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BD discs to pricey for me. Feel Sony left me behind.

Katmandoitall

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I haven't seen any dvd drives that would work in
my PC. I'm not that savy with computers. Satisfied
with standard DVD. I use a 24" CRT monitor for viewing
via a Viewsonic box that converts audio video signals
including composite (3 RCA) video to Computer monitor
D-shell.

Seems the industry is forgetting the sagging economy and
that many of us just aren't going for the upgrade to BD.
I'd consider a BD drive; IF, I could convert them to
standard dvd backup for viewing on my standard
player.


Can this be done with anyDVD?
 
Converting BD to standard would be pointless in the quality personally.
 
Converting BD to standard would be pointless in the quality personally.

I think there is a market for this. A lot of people, myself included, have multiple displays in the home with a DVD player attached to each. But only one of the DVD players is a HD player. I'd like to be able to buy an HD disc to play on the HD player, but also make a SD copy to play on the other players. If the quality is at least as good as SD DVD, I'm happy. The "combo" disc is a good idea if there aren't any problems with it...
 
So you'd be willing to wait 30+ hours on a fast machine in order to get a standard DVD quality, movie only copy from a BD? Cause that's what you're talking about. You'd have to CONVERT the BD streams to low bit rate mpeg2 and ac3/dts audio. The video alone you're talking about 30+ hours on most of them, assuming you have the software that can handle both the video and audio stream conversions. None of this is automatic right now. Honestly, it's really not worth it. James' solution was probably better and even quicker. If you buy the BD and want a DVD copy, he says you should just rent the DVD version and make a copy of it. I'm not advocating it, I'm just saying that when I asked about this topic last summer, that's the answer he gave me. (Very likely tongue in cheek but you never know). It would certainly be the fastest option and you'd have menus.
 
So you'd be willing to wait 30+ hours on a fast machine in order to get a standard DVD quality, movie only copy from a BD? Cause that's what you're talking about. You'd have to CONVERT the BD streams to low bit rate mpeg2 and ac3/dts audio. The video alone you're talking about 30+ hours on most of them, assuming you have the software that can handle both the video and audio stream conversions. None of this is automatic right now. Honestly, it's really not worth it. James' solution was probably better and even quicker. If you buy the BD and want a DVD copy, he says you should just rent the DVD version and make a copy of it. I'm not advocating it, I'm just saying that when I asked about this topic last summer, that's the answer he gave me. (Very likely tongue in cheek but you never know). It would certainly be the fastest option and you'd have menus.

Geez, do you really have to come across like that?

I never said *anything* about what I'd be willing to do or not do. I simply said I'd like to be able to convert a HD movie to a SD movie. But to answer your question, no, I wouldn't be willing to jump through all those hoops.

Good lord, sorry I posted.
 
Geez, do you really have to come across like that?

I never said *anything* about what I'd be willing to do or not do. I simply said I'd like to be able to convert a HD movie to a SD movie. But to answer your question, no, I wouldn't be willing to jump through all those hoops.

Good lord, sorry I posted.

I was just giving you the reality of what you're asking for. It's NOT a simple or fast process. That's all I was trying to get across. Sorry I offended you with my answer.
 
I was just giving you the reality of what you're asking for. It's NOT a simple or fast process. That's all I was trying to get across. Sorry I offended you with my answer.

You're right though, it's pretty pointless to want to do this.
The studios seem to have a better answer, including an SD DVD copy for free with the movie, as Fox has done with "Hitman"

I think this will be seen more and more in the immediate future. Alvin and the Chipmunks is to have a free digital copy (DVD) included as well.
 
You're right though, it's pretty pointless to want to do this.
The studios seem to have a better answer, including an SD DVD copy for free with the movie, as Fox has done with "Hitman"

I think this will be seen more and more in the immediate future. Alvin and the Chipmunks is to have a free digital copy (DVD) included as well.

This is true. I wish they all did that. It would make it much nicer for everyone. I think the Rambo movies will be doing that, as well, if I'm not mistaken. So, it's nice to see they're at least taking consumer's needs into consideration a little bit. (Stop laughing! :D)
 
A free copy of the SD version would be an excellent solution. If it was actually "free".
 
That was (one of) the problems with combo HD DVD discs, too. They added WAY too much to the cost of the disc. Not to mention the quality sucked for the combo discs. Prices are going to have to come down regardless of whether they add SD media or not. Most people are not going to buy at the prices they're at now.
 
Now that’s an interesting notion,….

In theory the Blu-Ray camp would be keenly interested in the demise of standard DVD as a format just as much as they were interested in expediting the demise of “HD DVD”. They could have presumably choked off content to SD DVD much like they have done with HD DVD but the problem is that SD DVD is still a viable means of revenue.

It would be easier to increase market penetration of Blu-Ray by making hybrid Blu-Ray + standard DVD the norm and killing off standard DVD. Remember that this isn’t a market of choice for the consumer but rather a market of removal of choice.

Anyway, to address Katmandoitall point,…

What many cost conscious user would or could do in theory:

Assuming the users has ownership of several quasi compliant Blu-Ray capable (system spec for being BD ready) systems and AnyDVD HD :

1) Buy the most inexpensive Blu-Ray ROM drive you can find ~$130 USD

2) Possibly buy an inexpensive external 5.25” enclosure for the BD-ROM drive (Optional for moving the drive from system to system)

3) Buy a large HDD 500GB, 650GB, 750GB or 1TB

4) Buy an inexpensive external 3.5” enclosure for the HDD

Once that’s done the BD-ROM drive and the HDD can be moved from system to system with ease. Movies can be stored on the HDD and don’t need to be burned to optical media of any type. If or when media prices and BD Burner prices drop they can be burned to BD-R or BD-RE at such a time.

Simply put, the price of BD blank media and BD burners don’t necessarily matter at this juncture. The price of BD movies are high now but if the BD camp has any say in it the option of simple SD DVDs wont be around much longer.
 
A free copy of the SD version would be an excellent solution. If it was actually "free".

It's the same MSRP as the ones without it. Are you suggesting they should just offer a free SD version, with no purchase necessary?

Currently Fox haven't increased the MSRP on these titles, so as far as I can tell, the SD version included is free.
 
It's the same MSRP as the ones without it. Are you suggesting they should just offer a free SD version, with no purchase necessary?

Currently Fox haven't increased the MSRP on these titles, so as far as I can tell, the SD version included is free.

I don't think he's saying that. It's just that with HD DVD and the flip discs, we saw a large price premium over non-flip versions. I think he's hoping that they don't start to raise prices as a result of adding SD versions in the box. I'm of the same opinion. They haven't yet, but, I wouldn't put it past them to do so.
 
Adding the standard version on a flip disc would make it easier to sale BD titles though too but how would one say BD is out selling SD then? Good Idea though.
 
It would not take 30 hours or anything like that.

Remember only the dvd resolution will be encoded, not 1080p, so it wouldnt be much slower then normal recompress of a dvd like dvd shrink does.
 
It would not take 30 hours or anything like that.

Remember only the dvd resolution will be encoded, not 1080p, so it wouldnt be much slower then normal recompress of a dvd like dvd shrink does.

Have you tried? I've done some 720p AVC encodes from 1080p source material and it took quite a while. Not 30 hours, but, certainly no where near as fast as normal DVD recompressing.
 
I recompress 1080i avc from my camcorder to dvd resolution all the time (for friends who dont have HD players).
It takes no longer then normal dvd compression.

You cant compare 720p avc encoding with 480i dvd mpeg2.

Its the encoding that takes the cpu time, the format/resolution of the source doesnt really matter so much.
 
You can certainly try it. You're still only going to have a movie only copy and you need to find some way of dealing with the audio conversion. A straight forward process this is not.
 
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