Elaboration and Explanation
Ok, just let me respond to a few replies. The whole point of my initial post is :
# 1 - To provide a reasonable way of backing up the new high definition DVDs. This means an upgrade in the quality over existing DVDs in terms of resolution. It is reasonable that you can re-compress an HD DVD by approx. 50%. Lets say an original HD DVD is 20-GB, if you re-compress by 50% and strip away some extra content you should be able to burn to 1 dual layer 8.5 GB blank DVD-R which costs $1.75. Although you have compressed 50%, you should still see a great quality increase over standard DVD. You can probably do less compression or adjust the output size by how much you strip away. For example you can just copy the main HD-DVD movie to DL-DVD-R and possibly make a second disc for the special features on a standard DVD-R. Kinda like they do with DVDs now.
This is what we do now with conventional DVDs. We take a factory pressed Dual Layer DVD which is 9-GB and re-compress it to a single layer DVD-R blank which is 4.5-GB which costs 35 cents and anyone would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the original and re-compressed. So this formula of HD-DVD to DL-DVD seems like a natural transition.
#2 The second point was that if we can decrypt a Blue Ray Disc and re compress it, then we can convert it to HD-DVD format and burn it to Dual Layer DVD-R , so in a sense we can universalize the format, at least from a backup copy standpoint.
HD-DVD-R is not feasible for backups now or any time soon. I think burners and media are too expensive. The Only Viable option to gain the benefit of higher quality is Dual Layer DVD-R, which is just now Reasonable for backing up HD-DVDs.
Even with Dual Layer DVD-Rs available for $1.75, Most People opt for a $0.35 DVD-R and 50% Compression to Backup a Movie!
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Price point is the key! That way if you break or loose a disc you only loose $.35 then you can get your original master, which costs $15 or $20 and burn another, then put the original master away for safe keeping. Same deal for HD-DVD, except now if you loose it or wreck your copy , its on a dual layer so you loose $1,75 Well worth it to protect a $20 to $30 original HD DVD investment. Now we need Slysoft to be the front runner and Do it with Clone-DVD-HD-DL and Any-DVD-HD. Slysoft is the Best all in one solution for DVD Backups !
This is the next Gen, and this can actually change the industry in terms of format dominance! I am fairly sure if you can back up and convert to one format, that format (Perhaps it has to be HDDVD because I hear it is the only format that can have HD-DVD Content read from a standard Dual Layer DVD-R) will be the successor format that everyone adopts simply by word of mouth. It worked for DVDs, CDs and MP3s. MP3 was an inferior sound quality standard compared to CD Audio and DVD Audio, but copying made it the standard everyone adopted. Most hardware CD and DVD players support MP3, so it just goes to show you how powerful copying can be.
Non DRM actually promotes and helps mainstream the technology. Its the reason windows exists in the mainstream today because it was on every PC Clone and there were lots of pirated copy's, but microsoft does not just rely on little end users for revenue. They sell to big corps and they can't pirate, they get legit copies, because they can afford to, and want to, because everyone is familiar with windows from a personal standpoint, because they at one time originally owned a PC clone at home, likely with a "Copy" of windows. Kind of like a Dealer, Give it away for free for a while and when they are hooked you will monopolize if you are the sole manufacturer of the proprietary product and you will have many revenue streams including the matured end user who was pirating from you originally!
let me know what you think?