Product: PowerDVD 1.5
From: CyberLink Corp.
The CyberLink PowerDVD player, as we noted in our previous review of DVD players, is one of the best of the software players, providing an MPEG-2 file mode in addition to DVD disc playback, and excellent visual quality. However, version 1.3 didn't work well on our Windows 98 test systems. The 1.5 update, tested here, worked like a charm and addresses a number of problems. As with other software players, it requires a powerful CPU (PII/266 or better) to play videos smoothly.
In our tests on a PII/266 with 64MB of RAM, video playback was moderately smooth, with minor interruptions to smooth motions visible here and there. The player provides Dolby Surround, QSurround and standard Stereo audio options. The QSurround option is the most dramatic of the three.
Here are some notes from the company on the new and improved features:
NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 1.5
NEW FEATURES SINCE VERSION 1.3
NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 1.5
3DNow! and IA Streaming SIMD Extensions
S/PDIF 5.1-channel Dolby Digital output
The following sound chips are supported by PowerDVD :
The option "Use S/PDIF for AC3 Output" will be greyed if none of the above sound chips is detected and thus not user-selectable. The option can be accessed by click the PowerDVD Configuration button and select "DVD Playback..."
The wiring between your S/PDIF-enabled sound card and external Dolby Digital decoder box is device-specific. Please refer to the user's manuals of your sound card and decoder/speaker system for detailed guide.
There might be an option, such as "Enable Digital Output" or "Enable S/PDIF Output", must be enabled in the sound card driver control panel or device manager/sound card setting side. Simply enable the "Use S/PDIF for AC3 Output" option in PowerDVD does not always ensure the AC-3 stream can be sent out thru the S/PDIF. Refer to your sound card manual for details.
Video brightness control limitation
If you are using an SiS6326 or S3 Savage3D display card and the "Use Video Accelerator" option is being enabled, The video brightness control function will not be available due to architecture limitation. There are some other features, such as video frame capturing, also resemble the same behavior.
If DirectDraw Overlay surface is not available (either due to display chip hardware incapability or improper driver installation), the brightness control function will not be available.
ASPI AND SCSI issues
ASPI (Advanced SCSI Programmer's Interface) is a layer of software which is defined and maintained by Adaptec. Although originally designed for SCSI devices, it now supports both SCSI and IDE device. That is why Win95 and Win98 includes it as part of its system components. This API is composed of three files : WINASPI.DLL, WNASPI32.DLL, and APIX.VXD. ASPI layer is the only path that PowerDVD can talk to IDE/SCSI DVD-ROM drives for performing mutual authentication with region-protected DVD titles for proper key decryption and data descrambling.
But ASPI layer can sometimes get overwritten or corrupted by the installation of other software or various IDE/SCSI device drivers. When the original ASPI layer is overwritten by an incompatible one, the path to IDE/SCSI DVD-ROM will no longer exist, thus the authentication process with region-protected DVD titles will always fail. PowerDVD might report various error messages in this situation, depending on the nature of the incompatible driver. However, all error codes have a common prefix "8090xxxx" or "80axxxxx".
This is not a problem with PowerDVD itself. Should you encounter this kind of incompatibility, there are two solutions for this:
solution 1 :
download ASPI32.EXE from Adaptec to upgrade your ASPI files to the latest version. However, that upgrade requires either an Adaptec host adapter or an Adactec version of the ASPI layer, which may have been installed by an application or a SCSI device driver, exists on your system. Or You can check if there is an ASPI layer upgrade from your SCSI host adapter or device vendor.
URL for Adaptec :
http://www.adaptec.com
solution 2 :
Restore the original Win95/98 ASPI layer files. Extract the following files from the Win95/98 CAB files and copy them to the following directories :
WNASPI32.DLL -> <WINDIR>\SYSTEM
WINASPI.DLl -> <WINDIR>\SYSTEM
APIX.VXD -> <WINDIR>\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS
ASPI2HLP.SYS -> <WINDIR>
<WINDIR> stands for the directory where your Win95/98 resides.
Click on Start\Run and type in "Regedit", then click on "OK" to launch the Registry Editor. Hold down the [Ctrl+F] key, type in "ASPIENUM", click on "Find Next" and wait for the search to stop. Then hit the [Delete] key and answer "YES" to delete the whole high-lighted "ASPIENUM" key.
A3D COMPATIBILITY
SCREEN SAVER AND POWER SAVING MODE
NEW FEATURES SINCE VERSION 1.3
SUPPORT for SAVAGE3D DVD/VIDEO ACCELERATION HARDWARE
PowerDVD will automatically use the following acceleration hardware provided by S3 Savage3D for improving the video playback performance and quality :
Savage3D also contains hardware deinterlacing unit to perform hardware Bob/Weave.
SUPER 7 MOTHERBOARD SUPPORT
PowerDVD version 1.3 has been tested to work with motherboards based on VIA MVP3 or ALI AladdinV chipset. However, you have to installed a bus master driver in order to enable the DMA option of your DVD-ROM and get the best performance. The bus master driver is chipset-dependent and can be found in your motherboard support CD-ROM or disk. Although Win95 OSR2 and Win98 contain built-in support for DMA-enabled DVD-ROM drives, it has been found that simply turn on that option on VIA or ALI platform may cause mutual authentication failure between DVD players and DVD-ROM for region-protected DVD titles.
To play back DVD titles on Super 7 platforms, a K6-2 processor running at 300MHz or higher is required if no special hardware assistance, such as a SiS6326 display card, is available.
You can find the newest bus master driver and other win9x patches for MVP3 or AladdinV chipset in the following URL :
http://www.via.com.tw
http://www.ali.com.tw
SCSI DEVICES SUPPORT
The following SCSI host adapters have been tested :
Adaptec AHA-2940AU/2940U/2940UW PCI host adapter Advansys ABP-930UA PCI host adapter Symbios Logic 53C8xx based PCI host adapter
The following SCSI DVD-ROM/RAM drives have been tested :
VIDEO FRAME CAPTURING
Under Win95 and Win98, if Internet Explorer 4.x is installed and Active Desktop is activated, you may find the 'capture as desktop wallpaper' option will not immediately show the captured frame on the desktop. However, the captured frame can be found under your windows directory and the capture video frames to BMP files or to Windows Clipboard options will work with no problem.
SUPPORT FOR NEW SIS6326 CHIP REVISIONS
GENERAL PLAYBACK PERFORMANCE AND QUALITY ISSUES
It is HIGHLY recommended that you enable the DMA option of your DVD-ROM to reduce the CPU utilization overhead. Win98 and Win95 OSR2 have built-in support for DMA-enabled IDE DVD-ROMs and HDDs. A system diagnostic program will be automatically launched after installing PowerDVD to help you turn on this option. Since Win95 OSR2 and Win98 contain native support for this feature, any other third-party bus master driver is NOT recommended. However, for Win95 retail version users, you must have a third-party bus master driver installed to enable that option. Since old versions of bus master driver may not properly support new IDE devices, such as DVD-ROMs and IDE removable storage medium, always check the date of the driver and make sure you got the newest version of driver that supports your DVD-ROM!!
To identify which version of Win95 you have, enter "Control Panel" and click on the "System" icon, you'll see a version string with the form "4.00.950 x". Win95 retail version has a version string "4.00.950" or "4.00.950 A".
Sometimes you can find the DMA option is not available even if you have OSR2 installed in your computer. This is because OSR2 do not recognize some of those new chipsets, such as Intel 440LX, 440BX and 440EX, thus the default driver with DMA support is not installed. A patch program from Intel named "Intel 82371xB INF Update Installer" can be launched inside the CyberLink system diagnostic program to do necessary patches for Intel chipsets. After that, you have to reboot your system, wait for OSR2 to find all the new hardwares, reboot one or several times again, and run the system diagnostic program which can be located in the CyberLink PowerDVD folder to enable the DMA option.
For Win98, the problem does not exist since Win98 was released after those chipsets were announced thus Win98 can recognizes all of them. However, for future new chipsets, you may still have to apply a patch before the DMA mode is available to be activated.
For chipsets from other vendors, you should find the proper patch programs for OSR2 or Win98 in your mainboard support disk/CD-ROM or vendor's web site.
Please make sure the DirectDraw driver of your display card is properly installed. Refer to your display card manual for detailed instructions. Or you can have the most up-to-date Microsoft DirectX Runtime installed to enable this support.
PowerDVD will use DirectDraw overlay surface for best playback quality and performance provided your display card supports it. Most display cards to date support this feature. To determine what kind of surface PowerDVD is using, click on the "Configuration" button, which has an icon like a hammer, on the PowerDVD user interface, then select "DVD Playback..." and you will see the fields "Display Mode" and "Surface Type". If you have a "DDRAW/Overlay" combination, the overlay surface is detected by PowerDVD and is utilized. For other combinations, video playback quality and performance will be sacrificed since some video decoding operations have to be performed by software. That may be due to your display card's limitations or improperly installed driver.
To get the best viewing experience of DVD video, it is recommended not to playback DVD video under 640x480 desktop resolution because the original video resolution provided by most DVD movie titles is 720x480 or 704x480.
If you playback 16:9 titles under 800x600 desktop resolution, PowerDVD has to adjust the vertical size of video window to maintain the correct video aspect-ratio even under full-screen mode. The result may be scanline-drops since some display cards simply omit some scanlines if video window is sized to be smaller than the original video size in the vertical direction. You can switch the desktop resolution to 1024x768 manually before launching PowerDVD to avoid the problem. Under that mode, PowerDVD will adjust the horizontal size of video window rather than the vertical size to provide better viewing experience.
PowerDVD can also switch resolution automatically by prompting user once 16:9 titles are detected. Even further, you can specify which resolution you want to switch to for 4:3 and 16:9 titles separately. To configure that setting, click on the "Configuration" button on the PowerDVD user interface, select "General..." then "Advanced..." and set accordingly. This automatic switching feature do not apply to SiS6326-based display cards. Refer to the "DISPLAY CARD ISSUES" section for explanation.
On some display cards, dynamical resolution switching can cause system misbehavior or crash. You can disable this feature also in the "General.../Advanced..." dialogue.
DISPLAY CARD ISSUES
Should you encounter this kind of mouse-related problem and you are not sure which version of driver are in use, contact your display card or system vendor for more information.
For the case of SiS6326AGP display chip, it doesn't has the MPEG acceleration support in the chip thus pure software playback will be utilized.
DVD-ROM ISSUES
Those DVD-ROM/RAM drives that have been tested with PowerDVD are listed below in an alphabetical order according to their manufacturer's name :
ATAPI interface :
SCSI interface :
You may find other products not in the list. PowerDVD should work fine with them if they follow the most updated SFF8090 specification.
However, the list of DVD-ROMs above is only for reference since there may be many revisions for each model. If you encounter any reading compatibility problems between your DVD-ROM and DVD titles, please contact the original DVD-ROM vendor or title supplier to see if they already have a solution for that problem.
There are other first generation DVD-ROM drives, which provide poor CD-R backward compatibility, also available in the market. Using PowerDVD on those drives is no longer recommended.
For further reading: