[Explained, Resolved] WinDVD Pro 12 plays DVDs but not BDs.

[DirkMittler]

Hello.

I know that the subject-line sounds very familiar. But firstly, none of the other threads in this forum found answers which I could use, and secondly, there is always the possibility that I could be overlooking something small and simple, which could solve all my problems, and which somebody on this forum might know about.

I have a Windows 10 Pro PC (64-bit), with a Comet Lake, Intel processor, and with 16GB of RAM.
GeForce 3070 Graphics Card
HDMI cable directly to an ASUS BE279QSK 1920x1080 monitor (27")
Pioneer BDR-XD05B USB3-connected Blu-ray burner with Bus Encryption.

I've just recently upgraded my WinDVD to Pro, v12.

DVDs play just fine, but Blu-rays fail to do so.

When the application detects that a Blu-ray disk has been inserted, most of its UI window becomes unresponsive. The icons along the top, which control application settings, still work, but the icons along the bottom bar, from where playback is normally controlled, do not work. There is no error message. But, no video plays.

I can make the window full-screen, and then use the Escape Key to restore it to the usual size again. When full-screen, the application's appearance is just black (even if I try the Space Bar).

I can use the bundled 'WinZip Secure Burn' app (also from Corel) to open the Blu-ray drive's folders (when the disk is inserted), to be viewed in the Windows File Explorer. I can dismiss the WinZip widget, but the software causes a virtual, WinZip Burn Drive to remain, which does not interfere with WinDVD's ability to find actual DVDs in the correct drive.

Now, one idea which I did have, was to inspect the HDCP capabilities of my monitor and the GC's connection to it. But, the nVidia Control Panel makes that an easy thing to do, and the result is, that HDCP is Enabled. This is a form of DRM which the application requires, and which nVidia's drivers say is working.


So here's my question. Is there a tip which somebody can come up with, that would be easy for me to follow, and which I did not yet think of?


(Update:)

I did investigate the possibility, that specifically when trying to play BDs, WinDVD might be mistaking the virtual WinZip Burn Drive for the drive that actually contains the Blu-ray. The way I did that was, to navigate to the drives in the Windows File Explorer, and then to compare the context menus of the two extra drives. The context menu of the WinZip drive did not have a Play action, while the (much longer) context menu of the real drive had an option at the top, to 'Play with WinDVD'. When that option is clicked, the WinDVD window opens again, but its behaviour is unchanged.

Because when, in this state, the bottom bar of icons doesn't work, I also cannot tell WinDVD explicitly, which drive to play. Without a BD inserted, that icon works.


(Update:)

Just to gather more information, I changed a setting within WinDVD, to 'Start from Full-Screen Mode'. What this did was, to illustrate to me with greater clarity, where in the startup the media player app hangs. One of its threads seems to abort as it's populating the screen with widgets that are supposed to display in-screen.

I happen to have the 'Riva Tuner Statistics Server' installed (from a different software company), which will produce OSD information in many GPU-accelerated apps, whether those apps asked for it or not. To try to rule that out as the culprit, I disabled RTSS at both ends, and tried again to play a BD with WinDVD again. But, I only obtained completely unchanged results.

With RTSS disabled globally, it displays its OSD nowhere. And with RTSS enabled, but the check-box within WinDVD unchecked to display OSDs, the player still plays DVDs just fine, and does so without OSD...


BTW, I can play the BD just fine using 'VLC'.


(Explanation:)

My external Blu-ray burner uses "Bus Encryption" when instructed to play back an AACS-protected Video Disk. According to one competitor's Web-site, WinDVD is not able to communicate with drives that use bus encryption. This is a DRM feature which additionally protects the stream as it's being sent from the drive to the PC. So it would seem that this explanation will also Fail to solve the problem, at least until WinDVD 13 or something is released.

You win some, you lose some. It's a fine DVD playing app.

The only other, hypothetical explanation I could think of, would be, that WinDVD supports Bus Encryption in principle, but, that version Pro / 12 only has a short list of Device Certificates bundled-in, which exclude the one used by Pioneer.


Dirk

[jimklo]

I've got the same exact problem as you describe. Up until several weeks ago, no problems.

I've even gone as far as replacing my internal BD player thinking it was possibly a hardware issue.

I've submitted a support ticket to Corel and now I've got my fingers crossed.

Jim

[DirkMittler]

The mystery deepens. The last Service Pack from Corel, was SP8, and came out on the 28 of April, 2021. There should really have been no (relevant) software changes since then. Mind you, due to the wonders of UEFI, Microsoft could have fed a firmware update through to your Blu-ray drive during the past several weeks. But I think it would be unreasonable, suddenly to enforce Bus Encryption, between an internal Blu-ray drive, and your PC!

Edit:

Since both our graphics cards are nVidia, then I could change my hypothesis, to, there could be a glitch - a regression - in the latest nVidia driver...

I only obtained WinDVD Pro 12 during the past few days, so I had less information to go on, than having heard some feedback from you today.


(Update 9/27/2022:)

Unfortunately, there's no cause for me to change my hypothesis at this point. Only today, I received an upgrade to my nVidia driver, to version 517.48, after which I even rebooted the PC. This newer driver does not change the behaviour of WinDVD Pro 12 one iota.

Which means that there is a problem with your information. If you say that this problem set in on your PC "several weeks ago", the behaviour of software doesn't just change spontaneously. What else changed on your PC, in recent weeks, that might have caused the behaviour of WinDVD to change?


Dirk

[jimklo]

The only thing that has been updated, to my knowledge, have been several "Quality" updates for Windows 10 21H2 and .NET framework. I've installed the 517.48 Nvidia driver as well.
I've manually updated the firmware on my internal LG BD player, both the old one and the newly installed one, directly from the LG website. No luck there.

I also downloaded the Leawo Blu-Ray player and that successfully played multiple Blu-Ray titles that did not play in WinDVD. I've un-installed that software (had to manually remove their CD ROM service which was left behind after the un-install).

One item I noted was that when WinDVD froze trying to play the BD, if I ejected the disk via the WinDVD panel, the drive opened but then closed again by itself. So as you mentioned, WinDVD was still running when it froze.

I'll also add the the WinDVD SP8 update will not install on my version of WinDVD Pro 12 (12.0.0.65).

Corel has responded in my open case that they want me to try a Clean Boot using these instructions: https://kb.corel.com/en/128735. I'll have to wait until I can invest the time to go through that procedure.

Jim

[jimklo]

I did have a chance to go through the Clean Boot procedure and alas, no change in behavior.

The ball is back to Corel Support.

[DirkMittler]

I've manually updated the firmware on my internal LG BD player, both the old one and the newly installed one, directly from the LG website. No luck there.

Jim

I think that you may be overlooking a key piece of information. 'Newer Firmware' would mean, 'that uses Bus Encryption'. 'Older Firmware' more likely 'did not use Bus Encryption'.

So, the result of your firmware updates is, that by now, all your Blu-ray drives use Bus Encryption. And they will do so, as soon as the disc asks for it, and the drive is capable of applying it.

Dirk

[DirkMittler]

A follow-up question which I should also post an answer to, has to do with why it's so difficult for users to obtain legitimate software to play Blu-ray disks (BDs). The DRM/Encryption has as effect, that companies which sell or lease the relevant software to end-users, must themselves pay high fees to the real license-holders for the technology, those license-holders including both the copyright owners for the movies, and, the company that owns Blu-ray.

Software vendors must either pass those licensing fees on to the end-user, or do something which is not quite legitimate.

As I'm writing this, the one-time price to pay just for Blu-ray playback PC software for Windows, is worth about C$ 80-100.

Well, I obtained several applications as part of a bundle, in which the WinDVD Pro 12 software itself cost an additional promotional price of C$ 39.00. The bundle cost barely twice as much. I got a lot of applications that work just fine.

I have to say that I'm satisfied with what I obtained.

Dirk

[jimklo]

Glad to hear!

I'll post if/when I hear anything back from Corel.

At least I have my beloved OPPO-BDP93 to play our discs in our family room with the big screen and surround system. The LG BD in my desktop is more of a convenience for me if I want to watch or listen to something at my desk.

Jim

[bancone]

I have the same problem since last April.
My PC has an ASUS BD-DVD Burner and I had been able to play BD with WinDVD Pro 12 since its release. Before that I used Total Media Theatre with the same BD player till its end.
Now WinDVD PRo 12 can only play DVD.
Support got in touch with me and I even gave them access to my PC with remote desktop, but they weren't able to solve the problem.
They told me that they would get in touch with me later, but I never have heard them since April.
It's a pity that WinDVD Pro hasn't been updated for more than a year. I don't think that I will ever buy a software player. This was the second one I bought and I'm tired of this.

[bancone]

Finally an answer from Corel:

"It has come to our attention, that the issue is derived from your graphics card driver. nVidia has ceased support for certain components of the Microsoft DirectX media component, which WinDVD utilizes. Because this support is no longer added to your regular driver updates, the graphics card will be unable to display any protected overlay window produced by a Blu-Ray media disc. It has been reported that this particular function will not be reinstated anytime soon."

Therefore, you cannot use WinDVD Pro with an nVidia graphics card. Be careful!

[Graedus]

Hi, I have this problem too.

The last driver that works is 472.12 because its the last one with support for Kepler( GTX 6x0 series) and previous GPUs. If your card is supported by this driver you can still play blu-rays.

Sitll Corel should be able to update WinDVD and implement the necessary changes (there are replacements for what was removed) its their responsibility or at least they should make clear it won't work with newer drivers and that they don't have plans to fix it.