Consider this: Once you have ripped an HD-DVD to your HD, for space reasons a transfer to portable media is necessary. That means using at least 3 DVD-DL's for storage, assuming software becomes available to cut the movie.
But if Clone HD-DVD were to encode the files to another format, WMV-HD or Quicktime-HD, this would reduce the movie to somewhere around 7.5 GBs, with no loss in quality, and will fit onto 1 DVD DL. WMV-HD uses a more efficent compression than HD-DVD - see the Terminator 2 WMV-HD DVD for proof. (Some say it is actually better than the Blu-Ray version). Bill Gates was pushing for the use of WMV-HD by the movie studios but they declined.
WMV-HD and Quicktime is practically identical in quality to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray - it's the same specs: 720p and 1080p. And these formats PLAY on most computers via the usual players without any expensive hardware upgrades.
The only feasible and inexpensive way to "back-up" our HD-DVD libraries is to re-encode to another HD format.
The WMV-HD encoder and source is available via the Microsoft website, this should be easy to incorporate into the Clone HD-DVD program. The only problem I have found when encoding WMV-HD is a slight muting of the colors and a brightening of the darker parts of the image, as their encoder has no image adjustment features. But this can easily be compensated for on playback with your monitor or player/graphics card software.
This would make all HD-DVD/Blu-Ray content playable on most computers via Windows Media Player or Quicktime player with no apparent loss of quality - it would still be 1080p with comparable sound quality.
But if Clone HD-DVD were to encode the files to another format, WMV-HD or Quicktime-HD, this would reduce the movie to somewhere around 7.5 GBs, with no loss in quality, and will fit onto 1 DVD DL. WMV-HD uses a more efficent compression than HD-DVD - see the Terminator 2 WMV-HD DVD for proof. (Some say it is actually better than the Blu-Ray version). Bill Gates was pushing for the use of WMV-HD by the movie studios but they declined.
WMV-HD and Quicktime is practically identical in quality to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray - it's the same specs: 720p and 1080p. And these formats PLAY on most computers via the usual players without any expensive hardware upgrades.
The only feasible and inexpensive way to "back-up" our HD-DVD libraries is to re-encode to another HD format.
The WMV-HD encoder and source is available via the Microsoft website, this should be easy to incorporate into the Clone HD-DVD program. The only problem I have found when encoding WMV-HD is a slight muting of the colors and a brightening of the darker parts of the image, as their encoder has no image adjustment features. But this can easily be compensated for on playback with your monitor or player/graphics card software.
This would make all HD-DVD/Blu-Ray content playable on most computers via Windows Media Player or Quicktime player with no apparent loss of quality - it would still be 1080p with comparable sound quality.