitely a problem in the ATI/AMD drivers.

I'd love someone with the SW discs to check if he also gets this problem with the latest drivers (13.1 and later). It's particularly visible in the Doku vs Anakin+Kenobi fight in Revenge of the Sith. My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7

I just received my Star Wars BluRay boxed set today. I am interested to see how it works on my setup.

I currently have the Catalyst version 12.2 , but will try it with 13.1 and check it.

Kevin
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Quote: I just received my Star Wars BluRay boxed set today. I am interested to see how it works on my setup.

I currently have the Catalyst version 12.2 , but will try it with 13.1 and check it.

Kevin

Thanks a lot, I'm looking forward to reading the results of your tests My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7

I had been having HDCP PVP-OPM handshake problems while attemping to play protected BD content with all Catalyst drivers after 11.9 through 13.2. The BD Advisor reported no HDCP support and protected BD content would not play.

The good news is that I tested the Catalyst 13.3 Beta driver on Windows 7 x64 pro and Windows 8 x64 pro (the Hyper-V feature must also be completely un-installed) and it corrected the HDCP PVP-OPM handshake problems. All BD advisor tests PASS.

EDIT and update:

I've just tried the 12.11 beta driver out of curiosity, and it has the same issue than the 13.1 with the Star Wars discs. I also spotted a German forum where people claim to have the same problem with any driver later than 12.10.

So 12.10 is definitely the last AMD driver without that sneaky DXVA problem. And since it happens with any player able to play a Blu-Ray and using DXVA, it's obviously a driver problem, and not a player one.

Michael, perhaps you could contact AMD/ATI about this? I already filed a bug report for the 13.3 beta driver on my side. Can you eventually try to reproduce the problem too? I'd really like to have reports from other people about this.

Quote: I had been having HDCP PVP-OPM handshake problems while attemping to play protected BD content with all Catalyst drivers after 11.9 through 13.2. The BD Advisor reported no HDCP support and protected BD content would not play.

The good news is that I tested the Catalyst 13.3 Beta driver on Windows 7 x64 pro and Windows 8 x64 pro (the Hyper-V feature must also be completely un-installed) and it corrected the HDCP PVP-OPM handshake problems. All BD advisor tests PASS.

The problem with the SW discs is unrelated to your problem. BD advisor passes with all drivers including beta ones here (equipment is in my signature).

If it happened to me though, first thing I would do is to try a different HDMI cable. My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7

Hi Korrigan,

I have the same problem as shown in your picture using the 13.1 amd driver when watching star wars episode 3.
I tested to see if the problem persisted across multiple films, using episode 4 and amazing spider man, with no noticeable artefacts occurring.
I did only check episode 4 briefly, so I may have missed it if it was present.

Going back down to 12.10 does seem to remove the artefacts like you posted.

It does seem to be a driver problem - playing around with all of the edge detection and deblocking stuff present in catalyst control centre and on my monitor, which I find sometimes messes with blu-ray/upscaling quality, did not prevent the artefacts from occurring (though it did increase/decrease their visibility).

Quote: Going back down to 12.10 does seem to remove the artefacts like you posted.

Yes, every driver above the 12.10 produces the artifacts. This said, for now, the 12.10 driver works flawlessly and fast for everything I do on my computer, so I'm fine with that, but I hope ATI/AMD will fix it soon.

Quote: It does seem to be a driver problem - playing around with all of the edge detection and deblocking stuff present in catalyst control centre and on my monitor, which I find sometimes messes with blu-ray/upscaling quality, did not prevent the artefacts from occurring (though it did increase/decrease their visibility).

It's definitely a driver problem.

For playing Blu-Ray discs, the best is to turn off all those deblocking options, as they will damage the picture more than they enhance it.

Personally, in Video, I use following settings:

- In Color, basic colors set to "use Video Player Settings", and everything turned off except "Dynamic Range" set to "0-255". Don't forget to also set the "Pixel Format" in "My Digital Flat-Panels" to "RGB 4:4:4 Pixel Format PC Standard (Full RGB)". That's the way to get deep blacks and pure whites, and then you can calibrate your TV or Monitor based on those settings.

- In Quality, everything turned off except "Enforce Smooth Video Playback", "Apply current video quality settings to Internet video", "Use automatic deinterlacing" and "Pulldown detection".

- AMD Steady Video turned off of course.

Quote:

Quote: I just received my Star Wars BluRay boxed set today. I am interested to see how it works on my setup.

I currently have the Catalyst version 12.2 , but will try it with 13.1 and check it.

Kevin

Thanks a lot, I'm looking forward to reading the results of your tests

Hi Korrigan,

Sorry for the delay.

I can confirm your observations. Episode 1 & 2 seemed fine. The problem presented itself to me when viewing Episode 3. I have not viewed 5 or 6 yet.

I was using Catalyst 13.1 and when I got to episode 3, I noticed a band going horizontally across the screen about 1/3 of the screen that would cycle on and then off every 5 seconds or so. On the upper and lower edges of this band I observed blocky pixelation that protruded into the picture.

1. I stopped the movie when observed the banding and pixelation. .
2. Uninstalled Catalyst 13.1
3. Ran Drive Sweeper to remove 13.1 completely.
4. Rebooted
5. Installed Catalyst 12.10
6. Rebooted
7. Restarted PowerDVD and the problem was not observed when reviewing Episode 3.

By the way I sure am enjoying watching these movies on BluRay! They are excellent despite some of the director/producer Lucas changes to these versions. The audio is amazing good!

So, these are my observations. The problem does seem to point at the driver.

Kevin
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You can use up to the 12.10, Kevin.
No need to stay with ultra old 12.1.

Thanks for reporting your findings, I hope Michael and the Cyberlink team can work with AMD/ATI to fix that soon. My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7

Quote: You can use up to the 12.10, Kevin.
No need to stay with ultra old 12.1.

Thanks for reporting your findings, I hope Michael and the Cyberlink team can work with AMD/ATI to fix that soon.

Hi Korrigan,

Typo on my part. I corrected my post. I used 12.10. Typing on a little phone I missed adding the "0". Hahahaha!

Kevin
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There's been a "leaked" 13.4 driver which still has the bug. I really hope your Cyberguys have contacted ATI about it, it's annoying having to use a 6 month old driver because of that.

The bug is still existing on PDVD13 by the way, it's definitely not a Cyberlink issue but an ATI/AMD one. My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7

The official WHQL 13.4 driver (downloaded from ATI) and the brand new 13.5 beta 2 both still have that annoying bug.

I'd really like to know if the guys at Cyberlink and at AMD/ATI have managed to reproduce the problem. My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7

Still no change in the new 13.6 beta. SW: Revenge of the Sith still has that horizontal artifact bar.
I'm starting to get the feeling that this will never be fixed by ATI. I still have hope the Cyberlink people can kick AMD a bit where it hurts to make this change though.

EDIT: in both PDVD 12 and 13. My collection: http://www.blu-ray.com/community/collection.php?u=194008&action=showcategory&category=1&categoryid=7