For those who are considering upgrading to Version 8; you loose the playability for HD DVD discs. The new version drops HD DVD and concentrates its Hi-Def towards Blu-ray only.

I found that you may have both Version 7 and 8 installed at the same time without any conflicts. This way you still have the option of a HD DVD player software.

I decided to un-install Version 7 and use Nero ShowTime with the Hi-Def plug-in and watch my HD DVD movies.

Just a side note; the new Cyberlink Hi-Def advisor has also dropped the ability to scan for HD DVD and only supports Blu-ray now.

IMO, version 8 is not a vast improvement over version 7. While I did end up buying the upgrade, I still feel it was priced too high for the features you gain. There seems to be slight improvements in PQ (maybe) and it seems to allow 7.1 DTS-HD MA decoding now. However, they claim that until a secure protected audio path exists, they will continue to down mix it. My biggest fear, and a large part of the reason I bought it, is that 7 will no longer get updates...at least not as frequently...now that 8 has taken center stage. If you have 7 and are happy with it, I'd hold off on upgrading for now. There's not a lot of benefit that I can see for the price.

Agree, the PQ does seem better to my eye. From what I have seen in the past I also doubt that version 7 will be updated now that version 8 is here.

That's the part that irritates me. There's no real reason they should stop supporting version 7. And removing HD DVD was just moronic. But, until a better software comes out, this is unfortunately what we're stuck with. At least they didn't completely try to screw us and charge full price for an "upgrade". I still think 60 bucks was too much, but, what can we do about it...

I agree, I also bought it.

I also bought it,but I only had the 7.3 OEM version 3516a, Cyberlink sent me a email offering me the upgrade for 54.96.I did keep my OEM ver to watch HD-DVD's. I clicked on the 7.3 ver. today and was led to a critical update. I have not installed it yet,was wondering if anyone else got the same update? My PDVD Ultra 8 did freeze 2 times and I had to push the power button and hold it in.I hate that! I was using the HDMI out with the ATI HD2400xt video card that came in my Gateway GM5664 http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/gat...-32851155.html
I think it is having problems with the HDMI drivers.

You should check this out:

http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/ati-hd2x00/

It seems with PowerDVD 8 those hacks are required for the 2400 series of cards. Once you do that you should be able to enable hardware acceleration, which, if you look now is disabled. I don't use ATI cards in my HTPC so I can't really help if it doesn't work, but, I saw this in a thread on another forum.

I did that with my last ati drivers,8.1.You have to do it every time you update your drivers.My PDVD 8 looks great,the picture is way better than the 7.3 I was using.As for the sound,right now I will stick with the analog out to the multichannel hookups on my Onkyo receiver.At least when I use uncompressed LPCM 5.1 or DD Plus it send out at a higher rate and sounds good.Sometimes it is short on bass that way,but not with my set up.I got a Velodine dps 12 ,it cranks at 200 RMS.When things explode it moves the house

My understand is that installing version 8 overwrites version 7.3 (according to Cyberlink) so how can you still have and use version 7.3 if you installed the $55 upgrade? You need the $99 upgrade to be able to have both 7.3 and 8?

Uh, no. I bought the upgrade to 8 and I am able to have 7.3 and 8 installed at the same time with no problems. PowerDVD 8 gets installed to a PowerDVD8 folder whereas 7.3 is installed in PowerDVD folder.

Same here SamuriHL, I have both Versions, it automaticaly installed into a new folder, most programs do this when a major update is released. I can think a few that do this, and also a few that don't (like Nero).

Please see response below from Cyberlink, they appear to be very clear that if I only purchase the cheaper option it will not allow mw to have both versions on my PC?


"Dear Graham,

Thank you for contacting CyberLink Online Support.

We understand your concern related with PowerDVD 8.0.

Graham, You can purchase upgrade to
Ultra 8 from my 7.3 OEM version at $54.95 and you can install that. But if you install the upgrade version on your PowerDVD 7.3 version, the upgrade will overight the 7.3 version and you will not have any PowerDVD 7.3 version installed on your computer and hence you will not be able to play HD-DVD on your computer.

And if you purchase full version of PowerDVD 8.0 at $99.95, you can have both the versions, PowerDVD 7.3, for HD-DVD playback and PowerDVD 8.0 for other disk playback, installed on the computer on the same time. And hence you can play HD-DVDs using PowerDVD 7.3 and other DVDs using PowerDVD 8.0."

What a load of crap. I'm sorry, but, that is outright dishonest of them! They're basically trying to get you to pay for the full version instead of the upgrade. At least that's the way I see it. What a joke! Nowhere when I was buying the upgrade did it say I couldn't have them both installed at the same time.

not sure why you were told this,but I to have both versions installed.They are sort of interfering with each other from time to time.But 8 does have a better picture and now I can pass AC3/DTS through to my tv and on to my AV receiver,so this is great for 54 bucks.

How do you choose between the 2 versions?

I decided to get the $55 upgrade and you are correct. Version 7.3 and 8 co-exist as separate programmes, meaning I keep HD DVD function.

What a useless bunch they are at Cyberlink, they don't even know their own products. What a joke!

Thanks for your help.

Bah, I hacked HD DVD support into version 8 so I could get better sound support. However, yes, the "proper" way is to keep both versions installed.