maybe it's your drive. I'm not sure. I have an LG Bluray drive with powerdvd ulra 10 and I just tried my copy of district 9 and it plays perfectly.

Quote: maybe it's your drive. I'm not sure. I have an LG Bluray drive with powerdvd ulra 10 and I just tried my copy of district 9 and it plays perfectly.

Thanks Aaron.

My drive is a Sony BWU-100A. It's an older drive but it has the latest firmware (1.0F) because I updated it myself a year ago. I contacted Sony and they didn't seem to know anything (other than agreeing that my drive had the latest firmware). The firmware was issued sometime in 2008. Even still, of all the drive manufacturers, I would expect a Sony drive would work the best since they "own" the blu-ray standard.

Using the Windows Explorer, I can see every folder and file on the "District 9" blu-ray disc. So the Sony drive can at least read the files as data. There are a bunch of PS3 folders and files for the game demo in addition to the usual blu-ray movie folders and files. I tried double-clicking on one of the movie's video files directly but it still wouldn't play.

So I don't get it. It is the only blu-ray movie that I haven't been able to play. I had to install the "Digital Copy" of the movie to see it (it came on a second blu-ray disc) and it is low-res. Yuck!

I read in another forum where someone recommended using SlySoft's AnyDVD HD to crack the security of the disc and claimed that it would make it possible to play it. If it is a drive problem, I don't think that will help. But I'm not sure what else to try at this point and I hate installing software as invasive as AnyDVD HD just to try it once.

The disc is brand new and looks perfect. And, as I said above, I can read the files with no problem. But PowerDVD 10 Ultra reports an "unsupported format" error when I try to play it.

The only other thing I can think of is that my computer is running Windows XP Media Center Edition (SP3) and I wonder if the problem is related to it. However, it's a fairly beefy system with a 3.2 GHz dual-core Pentium CPU and 4 GB of RAM, a fast NVidia video card with 512 MB of video RAM (and the latest NVidia driver) and a 2 TB hard-disk RAID array. I also have computers with Windows Vista and Windows 7 but I don't use them for entertainment so they don't have blu-ray drives and I can't test PowerDVD 10 Ultra and "District 9" on them.

At this point I still don't have a solution. If someone else reading this message has succesfully played the "District 9" blu-ray with PowerDVD 10 Ultra under Windows XP, then I'd like to know so I can eliminate XP as a possible cause.

Kind regards, David

AnyDVD HD may help. I know it can block other additions like extra content that may not allow the disc to load. Plus it really doesn't use up any resources and it does decryption on the fly.

Mine plays, but like most of my bluray I get studder ike 1 to 2 times a movie. LIke it's a sudder, then the video catches up 5 min later. I'm going to try enditall to see if there are to many processes running. Though You'd think I'd have plenty of processing pwoer with 6gigs of ram Quad core Core I7 running at 3.2Ghz with a GTX 285 with latest drivers. So, I'm a little lost there. other than that all movies so far play as they should. I should also mention I'm running an Auzentech HD Hometheater HD audio card.

Quote: ... Mine plays, but like most of my bluray I get studder ike 1 to 2 times a movie. ...

Hello again,

I'm not sure what you're seeing---I would probably need to see it with my own eyes. But I formerly had a lot of trouble with dropped frames during movie playback on blu-ray with PowerDVD 8 Ultra. It seemed to drop no more than one frame at a time so the effect was subtle but it happened continuously throughout the movie. I'd notice a slight jerk or "studder" (as you wrote) in motion. It was easiest to see when the credits were rolling at the end of the movie.

However, I have no such problem with PowerDVD 10 Ultra on the same computer. As far as I can tell version 10 hasn't dropped a single frame during movie playback from a blu-ray disc.

Since you only see the problem once or twice during a single movie, it could simply be the normal pause that occurs when the blu-ray drive switches layers on a multi-layer blu-ray disc. The same thing happens with multi-layer DVD discs. The pause occurs as the laser moves to the start of the new layer and refocuses its beam deeper into the media.

But you're right about other processes running in your computer---they can cause problems for movie playback. Most of the time you'll hear hard disk activity when it happens. I seldom witness the problem on a multi-core processor if there is no hard drive activity. My guess is that the problem is not in the CPU but rather it relates to the data throughput of the external data busses and/or their controllers on your motherboard (the SATA buss and, in my case, the ATAPI buss also).

Your CPU could be cruising along fine with lots of unused capacity but if the external busses are tapped out, you still have a problem. Your hard drive(s) are the single biggest users of the external data flow (after memory). In my system, I have a hard drive RAID array on my SATA buss so it scarfs a lot of bandwidth with my fast Seagate Baracuda drives (1 TB each with huge memory caches). Unloading processes from your OS may not solve the problem unless you unload the process or processes that are hitting your hard drives hard during movie playback. This could be drive indexing (which is supposed to happen in the background when your computer isn't "busy"), hard drive scans by your antivirus software, etc..

Personally, I don't use Windows' indexing feature---I turn it off for all of my drives. And it is easy to temporarily disable antivirus software before watching a movie---IMPORTANT: Don't ever disable your antivirus software while your computer is connected to the internet. And I avoid using popular HD search tools like Google Search which also try to index your hard drive(s).

Kind regards, David

Greetings,

I'm writing to report that SlySoft's AnyDVD HD software fixes the problem. With AnyDVD HD running in the background, I am finally able to view my licensed blu-ray of the movie "District 9". The "unsupported format" error message of PowerDVD 10 Ultra does not appear and the blu-ray disc appears to function as it should. The movie looks great in 1080p HD and the DTS-HD soundtrack sounds super as it streams direct to my external sound system. I did not notice any performance problems with AnyDVD HD running in the background.

If the "District 9" problem had been due to an incompatiblity with my older Sony blu-ray drive (as some have suggested), it must have been a security issue and AnyDVD HD overcame the problem by elimating the security layer during playback. Thank you SlySoft! But this worries me that drive manufacturers will not always provide timely firmware updates to solve these problems as they should. While my Sony drive has the latest firmware, the firmware is over a year old. The irony here is that Sony is the "inventor" and "keeper" of the blu-ray technology.

Anyone can download a demo version of AnyDVD HD from SlySoft's website (www.slysoft.com) and test it for free for 21 days. There are two versions: the original "AnyDVD" which works with DVDs only and the high-definition "AnyDVD HD" which works with both DVDs, Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs. But it's really just one program so you'll see just the one download for both versions on their website. The difference is which features are unlocked by your license. Apparently, during the 21-day demo period, all of the features are available with the exeption that you cannot save your settings---so you'll have to redo any setting changes each time you run the program during the demo period.

Sadly, the program is not cheap and the cost varies depending on (1) whether you want a standard or an HD license, and (2) how long you want to be able to receive updates. I believe updates are important for the HD version as the blu-ray security evolves in the future. An AnyDVD HD license with unlimited updates and support will cost you more than a new PowerDVD 10 Ultra license. Ouch!

I'm very disappointed that PowerDVD 10 Ultra requires this bootstrap effort to watch a legitimate movie that I purchased. Why can't CyberLink enable my Sony blu-ray drive to work with this hybrid blu-ray disc? Since AnyDVD HD can, it is obviously possible! I know there are blu-ray decoder license restrictions involved, but this has created a product (PowerDVD) that does not always work even though the user wants to view a propertly licensed blu-ray disc with an up-to-date blu-ray drive. It violates the principle of "fair use" and it means that CyberLink has not earned my loyalty. If a better product comes along that overcomes this issue, I won't hesitate to switch. Are you listening SlySoft?

Some PowerDVD users have been able to watch the "District 9" blu-ray on Vista and Windows 7 systems without this extra effort. If this is a limit of Windows XP and CyberLink has decided to no longer support XP, then they need to explain that not all blu-ray discs are supported. I think they may also need to explain that not all features are supported on XP (for example some, if not most, of the new 3D features may not work under XP).

I'm okay with that if they decide to drop XP support---I plan to build a new Windows 7 entertainment system later this year and I realize that some of the future features will be impossible to port down to XP. But CyberLink needs to do a better job of explaining this stuff.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. The bottom line: If you run into the kind of problem that I did, SlySoft's AnyDVD HD may solve it and with their 21-day demo you can test it before you buy.

Kind regards, David

P.S. I do not represent SlySoft and have received NO payment or benefit for endorsing their product.