Playing HD DVDs with HD DVD Player (WinDVD 7 Silver)

LSHorwitz · Post by **LSHorwitz** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 2:42 am

I have authored HD DVDs with my recently purchased Video Studio 10 Plus but am unable to play them. The WinDVD player included on the Bonus Features download installs Interactuals Player Version 2 which cannot handle HD content at all.

On Uleads website, the advertised feature of buying Ulead Video Studio 10 Plus is supposedly an HD DVD Player called "WinDVD 7 Silver". Now that I have purchased and insstalled the program and all the associated extras and bonus material, I cannot find this advanced player anywhere in the downloaded files, and it is totally missing.

Has anybody figured out how to play the HD DVDs using the older Player Version 2 which ***is*** included? Has anybody figured out how to get the advertised Version 7 Silver Player, which ***does***handle HD DVD content?

Thanks for your advice and opinions,

Larry

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 4:49 am

LSHorwitz · Post by **LSHorwitz** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:51 am

Thanks MD for your reply.

I have indeed created an HD DVD, both burning a disk and also creating the proper HD folder and contents on my hard disk.

I can take the HD DVD or the folder over to my Mac and both will play properly on the Mac's DVD Player (a software player which supports both standard and HD DVD formats). Thus I am reasonably convinced the Ulead Video Studio 10 makes (mostly) correct HD DVDs since they play almost correctly on the Mac. The flaws in playback are small and numerous but I won't get into them in this thread. They are relatively minor issues.

The playback of the HD content on the PC is another matter however. The promised / advertised HD DVD player is indeed present in the Bonus content, and I was eventually able to locate and install it. Much to my disappointment, the player *****WILL NOT***** play back the very same HD DVD content, regardless of whether it is on a DVD or in an HD DVD folder of the proper type. The WinDVD 7 player is unable to handle HD DVD, despite Ulead's claim to the contrary.

In addition, a lengthy review at Intervideo's WinDVD7 web site shows ***NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER**** of playback capability of HD DVD format disks / material.

I am totally stymied.

I think the best conclusion is the one you offered in your reply........namely........that it is a yet to be offered, the program is incomplete, there may be licensing issues, etc.......

Shame on Ulead.........and shame on me for falling for their deceptive and misleading ad........

Larry

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:46 pm

LSHorwitz · Post by **LSHorwitz** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 8:48 pm

It does prevent people who buy the new version of Video Studio from actually viewing their HD DVDs unless they own a Mac with recent Mac software, or if they have a true HD DVD player. I hope they fix it quickly.

I am really surprised that Intervideo makes no claims at all about HD DVD playback for the WinDVD 7 software. I have to wonder if Ulead has vastly exaggerated here when they say their Video Studio 10 Plus software includes an HD DVD Player from Intervideo, if the Intervideo people themselves make no claims about HD compatibility other than being able to play WMV-HD disks (which Windows Media Player already does without needing any other player software !!).

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 9:20 pm

Larry -- I am surprised that you could not find any reference on the Intervideo site to WinDVD 7 being able to handle HDTV. I have just been to their site, and the home page advertisement for WinDVD at the very top, includes, as one of its bullet points, 'Technologies of tomorrow, ready today! ... HDTV'. Then, if you navigate to the WinDVD page http://intervideo.com/jsp/WinDVD.jsp?mode=Features , about two thirds of the way down the page and on the right, you will find this:
" WinDVD 7 is able to navigate and decode the recorded MPEG2 transport stream so users are allowed to view and navigate all programs.
• Navigate MPEG2-TS
(MPEG2 Transport Stream) content
• Playback MPEG2-TS content
• MPEG2/4 AAC content playback".

However, the important proviso here is that this feature is specifically said to come only with the Platinum version of WinDVD. Much higher on the same page, it is stated that the 'Universal Player', which is what I assume is supposed to ship as the Silver edition with VS10 (which I don't yet have), only supports WMV-HD. So unless this is all a very recent amendment of the Intervideo website, I am not sure your claims are entirely correct except with regard to what is actually shipped. In this regard, I do agree that there has probably been (yet again?) some dodgy and misleading advertising going on, designed to entice those who regularly use HD into buying the Platinum version of the program. I well recall that at the time of release of VS9, it was supposed to come with Cool 3D version 3.5, yet it only came with the older version 3.0, with no explanation or apology from Ulead. (And from what I can see, it is still being shipped with VS10.)

I hasten to add that I have no connection at all to either Ulead or Intervideo, other than using Ulead products and contributing to this Board for several years!!

LSHorwitz · Post by **LSHorwitz** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 3:14 am

All of my prior remarks relate to HD DVDs and are unrelated to HDTV. You are confusing 2 unrelated but similar terms.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:12 am

Whoops!!

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 5:03 am

LSHorwitz · Post by **LSHorwitz** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 2:20 pm

MD and Ken,

Thanks to both of you for your replies.

I've attempted to contact Intervideo technical support to determine if their player will support the HD DVD format. Their website does not permit questions to tech support unless you have a purchased copy, since bundled players such as provided by Ulead do not get support directly. They suggest contacting Ulead with any questions.

I sent an email to Ulead tech support asking them what the situation was, and why their ads promise a player which handled HD DVD disks. I'll post any reply here when / if I receive it.

VS10 seems to make generally acceptable HD DVDs, and I am planning on getting a Toshiba HD DVD player when they come back into stock here locally. The first batch sold out the same day they were introduced as BestBuy last week. Since I have many other HD authoring systems and tools, the fact that Ulead does not deliver an HD DVD Player is not of immediate consequence to me personally, but many people will naturallly author their first HD DVD and want to try it out. Only then will they discover that they have no way of playing it, despite Ulead's ads to the contrary.

I'm sure this will eventually get sorted out. I just have a personal problem which deceptive ads and false promises.

Larry

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 9:54 pm

Larry,
If your intention is purely to playback a real HD-DVD disk on your PC, I can’t help you. Here is a link to a relevant discussion on another forum http://www.sonyhdvinfo.com/showthread.php?t=4727

However. if you want to playback high definition video files from A DVD platter, before you chomp a bite from that huge $800 Toshiba turkey, you should know that you can playback high definition video from ordinary DVD disks using the IOData AVLP2 in either Mpeg2 or Divx @ 1920x1080. See HD Tutorial at http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=9854

LSHorwitz · Post by **LSHorwitz** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 11:32 pm

Thanks for the reply.

My only purpose in starting this thread was to see if anyone had found a way to actually install and use the advertised HD DVD Player which supposedly ships with VS10 Plus. I have other ways to play these disks but wanted to use the Intervideo WinDVD 7 Player if it actually worked. It is now clear that Ulead made a false claim.

I have routinely used VLC and a half dozen other HD players on the PC and Mac for over a year now. I merely wanted to use the claimed software from Ulead.

Thanks,

Larrry

ggrussell · Post by **ggrussell** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 4:20 am

InterVideo® WinDVD® Player included
Share your standard and high-definition video, (MPEG-2 HD/WMV-HD), right from your computer.

That's quoted from the website. It doesn't mention HD DVDs specifically.

LSHorwitz · Post by **LSHorwitz** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 6:31 am

Gary,

It most certainly does mention HD-DVD Player capability specifically, in at least 3 places on the Ulead web site.

Take a look at:

http://www.ulead.com/vs/compare.htm

where the chart shows that the "Plus" version of VS10 contains the "HD DVD Player WinDVD7 Silver" whereas the other products do not include an HD DVD Player.

You can also take a look at:

http://www.ulead.com/vs/compare2.htm

and Ulead shows that VS10 Plus includes a bonus "HD DVD Player WinDVD7 Silver" whereas the other VS10 and VS10 products do not.

In addition, you might note that the Ulead web site also shows the press release from March 7th describing the new Intervideo player release for HD DVD which also describes their specific plan to partner together with these products.

I received a reply from Ulead Tech Support from their headquarters in Taiwan. The tech support person at Ulead is totally clueless. I quote directly from his reply to my email asking him why the Intervideo Win DVD7 Silver player does not appear to play HD DVDs. He states:

"With regards to HD DVD, you would need a hardware capable of playing HD DVDs. You MAC player can play HD DVDs because its hardware supports HD DVD.

You can't play HD DVDs in your computer because your hardware doesn't have support for it. "

As anyone who understands this issue will immediately recognize, the ability to playback the HD DVD including its menus and content directly from either the hard disk using the HD VIDEO_TS folder or from a conventional DVD which contains this HD_VIDEO TS folder is entirely possible on the Mac and also on the PC with the right software and does ***NOT*** need special hardware unless the disk is specifically burned on HD media using an HD burner. At over $25 per blank disk, anybody in their right mind would preview and playback the authored disks first by using an HD DVD Player such as is found on the Mac and is supposedly included in VS10 Plus. This also spares the author the need to waste an hour burning a disk only to discover authoring problems. The Ulead Tech Support was specifically told in my question that I can copy the folder over to a Mac and play it without need for burning an HD DVD. He should also understand this, since no HD DVD burners are on the market yet..............!!!!!!

I have really devoted way too much time to explaining all of this, and appeciate the various replies on this forum, but the bottom line is that the player provided by Ulead lacks this (supposedly included) feature. As I have said before, this is not of concern to me except that others may have a problem playhing back HD DVDs they author, since they have no way to see and try the menus, transitions, chapters, etc. on the HD DVDs they author with VS10 Plus. I can pop the disk (or move the folder) to a Mac and navigate and watch the disk in all of its various ways (and find that Ulead's chapters fail to return back to the main menu in some cases, for example).

Larry

LSHorwitz · Post by **LSHorwitz** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 6:44 am

This announcement is from October of last year regarding the Ulead / WinDVD high def player partnership........

http://www.highbeam.com/library/docfree ... Result&ao=

Alludo USER to USER Web Board

Playing HD DVDs with HD DVD Player (WinDVD 7 Silver)

Playing HD DVDs with HD DVD Player (WinDVD 7 Silver)

Where did you see this stated?