I did a google search for a problem I was having and found an old thread under an old version and after 4 years they STILL haven't fixed this problem, since I have PowerDVD 17 I'm posting it here. My computer is a year old, just bought PowerDVD 17. I was watching a Blu-ray and decided to check on some game news so I paused the movie, tried to watch a video on twitter and couldn't hear it, clicked back to my movie and clicked play and was hearing both. Everytime I pause PowerDVD it mutes/pauses ALL PC audio, when PowerDVD is paused there's no audio from Firefox, Chrome, VLC, Winamp, MediaMonkey, Steam media player and 5 different games. Opening "Playback devices" it shows that there is audio (Audio level meter bouncing up and down) but for some reason no sound is being produced (can't hear it); audio is hooked up through the 3.5mm jack.



Upon further testing when PowerDVD is paused it mutes all audio on 3.5mm when it is set as the default device but all other audio can play on other channels like USB or HDMI. In Windows if I set USB as the default device then launch PowerDVD and pause it all audio is uneffected (everything works fine, even if other audio plays on USB). In Windows if I set USB as the default device then launch PowerDVD and change the Windows Playback back to the 3.5mm and set as the default device everything works fine, ie when PowerDVD is paused you can hear youtube, Winamp and everthing else all on 3.5mm. In Windows if I set 3.5mm as default device then launch PowerDVD and pause it it mutes all audio.

The workaround is that everytime you want to launch PowerDVD you have to go into your Windows setting and change Playback to USB or HDMI, once PowerDVD is launched you have to go back into your Windows setting and change the Playback back to 3.5mm if you want to be able to listen to the movie on you computer speakers.

To reproduce the problem, make sure you have working speakers/headphones plugged into the green 3.5mm port on the back of the computer, open "Control Panel", open "Sound", under "Playback" you may have to scroll down but find something that says "Speakers" and under "Speakers" in a light gray color font it'll say the hardware name of your 3.5mm jacks like "Realtek High Definition Audio", you can make sure it's the right one by right clicking it, click "Properties", if it says stuff under "Jack Information" like "L R Rear Panel 3.5mm Jack" you know you've selected the correct one but if it says "No Jack Information Available" you've selected the wrong one, once you've found the correct one select it and click the "Set Default" button, now open PowerDVD, insert a Blu-Ray movie into your Blu-Ray drive, have PowerDVD play the movie (the movie MUST BE PLAYING), while the movie is playing open Chrome/Firefox and go to YouTube and play any video, while it's playing go back to PowerDVD and pause the movie, congratulations all audio is now muted on your PC.



It looks like PowerDVD is hijacking ALL audio sources that uses the 3.5mm jacks (2.0, 2.1 - 5.1 sound systems) which is the default audio for every single computer and running them through itself for some kind of filter process. If you have a video on YouTube or audio from winamp/apple/amazon playing before you open PowerDVD and then open PowerDVD once you get through the Blu-ray movie menu and at very moment the movie starts there's a slight pop noise and all audio(other than movie) will stop for a second and then resumes at this point PowerDVD has Hijacked all audio. Disabling Windows "exclusive Mode" for the 3.5mm device has no effect, PowerDVD still hijacks all audio.