The Digital Dolphin (known over at Cdrlabs) wrote this over at another forum (he seems very pro Blu-ray):

from http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/s...374693&page=15

"Anyways, just to keep things straight, I said that HDDVD-R was almost dead. And it still is. Toshiba promises to have the PC burners out in February of 2007, last CES they said September of 2006. When they finally arrive, they will support HDDVD-R recording at 1x and HDDVD playback at 1x, and no support of HDDVD-RW, because they still haven't finished the format on paper yet That's the best they could do. Meanwhile BluRay is sitting at a maximum recording speed of 4x and a maximum playback speed of 5x, not to mention a LOT more media choices. Then there is the fact that BD-Rs are cheaper per GB then HDDVD-Rs, and just because I can, oh yeah, Verbatim just dropped their pricing on their BluRay products, but didn't touch their HDDVD-Rs. "

"The only exclusive studio that went Neuteral was New Line, and they had been HDDVD exclusive. And some places have even noticed that despite the anti-sony propaganda, support within the industry is deffinately a BluRay swing:
http://wesleytech.com/total-hd-means...le-for-hd-dvd/

Originally I had expected that it wouldn't be until the end of this year that a winner would become visible, and I expected a pretty heavy battle until that point. But with TotalHD being adopted so far by only neuteral and HDDVD exclusive studios, it's just one more nail in the HDDVD coffin."

"Well, based on new information, I think HDDVD has now less then 1 year before it's effectively dead. I mean as both movie and blank media format.

I can't give all the reasons yet, but as I'm able to post them I will. I'll start with this:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/l...ss-conference/


New Line was of course, one of the 2 remaining HDDVD exclusive studios... now they are supporting TotalHD, which includes BluRay and DVD.

That leaves Universal and Porn as HDDVD exclusives..."

Of course, porn is showing up in Japan on Blu-ray.

That doesn't surprise me, personally. If all that eventually pans out, it won't even matter if we eventually have a method to backup HD-DVDs. The media will be incredibly expensive and much harder to come by than BD-R/RE, and the burners will be of inferior quality with a very limited selection. Lite-On's 2x Blu-Ray burner is already available in a local store near me, for around $680 CDN... which is a far cry from the $1000+ USD the first Blu-Ray burners cost. In that scenario, even if HD-DVD's more user-friendly features make it the dominant format for movies, it'll never be particularly convenient to back them up.

Personally, I'd rather Blu-Ray take over and adopt a few of HD-DVDs more user-friendly standardizations... but leave the actual technology of the disc the same. The lower production costs of HD-DVD would only have been at the beginning of the generation's useful-life, anyway... and the price we wouldn't have paid in cash would've been paid by being stuck with an inferior media.

AnyHD-DVD would be a program I would be using for watching the original, not for copying the original.

why not when this is possible

An update on AACS decryption:

Blu-Ray AACS has been decrypted. Sure enough, the keys were stored in plain text in WinDVD's memory. However, it is not known if the example decrypted disk is BD+ protected, which may be harder to circumvent.

People have found out how to fix the structures in the <xml> code to allow the copies to play back perfectly (software dvd player only so far).

Programs have already been made to automatically examine the memory dump of the flawed software players to extract the keys.

Key databases are also appearing in many places.

I can't believe how fast the community put together the hacking of this format! GJ.

That's very sweet. I'm hoping to have enough money soon to get a new HDTV. At that point I may start getting interested in HD-DVD. For instance, I may end up getting the HD-DVD drive add on for my xbox 360. So, being able to backup movies, even if I can't yet burn them, would be a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Even better, you can connect the XBOX360 HD drive to your media PC and watch them there.
With AnyHD-DVD running in the background you won't even need a HDCP capable display.

Ohhhh, very nice. Gotta keep saving my pennies for that tv. That'll be really nice!

But the whole reason for high definition movie releases is to get the high definition playback through the proper cable on the proper hi-def tv right? So what is the point of not making not making a hi-def backup if it is not equal in quality to the original? Red laser devices won't do this right? Using a non-HDCP capable display won't do this right? So all the discussion on this thread is not yet about getting "real McCoy" backups yet correct? I'm not complaining ... things seem to be progressing. Just want to be sure I'm understanding correctly...

Thanks,
Whisperer

You can use a high-def display which is not HDCP compliant, e.g. a digital monitor like the Apple Cinema Display.

@whisperer1

I'm not sure I follow exactly what you're saying? First off, "proper cable" is a relative term. HDCP is *NOT* required to get full resolution playback other than in the minds of studios. DVI is perfectly CAPABLE but not allowed because it doesn't support HDCP, for instance. And this thread is talking about FULL quality HD rips. I'm not sure what you mean by "not equal in quality to the original". If you have a software player capable of playing the ripped files, you can play them at full quality on "non-compliant" equipment.

Thanks Tru, Thanks SamuriHL, I guess what I'm asking is whether we are anywhere near the point where we can make a HD backup of an HD original for playing on an HD player on a HDTV? I don't want to playback through a computer.

As far as the cable goes, I thought there was encoding on the HD original releases that wouldn't allow non-interlaced hi-rez playback because the cables with that bandwidth are smart cables and the player-cable combination recognizes the difference between an original and a backup and would not allow full quality playback if the disk in the commercial player was a backup disk rather than an original with the encoding. Am I misinformed?

Sorry not to be here for your answers ... gotta bolt for work. check in later.

Thanks,
Whisperer

Well, the cost of writable media is prohibitive, so, full quality backups that work on stand alone players isn't feasible yet even if it were possible to write them. Plus, to my knowledge, there are no HD-DVDR drives available or affordable at the current time. In any case, I've no personal experience with the current backup method, but, assumably if you could read all the data off the disc, you could put it on a backup disc unencrypted. For now, you can copy it to your hard drive for playback on non-HDCP equipment. And if what Slysoft is, um, "hinting at" is true then we'll be able to play originals on non-HDCP equipment, as well, using AnyHD-DVD. SWEET!

As for the cable issue, part of the copy protection standard for both HD-DVD and BluRay is to require HDCP over HDMI, but, it's not a technical requirement. DVI is more than adequate for displaying full resolution HD content, but, it doesn't support HDCP so the studios won't allow it. That's only partially true as the xbox 360 doesn't CURRENTLY support HDCP but is allowed to playback content at full resolution over component. I think that's part of a deal MS made with the studios but I'm not sure.

With some terrabyte harddisks you can make your own home media server using AnyHD-DVD, CloneCD & Virtual CloneDrive.

HAHAHAHA! Got a few of those handy I can stick in my media PC?! With the price fo drives these days, though, that's not an entirely unrealistic concept. Media PC's ROCK when Slysoft products are running on them.

My problem with the TotalHD format is this: the studios used to have widescreen on one side and full screen on the other. What happened there? They ended up on separate discs now, with a few exceptions. That's what I see happening with TotalHD. There's no reason for a consumer to buy a disc that costs more to have both formats than to buy the format that the consumer needs, either HD-DVD or Blu-ray.

Personally, I think HD-DVD will prevail. But we can only wait and see.