Articles - > How to Re-Enable HD DVD Playback in PowerDVD 8

Title:	How to Re-Enable HD DVD Playback in PowerDVD 8
Description:	This guide shows you how to re-enable HD DVD playback to the retail version of PowerDVD 8 Ultra
Author/Publisher:	DVDGuy
Ease of use:	Beginners
Latest Version:	1.0 (details)
OS Support:
Software Used:	PowerDVD Ultra
Date Added:	Apr 15, 2008
Last Updated:	Apr 15, 2008
Page Viewed:	17612 times

Printer Friendly Version

User Rating:
No ratings recorded - Vote Now

User Comments:
hpmoon: Well, we Vista 64-bit users are...
More / Post Your Comments

Categories:

Main Categories: High Definition (Blu-ray, HD DVD, HDTV), Play
Sub Categories:
Playing Videos -> HD DVD Playback

The latest version of PowerDVD has been released. It brings a lot of new features, such as a movie collection manager and online interactivity. It also includes Blu-ray playback that will eventually support Profile 2.0 (BD-Live). Unfortunately for HD DVD users (as if the first few months of 2008 hasn't been disappointing enough), PowerDVD 8 Ultra removed HD DVD playback even though it was in PowerDVD 7 Ultra. Luckily, Cyberlink made sure that both PowerDVD 7 and 8 versions can be installed at the same time, so users with PowerDVD 7 Ultra can still use it for HD DVD playback.

That could be the end of the story right there, except chatter on forums indicated that a beta version of PowerDVD 8 did include HD DVD playback at one stage, and some experimentation later, it turns out the retail version of PowerDVD 8 Ultra can have HD DVD playback re-enabled. And this guide will show you how! Please note that you will need PowerDVD 8 Ultra - any other versions including the Deluxe version that doesn't already support Blu-ray playback won't work.

Software you'll need:

PowerDVD 8 Ultra

Windows XP Instructions

The instructions are pretty easy, especially if you're familiar with registering filters, but I will go through it all here for those that don't know how. The instructions are for Windows XP, although they can be easily applied to Windows Vista. 64-bit Windows users will require separate instructions, and while they will be provided here, I cannot confirm that it works (since I don't have 64-bit Windows to test it out).

OK, the hardest part is to obtain the files you need. I've seen these files floating around forums and newsgroups, but the most easily downloadable place I've seen is here. Just go there and download the "powerdvd8ultra_hd-dvd.rar" file. There are instructions in the file, but I will expand them out in this guide.

Once you have downloaded the files, open it with WinRAR or any other compression software that supports RAR files.

Now locate where your copy of PowerDVD 8 Ultra has been installed. By default, on Windows XP, it should be in "C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD8".

Now extract the contents of "powerdvd8ultra_hd-dvd.rar" into where PowerDVD 8 is installed.

Several new files should now have been added to your PowerDVD folder - check to make sure they're in there.

Now that the files have been extracted, there is only one more thing you need to do, which is to register the "NavFilter\HDDVDNav.ax" file. To do this, press the Windows Key + R on your keyboard to open the run command dialog box (or press the "Start" button and select "Run"). Type in the following in the dialog box that opens:

regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Cyberlink\PowerDVD8\NavFilter\HDDVDNav.ax"

Make sure the quotes are in there, and replace "C:\Program Files\Cyberlink\PowerDVD8\" with something else if you installed PowerDVD 8 in another folder. Press the OK button to run the command, and if successful, you should get a prompt window telling you so.

And that's pretty much it. Insert a HD DVD disc and PowerDVD 8 Ultra will now play it.

Vista 64 Instructions

If you have the 64-bit version of Windows Vista, then the instructions are slightly different. What you need to do is to extract all the files in the "NavFilter" folder (in the powerdvd8ultra_hd-dvd.rar file) to "C:\Program Files (x86)\CyberLink\PowerDVD8\NavFilter\".

Then, you need to extract the other files (deskband32.dll, hddvd_x.imp, and js32.dll) to "C:\Program Files (x86)\CyberLink\PowerDVD8\".

Finally, run regsvr32 as above on "C:\Program Files (x86)\CyberLink\PowerDVD8\NavFilter\HDDVDNav.ax". This should do it.

Article Navigation:

Revision History:

Version 1.0:

Date Updated: Apr 15, 2008
First public version

User Rating:

	Average Rating:	Your Rating:
Registered Users:	No ratings recorded
Non-Registered Users:	(15 votes)

User Comments:

Well, we Vista 64-bit users are used to getting the shaft even now, when millions of Vista installations are 64-bit and retail stores are even starting to sell computers/laptops with Vista 64-bit pre-installed. But even though care was taken here to provide instructions, they appear to be inaccurate (correct me if I'm wrong): 1. Vista 64-bit installations include a folder for 32-bit applications, "Program Files (x86)", and a folder for 64-bit applications -- it is called "Program Files" and not "Program Files (x64)" as posted above. 2. The PowerDVD 8 installer does not create any directory in the 64-bit Program Files directory, so you need to create one down to the level of NavFilter. 3. At that, there is a misspelling in the 64-bit instructions of the directory "NavFilters," which should read "NavFilter."

Thanks hpmoon for the feedback. I don't actually have Vista 64 installed, so it was hard for me to test, which is why I wrote at the beginning of the guide that I could not confirm whether this works or not. But in the end it was human error, as the "x64" should have read "x86" (PowerDVD only installs in the "x86" program files directory). The guide has been corrected.

thanks for the info I have Vista x64 Ultimate and hpmoon is correct ,but it does work as suggested except you have to just copy then NavFilter file on its own into the C:\Program file and the run under safe mode regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\NavFilter\HDDVDNav.ax" and it will register fine then boot back to normal and away you go, thanks again great tip

I attempted to register the HDDDVDNav.ax file and I get the following error: The module "C:\Program Files\Cyberlink\PowerDVD8\NavFilter\HDDVDNav.ax" was loaded but the call to DllRegisterServer failed with error code 0x80070005 I am new at changing the registry, but I checked to make sure that all 7 files were in the proper place and then ran the command prompt just as explained. Any suggestions???

Hi. I had the same problem. It's vista security causing the problem. Do the following, then register the dll then re-enabloe uac. Method #1 - Using MSCONFIG Launch MSCONFIG by from the Run menu. Click on the Tools tab. Scroll down till you find "Disable UAP" (this should probably change to UAC in next Vista beta builds and in the RTM version). Click on that line. Press the Launch button. A CMD window will open. When the command is done, you can close the window. Close MSCONFIG. You need to reboot the computer for changes to apply. Note that you can re-enable UAC by selecting the "Enable UAP" line and then clicking on the Launch button.

I'm running Vista64 and copied the 7 files to the appropriate folders as listed in the instructions. I then registered the .ax file successfully. I have ripped HD-DVD disks on my hard drive using AnyDVD 6.4.0 and the XBOX drive. PowerDVD 7.3 played the files just fine. But when I point to them from the 'Open Movie File From Hard Disk' menu in PDVD8, the OK button remains greyed out. It doesn't see them. Do they need to be in a different format? Any suggestions? Thanks.

Madd Maxx: I think the ability to play ripped HD DVDs was removed from the last PowerDVD 7.3 update due to copyright reasons, so it's unlikely for PDVD 8 to support it. However, you can have both PDVD 7 and 8 installed at the same time, and use PDVD 8 for disc based HD DVD playback

Thanks, DVDGuy. That appears to be the reason - I found a thread on the SlySoft forums that confirms it. There's some serious whining going on over there. Your suggestion seems to be the only viable solution for now. Thanks again.

Sorry my bad english! For Vista64! there are some wrong regvalues in HDDVD64.reg [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\... here it shud be: ([HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\...) Wow6432Node after SOFTWARE\ and after [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ ([HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\..) edit with notepad, patch it again. Then it it works for vista64