I might have the same problem (with Prom Night).

My Audio tab of the config dialog while playing the main movie is gone. Is yours still there?

No my audio tab disappears aswell.

Well "good" - it's a more general issue than me.

I paved my machine and did a very clean install of Vista/Drivers/Window Updates/PowerDVD then patches. I have nothing else on that box.

The movie I'm trying is "Prom Night". The main movie only has a TrueHD stream with no AC3/DTS encoding.

My PowerDVD is 7.3 upgraded to 8.0. Results:
- No patch: everything sort-of work, but it's an old version and they are some playback issues.
- 1830: Sound tab is there during playback. I get very bad problems, but I believe that's an issue between this version and my Realtek driver (will confirm tonight)
- 2021a: Sound tab is gone during playback. No sound output.

Reapplying 1830 gets the audio tab bag. Re-patching to 2021a and it is gone.

I will try to fix my playback issue on 1830 tonight (likely sound driver problem) and try older 2021 patches and will update...

(I opened a ticket but haven't received any news yet)

Guys,
You're doing way too much for a simple problem - With BD's never assume it's a driver problem because it usually isn't.

Narrow it down some:

First - If you're using a notebook or desktop that has a remote control for your BD player (e.g., my HDX notebook has a docked remote) then you have to adjust your sound from the remote - it's assumed if you have a remote that you're using it to control playback, not a mouse. Stupid? You bet.
Second - If you're outputting to an external monitor, you have to redirect the audio from your PC to the monitor, as default speaker setup is normally set for PC or Headphones. Open your Sound tab, find the current default setting, then click on HDMI or SPDIF, whichever you have, then click on Default. Restart and you should have audio. Yes, SPDIF out works if you have HDMI-HDMI connected.

Third - if you're using DVI-HDMI, DVI doesn't carry audio - you need HDMI-HDMI or a separate audio cable to go to an external monitor.

Lastly - If you're using an external monitor, don't forget that it has it's own HDMI settings as well. If the HDMI channel you're going into isn't setup to receive audio, you won't get anything. This of course depends on the specific HDTV you have. You can normally access HDMI settings from the remote.

If none of these help, put down your specific setups and BD players so there's more info to draw from.

Sorry I didn't post back the solution.

No I was actually on the right track. Everytime I would install 7.3 then my upgrade then the 2021a patch the AUDIO TAB is gone, no matter which sound card and output type selected whenever the HD soundtrack started. Fully repeatable.

It was a setup issue, Cyberlink issued me a full install instead of upgrade and this works fine. (well, I have other unrelated playback problems, but the audio tab is back.)

Cyberlink support response:

Thanks for writing us back.

In response to your concern, we regret to inform you that we had escalated this issue to our R & D department and as per their response, the issue has been found to be a Bug of PowerDVD 8 Ultra software.

They would soon release a new upgrade patch/build of PowerDVD 8 in order to resolve this issue.

Therefore, you may need to wait for few days until the upgrade patch is released.

We deeply regret the inconvenience caused to you.

Please feel free to contact us back for any further clarification or for any assistance related to CyberLink Products.

Thank You and Best Regards

Hi,

I also have the same issue with Batman after downloading the update!!!