Messages posted by TwoCables

I switched to Corel WinDVD 11, and I don't miss all the nonsense and irritations of PowerDVD one bit.

I recommend that everyone else do the same (if you can).

I tried the free trial of WinDVD Pro 11, and it is better than PowerDVD 12 for me in this respect.

It has a completely independent volume control from the System Volume, meaning that adjustments made to WinDVD's volume do not adjust the System Volume. The same is true the other way around: adjustments made to the System Volume do not adjust WinDVD's volume.

In other words, it's exactly like Windows Media Player in this regard. It's kind of like a "set it and forget it" kind of volume control. It's like having computer speakers that have a volume knob, but having a preference for only adjusting the volume in the operating system, meaning the knob on the speakers is never touched - set it and forget it.

WinDVD's volume goes from 0 to 50. For me, 25 is a nice happy medium because it enables me to have pretty much my entire full range of volume from extremely quiet all the way to "too loud". So I leave it at 25 and adjust my volume using the buttons on my keyboard which only adjusts my operating system's volume without touching the volume I set in WinDVD. It's slick!

In other words, I think I will be requesting my refund after all unless Cyberlink cares enough to do something to stop me. Although, it is obvious to me that they couldn't possibly care less about what we think of their products, so I say "screw 'em". I'm not going to keep a product that cost me $53.38 when it's worth more like $9.99. Corel is charging the same price for WinDVD 11 ($49.99), so it doesn't make sense to me to let Cyberlink keep my money for this inferior product.

Not only that, but there are other things about WinDVD 11 that are better than PowerDVD 12 for me, so it's not just this volume increment thing.

I guess I am officially done with Cyberlink as a whole. I gave them an easy chance for a home run with me and yet they still struck out. I used to be impressed by them, but those days are over.

Hmm. That seems like a slightly inconvenient solution to me.

Are you open to trying the Free Trial of Corel WinDVD Pro 11?

http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?pid=prod4090069

I don't know if it will be any different in this regard, but I guess it might be worth a try.

I guess I'm confused. I already understood that this was a patch for TriDef 3D, but I misinterpreted what you said as though this patch was the solution.

What do you mean by "I had to disarm it manually"? What steps are you taking in order to do this?

Oh! So, it's all good now?

You're welcome! Although, it's beginning to look like this may be out of my league.

However, I wonder if perhaps this is some kind of conflict with TriDef 3D.

Is TriDef 3D absolutely required in order for programs like PowerDVD 12 to use their own built-in 3D features?

I mean, I'm currently wondering what would happen if TriDef 3D were taken out of the equation. That is, if it were disabled or perhaps even uninstalled (that is, uninstalling it would be necessary for such an experiment if there's no way to disable it).

Is TriDef 3D the only way for this monitor to have 3D functionality?

I don't know, but the first thing I am suspecting is the driver. Do you know which GeForce driver version you're using?

If not, then perform the following steps:

1. Right-click the Desktop
2. Choose "NVIDIA Control Panel" (there are other ways to open it, but this is about the easiest)
3. Click "System Information" which is located at the bottom left-hand corner (all the way on the bottom in the lower-left corner)
4. The driver version is listed in the white area of the box that opens up. It is the first number at the top of the list in that white area.

If you do not have the NVIDIA Control Panel, it may indicate that you either have the generic Microsoft Windows driver, or just simply the GeForce driver that Microsoft releases through Windows Update. If this ends up being the case, then I can help you replace it with the one obtained directly from NVIDIA's website.

I'm not saying that this will turn out to be the solution, but it's just that this is one of the things I would check out if it were happening to me.

Thank you, Ben! I may give this a try.

I hope this wakes Cyberlink up. I mean wow, for the price they're charging for this product, we shouldn't have to be doing this. They should have said "Let's set it to 10%, but let's also include user-friendly options in the Settings area for the user to customize it any way they want."

All I can hope now is that someone at Cyberlink sees this and recognizes just how little sense this change to their product makes.

Edit: On second thought, I might just get Corel WinDVD 11.

I have 9 days left to request my refund. If I have no indication about what is to be done about this by then, then I'll go ahead and request it. I would much rather deal with Windows Media Player 12 than this.

I have so far gone back and forth with Tech Support 4 times about this and have gotten nowhere. I've been waiting for 10 days now for them to reply to my latest message (and I was clear I wanted one). So needless to say, Cyberlink is giving me quite a bad impression. As of right now, it seems like they couldn't possibly care less about increasing this product's user-friendliness.

Are Ben and I the only two people who care about this?

Quote: Not necessarily, Windows for example allows you to do a full install using the upgrade disk, you just need to have proof of the previous version.
Was hoping there was a way like that with PowerDVD.

Having proof of the previous version of Windows is actually no longer necessary. I think those days ended with XP, but I'm not 100% sure. I do know for sure that there are easy methods to install the Upgrade version of either Vista or 7 on a brand new, "virgin" hard drive. As for XP, I think the same is true, but I'd have to look into it.

I even helped a friend build a computer from the ground up, and we used his never-used-before fresh copy of the Upgrade version of Windows 7 and it worked flawlessly. The method I used on his new system can be called the "double install" method. So, I did this on a system that was a "virgin" in every way. Everything was fresh out of the box, including the Upgrade copy of Windows 7.

I did the same thing on my "virgin" system before I did this with his. I've even since formatted and started over with the Upgrade copy many times without any problems. If upon activating I am told to perform activation over the phone, then I do it. If during the automated phone activation I'm told I need to have a live operator, then I just tell the live operator that this is not my first time activating this copy (there's no need to lie about this one), and that this is the only computer I am installing this on (and they have no choice but to believe you). After that, they go ahead and activate it.

For PowerDVD, I would recommend first installing the previous version and then installing the Upgrade version after restarting. If this is not possible, then I recommend just installing the newer version and seeing what happens. If I remember correctly, then I believe it will work all the way through Activation.

Quote: This bothers me too. The +/- buttons in Cinema mode change the volume in 1% increments, so it is internally inconsistent too.

Edit: That's clicking on the buttons marked + and - with the mouse, not pressing +/- on the keyboard.

Thank you for your support!

I had the same problem, so I used Services.msc to make the following changes:

1. Changed CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Media Server Monitor Service to "Manual"
2. Changed CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Media Server Service to "Manual"

I also changed CLHNServiceForPowerDVD12 to "Manual" just for good measure. All I use PowerDVD 12 for is DVD playback, so it's actually safe for me to disable these. However, setting them to Manual is more of a "safe" setting because they will still be able to start if they are ever needed. So far, they've never been needed for the way I use PowerDVD 12. I can still disable them, but it won't make any difference because they're never started anyway.

To open Services.msc in Windows 7, open the Start Menu, type services.msc, and press Enter.

In Vista, I recommend Windows Key+R (which is a fast way to open then the Run Command dialog box), type services.msc, then press Enter. You can certainly use the Start Menu search in Vista, but I heard that it can sometimes be painfully slow.

I also went to the following Registry key ("regedit", for those who aren't sure):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

...and I deleted the entry on the right-hand side named "PowerDVD12Agent". By doing this, I discovered that I don't need it for the way I use PowerDVD 12.

As always, reboot after making any of these changes (or after all of them if you so desire) in order for them to take effect.

Note: If you do the same thing that I did in Services.msc, then you will receive the following message every single time you start PowerDVD 12:

All I have do to is either press Esc, press Enter, click Yes, or click the little 'x', and then I'm good to go. I prefer pressing Esc or Enter because it's faster than using the mouse.

Remember: all I use PowerDVD 12 for is DVD playback, and it is not affected by making these changes!

I submitted a Support Ticket about this on March 12th, and so far I have gotten nowhere with them.

I upgraded from PowerDVD 8 to PowerDVD 12, and there is only one thing I don't like about it: when adjusting the volume using either the keyboard or the mouse (I strongly prefer the keyboard), the volume always adjusts in 10% increments and it cannot be changed. For my setup, this is definitely not user-friendly in the least bit. I need the ability to quickly make minor volume adjustments (a 1% increment would be ideal). For me, an increment of 10% is a "major" adjustment. PowerDVD 8 uses an increment of 2% which matches the increment I get everywhere else in Windows. This means that PowerDVD 12 is a major disappointment for me.

Did you check your settings, TwoCables? What did Tech Support say?
Before I contacted customer service, I went through all of the Settings "with a fine-toothed comb", so to speak, just to make sure I didn't miss anything (which is what I do anyway for anything I install). After spending a long time going through the Settings over and over, I then checked the files for any .ini or .cfg files just in case the increment could be adjusted there (I looked in every folder that would contain them, including AppData folders). I then proceeded to the Registry, but still I came up empty.

After having to repeat myself 3 times to Tech Support, they finally said "currently we are not having any option to do some setting for the volume in powerDVD as well as in registry."

Sigh. Seriously? This is an expensive product! Was it really so difficult to include a section in the Settings where the increment could be adjusted to be whatever the user wants it to be? Was it necessary to force all of us to be stuck at 10%? Would it really be that hard to release a patch that satisfies this?

Then just go back to PowerDVD 8. Problem solved, right?
I cannot go back to PowerDVD 8 because I had obnoxious playback issues that can only be resolved by going back to WinXP. I have Win7 now. At this point, I am ready to request my refund and just settle for dealing with Windows Media Player 12 because it does not have those playback issues. In fact, I tested playback in WMP 12 before buying PowerDVD 12. I don't like using WMP 12 at all, but upon discovering that it has no playback issues, I figured I would try PowerDVD 12 just to see if this is all I need to do. When I discovered that I can request a refund for my digital purchase of PowerDVD 12, I felt free to go ahead with my purchase. After all, I was only interested in testing it at that point. Fortunately, PowerDVD 12 does not have these playback issues; but unfortunately, the volume increment is at a whopping 10% and cannot be changed.

I have three reasons for posting this:

1. To hopefully serve as a feature request. That is, we need an area in the Settings where we can choose any volume increment percentage that we want.
2. To see if anyone else feels the same way
3. To see if someone knows how to hack PowerDVD 12 and change the volume increment to be whatever we want it to be.

If this unchangeable 10% volume increment doesn't bother you, then that's a very good thing! However, please don't spend your valuable time posting a reply just to tell me that it doesn't bother you because that would not be helpful at all.

I thank you for your time, and I thank you for reading this.