topic Re: WinDVD BD ? in PCs & Accessories

WinDVD BD ?

dbiddle — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:12:30 GMT

Hello,

I am looking for some advice on how to get windvd bd for my ar51m vaio.
I have vista on a clean install dual booted with ubuntu.
I have searched everywhere almost for a .exe to get windvd bd.
Any help?

Re: WinDVD BD ?

Thalamus. — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:30:27 GMT

Hi dbiddle,

unfortunately Win DVD BD is not available for download from Sony..

Some forum members have been using PowerDVD ..

Also you may want to look at ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre

I have not used either of these applications though..

Re: WinDVD BD ?

squashme — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:33:56 GMT

WinDVD BD for vaio should already be installed on the laptop as the has a built in Blu-ray drive innit

Re: WinDVD BD ?

carloscerros — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 23:42:40 GMT

WinDVD BD for vaio should already be installed on the laptop as the has a built in Blu-ray drive innit

Hi,

If unit formatted with 3rd party Windows Vista CD installation (no-OEM OS) => NO more WinDVD available.

WinDVD is only available as OEM on units ... so if you format it's @ your own risks according Sony.

Re: WinDVD BD ?

Irene-plecofan — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 09:03:59 GMT

so maybe its on your backup disk, if you took one when first got PC, before reinstalling OS?
(not sure why have not got OEM OS?)

Re: WinDVD BD ?

iainlow — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:56:21 GMT

Have you actually tried downloading any of the WinDVD BD "Drivers and Updates"?

http://www.vaio-link.com/downloads/updates/updates.asp?site=voe_en_GB_cons&c=0&s=VGN-AR&m=2418&os=7&osl=1

The above link will take you to the "Drivers and Updates" page for the AR21S (Vista). The AR21S was originally supplied with Windows XP, but was sold as Vista ready. So they provided the facility to do a clean install for those who had a new copy of Vista. In addition, they supplied the "Original" drivers and "Original Utilities" packs, because, at first, there were not Vista drivers for all the inbuilt functions, and you had to use some of the XP Drivers. They have since added more true Vista drivers.

You will see 3 entries for WinDVD. If you click on the first one - 8.0.8.100, the description at the top tells you that "This release targets WinDVD BD users who have upgraded from Windows XP to Vista." (Note the large file size - this give a clue that it is not just an update - it is a release).

This gives you the basic program - follow the instructions to install.

If you then download the version 8.0.8.425_3, it will update the basic version to the latest version.

I'm pretty sure this is what I did. I won a copy of Vista Ultimate from Microsoft, and so reformatted the disk to eliminate XP, then did a clean install. I had to ferret around for drivers and utilities, until I got everything working again.

Let us know how it goes, if you try it.

Iain

Re: WinDVD BD ?

kee-lo_ — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:36:14 GMT

PowerDVD is much better, plus it has a booster for the audio, which is handy.

Re: WinDVD BD ?

iainlow — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:54:54 GMT

For BD you need PowerDVD Ultra. It costs money, unlike the supplied WinDVD BD (no free version of PowerDVD Ultra, and no free trial version even, I asked them).

Having finally got BLU-RAY to play through my HDMI cable, on my Samsung TV, with Firmware and Driver Updates to the Nvidia graphics card, the sound is excellent.

MY only problem is that I can only play BLU-Ray movies through HDMI at 720p, and not the full 1080p which the TV and AR21S are capable of. This is because the Nvidia driver only supports the 1080p mode at 25 or 30Hz. To get the required 50 or 60Hz, you need to drop the resolution to 1280 x 720 (non interlaced). If you choose the 1080p mode option, the picture is out of sync with the sound. The sound is no problem, it is the screen refresh rate, which cannot keep up with the sound.

Re: WinDVD BD ?

dbiddle — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:42:32 GMT

Have you actually tried downloading any of the WinDVD BD "Drivers and Updates"?

http://www.vaio-link.com/downloads/updates/updates.asp?site=voe_en_GB_cons&c=0&s=VGN-AR&m=2418&os=7&osl=1

The above link will take you to the "Drivers and Updates" page for the AR21S (Vista). The AR21S was originally supplied with Windows XP, but was sold as Vista ready. So they provided the facility to do a clean install for those who had a new copy of Vista. In addition, they supplied the "Original" drivers and "Original Utilities" packs, because, at first, there were not Vista drivers for all the inbuilt functions, and you had to use some of the XP Drivers. They have since added more true Vista drivers. 

You will see 3 entries for WinDVD. If you click on the first one - 8.0.8.100, the description at the top tells you that "This release targets WinDVD BD users who have upgraded from Windows XP to Vista." (Note the large file size - this give a clue that it is not just an update - it is a release).

This gives you the basic program - follow the instructions to install.

If you then download the version 8.0.8.425_3, it will update the basic version to the latest version.

I'm pretty sure this is what I did. I won a copy of Vista Ultimate from Microsoft, and so reformatted the disk to eliminate XP, then did a clean install. I had to ferret around for drivers and utilities, until I got everything working again.

Let us know how it goes, if you try it.

Iain

I am starting to download the files and give it a go. My machine is the AR51M so i didnt think of searching another laptop's support files. I have also filed a case with sony. Further to confusions earlier i have managed to OEM reinstall without all the sony stuff i didnt need, ie a clean install.

Re: WinDVD BD ?

kee-lo_ — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:07:21 GMT

Yes, it costs money, but money well spent when you can watch movies at 1080p with better performance.

Re: WinDVD BD ?

iainlow — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:32:07 GMT

Yes, it costs money, but money well spent when you can watch movies at 1080p with better performance.

You mean you can't watch movies at 1080p in WinDVD BD? Why not?

I'm limited to 720p because the latest graphics driver for my Nvidia card does not support a refresh rate of 50 or 60Hz. This is required to lip-sync sound and vision. Presumably this would be no different using PowerDVD Ultra.

In any case, this wasn't the question the OP asked. He asked about WinDVD BD - the Sony-supplied software which works fine. It makes no sense to pay a lot of money for something, when you've not even tried the free supplied version to see if it works for you.

In any case, I only have your word for it that it works at all. As I said earlier, for some bizarre reason, PowwerDVD Ultra (the necessary version for HD and BLU-RAY movies) is the only programme in the Cyberlink list of versions which you cannot download as a 30 day trial copy. When I asked them about this, they suggested I buy a copy, try it, and, if not satisfied, return it for a refund within the 30-day refund period. Ridiculous! When all their other versions are available as a free trial download. What kind of stupid company does this?

Re: WinDVD BD ?

Blencogo — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:30:43 GMT

Hi iainlow,

What Vaio do you have and what nVidia driver version are you using?

Re: WinDVD BD ?

iainlow — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:59:36 GMT

Hi Blencogo.

It's the AR21S, with the Nvidia Geforce Go 7600 GT card. The driver is 7.15.10.9813, the one currently listed on the AR21S driver download page. Oddly, in Device Manager, the date of the driver is quoted as 20/02/2007, whereas the same numbered driver on the Vaio download site is dated 31/05/2007. I've also downloaded the AR31S version of the driver, 9813a, but was unable to do the "uninstall / install new driver" routine, as it wouldn't remove the old version. Also, this update only claims to sort the help file thing plus the lid closing problem.

Are you aware of another driver which I might try?

Iain

Re: WinDVD BD ?

kee-lo_ — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:02:36 GMT

Ian,

You only have anyone's word, if you've not tried the demo out then you won't know if it's right for you.

As Blencogo says it depends on your graphics card, really WinDVD should do it, but when BDs have Tru-HD then the system slows down to a halt and I've noticed frame jumps, as the system is trying to keep up with the content.

it might not have been the OPs question, but I'm just advising on another decent alternative. I don't work for either Interview or Cyberlink, so try the demos and see what you think.

Re: WinDVD BD ?

Blencogo — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:34:08 GMT

Hi Iain,

Try this one (November 2007): -

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16276

The one you have dates from February 2007 - it obviously took Sony three months to check it out!

Re: WinDVD BD ?

iainlow — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 09:30:51 GMT

Hi Guys.

To Kee-Lo,

Sorry if I seemed critical about not answering the original question. It comes from a lifetime as a Civil Engineer, and some occasional lecturing. In exams, people are always answering the wrong question, not the one asked. And in general problem solving, people tend not to try to solve the REAL problem (they go off on a tangent). Again sorry, your suggestions are always constructive. Read on ...

To Blencogo and Kee-Lo,

Thanks you for introducing me to the world of alternative drivers, I had no idea all this was going on. I read up on the info in the site in your link, and downloaded the driver you suggested (I'm interested to know why you chose that one in particular?).

It installed ok the second time, (when I used the Modded INF file). I then checked out the various modes to see if I was now offered a 1920 x 1080 non interlaced mode with 50 and 60 Hz resolutions. I was excited to see there was. Wow.

I chose this mode and it looked fine in normal use. When I ran WinDVD with a Blu-Ray film, it wouldn't start properly with an error message about not being able to create "an overlay" of some kind.

So, I followed Kee-Lo's advice and BOUGHT Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra for $100, to see if it handled the new driver better than WinDVD (remember what I keep saying Kee-Lo, there is no free trial for this product, see link

http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/download/download_hotlink.jsp )

I ran PowerDVD with the same movie, but it wouldn't run either, saying that the graphics driver was not an original driver, and that I should get the latest driver supplied by nVidia for my computer, and offered a link. I followed the link and eventually ended up back at the Sony Vaio drivers page with my original driver.

Actually, I didn't give the full error message before, when I tried to use WinDVD with the new driver. It also suggested that I should reduce the color depth or resolution, and try again. This kind of defeats the purpose of the whole exercise, which is to get the 1920 x 1080p at 50 Hz setting.

So I rolled back the driver to the previous Sony-supplied one, and WinDVD ran the movie fine at the lower resolution. My newly-purchased PowerDVD ran the movie with the original Sony-supplied driver, but the colors are totally scrambled. PowerDVD is unusable with both drivers.

As I said earlier, I seem to have 30 days in which to ask for a refund from Cyberlink (or Element 5, as they seem to call themselves). So I may just try another driver from the site where Blencogo sent me for this new one, and see what happens.

I'll let you know if anything works. It doesn't look hopeful, though. Having read some of the reservations postedon that site, it seems that there are good reasons why nVidia didn't release these drivers. I guess you have to decide which application is most important for you, and which applications you can live without, and choose which driver to use on that basis.

Watch this space, and thanks again for your help.

It still pisses me off that Cyberlink don't offer a free trial of this particular application. Of course, when I do get a refund through PayPal, PayPal will charge me a fee for receiving funds - bummer.

Iain

Re: WinDVD BD ?

helloimgeoff1 — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:31:23 GMT

Just wondering, as people in this thread have AR series' and have experience with other BD applications aside WinDVD... When watching a BD movie in other applications, does the "SONY" light under the screen go off in them? Or is it just WinDVD? As I've had troubles getting WinDVD to play some of my BD's.