According to a press release sent out today, PowerDVD Ultra is already certified for BD-Video Profile 1.1, BD+, AVCHD and BD-RE 3.0. Adding BD-Live means making it fully 2.0 compatible. "Next-generation" disc features (Picture-in-Picture, networking, interactive BD-J, bookmarks, and advanced disc navigation) are covered. And there's support for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD technologies. In addition, the software has "optimized performance" for graphics cards featuring NVIDIA PureVideo, ATI Avivo and Intel Clear Video technology.

Blu-ray 2.0 discs are coming soon from Sony Pictures, starting with such toe-in-the-water projects as Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and the slightly more respectable The 6th Day, both which include, according to Sony, "exclusive downloadable content that goes beyond what is available on the actual Blu-ray discs." Yup, sounds like a download.

The newest PowerDVD is a free upgrade for people currently using CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra, and $100 for anyone just jumping in. Of course, if you don't want the hassle of building your own BD playback system, the PS3 is still a very attractive option. [CyberLink]

First, install the Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive on your PC using these unofficial drivers. Then buy (or somehow obtain) a copy of CyberLink's PowerDVD Ultra, which supports both HD DVD and Blu-ray. That's it! All done for a price around $300.

Reader James writes in of his own experience:

1) When you simply plug-in the Xbox HD-DVD add-on drive into a PC, the Plug and Play wizard will find the drivers for the HD-DVD drive on the Internet. No need to use "unofficial" drivers.
2) To play HD-DVD's in highest resolution over digital connections, all the components in the chain must be HDCP compatible i.e. you must have a HDCP enabled graphics card and HDCP enabled display.

I have everything up and running and Cyberlink's Ultra is great software!

Thanks James! – Jason Chen

Press Release [CyberLink]