|
|
Well, clearly it doesn't do that in all circumstances. I never got that option — as I said, it just popped up an error message that no previous version was installed, and cancelled the installation with no input from me.
I wonder if it's because I'd already manually cleaned out the redundant keys from the registry left by the previous versions? I'd previously had version 11 on this machine, upgraded to version 12, then gone back to version 11 when version 12 kept misbehaving and the replies I got from tech support were totally useless. So there were keys left in the registry from both versions.
PowerDVD leaves a lot of crap behind when it uninstalls. Who knows what the installer was looking for?
Out of curiosity, Michael, what did you do to test this? Knowing that might answer a few questions.
|
|
|
Thanks M8R. I had the idea from somewhere ReClock only worked with Windows' inbuilt Media Player, so I hadn't tried it under PowerDVD, which tends not to play very nicely with other software anyway.
Rather than try to integrate yet another piece of software, I might just stick with VLC (which has the added advantage of sidestepping region coding issues).
But I appreciate your reply. ;
|
|
|
|
It's called CyberLink_PowerDVD_13.0.2902.57_Ultra_Upgrade_DVD130313-10.exe. It was the link i was presented with when I bought the upgrade.
|
|
|
|
Quote:
Hi,
your statement is partly wrong.
What, so I just imagined it? really, Michael, what a stupid thing to say.
I tried to install PDVD 13, and it simply came up with an error saying that it required the previous version to be installed on the system, and aborted the installation without giving me a chance to enter a licence number. I have both Version 11 Ultra and version 12 ultra.
Where was I supposed to tell it I had the previous version?
|
|
|
I'm trying to do a clean installation, and had removed the previous version, and now I have to reinstall it. Which means all the crap and broken links I've just cleaned out of the registry are gong to be put back in.
I hate apps like this contributing to sludge on my system. Why can't I install a clean version?
|
|
|
One thing I dislike about PAL DVDs is the speed-up in framerate. The video speedup isn't such a problem, but the audio speeedup is (has always been) annoying, since it means nothing is quite on pitch.
Can PDVD 13 adjust the speed of PAL DVD playback, as other products (VLC, WinDVD) can?
This would be a very useful feature.
|
|
|
|
Shouldn't issues like this get tested *before* the software is released?
|
|
|
|
Pretty sure it's a question of whether this feature is coded on the disc or not. Some allow it, some do not. If the disc doesn't make resume (ometimes called restart) available, then PowerDVD won't either.
|
|
|
Well of course it could be something on my setup. But it's still worth asking the question first about others experiencing the same problem. You sound annoyed, but I don't really see why.
The fact that Cyberlink says "Oh, no-one's ever asked that" is not something I'm willing to take on face value. They said the same thing to me at first about the bug with PDVD11 where it "couldn't find" the disc drive, until people started talking about it on here and it became obvious that a lot of people had experienced it. So I doubt it means that no-one else has reported it, just that everyone who has logged it has probably received the same brush-off.
|
|
|
Happens with every disc on PDVD 12, but never on PDVD 11. I've tried the same discs in 11, and no dramas.
Just using the standard mode, and it happens whether I run PDVD12 and then load the disc, have PDVD12 closed and let the disc prompt it to open, or open the disc through Windows Explorer. My AV software is Bitdefender Internet Security 2013; I always disable it when installing software, and yes, I've tried disabling it to load a Blu-ray disc, but it doesn't help. I've also tried removing the software completely, running the Clean utility (which was written for PDVD11, but does clean up a few folders and registry entries for PDVD12 as well), and then doing a complete re-install. PDVD11 has no problem with discs, but PDVD12 has issues every time I run it.
Thanks for your suggestions, stevek. But I'm actually interested if anyone else has seen similar behaviour from the software.
I suspect I'm going to ditch PowerDVD completely. I really dislike the way PDVD12 tries to take control off everything multimedia-ish on my system, whether I want it to or not, so I expect version 13 just furthers that "swiss army knife" approach. I just want software that plays what i tell it to play.
Sigh.
|
|
|
Anyone else having this problem?
PDVD 12 Ultra loads a new BD disc, and starts audio playback, but the display remains at the PowerDVD opening screen. My system is Updated to the latest patch, but it still happens.
Anyone else?
I've written to Cyberlink tech support, but they never even bothered answering my first request. I sent them a memory-jogger, and finaoly got a reply to say "no-one else has reported this", which I'm sure is what they say to everybody when they don't have an answer, and is of course as useless as teats on a bull. They made no attempt to resolve it. And yet they keep naggiing me to spend more money on their software by upgrading. :Rolls eyes:
Anyone else seen this, or got useful suggestions please? (Meantime, I've rolled back to version 11, not for the first time.)
|
|
|
I abandoned PDVD12 Ultra a while ago in dissatisfaction and went back to PDVD11 Ultra, but I'm giving it another go. There are a few shortcomings, though. I'm running 12.0.2625.57 on Win7 x64 Home Preium, with 8GB of RAM, an Intel 4-core i5 CPU, and an ATI Radeon HD 5700 graphics card with 2GB of onboard RAM.
Is it just my system, or is the screen rewrite in PDVD12 just generally very sluggish? When going from a window on the desktop to full-screen, and also going back from full-screen to a window, the image changes to the PowerDVD splash screen, and takes more than a second to rewrite with the image of the video that's playing. This happens with both DVD and Blu-ray. Is there a solution to this? Nothing like it happens in PDVD11.
Also, PDVD12 defaults to wanting to open files from an established media library, even when I intentionally didn't create one. I just want to be able to open the disc in my disc drive — why should that be so hard? Instead, PDVD12 opens as soon as the disc starts to be read, DVDFab Passkey decrypts the disc (removing region coding) then hands it off to PowerDVD12, which launches an error saying something like, "PowerDVD is already running, and you cannot launch a new session while the first one is still open". Okay, so I dismiss the error ... but wjhere's the simple menu item to tell PDVD12 to open the disc and play it? There isn't one.
Like most overambitious but poorly designed software interfaces, PDVD12 is only designed to let you do easily what the coders decided you "should" be doing. Why is it so bloody hard to simply play a disc? Isn't that what the software was originally for?
How do I switch off the tentacles that want to infiltrate and control anything even vaguely multimedia on my entire system?!
|
|
|
The same thing has happened to me, Kim.
It seems to be based on how much you've spent on Cyberlink products in the past year. I last bought PowerDVD 12 Ultra, but haven't bought anything from Cyberlink since then, so I too have been demoted.
It's a sales incentive rather than a reward scheme.
|
|
|
I have a similar experience to yours, Clarity3.
I use PowerDVD 11, but only for Blu-rays. I don't like what it does with DVDs. I upgraded to 12 Ultra, but it had performance issues that Cyberlink just shrugged at, and I hated the way it repeatedly tried to take control of any multimedia files on my system — I didn't buy it as an audio player, and even freebie apps like foobar2000 do a better job in that respect. So I rolled my installation back a version. Not sure if I'll plunge into 13.
I use VLC for playing DVDs. It's not as flash at menus, but it does a much better job with the image. Plus — and it's a big plus, in my view — VLC can remove both video and audio speed-up on PAL-encoded DVDs, something that PowerDVD can't do.
|
|
|
Mikeybabes,
Since this is largely a peer-to-peer forum, I would think your best option would be to contact Cyberlink Customer Support directly and ask what they can do for you. There are links at the bottom of the main Cyberlink web page.
|
|
|
|
Quote:
No, you just need to install the latest PowerDVD 13 you received when purchasing.
Hi Michael,
Is this a change in version 13? Because the 12 Ultra upgrade won't install unless version 11 is already installed, and then it deletes it anyway as part of the installation — an unnecessary delay, I feel, since you have to provide your serial number to buy the upgrade in the first place.
So is 13 different in this respect?
Thanks.
|
|
|
Which was suggested independent of your observations about CLHelper.
By the way, deleting the files created by CLHelper didn't work for me.
But I also have other issues with PowerDVD — I had actually bought PDVD 12 before all this kerfuffle, and gone back to version 11 because I don't like the way 12 works, with its insistence on getting its tendrils into anything multimedia on my machine and wanting to put itself at the centre of all activity on my machine. I just want something to play BD and DVD and do it well, on command. If this is the way Cyberlink wants to go, then it's not a ride I want to take.
|
|
|
Quote:
Quote:
What's the date and version of your copy of CLHelper.exe, John?
It's original CLHelper.exe from PowerDVD 11 v3318.
File version: 1.5.0.6425
Date modified: 9/19/2012
Signing time: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 10:50:46 AM
So CLHelper itself hasn't changed. What did, do you think? What made it go rogue?
|
|
|
|
What's the date and version of your copy of CLHelper.exe, John?
|
|
|
Then, as they say, I got nuttin'. ;
Out of curiosity, have you got any thoughts about why PDVD stopped working on your system?
There must be some underlying reason (or maybe reasonS) for it, mustn't there? Personally, I'm gobsmacked at the sheer size of the hotfix Cyberlink has made available — it's larger than the original installation executable!
Ah well. I guess all this points to an even stronger claim that Cyberlink should have been upfront with its paying users.
|
|
|
Quote:
Quote:
It could well have been a Microsoft update that broke PDVD's functionality
Then how do you explain the fact that I've also got the problem with Windows Update turned off? I've even checked installed updates list to be sure - it's empty except for KB976902 which was always there, because it came preinstalled. Some people reported the same thing earlier in this thread.
Hmmm, good question, John. I can't. Though one possibility occurs to me: are you sure you haven't allowed updates of other apps, that might have also incorporated updates of certain system files? If an app needs the newer versions of the files for functionality, then it can't assume the user has done the Windows update, and sometimes they include the newer files in their own updates as well. That's a common way for problematic DLLs and the like to get propagated. If Cyberlink had released any information on what exactly was the source of PowerDVD's breakdown then we could all be in a better position to know for sure, and maybe even work out how to address the problem (at least temporarily). But unless, as has been suggested in these threads, it was some kind of certificate in Cyberlink's code that expired, then it seems to me that one way or another something had to have changed on your system for PowerDVD to stop working.
In my own case, near as I can tell, PDVD stopped working on my system at or near the same time I last allowed Windows to do the Microsoft updates, but I know that only shows coincidence, not causality. I'm not being an apologist for Cyberlink, but I don't think it's fair for Michael to be called a liar outright on a public forum.
|
