HomePowerDVD 8 was released a week or two ago (and yes, I know, I need to finish the review for it), and one of the strangest things to have happened was the removal of HD DVD playback from the Ultra version of the popular movie playback software.
Actually, the reason for removing it is not all that strange. I’m sure including HD DVD playback costs Cyberlink more than not including it (from licensing to support), and with the demise of HD DVD and no new potential customers that could be attracted by including HD DVD playback, the sensible decision would be to remove it altogether. And since the previous Ultra version (7.3) included HD DVD playback, Cyberlink have done the smart thing by not requiring this old version to be uninstalled before installing the new one (something that has always been a pre-requisite). It means owners of PowerDVD Ultra 7.3 can buy PowerDVD 8 and switch between the two depending on Blu-ray or HD DVD playback.
And so this should probably be the end of the story. But no.
A few days ago, some users around various forums started to post that their PowerDVD 8 Ultra version could indeed playback HD DVD. Upon further examination, it turned out that these people were using a pre-release non public beta version of PowerDVD 8 – PowerDVD 8.0.1513 or 8.0.3913.50 Beta to be exact. And further experimentation showed that you could indeed combine the latest version of PowerDVD (the release version) with certain files from the beta version, and even some files from the 7.3 version, and you could “re-enable” HD DVD playback to the retail version of PowerDVD Ultra. Now I’m still investigating this and I might have a guide ready to show you how it is done (assuming I can find the required files). Update: As promised, I’ve written a guide on how to re-enable HD DVD playback under PowerDVD 8 Ultra now that I managed to find the required files online. But what is interesting is that up until the leaked Beta (dated around March 15th), it seemed that PowerDVD 8 was going to include HD DVD playback. Something between then and April must have happened for HD DVD playback to be dropped.
Some speculate that the rush to release PowerDVD 8, due to WinDVD 9’s release a week earlier, might have meant that scheduled updates and testing for the HD DVD component could not be completed in time. So this suggests that HD DVD playback could come back, if there is enough demand for it (and certainly, the negative press being generated by the drop of HD DVD support has hurt Cyberlink, especially when both major competitors, WinDVD and Arcsoft Totalmedia Theater, do included HD DVD playback). I don’t know the truth behind it (I’ve asked Cyberlink and they cite HD DVD’s demise as the reason for dropping support …. nothing too surprising there), but it does seem quite strange.
In any case, there are still plenty of choices when it comes to HD DVD playback on the PC: PowerDVD 7 Ultra, WinDVD and Arcsoft Totalmedia Theatre. I’m just not sure that by trying to save a few bucks (and not passing it onto consumers anyway), whether this decision could end up hurting Cyberlink more than it helps.
