Got Unwanted CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays or Games? musicMagpie Swaps Them for Cash

I've recently visited an interesting website called musicMagpie.com, which offers to buy all of your unwanted CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs and games. "A very nice idea", was my first thought although after my initial admiration and further investigation, there are a few aspects that will not suit everyone.

To begin with Music Magpie's positive sides, I should mention that the process of selling your unwanted discs seems quite straightforward and easy. You enter the barcodes of your DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, etc. and their evaluation engine gives an instant price for each of your items. If you are happy with the offered price, Music Magpie offers free shipping so you don't have to pay for anything by yourself. You can choose between UPS and USPS shipment and there are further options to select the exact shipping method. The payment is by check, which is good if you like checks. Another good possibility is to scan barcodes with your webcam instead of typing them. Finally, you can also download musicMagpie's free applications for Android or iPhone/iPad/iPod and turn your mobile device into a barcode scanner.

Independently of how good this service seems at first, there are several drawbacks that should be considered before getting too excited. To begin with, the service is currently available only in the United States. This is not a surprise having in mind the shipping costs for tangible products. Another issue could be the minimum number of discs you can sell. Due to the shipping costs, the minimum is 10 items per shipment. There is also a maximum number per a transaction but this is not an actual limitation.

What could be a drawback too is the paucity of payment methods. The only option is payment by check and although checks are fairly common in the US, not everyone likes them. Also, from what I've tried, it looks like recordable / rewritable discs are not accepted. And last but not least, the price musicMagpie offers for your Blu-ray discs, CDs and games is not very high. It should be treated more as a price for unwanted items rather than a price somebody who really wants your discs would pay.

So, to recapitulate, if you live in the USA, don't mind getting check payments and have at least a dozen of unwanted discs that just take valuable space in your home, musicMagpie could do you a favor. If this is not your case, services like eBay are probably a better option.

Why does Windows not support Blu-ray playback?

I see many people are still asking on the Internet why doesn't Windows support Blu-ray playback. Some of them not just ask but also directly accuse Microsoft of being stupid or "bad" because of not making their Windows Media Center capable of playing Blu-ray discs. Of course, Microsoft is not a charity organization and they have a good reason to omit BD playback. In fact, it was reported a few months ago that Microsoft did not plan to support also DVD playback in Windows 8 in addition to not supporting Blu-rays.

The reason why Windows 7, XP and Vista do not support playback of Blu-ray discs is quite simple though. And it is very rational. The companies behind the Blu-ray technology (mainly Sony, Panasonic and Philips) require payment of license fees for everything related to the technology. This includes discs, and every piece of hardware or software. Now, let's assume that about 10% of all Windows users will need Blu-ray playback software on their computer. It would be absolutely unnecessary and a misplaced expense if Microsoft pays license fees for the rest of the Windows copies they sell. And having in mind that 10% was probably an overestimation, there is really not a sensible reason for Microsoft to enable BD playback in Windows. Of course, they could do it but then somebody should pay the license fees for this pleasure and naturally, the end users would be the ones to pay. Well, I don't think most of the users want to pay for something they are not going to use. So despite all constant accusations Microsoft get for whatnot, I think they've made a wise decision on this issue.

But Windows is not the only operating system that doesn't offer playback of Blu-ray discs. In fact, all other competitors do not offer it. And if we go further, there is not also any Blu-ray player software that is free. There are a lot of programs that pretend to be capable of playing BDs for free but actually I haven't heard of even one free software that is able to play commercial discs with all features without ripping, hacking or something else. There have been rumors for months that VLC media player is going to support BD playback but in fact, most people report they are not able to play commercial discs although VLC is a good video player otherwise.

And to stress Microsoft's "innocence" furthermore, even the number of commercial Blu-ray software players is limited to four at the moment. It looks like even companies offering commercial software are not very willing to pay license fees to the holders of the patent rights.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on the future development of the technology and any related software or hardware. But unless Sony, Philips and Panasonic do not stop requiring fees I think they are impeding their own invention and its popularity. Thus it is not so strange there are many people that still do not have an idea about the rather superior quality BDs offer compared to DVDs. In any case we cannot blame Microsoft for this.

(3D) Blu-ray Player Software for Windows: 2012 Reviews

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Contents

1. Introduction, shared features and limitations (this page)

2. CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Ultra Review

3. ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 Review

4. Corel WinDVD Pro 11, Nero 11 Platinum and Roxio CinePlayer with 3D Reviews

5. Comparison table, overall impressions and conclusion

Here is the new installment in our traditional Windows Blu-ray player software reviews. There's been quite some development in the field since our 2011's comparison. But first things first. Nope, the year may be 2012 (and the end of the world approaching) but there are still no free Windows Blu-ray players. As explained before this mostly comes down to patents and licenses. Licensing Blu-ray technology costs money, which makes it an unlikely proposition for free media players. Laptops which feature BD drives sometimes come with OEM versions of one of the software movie players described here. But OEM versions are often lacking features and they are not updated as regularly as the retail versions of any Blu-ray / DVD player software package.

Since last year Roxio stopped offering Blu-ray playback in their CinePlayer with 3D although it's apparently still marketed as a 3D player. We don't know the exact reason behind this move but it's probably something related to licensing again. And then Corel bought Roxio altogether. So currently there are just four commercial software packages for Windows supporting BD playback. These are CyberLink's PowerDVD 12 Ultra, ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre 5, Corel's WinDVD Pro 11 and Nero 11 Platinum. Some of these manufacturers sell also low-end packages offering cheaper video playing software with restricted functionality (like CyberLink's PowerDVD 12 Pro or PowerDVD 12 Standard), but for Bluray disc playback you will always have to purchase the high-end edition. Note that sometimes we will shorten or abbreviate the name of the reviewed 3D Blu-ray player software package but in all instances we will refer to the highest-end version, e.g., PowerDVD will stand for PowerDVD 12 Ultra. Since Nero have disabled BD playback in their trial version and it's more of an add-on anyway, Nero Platinum 11 is included mainly for completeness rather than being actually tested.

Before we delve into the individual Blu-ray player reviews, here are some of the features and restrictions PowerDVD 12 Ultra, TotalMedia Theatre 5 and WinDVD Pro 11 share in common. All of these Windows media players:

• Run on Microsoft Windows 7, Windows XP (with Service Pack 3) and Windows Vista.
• Are capable of Blu-ray 3D playback.
• Offer support of HDMI 1.4.
• Can convert 2D video to 3D.
• Achieve very high picture quality during BD playback and any distinctions among the video players are practically impalpable on a full HD display. (But this is not exactly the case in regard to upscaling standard definition content or any other content of lower resolution to high definition displays.)
• Support hardware acceleration. This means that decoding calculations are done on the graphics hardware, which enables HD video playback on systems having slow CPUs. Note that hardware acceleration will disable some video processing features because it relegates work to the graphics card driver.
• Work with DTS-HD audio and Dolby TrueHD audio.
• Upscale standard definition / low res video files and DVDs to full HD.
• Support AVCHD video playback. AVCHD is currently the most popular HD video format for video enabled photo cameras and consumer camcorders.
• Offer Remote Control support.
• Enforce content protection and will disable frame capture and clip capture (if applicable) from BDs. Other functions may also be disabled when playing content protected 2D or 3D Blu-ray discs.
• Support player profile 2.0 of BD-Live.
• Allow for several changes of the Blu-ray region code setting (usually limited to 5) inside the BD player software. Not writing the region setting directly in the drive itself uncovers a nice opportunity for turning your PC into a region free Blu-ray player: Windows 7, XP or Vista, two or three different bluray playback software packages and just one BD drive on your computer will do the trick.

Our (3D) Blu-ray player software reviews continue with CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Ultra.

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CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Ultra Review: Blu-ray, DVD & Media Player

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(...continues from Page 1: Introduction to 2012 3D Blu-ray Player Software Reviews)

CyberLink's PowerDVD is the oldest media player in this pack. It is also the first that introduced Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D playback. The current version is the freshly released PowerDVD 12.

In the new edition of their 3D Blu-ray player software, CyberLink have diminished the significance of the monikers TrueTheater HD and TrueTheater 3D for the corresponding upscaling and 2D to 3D converting parts of their video processing engine. In PowerDVD 12 they simply call the whole engine TrueTheater Effects. It is only available when hardware acceleration is disabled though as acceleration relies on the video card driver which is not entirely controlled by the software. TrueTheater Effects offer three notable new features. All of these are pretty nice to have for homemade videos, but we don't recommend them turned on for movies.

First, there is frame rate smoothing which interpolates frames to increase apparent smoothness in movement. This is pretty nice for video, especially home videos, but don't ever turn it on for movies unless you want to make them look like TV. Cinema is shot in 24 frames per second, which induces the strobing effect in object movement and camera pans. Some people call it the dream effect. No reason for anyone to want to get rid of it in a movie, so, again, only use this for home videos. Next, there is a video stabilizer, which attempts to decrease image shaking from handheld cameras. Note that it will cut the borders of the video in order to manage a stable core. Last, there is a denoiser to strip videos from noise. Again, nice for home video, but don't use on movies or you will remove filmic grain from the image.

For some time now CyberLink have put focus on online features. Since version 10 PowerDVD integrates MoovieLive, CyberLink's online movie database and community portal. Initially somewhat lacking in content, this service is now more richly populated. The integration allows the user to post ratings and reviews online and to get context information related to the currently watched movie. There is also a counter taking track how many times a movie has been watched globally. This includes all PowerDVD users and is essentially serving as a popularity rating amongst the PowerDVD community. The Live Comments feature enables status updates to Twitter, Facebook and MoovieLive from within PowerDVD. It is probably most appropriate to use with Twitter as it is closely related to the Twitter paradigm. And for the purists, there are options to turn all these online features off. Publishing to YouTube has been streamlined and you can now publish videos to Facebook. YouTube support has been extended to include 3D videos as well as 2D to 3D conversion for YouTube videos. 2D to 3D support has been made universal, now being extended to Blu-ray playback too. The new version also integrates support for the online music store 7Digital, a DRM free music store with a huge selection of tracks and, coincidentally, our music store of choice. (7Digital integration is supported in selected countries initially; US, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, to be precise.)

As expected, PowerDVD 12 can be integrated with Windows Media Center. In this case it launches a minimalistic interface (the so called Cinema mode), which blends beautifully with WMC. This interface mode is simple, clean and designed to be friendly to remote control use, but nevertheless includes most features of the Classic mode (except files playback). Cinema mode can also be toggled on through an icon in the standard Classic mode interface. The Classic mode itself has been polished and now looks slicker. The media browser also got some new toys and now can rearrange and scale thumbnails. Scaling also extends to actual playback allowing for real time video zoom in and zoom out.

In another move towards integration PowerDVD can now work and cooperate with various devices. Android and iOS devices (smartphones, tablets) can be used as remote controls for PowerDVD 12. Media files and playlists can be synced with Android and Blackberry devices. Syncing will also take care of any format conversions necessary if the mobile device does not support the source format. PowerDVD can also act as both DLNA server and DLNA client and stream from and to devices connected to the home network. Intel WiDi is also supported for wireless streaming to TVs (Blu-ray playback included).

PowerDVD has always been in the forefront amongst commercial video players in terms of format support. Now in a welcome addition there is support for OGG and FLAC audio files (about time, we may say). The new Matroska 3D format MK3D is also supported. And new is support for DTS-HD 7.1 sound from Blu-ray discs. PowerDVD 12 Ultra can now also play from Blu-ray folders, a feature which was previously unique to ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre. An interesting move toward strengthening its status of a universal media player is the support for various picture RAW file formats from advanced photo cameras. Photo enthusiasts will probably enjoy this.

Follow the link to check for a current CyberLink coupon code.

Our 2012 Blu-ray player software reviews continue with ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5.

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ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 Review: Another All-in-One Media Player

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(...continues from Page 2: CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Ultra Review)

ArcSoft haven't released a new major version of TotalMedia Theatre for more than a year so this part of our 2012 Blu-ray player reviews will partially retell some stuff from last year's article. TMT 5 got some updates during that time though, with optimizations, bug fixes and even some features, so we will cover that.

TotalMedia Theatre 5 was a major update since TMT 3 (version 4 was skipped, thus showing the big leap from version 3). With TMT5 ArcSoft got rid of the multiple editions like Standard, Gold and Platinum and went with just TotalMedia Theatre 5. The others should do well to follow this and unify their offers. The most important addition to TMT 5 was the support of Blu-ray 3D. The Sim3D engine, which is doing the conversions from 2D to 3D, was improved and optimized. After the latest updates the upscaling engine SimHD now includes support for OpenCL on AMD graphics cards (NVIDIA's parallel computing architecture CUDA was already previously supported on NVIDIA hardware). And similar to CyberLink's TrueTheater Effects engine, SimHD includes video post-processing features like noise reduction and framerate smoothing.

ArcSoft have been carefully watching CyberLink's love affair with the Internet. Their online venture though is in a slightly different direction and is mostly focused on YouTube. TotalMedia Theatre 5 can serve as a YouTube browser and player. It allows searches for particular videos and access to the Most Popular and Featured channels. The user can also link and share the currently playing YouTube video to their profile on Facebook.

The user interface of TotalMedia Theatre also got more minimalistic and slicker, and thus feels more streamlined. An elegant interactive grid of thumbnails called Magic View (check the screenshot), which is essentially a very nice media browser, allows browsing all the video lists: user playlists, UPnP media servers, YouTube, the library. You can preview media directly on the grid. A beautiful feature that can also be switched off if you get dizzy by awesomeness like this. There is a Smart Menu feature simulating the pop-up menu of BD movies for DVDs and video files. It enables the user to bookmark scenes or search in IMDB for information about a particular movie in addition to the usual subtitles, audio and chapters options. The integration with Windows Media Center is also improved. It is abundant of features and trouble free.

TotalMedia Theatre 5 added support for various file formats, most notably FLAC, WTV and AVCHD 3D, making it a pretty decent dedicated media player. It also has a pretty extensive and useful subtitles system with manual subtitles selection for video files (unlike PowerDVD's auto subtitles) and What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get positioning of the subtitles. It was also the first Blu-ray player software to include BDMV support (playback from Blu-ray folders). The latest updates have also added various improvements for MKV playback: audio bitstreaming, chapters support, SRT and VobSub subtitles from the container, plus multiple audio tracks support. A notable unique feature of TMT deserving mention is the support for HD DVD. If you happen to have guessed wrong during the format wars and have an HD DVD collection then TotalMedia Theatre should obviously be your player of choice.

A cool recent addition to TMT 5 is the ability to temporarily switch the display's refresh rate to match the frame rate of the video source. This means that if your display has 24hz support, TotalMedia Theatre will automatically play Blu-ray discs (and 23.976 fps files) in 24p. Pretty neat. Similarly to CyberLink, ArcSoft have also released Android and iOS apps, which turn mobile devices into remotes for TMT.

One minor annoyance with ArcSoft's video player which keeps presenting itself version after version is the need to reboot Windows in order to finish off the installation of TotalMedia Theatre 5. Yes, you do this once and it is certainly not a big deal, but, hello, this is 2012 and that's a thing you don't endure with neither PowerDVD, nor WinDVD.

Check the link for an active ArcSoft coupon.

Our Blu-ray player software reviews continue with Corel WinDVD Pro 11, Nero 11 Platinum and Roxio CinePlayer with 3D.

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Corel WinDVD Pro 11, Nero 11 Platinum, Roxio CinePlayer with 3D Review

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(...continues from Page 3: ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 Review)

Corel WinDVD Pro 11

Corel have released a new version of their Windows media player WinDVD since our previous Blu-ray player reviews. The company still offers two variants of video playing software: WinDVD 11 and WinDVD Pro 11, with Blu-ray and 3D support only available in the Pro edition.

Corel's WinDVD lacks some of the bells and whistles of PowerDVD and TotalMedia Theatre but Corel have apparently made a serious effort with this version. WinDVD Pro 11 can now convert 2D to 3D and has updated and optimized 3D support. The processing engine has been improved with video stabilization and framerate smoothing. Both have some problems though. Smoothing introduces some weird artefacts, probably interpolation related, most noticeable around patterns in moving shots. Stabilization occasionally creates lateral jumps in the picture with the default lateral stabilization setting. WinDVD 11 also adds support for MKV, MP4 and FLV formats and for playlists.

Corel now have their own online service FlixFinder, which is integrated in WinDVD. It does meta searches in movie streaming services. Currently these include Amazon, Hulu and Netflix. This allows to compare prices, select the best price and watch the movie immediately.

New users are taken care of with in-software Starter Guide, video tutorials and links to a dedicated Vimeo channel. It seems with this version of WinDVD Corel have also tried more aggressively to gain market share. The list price has been lowered to $79.99 and a free copy of WinZip Pro is added as a bonus at the time of writing of this review in the beginning of 2012. The boxed version also includes a pair of 3D glasses.

Other notable features of WinDVD Pro 11 include: uncluttered and clean interface; multitude of power management options for battery control on notebooks; a time-stretch function to squeeze in the end of the movie you're watching in limited time situations; PAL TruSpeed - an option to play sped up 24-to-25 fps PAL videos at their true speed with automatic correction of audio pitch; parental control; clip capture.

Nero 11 Platinum / Nero Kwik Blu-ray

Nero used to offer a Blu-ray playback plug-in for some of their applications. Things are much more simple now: in order to get BD support you need their flagship application suite Nero 11 Platinum. The suite includes Nero Kwik Media for media browsing, sharing on Facebook and syncing with Android devices, Nero Video for basic video editing, Nero Burning Rom for burning discs (including Blu-ray discs), Nero Recode for transcoding various media formats and ripping DVD discs, Nero BackItUp for files backup.

BD playback here should really be thought of as a bonus. That is, you should be getting Nero for their other applications and not for the BD playback alone. Nero doesn't support 3D (including Blu-ray 3D), nor does it support any HD audio formats. Also, note that Blu-ray playback is not included in the free trial so you are not able to test it before buying.

Update:

To confirm the trend of frequent changes in the Blu-ray software world, a new option for BD playback appeared just before publishing this article. It seems that now Nero 11, Nero Multimedia Suite 10 Essentials, Nero Video 11 and Nero Kwik Media can also play Blu-ray movies with the additional purchase of Nero Kwik Blu-ray. You can check this opportunity directly in Nero's store cause it seems there is not detailed information about Nero Kwik Blu-ray at the time of this writing. Our advice to think of Nero's Blu-ray disc playback only as an added bonus to other Nero's applications remains. But if you plan to buy one of the mentioned Nero products or already own one of them you can consider getting Nero's BD software player too cause the price for this addition won't be too high. Even if it's not as good as its competitors and you decide to buy a better video player you can still use Nero's as an option for playing Blu-rays with region codes different than your regular discs.

Roxio CinePlayer with 3D

This paragraph is here to inform that Roxio's CinePlayer that used to be a 3D Blu-ray player is currently only a 3D player. We don't know exactly why Roxio do not offer support for BD playback in their CinePlayer anymore but it could do something with the fact that Corel has recently bought Roxio. There is still 3D video support in CinePlayer with 3D, as the name suggests, so if you happen to be just after a cheap 3D video player and don't care for the lack of Blu-ray playback support too much (although why would you be reading an article comparing Blu-ray player software then?), this inexpensive video playing program may actually be a good option. Also have in mind that Roxio CinePlayer offers RealD 3D support so it is a possible choice if you are looking for cheap RealD 3D player software too.

To look for available discounts of WinDVD or Nero's products check here.

Let's complete our 2012 reviews of Blu-ray playback software with comparison table and conclusion.

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Blu-ray Software Player Reviews 2012: Comparison and Conclusion

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(...continues from Page 4: Corel WinDVD Pro 11, Nero 11 Platinum & Roxio CinePlayer with 3D Reviews)

Comparison and general impressions

Performance was once again tested on the computer system we used for our 2011's Blu-ray player reviews. It is equipped with Intel i5-430m CPU, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics video card, 4GB DDR3 RAM and MS Windows 7 OS. We actually used the same disc for the 2012's tests, so the result can be compared with last year's (bear in mind that some error of measurement surely exists).

	PowerDVD	TMT	WinDVD
CPU load1	9.0%	6.6%	11.2%
Loading times2	4:12s	9:13s	9:28s
Upscale to HD	Yes	Yes	Yes
2D to 3D	Yes	Yes	Yes
Blu-ray 3D	Yes	Yes	Yes
WMC integration	Yes	Yes	No
HDMI 1.4	Yes	Yes	Yes
Time stretch	Yes	Yes	Yes
Online features	Lots	Some	Some
.mkv support	Yes	Yes	Yes
FLAC support	Yes	Yes	No
Blu-ray folders	Yes	Yes	No
DLNA	Yes	No	No
HD DVD	No	Yes	No
Mobile remote	Yes	Yes	No
Free trial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Built-in updates check	Yes	Yes	Yes
Price3	$99.95	$99.99	$79.99

1. Average CPU load during playback of MPEG-4 AVC stream with hardware acceleration on.
2. Average BD loading times based on 5 measurements with each Blu-ray software player.
3. Regular price; various promos or discounts may apply.

Blu-ray playback quality is good with all three players. Image quality is indistinguishable between them due to decoding being done by the graphics card driver.

Funnily, the problem with WinDVD we mentioned last year manifested itself again. At some point during testing WinDVD refused to run in full HD resolution and started requesting a change to lower screen resolution on startup, then quitting. From then on, this happened on each and every start of WinDVD when there was a Blu-ray disc inserted in the Blu-ray drive. TotalMedia Theatre has obviously been polished in the updates following the initial release of version 5 because there weren't any glitches whatsoever this time around. The table even shows some small performance increase, probably due to optimizations. PowerDVD got a major version update recently and this shows in occasional slight lag in the options menu. No crashes or apparent bugs though. On top of smooth playback PowerDVD 12 Ultra impressively does quick fast forwarding (also on Blu-rays) most notable when dragging the movie playback position on the timeline. None of the others can boast about that. It is worth mentioning that PowerDVD and TMT tend to get updated more often than WinDVD, which may result in fewer problems (if any) with newer Blu-ray discs.

In terms of upscaling PowerDVD still looks most pleasing when software upscaling is used. It is a bit subjective, but to these eyes here this is the case. So if you watch a lot of DVDs or standard definition files it is probably best to get PowerDVD 12 Ultra. With hardware acceleration enabled the differences between all of the software Blu-ray players vanish and as already mentioned it is better to have any post-processing options in the video card driver's control panel disabled. Image "enhancements" like oversharpened picture, plasticky faces or edge enhancement may appear otherwise.

Conclusion

It is once again a tough call between CyberLink's PowerDVD and ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre. On the other hand, things are simple: both are pretty good, so you can't go wrong with either. Nevertheless, we can safely recommend PowerDVD 12 to online addicts or people who like to have lots of features available, and TotalMedia Theatre 5 to the purists or anyone who finds PowerDVD's online expansion bloated. Everyone else will most likely do fine with either of them, but if you can't make a choice yet better have another look at the dedicated paragraphs: maybe there is something you've overlooked in our reviews which can help choosing the best Blu-ray player software for your particular needs. For users whose main consideration is price, Corel's WinDVD Pro 11 may be a solution although it's not considerably cheaper than its competitors and it's not as inexpensive as last year's cheapest offering in the face of the retired Roxio CinePlayer BD with 3D.

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CyberLink Coupon Code for PowerDVD 12, ArcSoft Coupon for TotalMedia Theatre 5, Corel WinDVD Promo, 2012 Blu-ray Software Bundles

For 2012 reviews of (3D) Blu-ray player software follow the link.

Since free Blu-ray software players do not exist yet the closest thing that comes to them is purchasing a BD playback software package at a discounted price. Unfortunately, we can't hope the situation with the unavailability of free players to be changed soon but happily enough the companies developing Blu-ray player software offer promotional coupon codes quite often. As of 2012 the regular prices vary between $80 and $100 depending on the product but with a good discount code you can succeed to buy a video player even for $40. And if it happens that you come across such a substantial promotion of our top choices for a BD player, PowerDVD 12 Ultra and TotalMedia Theatre 5, you should not hesitate to take advantage of it.

So, below we will list the discount codes we stumble upon during year 2012 having something to do either with a particular software BD player or with another product of the same manufacturer. Note that all of the video players (except for Nero's) support Blu-ray 3D playback. We'll try to keep these coupon codes recent and most of the time they should work.

CyberLink coupon code (PowerDVD 12 review)

Visit CyberLink's website to get PowerDVD 12 Ultra, PowerDVD Mobile and PowerDVD Remote with $30 discount. CyberLink have added to this package also MediaEspresso as a bonus for free. You can also save $10 on PowerDirector 10.

Additionally, an old promotion for various former versions of CyberLink's software products seems to be still running. It includes PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D at 25% reduced price and it is also valid for upgrades to PowerDVD 12 as well as for other CyberLink software.

ArcSoft coupon (TotalMedia Theatre 5 review)

We are not aware of a particular ArcSoft coupon or discount code for TotalMedia Theatre 5 right now. You can visit ArcSoft's website and see if there isn't a recent promotion because promotional offers valid even for just a day are not an unusual practice for ArcSoft. There is a new coupon code, ARCGREEN, valid through March 31, 2012 which reduces the retail price of TMT 5 by 30%. Also the coupon code ARCCJLINK has been extended beyond its initial expiration date so do not miss to try it if anything else doesn't work. It should give you a hefty 25% discount.

And here is some recent news. As of March 2012 ArcSoft introduced bundled products. This means if you need more than a single product from the company you can get a bundle at a significantly reduced prices. For example, ArcSoft Media Pack Ultimate includes TotalMedia Theatre 5, Panorama Maker 6, MediaConverter 7.5 and ShowBiz 5 and gives an overall discount of 40%.

Corel promo (WinDVD Pro 11 review)

Corel currently offer 25% discount on their BD player software WinDVD Pro 11. You can also check Corel's Special Offers section for coupons valid for other products.

Nero discount codes

As you've probably learned from our reviews Nero do not offer a self-contained Blu-ray software player. They also do not offer a 3D Blu-ray player program. For discounts concerning Nero 11 Platinum Suite as well as other of their (Blu-ray capable) products, you should visit Nero's website (prices are almost constantly lower than their retail counterparts). A cool bonus is that you can apply the coupon code AW-G720-Q7QH for a further 20% discount of Nero 11 Platinum cost. This voucher is valid until March 31, 2012.

ACDSee Pro 5 and ACDSee Photo Manager 14 Release Announcement

This is a brief inspection of the latest release of the two ACDSee photo management solutions ACDSee Pro 5 and ACDSee Photo Manager 14. ACD Systems keep releasing new versions of their photo management software in several month long periods. This is simultaneously nice since it helps providing new features over a short space of time and a bit frustrating because the fans of ACDSee software are in a situation to update their products too often. For good or for bad, below are the new features included in both of the ACDSee photo editing software products.

ACDSee Pro 5 photo management and photo editing software

• Split-toning - with this feature you can tone differently parts of your picture, for example, add a tinted color to shadows and another one to highlights.
• Smarter Sharpening - allows you to focus the sharpening effect on edges and textures of the photograph rather than editing non-textured areas.
• Drawing Tools - with drawing tools you can add shapes/lines as circles, squares, arrows, etc. to attract attention to particular elements in the image. (You can also adjust the width, feathering and blending of the brush to create subtle or dramatic drawing effects.)
• Dodge and Burn - this tool allows you to target highlights, midtones or shadows for lightening or darkening and gives you the possibility to add vibrance selectively and to saturate or desaturate areas.
• Special Effects - the Special Effects palette allows you to apply and fine-tune the following new effects: Lomo effect for applying an edgy, retro feel to the images; Orton effect to make your pictures look pastel-like and ethereal; Collage effect to turn your photos into a collage of prints.
• Remove Metadata tool - provides an opportunity to protect the details related to your camera settings, locations and equipment by editing EXIF and IPTC metadata information out of your files.
• Batch Export tool - allows you to make presets for exporting groups of images to specified folders, formats, file names, color spaces and dimensions.
• Color Labels - offer the possibility to group and organize your photos without separating them in different folders by assigning a particular color to a particular stage of your workflow process (available also in ACDSee 14).

ACDSee Photo Manager 14

• Map view and Geotagging Support - this feature comes from the previous version of ACD Systems' professional photo management software ACDSee Pro 4 and allows you to organize or find your pictures by location. You can use the location of photos coming from GPS-enabled cameras or add location info yourself. You are able to use the map for zooming in and finding all of the photos taken at a certain location.
• Special Effects - the new pre-set special effects here are the already mentioned ones above (in ACDSee Pro 5 section): Collage effect, Lomo effect and Orton effect.
• Custom Metadata Panel - allows you to use custom views in order to see only the metadata that is meaningful to you.
• Color labels - allow you to tag your images with colors in order to mark their stage in the workflow process (like in ACDSee Pro 5).
• Drawing Tools - with these you can draw by hand or select from a predefined lines and shapes in order to draw attention to specific part of your images.
• Online features - ACDSee online features now make it possible to post photo albums on Facebook, email albums and tweet links to albums. RAW format images can be shared too.

For a full product description or if you want to get a free trial copy or directly to buy ACDSee Photo Manager 14 or ACD Systems' professional photo management software in the face of ACDSee Pro 5, visit ACDSee's website.

Free Blu-ray Player Software / Region-Free Bluray Player? Forget it!

Understandably, there are a lot of people searching for free Blu-ray player software or region free Blu-ray player. Often people are looking for free Blu-ray 3D players too. And while it is clear that there are not any standalone players for free similarly to all other hardware devices on the market, the answer concerning both software and region-free players is not obvious. So, here is the current situation.

Free Blu-ray Player Software

There is not any BD player software that is free. At least, not a legal one. And it is valid for all of the markets: Windows, Unix, Mac, etc. The not so pleasant reason behind this fact is that the founding companies and patent holders (Sony, Philips and Panasonic own most of the patents concerning the Bluray disc technology) still require license fees for any kind of BD related device (player or recorder), disc or software and these fees affect any hardware or software unit that has been manufactured. There are some BD drives that come equipped with OEM software for BD playback but usually, OEM software versions are stripped of many features and they are hardly ever updated. Since there are not free Blu-ray player software programs, the only option, if you don't want to become a software "pirate", is to get a commercial software package. You can check which are the available players on the market here. Their prices currently range from $50 to $100 with frequent significant discounts. You can also download free trial versions of the 2 most popular BD player software programmes by looking for Cyberlink PowerDVD 12 Ultra and ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5.

Region Free Blu-ray Player

Similarly to the case with the free software BD players, there are not any region-free or multi-region Bluray players for sale. The reasoning behind the existence of BD regions does not seem very comprehensible. There are probably some questionable benefits for the movie studios but the region codes are definitely a big problem for any devoted BD fan around the world cause it may happen that a movie is released only in a particular Blu-ray region or that a release for another region is better than the one for yours. So, while there are not any out-of-the-box multi region solutions, you can still explore the following links and read a couple of software region free Blu-ray player suggestions as well as a couple of hacks for dedicated standalone players.

Free Blu-ray 3D Players

As you should have already guessed there are also not free software players for 3D BDs. The reason is again due to the existence of patent holders. Concerning the playback of Blu-ray 3D discs, if you own a standalone 2D BD player but it does not happen to be Sony PlayStation 3 chances are you won't be able to turn it into a 3D player. The cause is that 3D requires considerably more computational power than 2D and older standalone players do not have it (except for Sony's PS3). If you've purchased a software player for playback of 2D movies in the past, you have better chances to use it for 3D playback too, either with a relatively cheap software upgrade or without doing anything. Of course, for 3D playback you will also need additional (expensive) hardware like 3D glasses and monitor. Yes, evil never comes alone...

Region Free Blu-ray Player Software and Hardware Hacks

Introduction (or why would you need a region free Blu-ray player)

If you are a movie buff you may have already experienced the annoyance caused by not being able to play a Blu-ray disc in your player due to region restrictions. Of course, the answer to the question Are Blu-ray players region free? is negative. The Blu-ray region code policy comes from the dark ages before information globalization and somehow it has managed to sneak into modern times. Sarcasm aside, the system of the Blu-ray region codes is in a way inherited from DVDs but with less number of separate areas. Back then standard definition reigned and the notion of having different discs for NTSC and PAL regions was at least technically relevant. This is not the case with high definition movies. TV sets around the world do NOT differ intrinsically in their high definition capabilities (and BD playback in particular). So the idea of these restrictions now is simply to enable movie studios to differentiate content and prices by geographical area.

While this is (arguably) good for the studios and their business, it is a pain in the ass for dedicated movie fans on account of at least two reasons:

• Editions of the same movie sometimes have differences in specific regions, which means you may happen to live in the area with the crappier edition, which kinda sucks.
• Some high quality Bluray discs are only available (and coded) in a single area. For example, movie fans' darling Criterion only ever releases BDs in North America (region A). On the other hand, European publishers like BFI, Eureka, etc. release movies coded in region B (Europe).

Some studios (Paramount and Universal) are good enough to release their titles as region-free, but most movie companies either release region-locked discs only, or a mix of locked and region-free titles.

Back in DVD times this annoying situation was eventually solved with the introduction of region-free (also known as multi-region or codefree) players, which were able to play DVDs from all over the world. So what can you do to eliminate this frustration in the case of BDs?

Again, just to get it out of the way, there is not any region free Blu-ray player out-of-the-box. Manufacturers of BD players are required to enable their products to play only discs coming from the area they sell the product in and region-free (multi-region) titles. Discs coded for other areas are not supported. That said, there are solutions or hacks for both BD player software (like Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra, ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre, etc.) users and for fans of hardware BD players (for some products, at least).

Region free Blu-ray player software for Windows 7, XP and Vista systems

In PC systems with BD drives Blu-ray region codes are checked only by the software player, and NOT by the optical drive itself. Blu-ray player software products typically allow for up to 5 changes in their settings menus before finalizing the region code. There is an important consequence stemming from the fact that the drive itself does not verify region codes: you can have more than one software player installed on your computer and each could be set to a DIFFERENT code.

And this presents the first solution (albeit not very elegant) to the region free Blu-ray player problem in the software case: you can buy two (or even three) different BD playing packages and have one set for region A and another for region B (or region C, if you so desire). For example, suppose your primary region is A (North America), but you also want to be able to play B (Europe) discs. Then you can have PowerDVD set to reg. A and TotalMedia Theatre (or Corel WinDVD, etc.) set to reg. B. This is, actually, a viable solution to make your Blu-ray player region free (multiregion) capable, especially if you buy a cheaper software player as your secondary one (that could be Corel WinDVD).

There is another software solution to perform a Blu-ray region hack. Its legal transparency is vague, so use the following tip at your own discretion. Once again, this follows from the fact that optical drives in PC systems do not verify region codes and only software does. This means that if the software is forced to "think" that the region code change count has not expired (is less than 5), the user will be able to change the Blu-ray regions indefinitely. Different software players protect this counter by different means, but as is often the case, some kind people have automated the process of "cheating" the software and turning it into a multi region Blu-ray player. Blu-ray Region Tray Tool is a very simple (and free) program by ChiDragon running in Windows tray which allows you to change the Bluray region setting in PowerDVD Ultra 7, 8, 9 and 10 (no support for PowerDVD Ultra 11 at the time of this writing) and TotaMedia Theatre 3 and 5 at will, thus enabling you to bypass the change count limit in these packages. Here is a link to a more detailed description.

For a complete list of all software BD players available on the market check our reviews of Blu-ray player software.

Our review continues with Part 2 dedicated to region free Blu-ray player hardware.

Region Free Blu-ray Player Software and Hardware Hacks, Part 2

(...continues from Part 1 of our region free Blu-ray player reviews introducing the main issues caused by the existence of Blu-ray region codes and suggesting a couple of software solutions.)

Region free Blu-ray players (hardware)

As mentioned in the previous part, there is not a region free Blu-ray player out-of-the-box due to restrictions forced by the Blu-ray Disc Association. And unlike HTPCs which use Blu-ray player software for playback, getting your hardware player to read discs from multiple regions requires more work or may be impossible, depending on the model. There are two general ways to transform BD playing devices into region-free / multi-region players (more or less).

The first method utilizes the fact that sometimes manufacturers (usually unintentionally, for testing or whatever purposes) leave "doors" in their firmware which permit the user to change the region code (or to unlock the device thus making it region-free) by entering a specific sequence of remote control button presses at specific times. This process is usually tedious and may require a lot of tries plus precise timing. In addition, once such sequences appear on the web, subsequent firmware updates tend to disable them as manufacturers get alerted and address that. So you either install the update and lose the region-free (multiregion) capability, or stick with older firmware and get locked out of any features and fixes provided by the firmware updates.

The first BD players which were notable for being able to turn into "region free" were Momitsu BDP-799 and Momitsu BDP-899. Users used to utilize the above method to unlock them. Various Momitsu clones are still available under different brand names. For example, Sherwood BDP-5004 is a Momitsu BDP-899 clone. It can be programmed to specific Blu-ray regions by the following remote button sequences:

87510+1 for region A

87510+2 for region B

87510+3 for region C

(And it seems that 9735 can replace 8751 in the beginning of the sequence.)

The selected region will stay active until the device is switched off. After that the player reverts to the original region code. These sequences also make the Blu-ray player region-free in terms of DVDs (and it stays so on power off, unlike the Blu-ray region code selection). Also, keep in mind that firmware updates from 2010 or later disable this "hack". You may need to downgrade the firmware if your device has a newer firmware version preinstalled and you want to turn it into a region free Blu-ray player.

The second hardware method uses modchips to cheat the device into "thinking" that Blu-ray region code verification is successful. In general, this method results in a much more pleasant user experience compared to the first Blu-ray region hack described above. Another advantage is that the modchip is transparent to the firmware, so future firmware updates can be installed safely with all the benefits that follow. Downsides include voiding the warranty (this may not apply for newer chips which are solderless and can be easily installed and removed) and higher price - chips usually go for $50-$150, depending on whether you buy a player with preinstalled modchip or install the chip yourself.

OPPO BDP-93 is the choice of many enthusiasts who want to have a multi-region Blu-ray player, and also the preferred BD player choice of the AVSForum hive-mind. It combines exceptional video and audio quality with tons of features, including Netflix streaming, Blockbuster on Demand, Vudu HD support and cinema-like 24p playback (if your TV set supports it, of course). Audiophiles may want to get the highest model, OPPO BDP-95, which has high-end analog audio output in addition, plus some extras (for double the price). But if you connect your audio through HDMI you better stay with OPPO BDP-93. You can mod the player yourself, for example with the beautifully made solderless kits from bluraychip.dk (free shipping worldwide, last time I checked but better ask for availability before ordering). Installation is easy and painless even for people with zero tech skills. Or, alternatively, you can get yourself a pre-modded region-free player, for example OPPO BDP-93, which will cost you a bit extra. And you can get a premodded OPPO BDP-95 too but it's really expensive.

A cheaper region free Blu-ray player alternative, although not as highly regarded as the OPPO BDP-93, is LG BD550. Similarly to the OPPO, it supports Netflix and Vudu plus Netcast, Roxio CinemaNow and YouTube. LG BD570 is the same as BD550 but with Wi-Fi connectivity.

This ends our reviews of software and hardware hacks that allow you to make your Blu-ray player multi-region capable. If we become aware of any new solutions in the future we will gladly add them to the list of possible options.

Hardware Vs. Software Blu-ray Player: Which Is Better?

In order to build a complete Home Theater system you need media reproduction hardware, i.e., video and audio playback modules, and some equipment to feed these modules with content. Due to the complexity of the video signal compared to the audio, the sound experience has been considerably ahead of its visual counterpart for many years: with the appearance of the compact disc, we have had digital audio since the dawn of the 1980's and various audio technologies are almost perfect nowadays offering high fidelity sound and surround sound systems with multiple channels.

A couple of decades later, the visual side of the hardware has begun to catch up: big high definition two dimensional displays and projectors are now widely adopted, a new generation of 3D displays is gaining speed fast, and good Home Theater experience is more popular than ever.

Conventionally, the media playing equipment has been represented by a box positioned near the TV: either a videotape player, a Laserdisc player, a DVD player, or as of recently a Blu-ray player (or HD DVD player for people not having enough luck to make the right choice in the HD format wars). But over the years, the personal computer has begun to establish a new trend as being an all-in-one machine for education, work and entertainment (like movie playing, browsing, gaming, etc.). A similar approach towards convergence has been shown with the introduction of the newest generation of video gaming consoles. They have moved closer to the PCs in terms of functionality as being advanced media entertainment devices rather than just boxes for gaming.

So, the good old video playing hardware box is more and more often substituted by software running on an already available PC at home. Indeed, the media player software has a bunch of advantages and since the latest broadly popular storage media is the Blu-ray disc, let's look at some of the better sides of the Blu-ray player software over its box / hardware counterpart (of course, pretty much the same is valid for the DVD playing options):

• A software Blu-ray playing product could be considered a part of an all-in-one media entertainment solution.
• BD playback software is to a big extent independent from the particular underlying hardware. And as the desktop PC hardware is modular by nature, this brings three more advantages out.
• A Blu-ray software player can be easily updated with new functionality. Any new features could come with a downloadable software update. The recent introduction of Blu-ray 3D format is a suitable example.
• If you want or need to change your PC's optical drive it will be cheaper compared to a dedicated hardware Bluray player full change.
• If there is a need of more processing capacity with the appearance of new BD profiles in the future then only a CPU or/and a graphics card update can be easily made in the case of a personal computer.
• BD playback software comes with more features compared to any Blu-ray hardware player.
• Since most of the software Bluray players offer free trials, you can test them before making a purchase.
• As most of us already have a PC, the additional price of the software Blu-ray player is lower compared to a dedicated hardware box. Blu-ray player software could be bought for prices as low as $50 and often even for less if you take advantage of a promotional Blu-ray software offer.

Some possible disadvantages of the software players include:

• In the majority of cases, you will need your PC to be situated in the living room. And this may be a problem.
• Compared to a dedicated hardware player, preparation to watch a movie will take a little bit longer.

Regardless of its minor disadvantages, Blu-ray player software will gain more and more popularity as if you already have a computer with a BD drive, you can download a software player instantly, cheaply and you don't need to purchase any additional hardware. In case you are looking for a media playing product like this, you can read our 2012 Windows Blu-ray player reviews in order to make the best choice for your particular needs.

For more software reviews examine our Review Maze.

CyberLink Released PowerDVD 11

For information about the more recent CyberLink PowerDVD 12 look here: PowerDVD 12 review

Today, CyberLink launched PowerDVD 11, the successor of the most widespread and award-winning DVD and Blu-ray player PowerDVD 10. You can find our latest review of PowerDVD 10 along with reviews of 4 other Blu-ray player software products here. In the current article we will introduce the new features of PowerDVD 11 and its progress towards becoming a universal player for various media playback.

PowerDVD 11 is intended to be your general player for viewing DVD and Blu-ray movies, photos, videos and listening to music. Similarly to its predecessors version 11 continues its expansion toward online experience and in addition to the playback of online content, it offers support for transfer and playback of content from smart devices. Whatever niche there is digital entertainment involved in, CyberLink's video player tries to cover it. Of course, it does not play "any media format from any device" as it is advertised but this is also valid for any other media player so let's forgive CyberLink for the exaggeration.

While not being a tremendous upgrade over its previous version, PowerDVD 11 has some new stuff to offer and here are a few highlights:

• You can play and transfer content from portable devices. Support is offered for Android-based devices and for Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
• You can use your smart device as a wireless remote control for PowerDVD 11 player with the help of a device application called PowerDVD Remote. You are able to control remotely the playback of your DVD and Blu-ray movies, videos, photos and music. You can zoom or rotate photos from a distance as well as using your device in the form of a wireless mouse pad.
• You can use the player for photo viewing of JPG, TIFF, BMP, PNG, RAW, etc.
• You have the possibility to play media files from remote sources either being DLNA servers or social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. You can also upload videos to YouTube directly from PowerDVD as well as commenting on photos and downloading them from Facebook and Flickr.
• The 3D features have been enhanced. You can play Blu-ray 3D movies and there is a native 3D video support.
• You can see significant improvements in the 2D to 3D conversion introduced with the previous release. Conversion of 2D Blu-ray discs is not supported although it has been expected but the feature is working for DVDs and video files including 1080p M2TS so the 2D to 3D Blu-ray conversion could be added in the near future. You can also apply the 2D to 3D conversion to images.
• PowerDVD 11 uses TrueTheater™ to upscale all your video content to near HD quality.
• You can make your home videos look better with the help of TrueTheater. It is able to remove noise, to enhance details and brightness and to stabilize shaky picture.
• There is new Ultra-fast Instant Seek that allows you to search your DVDs very fast for a scene you want to watch.
• As with the previous releases, version 11 offers a very vast video format support, including MKV (H.264), WTV, FLV (H.264), MOV, External Subtitle, 3GP and 3G2.
• BDMV (Blu-ray folders) playback is here once again after being removed in a previous version.
• Device auto-detection has been improved.

CyberLink offer PowerDVD in 3 versions as usual. PowerDVD 11 Standard is the cheapest one with the price of US $49.95 and of course it is the version with most limited options. If you want 3D support you will need at least PowerDVD 11 Deluxe which is priced at US $69.95 and for Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D playback you have to purchase the most expensive PowerDVD 11 Ultra version for US $99.95. All versions including upgrade possibilities at reduced prices and free trials are available on CyberLink's website. CyberLink's PowerDVD Remote is available at the Apple App Store and Android Market. It costs US $4.99 for PowerDVD Standard version users and it is free for users of PowerDVD Ultra and Deluxe versions.

Check for PowerDVD 11 discount codes by following the link.

Browse our Review Maze to read more software reviews.

ACDSee Pro 4: Professional Photo Management Software

Note: As of October, 2011 ACDSee Pro 5 and ACDSee Photo Manager 14 have been released.

ACDSee Pro 4 has become already available on the market so here is a short introduction of the product. ACDSee Pro 4 is full-featured photo management software for professionals and advanced photography users. According to its manufacturer, the software combines the best characteristics of ACDSee Pro 3 with a variety of new features and it brings together all the tools you need to treat your digital photos in the best possible way. You can view, manage, process, edit and publish your images online by using just one photo management software application. You are able to organize your photos, improve them with stunning visual effects for best perception results and achieve all you want with ease and quickly.

ACD Systems International Inc. has been one of the leading photo management software providers for both, amateur and professional photographers, since 1993. The company has won multiple awards for products like ACDSee Photo Manager, ACDSee Photo Editor, FotoSlate Photo Print Studio, etc. ACD Systems gained a loyal following offering one of the first shareware software products and a very good JPEG decoder in the 1990's. They have offices in the USA and Canada and a really large user base including millions of customers. So here is some more information on their new product (you can read about its previous reincarnation ACDSee Pro3 and ACDSee Photo Manager 12 here).

Some of the new features of ACDSee Pro 4 include:

• Geotagging and map view support;
• Creation of custom metadata views;
• Creation of metadata presets;
• Customizable access to your external editing software;
• Correction of fringing and chromatic aberration (see the picture on the left);
• Vingnette correction;
• Automatic upload of your photos to ACDSee online account.

Some of the improved features of ACDSee Pro 4 according to ACD Systems International Inc. are:

• Performing of high-quality RAW image decoding;
• Organizing and controlling your photos flexibly using file folders, metadata, ratings, keywords and custom categories;
• Adding and modifying IPTC 1.1 info to groups of images;
• Process RAW, JPEG and other format images in a non-destructive way in order to perfect color, exposure, geometry and clarity, while always having the possibility to adjust settings;
• Processing of RAW images while having complete control and precision;
• Creating slide shows and screen savers from your photos.

ACDSee Pro 4 photo manager is advertised like being the latest in DSLR photography management and it seems like a good professional photo management software that could be used by advanced amateur photographers as well. If its price is a little bit too high then you can consider buying ACDSee Photo Manager 12 which is more targeted towards amateur users. Either application is a good option but it's better first to think what your particular requirements are and make your decision based on them. And if it happens you are a Mac user, have in mind there is a Pro version for Mac too.

Examine our maze of reviews to discover more product reviews and articles.

3D Glasses: Passive Polarized Glasses and Active Shutter Glasses

3D movies are shot by recording "two" films, one for each eye, slightly displaced. To recreate the 3D effect during projection, each eye needs to see only its "own" film and not the other. There are a few technologies achieving that which we will cover in a couple of articles.

IMAX 3D, RealD 3D, Dolby 3D and XpanD 3D are the most widespread cinema theater technologies for 3D movie projection. All of these, as well as home theaters, utilize 3D glasses to make the eye see only its "own" share of the picture. 3D glasses are variations of two kinds: passive (color or polarized) glasses and active (shutter) glasses. Technically, the older anaglyph red/cyan-plastic-glued-on-white cardboard glasses that everyone has seen are also passive but they are not really used anymore because they can't produce full color images.

So what's the difference between passive polarized glasses and active shutter glasses?

Polarized glasses have a different polarizing filter on each eye. Images projected at the screen are also polarized through opposite direction filters for the left and the right eye. When coupled with the 3D glasses, this results in each glass only filtering in the corresponding image even though both are on the screen at the same time.

The color passive glasses used currently in some cinemas (notably in Dolby 3D) are in a way glorified anaglyph glasses. They show "full" color by narrowing the spectra of red, green and blue for one eye and mapping wavelengths of red, blue and green left unused from that first eye to the second eye.

Active shutter glasses take another approach. They need electricity to work, so active 3D glasses in cinema theaters usually have small batteries in them. The glass for each eye has a liquid crystal layer which can be driven either transparent or opaque by applying voltage. The projecting system alternatively shows the frame for the left and the right eye and the glasses alternatively turn the glass for the right and the left eye opaque in sync with that. The synchronization is controlled by wireless signals.

3D for home use mostly favors active shutter glasses over passive 3D glasses. LG are pretty much the only manufacturer pushing passive technology for 3D TVs and PC monitors. Runco also have proprietary passive tech for their projectors. Sony, Panasonic and Samsung are all in the active shutter glasses camp. And they all have teamed with RealD to jointly develop 3D technologies.

So what is the necessary equipment for watching 3D movies at home?

A strangely popular misconception is that pre-existing (old) Blu-ray players don't play 3D movies. An older Blu-ray player will generally only need a firmware update in order to be able to play 3D Blu-ray movies. No hardware changes are required. Most bluray player manufacturers have already released firmware updates for their players. Pretty much all software Blu-ray players also have 3D support in their latest versions. Additionally, no special HDMI cables are needed. Any high speed HDMI cable will do. That is, if a cable can transfer 1080p, then it will also transfer 3D. So the only special necessity is the 3D capable TV (or monitor, or projector) with 3D glasses.

Browse our Maze of Reviews for more (3D) articles and reviews.

Windows Blu-ray Player Software: Introduction to 2011 3D Blu-ray Player Reviews

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These 2011 reviews are now obsolete. Go to the 2012 version here.

Introduction

Last year we did a comparison of the available options for BD playback on Windows PC systems. This article updates our previous Blu-ray player software reviews and clarifies the current situation on the Windows market.

Let's start with the obvious question: are there any free options for Windows Blu-ray playback? The short answer is no and it concerns not only the Windows market. The reason is that the bluray patent holders (that happen to be Sony, Panasonic and Philips) require license fees for any software or hardware unit made. For that matter, there are fees applicable to the manufacturing of actual bluray discs too. Some systems equipped with BD drives come with OEM software for playing bluray discs. But OEM versions tend to be stripped of features and are also rarely updated, if ever.

There are 5 commercial packages offering Windows BD playback. These are Cyberlink's PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D Mark II (become PowerDVD 11 as of April, 2011), ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre 5, Corel's WinDVD 2010 Pro, Roxio's CinePlayer BD with 3D and Nero's Blu-ray Disc Playback plug-in. Most of these companies offer their video playing software in various packages with some functionality missing in the low-end versions, but for BD playback you will always need the high-end variant. For brevity, we will often use the shorter brand name, or even abbreviations, and in all cases this will denote the high-end edition of the respective Blu-ray playback software. For example, PowerDVD will be used instead of PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D Mark II, CinePlayer instead of Cineplayer BD with 3D, etc. Also note that CinePlayer and Nero's plug-in are covered below for comprehensiveness but not actually thoroughly tested because Roxio and Nero do not offer trial versions.

Common features and limitations of all five Blu-ray player software products

Before starting with the particular Windows Blu-ray player reviews, let's mention some of the common features. All players:

• Are compatible with Windows 7 and will also run on Windows Vista or Windows XP.
• Are BD-Live compliant (player profile 2.0).
• Support Blu-ray 3D. In the last months Blu-ray 3D support has become the norm. (Nero excluded)
• Have HDMI 1.4 support. This currently requires high-end graphics cards from nVidia and ATI (Radeon 6000 series), but also spells "future-proof" in regard to support for upcoming 3D displays. (Nero excluded)
• Manage image quality during BD playback that is virtually indistinguishable on a full HD display between the different players. Note that this is not necessarily the case when upscaling lower resolution content to HD.
• Support AVCHD formatted video. AVCHD is the most common HD video format used by consumer camcorders.
• Have hardware acceleration support. In other words, they utilize the available Graphics Card to offload calculations from the CPU to the GPU, which makes HD video playback possible on systems with slower or older CPUs. As a side effect, hardware acceleration will render some video processing options unavailable as it relies on the graphics hardware driver.
• Upscale DVDs and lower resolution video files to full HD.
• Handle Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio.
• Support Remote Control.
• Provide for a limited amount of region setting changes (usually 5) in the software.
• Have content protection implemented and will disable frame capture from BD movies. The same applies to clip capture if available. Other functionality may also be rendered unavailable for 2D or 3D Blu-ray content.

Our Windows Blu-ray player reviews continue with Cyberlink's PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D Mark II Blu-ray player software.

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