How to Convert Your HD-DVD Discs to Blu-Ray

eldavojohn writes "Are you one of the few who boarded the HD-DVD Titanic ship headed to the bottom of ocean to join BetaMax? Fret no longer, friend, simply convert those and pretend like you never invested in the wrong technology! All you need is a Windows machine with a fast processor, an HD-DVD drive, a Blu-Ray burner, 30GB of free disk space, at least, though 40GB or more is recommended and an internet connection to download the software! Or you can sit and be the crazy guy who continues to argue that HD-DVD is the superior technology whether it's true or not."

Comments

Get a pen

[CRCulver]

This green marker I just bought at an audiophile shop for only a couple of hundred dollars (it was on sale!) is said to not only convert HD-DVD to Blu-Ray, but straighten the bits out so that my Dolby Surround sounds truly true-to-life. Now it's time to try it out.

Re:Get a pen

[llZENll]

I can suggest another awesome upgrade, this $1700 power cable http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PSPREPC&variation=2.0, upgrade that normal power cable which powers your player and experience true video and audio nirvana, it really does work! Never mind the 500ft of unshielded romex inside your wall, its truley the last 6ft of power cord that does make the difference you will see and hear!

Seriously if I ever see one of these in real life that someone has bought I will bitchslap them.

Re:Get a pen

[NC-17]

Brilliant pebbles. http://machinadynamica.com/machina31.htm

Also, codename turquoise. http://machinadynamica.com/machina34.htm

Yeah... Get out your bitchslapping hand.

Re:Get a pen

[k_187]

The biggest problem with the internet is when you can't tell if the fake things are real or if the real things are fake.

Re:Get a pen

[HAKdragon]

Why would they need to introduce a new version of the Xbox 360? The HD-DVD player for it was an add-on, external drive. All 360s use DVD as the built in drive and as the medium for games.

Re:Get a pen

[RedK]

Bah, 1,793$ power cords are for chumps. This 12', 7,250$ speaker cable pair is what you really need :

http://www.pearcable.com/sub_products_anjou_sc.htm

Re:Get a pen

[JensenDied]

Can you prove that is both real, and a problem?

Re:Get a pen

[shawb]

60Hz (depending on the power source) hum in audio equipment is quite common, and not actually a sign of a bad ground. Removing the ground pin is the wrong way to fix it.

The hum occurs because of an amplified ground loop. A ground loop is formed when the output of a grounded audio device is passed into an amplifier connected to the same ground. Shielded cabling will then ground the chaises of the signal device and the amplifier together, creating a closed loop between the devices and the electrical earth. This closed loop can then build up a 60hz cycle, I believe through induction with the power mains, but have not found a definitive answer. Normally this cycle is not enough to be electrically significant, except it is passed through an amplifier along with the desired signal. Removing the ground pin from one device will indeed open the circuit, preventing the ground loop from being able to cause a hum.

However, as you surmised, disconnecting the ground from an electrical device can be dangerous. The accepted way to open the circuit is by breaking the ground connection between the amplifier and the signal device, generally at the amplifier rather than the signal source. Doing so will essentially eliminate the effectiveness of the cable shielding, but will also eliminate the loud 60hz hum which is generally much louder than any electrical interference you will find. However, the electrical ground of your electronics will not be compromised, saving the equipment and operator from damage in the case of a malfunction.

Re:Get a pen

[h3llfish]

>> disconnecting the ground from an electrical device can be dangerous. Yeah, I found that out the hard way. Back in my younger and stupider rock band days, I got a nice shock on the lips by playing electric guitar and then singing into a mic. It was an old house that didn't have 3 pronged outlets, so we just got those little grey adapters that defeat the ground. It hummed like crazy, and was a bit too "shocky" for my tastes.

I had a conversation with my electrical engineer father, asking him about what might have gone wrong, and after he was done slapping me for being so stupid, he gave me the exact same informative lecture that's in the parent post.

Shawb, I hope you saved the lips of some young rawker somewhere from an unpleasant surprise. An easy way to sidestep the issue is to use a wireless guitar rig... but that introduces a whole new set of issues.

Re:Get a pen

[aim2future]

The hum occurs because of an amplified ground loop.

This reminds me about my first amplifier building project I did when I was 14. The first approach was a combined pre-amplifier and power amplifier.

To get rid of the hum I tried to install several anti-hum loops that should counteract the hum induced by hum-loops.

This succeeded quite well, and I was finally quite pleased with the sound, for a short while... I couldn't understand why it still used so much power and turned hot despite I wasn't playing. When I checked with the oscilloscope I noticed a high amplitude high frequency oscillation. After a short while both power amplifiers self destructed. Now I also understood the reason for some capacitors I had skipped... because those would decrease the bandwidth...

After that I realized that it's quite hard to put both pre- and power ampliefier in the same box due to hum and I built new power amplifiers in a separate box, and I could remove the anti hum loops.

Re:Get a pen

[kingturkey]

That reminds me of an alt text from xkcd:

Fun game: try to post a YouTube comment so stupid that people realize you must be joking. (Hint: this is impossible)

This... news... why?

[wattrlz]

I seem to recall it was possible to dub your beta tapes to vhs back in the day too.

Oh is that all

[Anonymous Coward]

Well as long as thats ALL you need.

I dont have price quotes and I'm too lazy to look them up but I'm pretty sure that Blu-Ray burners run about $500. I have no idea how much an HD-DVD ROM drive would go for, probably pretty reasonable now that its a defunct format.

So unless you bought a copy of every HD-DVD that is out I dont think this is cost effective.

Re:Oh is that all

[gEvil (beta)]

And don't forget that the blank BD media only runs about $15-25 a piece, too. That coupled with the hardware costs for the drives means you'll probably average about $30-40 a pop to replace a $25 disc. Good deal!

Re:Oh is that all

[esocid]

From newegg.com:
HD-DVD drive: US$149.99
Blu-ray DVD burner: US$259.99
Blu-ray DVD: 1xUS$13.99
To a grand total of US$423.97
unless you want to burn more than one DVD. Seems a bit much.

Re:Oh is that all

[allawalla]

From newegg.com: HD-DVD drive: US$149.99 Blu-ray DVD burner: US$259.99 Blu-ray DVD: 1xUS$13.99 To a grand total of US$423.97 Being glad that you waited until the format war was over: Priceless

Re:Oh is that all

[Dogtanian]

That's what I thought... unless you've shelled out for 100s of movies, wouldn't it be just more sensible (both financially and time-wise) to sell off your HD-DVD discs (and player) and rebuy them in Blu-Ray format? (The cost of the BR player doesn't count, as you'd have to buy one to watch transferred discs anyway).

Or better still, since their value is already gone, sit back and happily watch your worthless HD-DVD discs like you would have done anyway. Replace them in a couple of years time when the current Blu Ray releases have come down in price substantially.

Sounds better than shelling out for expensive blanks (and a burner, if you wouldn't have been buying one otherwise), especially when you're probably going to have to compress the film down to fit on a single-layer Blu Ray.

Re:Oh is that all

[Sinbios]

and Blu-Ray adds nothing except more storage space and "better" DRM capabilities.

And, uh, HD?

Steep Price Indeed!

[milsoRgen]

All you need is a Windows machine with a fast processor, an HD-DVD drive, a Blu-Ray burner, 30GB of free disk space, at least, though 40GB or more is recommended and an internet connection to download the software! What about those of us that have HD-DVD drives in our home theater? The cost of a processor that would do this in a timely fashion, is no laughing matter. Plus an HD-DVD drive, plus a Blu-Ray burner? You're kidding right. If you had all that equipment to begin with, I'm pretty sure you already knew what to do in order to convert your discs. Sheesh!

Re:Steep Price Indeed!

[rworne]

What about those of us that have HD-DVD drives in our home theater? The cost of a processor that would do this in a timely fashion, is no laughing matter. Plus an HD-DVD drive, plus a Blu-Ray burner? You're kidding right. If you had all that equipment to begin with, I'm pretty sure you already knew what to do in order to convert your discs. Sheesh! You can do it with one unit. There is a combo HD-DVD/BDR drive available for PCs.

LG GGW-H20L

It's only one drive, so you'd have to rip & reburn.

Re:Steep Price Indeed!

[TheRaven64]

I didn't RTFA, but how fast a processor do you really need? You shouldn't need to recompress, since BD and HD-DVD both support the same formats, all you need to do is strip the DRM. That shouldn't be more CPU-intensive than playing the DRM'd file, and if you can play a HD-DVD in realtime on a moderately fast CPU, including decoding the VC-1 / H.264 decoding on top of the DRM decoding then you should definitely be able to copy it, removing the DRM, in 2x realtime which is as fast as the cheapest blank BD media I can find support...

Re:Steep Price Indeed!

[rnelsonee]

...you should just RTFA before posting. Dual-layer HD-DVDs (which is what a lot of the movies are) are 30 GB. Burnable Blu-ray discs are 25GB. If you know how to fit 30GB into 25GB without compression, please share.

Riiiiiiight

[Serenissima]

Spend hundreds of dollars and hours of processing time and frustration. Or spend 30 bucks and buy the movie again...
Hmmmm.... tough decision.

Re:Riiiiiiight

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Spend hundreds of dollars and hours of processing time and frustration. Or spend 30 bucks and buy the movie again...

Or spend nothing and leave your HD-DVD drive plugged into your home theater, bitching occasionally about the extra remote. Or, have an HD-DVD drive that also is a regular DVD drive (or is plugged into your 360) and don't even have the extra remote. Seriously, why would I someone arbitarily deciding HD-DVD was bad impact me. Now that HD-DVD is "dead", I'm thinking about getting a player and some movies, if they are cheap enough.

Money

[fishybell]

Wow, so if don't to spend a few hundred repurchasing your movies, just several hundred (possibly thousand according to TFA) on hardware and software instead.

I'm sorry, but HD-DVD users are just plain outta luck. Next time, join the rest of us and just wait.

Re:Money

[Professor_UNIX]

I'm sorry, but HD-DVD users are just plain outta luck. Next time, join the rest of us and just wait.

That doesn't seem right though. Since you're just purchasing a license to the movie, why can't you mail your HD-DVD discs back to the manufacturer and have them be exchanged for a Blu-Ray copy of the same movie (if available) for a nominal fee (say, $5 plus reasonable shipping and handling)? Perhaps Congress needs to get involved and sort this mess out so HD-DVD users don't get screwed out of their investment... it certainly adversely affects lives more than steroid using baseball players or the war in Iraq. Write your Congressman today and demand an HD-DVD exchange program be setup immediately!!!

Re:Money

[Trogre]

...adversely affects lives? Are you kidding? These are just movies!

Re:Money

[llZENll]

"Perhaps Congress needs to get involved and sort this mess out so HD-DVD users don't get screwed out of their investment"

Yes, I would much rather have Congress dealing with peoples HD-DVD issues than the economic toilet our country is in, the war, oil, or about a 1000 other more important issues.

HD-DVD users are not screwed in the slightest, they knew what they were getting into, and even so, getting a new disc format isn't going to jack squat for them. They can watch their HD-DVD discs on their HD-DVD player for the rest of thier lives just fine, how is getting a Bluray disc of the same movie going to help them when they don't even have a Bluray player?

Re:Money

[thelexx]

Back in the mid-80's, I did just that with some game software when I went from a C64 to an Atari ST. Can't remember if it was Origin or SSI, think it was one of those though. And IIRC, all I had to send them was the front page of the manual. You would probably get laughed at today.

Re:Money

[RetardsForRonPaul]

I'd rather have Congress repeal the DMCA so decrypting the HD-DVDs I own isn't a crime.

Re:Money

[DrgnDancer]

Me too. Of course I spent a year in Iraq meeting thousands of Iraq Veterans.

Re:Money

[Charcharodon]

"Investing" in tech that is for entertainment purposes is roughly on par with betting on a horse race.

Your horse lost, now you want your money back? That seems a bit silly.

The only thing Congress should do is laugh at you.

I got caught picking the loosing side too, but all my HD DVD's are safely ripped to my server where they'll live for some time to come.

Re:Money

[perlchild]

I wish I had mod points for you man. Software used to be sold by gentlemen. Now it's sold by lawyers.

Re:Money

[Trogre]

Oh dear. I think you might be right. I'd best listen out for the whooshing sound next time one like that flies over my head :)

Re:Money

[Steve001]

Professor_UNIX wrote and included with a post:

I'm sorry, but HD-DVD users are just plain outta luck. Next time, join the rest of us and just wait.

That doesn't seem right though. Since you're just purchasing a license to the movie, why can't you mail your HD-DVD discs back to the manufacturer and have them be exchanged for a Blu-Ray copy of the same movie (if available) for a nominal fee (say, $5 plus reasonable shipping and handling)? Perhaps Congress needs to get involved and sort this mess out so HD-DVD users don't get screwed out of their investment... it certainly adversely affects lives more than steroid using baseball players or the war in Iraq. Write your Congressman today and demand an HD-DVD exchange program be setup immediately!!!

To me, more government involvement is what is not needed. It has the potential to lead to mandatory upgrading, and making the use of old formats eventually illegal.

It is only a short distance from a voluntary (the government will provide help to make the transition easier) move to a new format, to a government-mandated (you do it when we say or you won't get any reimbursement) move to a new format. This, combined with the ability to create new formats that can be made unusable at a later date, is of great concern.

I think that it is the consumer that has power to end future format wars via their refusal to support any of the involved formats. The consumers have the power to make it clear to the media companies that if you cause a format war, we won't support either format, we will wait until one format dies. Based on some of the posts I've seen in Slashdot, in the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray war it seems like many people did just that (including me).

Or

[RetroRichie]

Or you could just keep your HD DVD player.

Re:Or

[nomadic]

Or you could just keep your HD DVD player.

That's so crazy it just might work!

Kind of worthless?

[aikouka]

Even as it states in the originating Wired DIY Wiki page, "Also, consider just buying the movie new: a blank Blu-Ray disc is from $15-$25 for write-once media." (Note that we are also not considering the money for the BR burner).

Now, I'm no studio exec, but the chances that a studio will re-release in Blu-Ray or put out old Blu-Ray versions (movies such as Shooter that were pulled from Blu-Ray once Paramount went HD-DVD exclusive) is fairly decent. This sounds like a huge time and money sink to me and for my HD-DVD movies? I'd rather just wait until they come out on Blu-Ray to buy them again.

Re:Kind of worthless?

[antifoidulus]

Yeah, but part of it is the principal of the thing. The real reason behind DRM isn't an attempt to stop piracy, it's a way to get you to purchase the same content over and over again. I am more than willing to pay a fair price for music/movies, but I am only willing to pay it ONCE. After scratching up a couple of DVDs(and losing a whole season of the Simpsons) I finally decided to rip all my dvds with handbrake and store them on an external drive(backed up and streamed over my airport express). First and foremost its more convenient as I can just pick up my Apple remote and watch any movie/tv show I feel like(of course Apple gimped front row but that is another rant) Secondly unless there is a fire(in which case insurance will cover the cost of the dvds anyway) I won't have to repurchase any dvd because it got scratched or lost when I moved etc.

I abjectly refuse to buy any media more than once, its the game they have played since there was more than 1 media choice out there, and that cash cow has got to stop.

Re:Kind of worthless?

[mr_matticus]

Well, it's principle, and you'd be faced with the same problem irrespective of DRM. I know the moderators are too dumb to stop and think about what's going on here and would rather just groupthink their way into any attack on DRM, regardless of the situation, but one can hope, can't he?

These discs are fundamentally different formats. DRM isn't what makes this not cost effective. DRM isn't the reason why your HD-DVDs don't work in a Blu-ray player.

Every time in the history of recordings that there has been a new format, it has been set up so you'll buy it again. After a few years when it becomes cheap, people can start moving over their collections from the old format. There's nothing special about that. Tape decks captured LP recordings in the 70s; CD recorders moved tapes to discs by the late 90's. DV connections moved VHS to DVD in the early 00s, DVDs can be moved to BD if you are enterprising. This has been par for the course throughout the entire past century. They don't break the old format; there's nothing forcing you to upgrade or to pay again. Consumers pay again because it offers them something they want at a price they're willing to pay. There's nothing nefarious about that--if Bob wants to buy the DVD instead of spending two hours converting his VHS, why shouldn't a retailer make a sale? The fact that vendors know they'll continue making residual sales is one of the major factors that cause prices to drop after release. It's all part of a larger system.

The fact that it's more expensive to do so than just to repurchase isn't something that's new. Even if your HD-DVD collection didn't have DRM at all, it would still be impractical and expensive to convert it to BD.

That sounds Expensive

[imstanny]

Unless you have a vast HD-DVD collection, getting a Blu-Ray burner, blu ray dvd media, as well as the time investing into converting it's likely not worth it. I think it'd be cheaper to setup a stream from your HD capable computer to your TV...

Re:That sounds Expensive

[HTH NE1]

Skip the BD-Rs, skip the Blu-ray burner, keep the image in HD DVD format and put it on your media server.

Amazon lists 566 HD DVD titles. Many of them are duplicates of others bundled in box sets, some are hybrids with a reduced capacity, a lot are pre-orders and many are presumed future release not available for pre-order. But let's assume single-disk single-side dual-layer HD DVD content on average and they're all full at 30 GB each, that's 16,980 GB. At current prices of 1 GB for 20 cents (sometimes less), to get drives to hold that library with no redundancy would cost only US$3,396, not counting interfaces, cables, and power necessary to build the 17 TB striped RAID. Some people pay that nearly that much for a whole computer. Might as well throw in another $200 TB for overhead and database with cover images, manual scans, and software.

For the adventurous, format the 17 TB RAID as UDF 2.5 and remaster the whole collection as if it were one huge HD DVD, masquerading as a drive, with just a USB, ATA, or eSATA interface to the outside and plug it into a standalone player's motherboard or into an XBOX 360.

(All capacities assumed to be metric.)

Just because you bought Blu-Ray...

[Anonymous Coward]

...Doesn't mean you didn't invest in the wrong technology. Unless you bought a PS3, that is. All other Blu-Ray lite (tm) Profile 1.x devices (which means everything else) are as good as a motherboard with ISA slots. Doesn't matter if that motherboard has a 3 trillion Ghz CPU on it if it only works with last year's (okay, decade's) stuff.

It'll take time, but this is the Achilles heel of Blu-Ray, and will eventually continue the legacy of Sony developed media standards taking off like a lead balloon.

Re:Just because you bought Blu-Ray...

[GauteL]

"All other Blu-Ray lite (tm) Profile 1.x devices (which means everything else) are as good as a motherboard with ISA slots. Doesn't matter if that motherboard has a 3 trillion Ghz CPU on it if it only works with last year's (okay, decade's) stuff."

That is just bullsh*t. The motherboard with ISA slots is completely useless, the older Blu-Ray players will still play the new Blu-ray discs, they just won't do the extras.

Yes, losing out on the extras is annoying and crap, but playing the f*cking film is the most important thing, and they will still do that.

What's the point?

[Kuukai]

TFA doesn't mention if these will play on a standalone Blu-Ray player or what. It seems pointless unless you really want to throw away your old (new) HD-DVD drive...

Re:What's the point?

[vanyel]

There weren't enough interesting titles released on HD-DVD to make it worth the time, I'll just go buy the 2 discs again when they come out in Blu-Ray.

Re:What's the point?

[tlhIngan]

TFA doesn't mention if these will play on a standalone Blu-Ray player or what. It seems pointless unless you really want to throw away your old (new) HD-DVD drive...

Well, just make sure you use the BDAV profile (the "dumb" collection-of-videos mode).

Only BDMV (mastered movies) discs are an issue in playing back in standalone machines. Since you're not supposed to be mastering these except to test before pressing, you shouldn't have an issue.

Unless your standalone player supports BDMV on writable BDs.

TOTALLY WORTH IT!

[aliatgb]

With the cost of blank Bluray disks and assuming you have BOTH a HD DVD and Blu ray drive in your computer you might as well just re-buy your movies on bluray when they come out, if not out already.

Re:Too expensive

[linzeal]

Or just keep the HD-DVD player? Is that an option?

If I have an HD-DVD drive. . .

[JSBiff]

Why the heck would I bother to convert the discs anyway? If I've got the hardware to watch the disc. . . why not just watch it in the native format? I mean, I guess if you have irreplaceable home videos (or you are an independent media producer) which are burned to an HD-DVD disc, and those are the *only* remaining extant copies of the video, you might do something like this.

But for most users, why bother converting? Just keep watching it on your current player.

Sony's got you covered!

[Sabz5150]

Convert your HD-DVDs to Blu-Ray for 24.99 each. They'll even throw in a sleek blue case and an insert sheet!

Re:Too expensive

[statemachine]

Or just keep the HD-DVD player? Is that an option?

Well, sure. Do nothing is always an option. But I thought the topic was about converting, and if not Blu-Ray, then to a format that one can deal with later.

Some might want Blu-Ray versions instead for different special features, for the better menuing/title system, or just for the higher maximum bitrates (quality).

I suppose the thread could also be re-done as "How to convert to Blu-Ray if that title is not available in Blu-Ray format" but of all the titles I've seen, I don't think this will be a problem (take that as you wish).

Re:Why Convert?

[antifoidulus]

Actually, now that it is dead its probably the perfect time to pick up some movies if you already have the hardware since there are going to be some serious fire sales....

I don't understand why you would even need to

[elrous0]

Why would you need to do this when you presumably already on a HD-DVD player. It's not like your HD-DVD player is going to just turn into a pumpkin at midnight tonight and stop playing your HD-DVD's. And, even if it did ever break, it would be MUCH cheaper and easier to just buy a used HD-DVD player (you can get the Xbox 360 add-on for $130 new) than to go to the huge hassle and expense of converting them to blu-ray.

Who exactly is this article meant for? Some fictional person with a buttload of HD-DVD's but no HD-DVD player or goddamn sense?!?

Re:I don't understand why you would even need to

[Dogtanian]

It's not like your HD-DVD player is going to just turn into a pumpkin at midnight tonight and stop playing your HD-DVD's. I think that's because the HD-DVD players lack network connections.

I have it on good authority that Sony are going to send the "convert to pumpkin" firmware upgrade to all networked PS3s this coming Monday.

It's not about what's right, it's about $$$

[JonTurner]

>That doesn't seem right though.

We're talking about the MAFIAA and you expect what's right? (I'm chuckling even while I write this.) I hate to be the one to break the bad news to you, Grasshopper, but you have discovered the ugly core of the media industry. It has nothing to do with what is right. It's not about Art. It is all about squeezing as much money as possible out you as possible. And if you think your congresscritter is going to do otherwise, then I applaud your pure heart, but feel compelled to tell you that unless you have more money than Hollywood with which to bribe^h^h^h^h^hlobby, you (we?) don't have a chance.

Burning to Blu doesn't make sense ....

[steppin_razor_LA]

Given the cost of blank media (not to mention the burners), it doesn't make sense to convert your HDDVDs to BluRay. Assuming you have a computer connected to your TV, I'd propose instead ripping the DVDs to a HD (or storage array). You can connect a 360 HDDVD drive to a computer and do this.

You can get a 500GB disk for ~$100. This will hold ~25 movies and will probably provide a superior playback experience (i.e. no need to swap out disks).

Eventually HD prices as well as BluRay optical media prices will drop ...

Why bother?

[el_chupanegre]

Wait, if you need both a HD-DVD and BluRay drive to do this, why exactly do you need to bother? It isn't like your HD-DVD drive is going to stop working or anything. When you want to watch a HD-DVD, use your HD-DVD drive!

compusa

[yodleboy]

some of the compUSA joints closing up have been unloading BR blanks for as low as $2/each... I just got a ps3 this weekend, finally figured it was safe to pick a format. About damn time.

Cheaper

[Nom du Keyboard]

All you need is a Windows machine with a fast processor, an HD-DVD drive, a Blu-Ray burner, 30GB of free disk space, at least, though 40GB or more is recommended and an internet connection to download the software!

I think it would be cheaper to just re-buy all your discs in BluRay, especially considering the cost of BR recordable discs.

Or if there is no BR equivalent, get a fire-sale HD-DVD player just for those obsolete discs.

One poorly phrased comment...

[argent]

The last line of this article ends "whether it is true or not". It should read "whether it is relevant or not". The failure of HD-DVD has nothing to do with whether it is superior or inferior, but to market forces. There have been any number of situations over the years, centuries, and millennia, where technically superior products and technologies have failed (whether to be reborn later, in some form, or not) in the face of chance vagaries of the market.

Note that I am not arguing that it is superior, I neither know nor care since I have no interest in the technology itself and no media in either format, simply suggesting a significant improvement to the way the comment is phrased.

Re:One poorly phrased comment...

[sweepkick]

I think you meant to say that "The failure of HD-DVD has nothing to do with whether it is superior or inferior, but to manufactured and manipulated market forces".

The Blu-Ray Disc Authority (BDA) would have you believe that it was due to "consumer choice", which is dubious at best. Had all studios been format neutral from the get-go, and *all* studios released on both formats from the beginning, the outcome may very well have been different. However, the BDA were able to secure Fox, Disney, and (surprise surprise) Sony's studios from the get-go. Three *very* large studios with an impressive catalog.

It's likely that Fox and Disney received "incentives" either in the form of cash payoffs or other "financial or promotional considerations" for Blu-Ray exclusivity. In fact, at the BDA press conference at the IFA in Berlin in August of last year, when asked point-blank whether they had received financial incentives for their exclusive support of Blu-Ray, Disney's VP of European Marketing responded with "no comment".

There's still a lot of speculation as to why Warner had chosen to go Blu-Ray exclusive. Perhaps out of the goodness of their hearts they knew that they held the winning hand in deciding the outcome of the war, and decided to just go with Blu-Ray and put an end to the "war" for the consumer's sake. However, this is big business, and if Paramount and Disney were receiving payouts for their support of their exclusivity, why wouldn't they try to secure a nice incentive package? I say the jury's still out on this one, and it may be some time before we know what actually went down in Warner's meetings with the BDA/Sony two weeks prior to CES 2008... if ever.

But don't kid yourselves, the war was not decided on market forces brought on by consumer demand.

BD9

[DrXym]

Blu Ray supports 9 & 4.7 Gb DVDs with the proper disc structure. So in theory you could transcode an HD DVD to a DVD. Quality wouldn't be as good as the original but its probably watchable. Alternative just store the movie data on a removable USB drive and watch it on a PS3.

Investing in wrong technology

[Riquez]

All you need is a Windows machine with a fast processor, an HD-DVD drive, a Blu-Ray burner, 30GB of free disk space

hmm, you invested in HD-DVD and Windows?

My pioneer LASER disc player still works.

[Babu 'God' Hoover]

My brother in laws Betamax player still works.

Are we to understand that the HD DVD player is in danger of crapping out if we don't hurry up and convert?

Wouldn't it make more sense to buy all the movies you like that are available in the obsoleted format along with a player because now you can get them cheap?