New issues/bugs in PowerDVD 13

Pakk

Newbie Joined: Apr 13, 2012 20:38 Messages: 6 Offline

Solved by

Jun 14, 2013 10:43

Every time a new PowerDVD is released I download the trial and hope that CyberLink has finally gotten their stuff together and made a decent, bug-free version that's actually worth upgrading to, but every time I'm equally disappointed when the update seems to introduce as many issues as it fixes.

First let me just say that the increased speed and minimized bloat in PowerDVD 13 is a revelation and finally a feature that I would gladly pay for, unfortunately there are a bunch of problems that make this version unusable for me, problems that didn't exist in the previous versions:

* Discs with 1080i/50Hz video are unwatchable. About every 3 seconds or so there are dropped/repeated frames that cause a stutter/jerk. It's consistent throughout the playback and reproducible. Another user mentioned "glitches" while watching the European Blu-ray of Caprica here, which I think might be the same problem (that version of Caprica is 1080i/50Hz.) The only cure to this is to set the "De-interlacing" setting to "None" in PowerDVD, in all other combinations the stuttering is there, however this is no solution since you will then get combing on true interlaced content.

* There is some issue with Limited (16-235)/Full (0-255) RGB levels for me. I know on some newer AMD cards there is a "Dynamic Range" video setting in the drivers that controlled this in some versions of PowerDVD, but this setting is not available for me on my HD4670 (newest drivers). The result is that seemingly random discs display with Limited RGB levels (meaning greyish blacks). For example Taken is 1080p24 AVC and displays correctly in Full RGB, but Leon which is also 1080p24 AVC displays in Limited RGB. Jesse James is 1080p24 VC1 and is Full RGB but Baraka which is also 1080p24 VC1 displays with Limited RGB. I have no idea what determines this, all I know is that on previous PowerDVD versions all discs display correctly with Full RGB for me.

* The option to use full-range speakers is now gone from the audio settings for absolutely no reason. What this means for me who's using stereo headphones through the analog out is that the LFE channel is completely stripped out from the 5.1ch->2ch downmix even though my headphones are perfectly capable of reproducing some of the sounds that are typically encoded into the LFE channel.

* The 'Z' hotkey to toggle fullscreen mode no longer works, even though it's listed in the hotkeys.

* The 'U' hotkey to cycle subtitles no longer works. To be fair it's no longer in the hotkeys section but why would you remove it? If you decide to reintroduce it though I would request that it be used to toggle the currently selected subtitles on/off since this is a much more useful function.

If these problems could just be fixed then PowerDVD 13 would be far and away the best version ever and worth paying for, but as it is, it's an improved yet ultimately broken and non-functional release.

My specs:
Windows 7 x64
Intel Q8400
AMD HD4670 (with latest 13.1 Legacy drivers)
1080p60Hz monitor connected through DVI
Realtek ALC889A audio chip (with latest drivers)

CyberLink-Michael

Senior Contributor Location: Europe Joined: Apr 18, 2007 04:05 Messages: 7418 Offline

Jun 14, 2013 11:06

Hi Pakk,

first of all thank for the comprehensive feedback - I may need some time to get through all items, but here some first feedback.

The Trial Version is limited in some areas (e.g. only allow HW decoding) so some of the issues might be related to this fact. (e.g. your black-level issue) but could be driver related as well.

* The 'Z' hotkey to toggle full screen mode no longer works, even though it's listed in the hotkeys.

=> "z" perfectly working here in Classic mode and in Cinema mode using latest retail version of PowerDVD 13

* Discs with 1080i/50Hz video are unwatchable. About every 3 seconds or so there are dropped/repeated frames that cause a stutter/jerk. It's consistent throughout the playback and reproducible. Another user mentioned "glitches" while watching the European Blu-ray of Caprica here, which I think might be the same problem (that version of Caprica is 1080i/50Hz.) The only cure to this is to set the "De-interlacing" setting to "None" in PowerDVD, in all other combinations the stuttering is there, however this is no solution since you will then get combing on true interlaced content.

I cannot reproduce the issue in my environment using HDMI and auto-frame-rate adjustment. The Display adjusts to 50Hz or 24Hz depending on the content.

* The 'U' hotkey to cycle subtitles no longer works.

yes it's removed because of introduction of primary and secondary subtitle support

br
Michael

Technical Support

Werde Facebook Fan

Pakk

Newbie Joined: Apr 13, 2012 20:38 Messages: 6 Offline

Jun 14, 2013 13:26

Quote: => "z" perfectly working here in Classic mode and in Cinema mode using latest retail version of PowerDVD 13

I noticed now the issue was a bit more complicated. It seems to always work in Cinema mode (I've never really used it), however it does nothing in Classic mode with discs that use BD-Java, even if "Enable BD-J keyboard support" is unchecked (I remember I previously had some issues with unresponsive keyboard commands with that option.)

I cannot reproduce the issue in my environment using HDMI and auto-frame-rate adjustment. The Display adjusts to 50Hz or 24Hz depending on the content.

Right, but what if you have a display that's locked to 60Hz? (In my case a monitor using DVI.) I can only assume this causes some conflict with the frame-rate adjustment. Either way it's definitely an issue introduced with 13.

I hope you can take a look at some of these issues. I'm still stumped why certain discs display using Full RGB and others Limited though. I've looked at framerate, codec and BD-J but I cannot for the life of me find the common factor.

excalibur

Newbie Joined: Oct 17, 2011 10:50 Messages: 27 Offline

Jun 23, 2013 08:51

Hi Pakk,

just watching my Caprica blu-ray (French Import with English Audio and Subs ), I discovered your thread regarding issues with discs with 1080i/50Hz video. My blu-ray, however, plays perfectly without any bugs (PowerDVD 13, Win 8, silent (fanless) GT 640, Hardware Deinterlacing 'on', 60 Hz PVA monitor connected via DVI).

In my opinion, this is rather a hardware (Radeon graphics card) than a software (PDVD) problem. Since I've been updating my original GT 9500 with an actual GT 640, in addition to it my blu-ray viewing experience has improved significantly.

Note
- there must be an increasing demand for this Blu-Ray since Amazon France (as sole vendor worldwide) could increase the price drastically (from 29.99 to about 39.99 Euros - for a (good) TV show which was cancelled in the US because of only less than 1 million viewers per episode in season 1 !)

excalibur