bu40n UltraHD drive may work, GTX 1060 and PowerDVD fails

[brianp007]

Hi,
Alex assured me that the bu40n drive would work fine for playing UltraHD 4k disks like Avengers Infinity War.

I purchased and installed PowerDVD 19 Ultra (and PRO). It reads the blu-ray, shows the title and then crashes with an error message as soon as I try to play:
UltraHD Blu-Rays cannot be played on this computer. Make sure GPU meets system requirements.

The GPU is a GTX 1060 and the CPU is an i8750h. Before I purchased the PowerDVD, I read the system requirements and my laptop seems to have everything for OS, CPU and GPU (New HP Omen 17t):

https://www.cyberlink.com/products/powe ... en_US.html
PowerDVD 19 Pro
Graphics Processor (GPU)
4K Video Playback with TrueTheater: Intel HD/UHD Graphics 630 or Intel Iris Graphics 640 for 4K 30 fps video. NVIDIA GTX 1000 series or RTX 2000 series for 4K 60 fps video.
This clearly states that the GTX 1060 can play 4k UHD at 60 fps. Intel 630/640 at 30 fps. And the CPU has a built-in UHD 630.

Cyberlink support states:
... Ultra HD Blu-ray is supported only if a display is powered by Intel Graphics ...

Am I reading this wrong or are these 2 claims contradictory.

On my workstation, I can plug into the CPU graphics or the GTX 2080. On the laptop, all of the wiring is internal.

Maybe the cyberlink software is the problem.
Any recommendations on UltraHD 4k Blu-Ray reader software that works?

[Billycar11]

makemkv is made to get around this in multiple ways but here is full explanation

Hi Alex is right that the BU40N can play UHD disks back on pc fine but your computer must meet the requirements if you want to use powerdvd the only official UHD player on PC and you must use 7th gen or newer intel cpus with SGX and there onboard igpu so no hedt cpus from intel either. for laptopts that you unsure what is the host gpu use the powerdvd UHD adviser https://www.cyberlink.com/prog/bd-support/diagnosis.do to check if it will work.

but the best thing to do in this case i think is to use makemkvs libs and 64bit vlc
if you just want to play disks and not rip them

here is how:
1. Install VLC and MakeMKV
2. Go to the MakeMKV installation directory (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV) and copy libmmbd.dll to the VLC installation directory (usually C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC) twice
3. Rename one of these copies to libaacs.dll and the other to libbdplus.dll
4. Open MakeMKV and activate.
5. You should be able to play BDs in VLC using the Media > Open Disc>bluray... function 4k disks need menu disabled.

[brianp007]

Billycar,

Alex was right about the disc drive. The first "UltraHD Drive" just clicked and blinked and never initialized. The second terminated with the error message "No disc in drive". The BU40N actually showed the disc title. Alex's advise got me past the disc problem. I was ready to buy a drive from him but he told me I didn't need his drive to just play, not rip.

What others might not realize is that one can also hit landmines regarding the SGX driver and bios settings, GPU driver, the GPU your system is hooked up to and myrid software problems.

The machine was built for a buddy of mine with more $$ than time and has to work with minimal user interaction. That's why I tried the simple retail solution first. After spending $150 on PowerDVD Pro and Ultra upgrade, I am going to try to follow your makeMKV / VLC recipe above .

Thanks 1E6,

Brian

[SamuriHL]

There are 2 DIFFERENT requirements depending on the TYPE of 4K you're playing. An official UHD MUST use the Intel graphics. And even with supported hardware, it doesn't always work as I can attest to with my brand new 9900k machine. The second is playing 4K files like an MKV. For that, the nVidia is just fine.

[jonghotti]

Congratulations on the 9900K machine, that is sweet!

So unless you've got one of a small list of motherboards with HDR10 support, won't direct disc OR file playback looked washed out as we've seen reported so many times in other setups?

[SamuriHL]

Don't know, never got it to work. Nor do I care, tbh. I use J River MC with madvr's exceptional tone mapping on my C8. PowerDVD was just me screwing around trying to get it to work since I got the 9900k. But after tons of SGX issues and whatnot, short of reinstalling Windows, it's not getting fixed and I genuinely couldn't care less. madvr provides the absolute best quality image I've seen on my C8. MKV's are much more user friendly anyway.

[jonghotti]

Screenshot taken to preserve for all of time.
LOL

So you don’t feel you’re missing anything without explicit hdr support?

I’m genuinely curious and trust your opinion since you’re viewing the result on an LG OLED. Says you have excellent taste in televisions (I’m a proud Sony OLED owner, practically the same tv).

[SamuriHL]

What do you mean by "explicit hdr?" I'm getting HDR just fine with my setup. But every TV, especially OLED has to tonemap given the low max NIT value (somewhere around 700). Most movies are mastered above this so you tonemap. I'm not losing any "explicit HDR" with using madvr's tonemapping as I'm still outputting bt.2020 HDR tonemapped to 700 nits.

[Billycar11]

Don't know, never got it to work. Nor do I care, tbh. I use J River MC with madvr's exceptional tone mapping on my C8. PowerDVD was just me screwing around trying to get it to work since I got the 9900k. But after tons of SGX issues and whatnot, short of reinstalling Windows, it's not getting fixed and I genuinely couldn't care less. madvr provides the absolute best quality image I've seen on my C8. MKV's are much more user friendly anyway.

i had the same problem with my 9700k and sgx you just have to wait for windows to install a sgx/a newer one the ones on intels site were not working or were for other nucs or junk you can check what sgx you have under device manager>software components but this UHD official stuff really is a joke

[SamuriHL]

I agree, it really is a joke. I spent maybe an hour on it and gave up. I forced an install from the intel site and that didn't work. This was after the PowerDVD installed SGX didn't work, either. I was like "ok, enough of that". LOL

[jonghotti]

"Explicit HDR" is a term I came up with an actual technical term

My bad, I was under the impression that every component in an HTPC, from the mobo > CPU all the way to the display had to support HDR10 to be able to display it properly. Thank you for explaining it the way you did, I get it!

[SamuriHL]

Yea, HDR is not restricted to movies. There are plenty of HDR games out there now, so, pretty much any modern video card will support HDR. Windows has it built in. It's only when you try to play a protected UHD that the stupid SGX requirements kick in, and that's simply because of PowerDVD's licensing with the AACS that it requires it. It's not a technical limitation by any means.