Apparently its better then Arcsoft’s implementation and its hear now:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/03/02/powerdvd-9-with-native-media-center-ui-goes-live/#continued

http://www.cyberlink.com/products/movie-playback/powerdvd/overview_en_US.html

Holy crap, I just upgraded from OEM 7 to Ultra 8 on Saturday, hopefully I can get it switched to 9.  I'm suprised, I didn't know this was about to be released.

Anyone tried it yet?

Upgrade pricing from version 7 and 8 to PowerDVD 9 Ultra is $69.95. Not sure that really tickles my fancy but I guess it could be worse.

As far as I can tell, it they still didn't put HD-DVD support back, which leaves ArcSoft TMT superior if you need HD-DVD support...  Hopefully ArcSoft will be upgrading to better integrate into WMC and will retain their HD-DVD support...

I thought I read about an "add-in" version of TMT that made integration much more seemless...??

So, will it play content from a hard drive or not?  That is why I switched to ArcSoft.

All versions of powerdvd play from hard drive.  You simply need to make an iso with imgburn first.  I have 60+ online disks that play perfectly in powerdvd 8 launched from mymovies.

I'm installing the trial version now...I'll come back with my thoughts, and maybe some screenshots.

Edit:  Ok, I'm uninstalling after 3 minutes.  First off, there's an annoying movielive sidebar even though I skipped installing it, and all of my isos return "There is a disc in drive with an unsupported format".   I'm hoping this is because it's a trial and not because they're dropping support for blurays backed up to hard drive altogether.

I'd stick with powerdvd 8.  I didn't even bother checking out the plugin since it's useless anyways.

wilkcards:

All versions of powerdvd play from hard drive.  You simply need to make an iso with imgburn first.  I have 60+ online disks that play perfectly in powerdvd 8 launched from mymovies.

I'm installing the trial version now...I'll come back with my thoughts, and maybe some screenshots.

Edit:  Ok, I'm uninstalling after 3 minutes.  First off, there's an annoying movielive sidebar even though I skipped installing it, and all of my isos return "There is a disc in drive with an unsupported format".   I'm hoping this is because it's a trial and not because they're dropping support for blurays backed up to hard drive altogether.

I'd stick with powerdvd 8.  I didn't even bother checking out the plugin since it's useless anyways.

Did you check if Power DVD 8 was also starting? I know that with 7.3 and 8 installed, if you don't keep each versions service from starting, when you mount a BR iso, both versions will start. Which ever starts second, will show that exact same error.

-Dravor

No, only powerdvd9 opened.  I've since uninstalled, and all isos are playing perfectly on 8 once again.

dnr:

So, will it play content from a hard drive or not?  That is why I switched to ArcSoft.

The new Cinema UI (integrated) will not play from a hard drive, only a physical disc.  I assume you can use mounted ISOs, it would not know the difference.  The standard UI will play ripped content just fine.

Also of note so far is that the new enhancements for DVD (which ROCK in my opinion) are not customizable from the Cinema UI.  You're stuck with 'automatic' mode, which means motion enhancement, which means your movies look like Soap Operas and there is no recourse but to turn the enhancements off.

The 'more info' menu is also boned up in the integrated player.  You get both the PowerDVD menu and the VMC menu, so there is no way to get to the PowerDVD one with a remote control.

I'm having trouble getting the menus on AVSHD to show up as well.  It's the only Blu-Ray content I've tried so far as I have no Blu-Ray drive on this PC, but that has me concerned since this is trivially simple content to play.

Good things:

- It seems (so far) to have a smaller footprint than 8
- VMC integration is a bit clunky looking but functional
- The DVD enhancments through the standard UI work very well at low settings
- The player obeys a default ICC profile, even with the enhancements on (NOTE: NOT WITH BLU-RAY)
- The MC remote seems to work acceptably well with the Cinema UI
- Integration is done with an ext host, so it's all in the main MCE Window (like myNetflix)

There are a couple bumps for them to work out, and they HAVE to allow customization of the enhancements through Cinema, but it's looking pretty good for a Cyberlink first release so far.  I expect 2-3 patches before it's useful.  I doubt they'll ever allow playing ripped content from the Cinema UI, call it a hunch.

edit: Here's a link to the title graphic for Battlestar Galactica with TrueTheater turned on in split-screen mode.  TrueTheater HD set to two ticks below 50%, TrueTheater Lighting set to 25% and TrueTheater Motion OFF is what I'm liking so far:  http://mysite.verizon.net/~vze4gzbj/battlestar.png

Has anyone tried it on the Win 7 beta?

okay i might've missed something but remote control of the media center ui seems totally messed up. 

1. as mentioned, the only way i can find to open the mce player's settings menu is to hit Info which of course also loads mce's info menu over the top.  hitting Back cancels the latter and then you can use it.  lame. 

2. when moving the mouse during playback you get a nice mini control player on the bottom right.  I've not been able to bring this up with anything on the remote. 

3. i tested with The Fifth Element blu.-ray (mounted iso with VirtualCloneDrive).  Everything played back fine, btw, for those who asked about mounted isos.  this disc has a setting for turning on the Fact Track which displays info like popup video.  During playback, any of  ff, rw or track skip back or forward turn this off or stop displaying it, and you have to navigate the menu back to turn it On, even though the menu says it's already On when you navigate back.

4. hitting audio settings in the mce player's settings interface makes the button flash and then does nothing.


if there's some cyberlink document about the new mce interface for remotes that i've missed please let me know.

DeaneG:

Has anyone tried it on the Win 7 beta?

Yes, I'm running b7022 and isos wouldn't play.  I suppose it's possible that there was a conflict with powerdvd 8 being installed at the same time, but I wasn't willing to uninstall it to find out.  I'd like to hear from someone who manages to get isos working in pdvd9.

wilkcards:

All versions of powerdvd play from hard drive.  You simply need to make an iso with imgburn first.  I have 60+ online disks that play perfectly in powerdvd 8 launched from mymovies.

I'm installing the trial version now...I'll come back with my thoughts, and maybe some screenshots.

Edit:  Ok, I'm uninstalling after 3 minutes.  First off, there's an annoying movielive sidebar even though I skipped installing it, and all of my isos return "There is a disc in drive with an unsupported format".   I'm hoping this is because it's a trial and not because they're dropping support for blurays backed up to hard drive altogether.

I'd stick with powerdvd 8.  I didn't even bother checking out the plugin since it's useless anyways.

The limitations of the Power DVD 9 Trial are listed as follows:

Limitations

30 day working trial.

No DVD-Audio available during the playback of CPPM protected content.

Does not support the playback of CPRM protected content.

Does not support Blu-ray Disc playback. 

So unless people are getting a hacked version from an undisclosed location that doesn’t have this limitation, one shouldn’t expect it to work with Blu-Ray dsics or images.

http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/download/trials_1_en_US.html

 

Ok well that explains it.  Well that's pretty stupid.  It doesn't even give you any message saying you need to buy it to play blurays.

  I won't buy it until I see some good feedback.

FYI, I've submitted four tickets to Cyberlink tonight.  If you want to know the response (if any) to these questions, just let me know:

1) There does not seem to be a way to control the TrueTheater settings in the new Cinema or Media Center UIs. It's either "on" all the way, including motion enhancement, or completely off. Is there a way to set this UI up with a specific set of enhancement settings like you can in the standard UI? Many people I know hate motion enhancement, it makes everything look very cartoony and is not how the film is supposed to look. I *love* the other enhancements when set properly and would really like to be able to use these through Media Center. I have no aversions to editing the registry or whatever it will take.

2) When you hit the 'more info' button on your remote control while in Media Center, both the PDVD menu and the standard exthost VMC menu pop up. There is no way to actually access the PDVD menu with a remote control, you need a mouse.

3) The most disappointing thing in PDVD9 for me so far is that you cannot play 'ripped' content from the Cinema or Media Center UIs. The DVD software in PDVD is absolutely superior to what Microsoft ships, I was really bummed that there is no way for me to actually use it for the 600+ (legal, I own them all) DVDs I spent months ripping to a 4TB file server. PDVD plays the 'problematic' ones flawlessly, too. I think it would be an absolutely amazing feature and would all but make PDVD the defacto add-on for Media Center. But, you have to let us control TrueTheater better in that UI first! (Submitted a different ticket for that).

4) How does one get RID of MoovieLive? Having the logon screen pop up after a few seconds every time you start the software is really annoying. It wasn't so in your face in PDVD8 and could be ignored. I've turned off all the related settings in options, but yet it still comes up. If there is any way to just get rid of this, I would be much obliged.  At least let us hide the unavoidable-and-in-your-face logon prompt.