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I just tried to launch PowerDVD to play a Blu-ray disc, and received a message I haven't seen before, telling me that "AACS components" need to be updated. I've attached a screen capture.
Can anyone tell me please if this is real? Should I allow it to proceed?
I don't want to sound paranoid, but I'm wary because it's not Cyberlink-branded, and appears to be only evoked through the normal Windows dialog engine, which could mean it's an interloper. I haven't seen this before with PowerDVD.
Any advice/observations would be welcome.
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Nobody else got any thoughts please?
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Thanks for the thought, stevek. In this case it's an internal optical drive, and this same hardware didn't give me this error on either PowerDVD 12 or 13.
I'm assuming it's a change in PDVD's behaviour, because I haven't changed any configuration details of the drive or the way it's managed in the OS.
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I'm running PowerDVD 14 Ultra 14.0.4704 on Windows 7, and find that if I need to put a disc on pause, after a very short time PDVD raises an error and stops the disc.
This happens even when it's only a short pause, such as long enough to make a cup of coffee. I come back, and find an error dialog as shown in the attached image. Whichever option I choose in the dialog, the disc is stopped and closed.
The dialog says to run the BD Advisor. I've tried that, and my system passes every test. (Besides, the disk's just been playing fine.)
Tech support couldn't offer any help (and didn't seem to understand the problem), so I'd appreciate any suggestions for resolving this.
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Bogdan,
I have a desktop, and am currently using an nVidia GeForce GT 740.
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Good luck with it, MrNoCal. 
I think the point Steve was making is that PDVD 14 makes the screen capture at the resolution of the original video source, not the screen display at the time -- so a DVD obviously isn't going to give you (say) a 1920x1080 image as a capture.
I don't have experience of MKVs, so I can't offer my own comments there. And personally, I leapfrogged from an OEM copy of PDVD 8 to a bought copy of version 11, but I've had every version since then. I don't remember what screen capture functions were like in earlier versions, but it does surprise me, with PDVD obviously pushing to be the go-to application for all multimedia purposes, that some feature sets are being whittled down now.
I for one would be interested to hear how you get on with this. As I said, mate, good luck with it.
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Quote:
The OP talked about a snapshot from a DVD OR from a Video on his computer.
And clarified in the next paragraph that he was specifically taking about a DVD.
I did the test with several videos already on my comp[uter. They were from camcorder recordings.
Ahh, you left that bit out!  That would have helped clarify what you were saying.
I understand that captures are made in the resolution of the image source, but it's a shortcoming of PDVD that it won't allow captures from BDs.
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Quote:
My monitor is actually set to 2560 by 1440. I was playing a 1920 by 1080 video.
It would be helpful if you would tell us how you did this. You're not going to get a native 1920x1080 image from a DVD, and PowerDVD 14 disallows screen captures from a commercial Blu-ray disc.
The OP is asking how to do exactly what you said you did, so it would be helpful if you'd explain.
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Quote:
The video and sound quality is noticeable better than PowerDVD 14.
Hi Bogdan,
Can you please tell more about why you feel these are better n the new version? In what way are they better?
I'm currently using PDVD 14, and have only just discovered there's a new version. There are no new features that seem relevant to me, but I'm interested to hear of any improvements. There are reasons I don't want to uninstall PDVD 14 to run a trial, so I'd be grateful if you could give more information on this.
Many thanks!
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Really? The whole purpose of their activity is to find vulnerabilities in software *and exploit them*. There's nothing benign or positive about that.
In my view, someone who finds a vulnerability and brings it to light so it can get fixed, that ain't a "hacker".
It's not about "stereotyping".
Anyway, thanks for the article. ;
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Or, to put it another way, they keep developers and customers on an endless cycle of patches and updates that use up people's time, cost money and sometimes break systems.
If, by "they help to fix things", you think software *improves* by constantly having to be revised, then that's not my perception, no. Hackers drain development resources that could be spent on actually making the software better, and increase the development and maintenance costs of the software in question.
Besides, AFAIK it's not the hackers who bring the vulnerabilities to light. It's the security companies and monitors of net activity who raise the issues.
Hackers are like aphids, sucking off the vital juices and goodwill of humanity.
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Thanks daaceking.
I'd be happy to see all hackers set adrift on an ice floe.
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I agree daaceking. I'm not a fan of Cyberlink support; I only meant to say that if you don't do things their way, you get nowhere. (And the reason I'm not a fan, is that even doing things their way often gets you nowhere anyway.)
I've gone back to version 13, since I've had nothing but trouble with 14 and none of the issues have been even satisfactorily addressed, let alone resolved, by Cyberlink Support and its "one-size-fits-none" troubleshooting scripts. None of the issues occur with version 13, so whether it's version 14 directly causing the problems, or the way it interacts with the rest of my system, the problems are still with version 14.
Can you point me to info on the malware issue, please? I haven't heard of it.
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For various reasons I've had to reinstall Power DVD 14 Ultra many times in the last few weeks, and one of the more prolonged and frustrating parts of the installation is in *undoing* some of the file associations PDVD attributes to itself.
On my system, I don't want audio files (like .flac or .ape) or raster graphics (like .jpg or .png) being associated with PDVD. I have other software I want them to default to. I can go in and deselect the associations, but that action is pointless -- the file types have already been assigned to PDVD, even before the software presents the dialog to modify them. And then I have to go through my system re-associating all the files types PDVD has snatched with the applications I want them associated with. Pain in the bum.
I assume the point of the file associations dialog box is if I want to add other file types that PDVD hasn't already appropriated. Other than that, it has no effect. But if PowerDVD really wants to position itself as the Fat Controller of All Things Multimedia, it would be a really helpful move if, in future versions, that dialog box was a required part of an installation and the file type associations weren't assigned to PDVD until the user okays it.
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From my own experience I certainly understand your frustration, Sayjimwoo.
There are two things going on when you contact Cyberlink Tech Support:
1) You're dealing with people for whom English is not a first language. I'm sure they're good people, and I have no personal criticism of them, but if clear and concise communication is the point of tech support, then introducing a language disjunct doesn't help anybody. Almost all software companies do it, because they only put a financial value on operational economies, not on customer satisfaction or service. I admire the support people for functioning professionally in another language -- I doubt I could do it -- but it does put the weight of understanding back on the customer, the exact opposite of where it should be.
2) You know what you're doing, but they don't know that. The procedures they're required to follow treat everyone as the lowest level of user.
If you want assistance, you need to play their game.
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No more comments from anyone?
The problem is specific to PowerDVD 14. If I uninstall v14, and install v13 on the same system, then that version works fine.
I also have a utility called DVDFab Passkey, which does the same as AnyDVD-HD. That works fine with PowerDVD 13 and 12, but doesn't work at all with PowerDVD 14.
Has no-one else seen similar behaviour?
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Gave the hardware details in my first post, stevek.
It's a complex range of issues. The display in PDVD was suddenly (I know that's what everyoone says, but really!) pixellating and breaking up on just some BDs, and always at the same precise time points, even though the discs play fine on another system. But my GPU driver was not the most recent ("if it ain't broke, don't fix it"), so I wondered if it was an issue with new DRM schemas on these relatively new discs. So I updated the driver, and whammo I got the HDCP error, on every disc I tried. That's when I first posted this thread. So I rolled the driver back, and the HDCP error went away, but then PDVD wouldn't launch at all. So I uninstalled PDVD, re-installed old GPU driver, re-installed PDVD, and now the program will launch, but if I pause a disc for more than about 60 seconds I get a new error, saying PDVD couldn't play the disc and to make sure my system meets minimum requirements. (This is on the disc that was just playing!) Then it closes the disc and stops.
I've run BD Advisor, and it passes my system on every test point.
I've logged an incident with support, but no reply yet. I thought I'd try here to see if others have seen a similar error message, so I might get an idea if we have any specs in common.
I've posted on the forums for AMD, who now own ATI, the manufacturer of my GPU. People there blame Cyberlink, though I take that with a huge grain of salt. Even though it's PDVD that's generating the error messages, I'm not sure that it's necessarily PDVD that is actually causing them.
And yep, I have searched on the errors, natch. Nothing I've found seems to translate to my setup.
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Thanks stevek, but while I'm trying to debug problems with PDVD I don't really want to muddy the waters by introducing another unknown into the mix.
So, that's a no on the Cyberlink utility, then?
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Hi all,
There used to be a Cleaner utility for uninstalling PowerDVD, but I can't find any reference to it on this site.
Does anyone know if there's a current version, and if so, where I can get access to it?
(I'm having a bit of trouble with PDVD 14 Ultra, and I've already tried an uninstall/re-install, but I'd like to try a more thorough job of it, if that's possible. I'm not convinced the Windows Uninstall routine is exactly diligent in its task, so I'd like to give it a hand.)
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For me, it's not that it's louder that I like, but there's a wider difference between the loud and the soft, as it is in life. But as i said, I'm lucky to have a house. If i lived in an apartment, as I have in the past, I'd be happy with the compressed dynamics. It's better than having loud and angry neighbours! ;
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Quote:
Do you notice a difference between "Full dynamic" and "Compressed"?
Depends on the disc, and the audio track. On some films, no not a lot of difference. But in films where there is a wide difference between the quiet moments and the louder, more percussive ones, then yes, I think the difference is very noticeable.
But it's probably subjective. I've never had to become accustomed to equalized sound, so I haven't. I'm like that with MP3s as well - I don't go near ReplayGain. Personal taste, I guess.
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