[geeks] Making HD DVD at home

[Francois Dion]

On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 7:42 PM, Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net> wrote:
> >From: Francois Dion <francois.dion at gmail.com>
>  >Date: 2008/02/26 Tue PM 03:33:45 CST
>  >To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>  >Subject: [geeks] Making HD DVD at home
>
>
>  >So you bought an HD DVD player? Or just saw one at your local costco
>  >for less than a regular DVD player and wondered if you shouldn't pick
>  >one up? Or stumbled upon the videophile's dream HD-XA2? Well, they
>  >wont be making HD DVD movies forever tought, so...
>  >
>  >But, it does make a lot more sense if you can burn your own HD DVD on
>  >the cheap. Say, on a regular DVD-R. HD on cheap media...
>
>  Neat.
>
>  I bought one of the Microsoft Xbox 360 HD-DVD drives for $50 [0] and was happy
>  to see it is 100% useful as a PC/Mac ext. DVD drive (read-only). I will try
>  and play HD-DVDs on a PC in a few days...
>
>  Lionel
>
>  [0]http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8132095&st=xbox+360+hd-
>  dvd&lp=2&type=product&cp=1&id=1158321865239

You'll need some $$ software to play HD DVD movies. Mplayer will only
play unencryted content, which is what you create from my above steps.
libdvdcss only allows mplayer to play encrypted DVDs, not HD DVDs.
Still, I'll get me an xbox drive too, as it can be used either as an
external or internal drive with the right laptop dvd drive adapter.

A dedicated HDDVD player is available at costco, the Toshiba HD-D3 for
$79. Includes an HDMI cable, 2 movies in the box, and if you buy at
the latest tomorrow (feb 28), you can mail in a rebate form to get 5
free movies.

Circuit city had the A30 with the excellent anchor bay chipset for
$119, again, same offer for mail in, A3 for $89 (no hdmi cable in the
A3, A30, only the D3 box).

The regular DVD upconverting of the Toshiba A30, A35 and XA2 is simply
phenomenal. Really really impressive. I dont have an A3, but somebody
on the list might have one. A2 / A20 are also options that are showing
up on the used market. I would probably stay away from A1 as a main
player. Maybe a backup player. RCA also had a model out, basically an
A1 in RCA badging.

As far as HDDVD drives for PCs, beside the xbox module, Lenovo, HP and
LG make them. LG has a combo unit that is a bluray burner + HDDVD
player.

Francois