PowerDVD 17 Ultra Problems

[robert5733]

Here’s my dilemma. I have CMC_CCC loaded on my dedicated movie computer, NUC5I5RYK with Windows 10 Pro, with all the latest updates. Using PowerDVD 17 Ultra with update 3506. Everything works properly on the movie computer. Never had a problem in the past with PowerDVD 17 Ultra with the update on any computers.

Went on a vacation and took some movies to play on my Surface Pro 9 with Windows 11 home (Intel processor, not ARM) and PowerDVD 17 Ultra with update 3506 also. When trying to play the movie it freezes and no movie. Force close and open PowerDVD and try to play the movie from the root folder and it freezes. If I select one of the .vob chapters and play it, it plays the chapter. Lots of google searching and it appears PowerDVD’s updates took away the ability to read .ifo. Lots of work arounds but nothing seems to work. There have been no updates to 17 Ultra in many years, so I don’t see that being the problem. Checked my office computer (NUC12WSHi7 with Windows 11 Pro) same PowerDVD, and it will not play there either. Tried playing from the network, from a hard drive, and from the downloads folder on the computer itself.

Thinking it must be Windows 11, I downgraded the Surface Pro to Windows 10 Home, fresh install, no firewalls, no added software, and tried PowerDVD without the update and with the update from two different install discs, and no luck with either one, in either way.

Downloaded VLC Player, and it plays as intended from the root folder, with no problems, on the office computer and the Surface Pro.

My questions at this point are whether you have encountered anything like this yet? Apparently PowerDVD is no longer an option, what do you think is the best option for a player? Or should I just stick with the free VLC Player?

[Jamie]

The Jriver player works great for me. Just tell it not to import your video collection after install. I also use mpc-be which is free. I have abandoned powerdvd. My suggestion is to uninstall powerdvd completely and reinstall it from scratch. Hopefully, you still have enough licenses left to do that and the installer too.

[robert5733]

Ok, google has led me to some new information

Apparently the similar factor for the non-playing systems is the 12th gen Intel. Research is showing that Intel dropped support for SGX in the 11th and 12th gen processors. All the information says it only applies to HD and BLU-RAY, but my trials have proven differently. This article from DVDFab describes the removal and inability to play discs.

https://www.dvdfab.cn/resource/dvd/intel-12th-gen

This article in the cyberlink forums asks about updates and the inability to play discs. It appears it is working in newer versions after PowerDVD 20 with new updates applied.

https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/86297.page

This article from Lenovo support says all dvd playback due to Intel removing AVC and MPEG-2 video support.

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/soluti ... ation-p350
2019 patch 3605

And finally, here is a screenshot of the updates for PowerDVD 20 (and available in newer versions) for 12th gen Intel support which was released in SEP 2021. The last update for version 17 was in JAN 2019, so it will not get the update.

Screenshot 2023-10-25 165144.png (96.85 KiB) Viewed 3285 times

That leaves me with shelling out big money for new PowerDVD for all the computers, or abandoning my support for them after some 15-20 years. There does seem to be better options out there anyway. Hopefully this helps new users in not spending money on something that doesn't work, or users migrating and unable to make their systems work due to older versions.

[Pauven]

I do happen to be a PowerDVD user myself. I think I have 20 and 21 in the house on various PC's. I have not had any issues with it (except for possible 4K UHD HDR quality limitations.

I run it on Win11. My main HTPC is an 10th gen, I believe - an entry level 10100 if I recall correctly.

That said, my PC does not fully meet the SGX requirements for playing UHD. So instead, I use the red foxy to remove these restrictions, and playback is trouble-free. I would not use PowerDVD without the fox.

I rarely play back from original disc anymore, but when I do, foxy is still in use helping. My older movies were all stored in protected ISO format on my server, so I use Virtual Clone Drive to mount them. Since I kept the protection in place, I have to use foxy to play back these ISOs. Over the past year or two I began storing everything in folder format, so it doesn't require mounting and playback starts quicker, and playback doesn't require the fox because protection is gone in folder format. Again, the fox was used to store my discs as folders.

Over the years I've used PowerDVD 9, 13 & 17. As you can see, I regularly upgrade about every 4 years. Though that upgrade cycle may be coming to an end. For the most part, I just use the one PC, so the upgrade cost is manageable. I think I have a HTPC downstairs running PDVD 17, but I haven't even turned it on in nearly 2 years. It's on an AMD Ryzen 3700 on Win10, something that never supported SGX, but like I said, the fox helps. It worked perfectly the last time I used it.

I know Jamie and Manni are big fans of JRiver Media Center. I've installed the free trial, but honestly I've never gotten it to work reliably with CMC. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, and it seems to work fine for other uses, so it seems to be my issue only, maybe a Trial limitation. It is about the only solution available that offers disc menus and video processing enhancement filters like madVR, so it gets my vote if I were to abandon PowerDVD.

I love MPC-BE, it's one of my favorite players. If only it supported disc menus...

By the way, if you're not already a fox user, while buying it is an utter pain, I just have the one copy I bought eons ago, and it works diligently on all of my PC's without limitations, so it was a very cost effective purchase. Also, the coyness here is because use of the fox is not kosher in most places, including the US due to the draconian DMCA. While I know it can be used to commit piracy, I only use it for what I feel is fair use, on discs I own to make backups for personal viewing only. In general, I don't permit discussion of foxy on this forum, other than to say I use it and it works.

[Jamie]

I know Jamie and Manni are big fans of JRiver Media Center. I've installed the free trial, but honestly I've never gotten it to work reliably with CMC. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, and it seems to work fine for other uses, so it seems to be my issue only, maybe a Trial limitation. It is about the only solution available that offers disc menus and video processing enhancement filters like madVR, so it gets my vote if I were to abandon PowerDVD.

HI Paul,

What is your issue with Jriver? Maybe Manni, or I, can help you out. If you want to open another thread and discuss it, maybe we can work it out together. I find jriver to be inexpensive. I've been buying upgrades for $20 the last few years and I install it on 3 pcs for that price. They give you only 10 licenses though.

[Pauven]

What is your issue with Jriver?

Basically, starting playback from CMC with JRiver didn't work. I remember having the exact same experience a few years ago the previous time I tried it, and it occurred this time again with v31. I really wasn't trying to set up JRiver, though, just merely test it for 4K HDR performance, so after a couple failed attempts I just used JRiver directly.

From memory, CMC would open JRiver, but playback didn't start. But I didn't reboot after installing JRiver, so that may have been a factor.

To be fair, I've spent all of 30 seconds troubleshooting it, so I know next to nothing.