I just installed CyberLink MediaEspresso 7 and upgraded PowerDVD 14 on my laptop tonight running Windows 8.1 64bit. PowerDVD works fine as did PowerDVD 13 & 12. However, MediaEspresso 7 was a different story entirely. Just like the original poster reported, the app locks up instantly upon launching. The tips box shows in the middle with no information. No controls within the app work at all and I cannot close the app unless I end the process in Task Manager. Considering the previous post, it appears that a problem exist with the base code in a 64bit environment and that problem has been carried forward from the last major release (CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.7).

It is very concerning the problem has lasted this long and that nobody from CyberLink has replied in this thread!

Actually, Cyberlink Tech Support jumped on the problem and invested at least 3 hours with a senior tech by remote control in trying to nail down the issue. I (an old systems hand) watched the proceedings and was impressed with the debugging tools and stepwise interrogative procedure used. In the end, they didn't have a solution for it but did jointly determine with me that the problem arises from conflict with the particular mix of graphics libraries and codecs installed on my O/S platform. In particular, there is a likelihood that the conflict stems from program components loaded by Corel VideoStudio X4, but a further investment of hours was in neither of our futures. Is VideoStudio a program that you happen to have on your machine too?

I give Cyberlink credit for the effort to ferret out the issue, which can be very complex in a Windows environment with so much 3rd party software installed.

Thank you so much for the reply. I had three Corel products installed, none of which I use. Thinking that Corel used the same codecs across several of their products, I uninstalled "Corel DVD MovieFactory 7 - Lenovo Edition" and rebooted the system. After restart I attempted MediaEspresso 7.0, but no joy. I then removed Corel WinDVD (another Lenovo supplied app). Without restarting the system, I attempted to start MediaEspresso an low and behold it started working! Thanks again for the clues to get me going!