Or, more literally, buying a hardware Blu-ray player unit that only works for 18 months.

It seems incredibly unfair, like buying a CD player that refuses to play CDs after a certain date. In my case, I only had 17 months worth of use from it, but that still doesn't change anything - as unreasonable as their behaviour is, it's not illegal. Cyberlink are knowingly selling software which will become useless after two years of use, but technically they can claim that two years is a long enough time for their software to work properly. I've been in touch with CyberLink as well as the UK's consumer advice service, and it appears there's nothing I can do.

This seems like yet another occasion where the pirates get a better deal than those of us who pay their money to do things legitimately :( Seeing how I legally own a Bluray player, and genuine Bluray discs, is there not any way I can manually update the AACS keys for PowerDVD myself? Their latest version of PowerDVD is $125, and Lord knows how long that would function for.! What's worse is that I purchased PowerDVD in November 2009, meaning I had less than 18 months of trouble free use(!).

Having already spent the cost of a hardware Bluray player ($100+) for their software equivalent, you can imagine I'm pretty reticent about being forced to it again. Even though I've legally bought a Bluray player!Ĭyberlink's solution is to simply buy the latest version of their software. I can't watch Star Wars, I can't watch Indiana Jones, I can't watch Prometheus, I can't watch the new Criterion remaster of Seven Samurai. In my case, this means that many Blurays produced after May 2011 no longer work with my player. My legally purchased copy of PowerDVD is refusing to play Bluray discs made after a certain date:Īstonishingly, this is 'standard practice' for all versions of PowerDVD.

Cyberlink powerdvd 18 update