CyberLink's PowerDVD 8 pretends HD DVD never existed
By Darren Murph 
posted Apr 10th 2008 2:53PM
posted Apr 10th 2008 2:53PM
[Thanks, Ryan]
posted Apr 10th 2008 2:53PM
The number of televisions estimated that sit unused in closets.
The EPA estimates that nearly 100 million unused televisions are currently taking up precious, beautiful space. (source: EPA, July 2008)
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
good riddance i suppose
Indeed good choice. I welcome them!
well thats how big retail products work. If this were an opensource project, it would be supporting everything under the sun. But since hd-dvd lost, it has to maintain mass consumerisim. They dont want their customers going, what the hell is hddvd in a couple yearts from now while running their software.
That would be like windows dvd maker including a help file on how to transfer your beta tapes to dvd, or nero supporting laser discs.
Speaking of nero, I expect they would pull a similar stunt and remove hd-dvd support in the future as well, probably not for a little while tho, like a year or so.
I fail to see the point in REMOVING support for something.
Ah well, I guess we'll just have to use WinDVD or another competitor.
Why do this when the best selling drives are the HDDVD/BRD combo burners? There's obviously a reason they're best sellers.
Not sure, but maybe software manufacturers have to pay royalties to have support for HD DVD (and Blu-Ray, HDMI, DVI, etc., etc.). At least that is the case for hardware manufacturers. I don't like the omission with the new version, but perhaps Cyberlink is just thinking about the bottom line and now dropping HD DVD support is acceptable to most.
I can tell you several good reasons to remove support - licence fees, and maintainability. HD DVD may be dead but that doesn't mean its free. And continuing to develop, QA test and support a dead format will be an ongoing financial burden which is totally unjustified. If CyberLink rewrote or refactored their codebase, they'd be forced to ensure HD DVD continued to work which would be a significant and unnecessary cost.
It sucks. On the bright side, I expect Videolan will eventually support the HD DVD or at least the container format so that you can rip and play the content.
Wow, that's pretty surprising. I guess this should serve as a wakeup call to those who think it's a great idea to stock up on closeout HD DVDs. There's no guarantee that you'll be able to play those discs in the future--in fact it's quite probable that within the next 5-7 years there won't be any hardware or software available to replace a dead HD DVD player or drive.
Now, if you're buying HD DVDs and have a way to archive them to disk, that's a more future-proof strategy, but I still prefer to wait for the (eventual) BD version.
Don't be silly Mr E.
I have a growing HD DVD collection and I'm adding to it all the time.
Every way around it kicks any Blu-ray option to death in terms of cost
(not forgetting that many of the out and out classics simply aren't available on Blu-ray yet anyways and who knows when or indeed if they will ever appear on Blu-ray?).
Besides I have nothing to worry about for the next 10yrs at least (which sees me well and truly into the next high def format, easily).
Anything I'm missing on Blu-ray I can easily download right now as everything currently released on Blu-ray is available to download.
I have a perfectly good copy of PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra anyways for my HD DVD add-on drive (picked up for peanuts).
I have my main standalone (which was an amazing deal inc 7 freebie HD DVD discs).
I have another brand new standalone (which cost peanuts) tucked away in case of breakages.
When did anybody last replace their DVD cos of breakdown and not upgrading?
I can honestly say I've never had a DVD player breakdown like that (and only once had a - get this, Sony - CD player pack up many years ago).
So that's 50+ HD DVD movies, an HD DVD PC ROM drive and 2 standalones all at a total cost far far below any possible Blu-ray alternative.
(not that any Blu-ray player even now comes close to matching the cost/spec of the HD A/EP35)
License fees?
License from who ? HD-DVD doesn't even exist , no one owns it anymore
Someone still owns it and I assume they would still expect to collect revenues on patents & licences if an application chose to implement HDi or other functionality in a software player.
While I might purchase Blu-Ray, I have around 350 HD DVDs that I'd like to play on an HTPC I'm building.
I have already purchased a LG HD/BD combo drive, so I'll certainly be crossing PowerDVD 8 off my software purchase list.
Whats HD DVD?
Huh? I want the software that plays the least number of formats!! That makes a lot of sense. Why not eliminate VCD support? Eliminate DVD format support as well!! Blu-Ray is the future! Ha! When you compare the Blu-Ray sales numbers to regular DVDs it is not even close. DVD sales were much larger compared to VHS in the first 2-3 years. Blu-Ray doesn't stand a chance as a viable format as long as the mass can buy affordable DVDs - that is digital and clear enough for most people. No mass rush of consumers to replace their DVD players with bugg and expensive Blu-Ray players.
They make shit software anyway. Hopefully this increases WinDVD sales.
I discovered this the other night when installing a new HTPC. I need a player for the BD/HD-DVD drive I dropped into it, and I couldn't locate my CD backup of my Power DVD 7.3. I thought, 'well, they just announced v 8; maybe I'll just download that?' That is, until I found absolutely no reference to HD-DVD in the new version.
I dug up my v7.3 via a backup, and installed that.
I was running PowerDVD today and then this pop up dialog told me a critical update was available; I got suspicious when the patch was 100MB; when it told me it upgrading me to PowerDVD 8, it confirmed my suspicions.
You can play HD DVDs in PowerDVD 8.
It might not be official but it works as if it were & if you know how it can easily be done.
Problem solved (for now)?
http://pdvd8hddvd.googlepages.com/
Thanks Paul. Will try now!
The add-on worked great with 1531. CL quickly disabled it in 1730.
I also find it hilarious that the clueless morons at CL still brag on their home page:
CyberLink BD/HD Solution—Supports Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs