hd-dvd stuff

[BurnerHEAD]

Well, *this* is supposed to be the last update for HD DVD. ;)

I still don't know if I should buy HD-DVD in addition to my bluray stuff.
I would need the XBox 360 drive, which is about 50 bucks.
The great thing about HD-DVD is that 1 HD-DVD costs 5 bucks or less.

Any suggestion?

Best Regards,
BurnerHEAD

[Adbear]

If you have certain LG Blu-ray drives they also play back HD DVD

[BurnerHEAD]

Unfortunately not.

I have a BD-ROM Notebook.

So, any idea?

Maybe this is the wrong thread to discuss this, isn't it?

Best Regards,
BurnerHEAD

[Webslinger]

Maybe this is the wrong thread to discuss this, isn't it?


Not anymore

[Tox]

What about the Toshiba SD-H802A? Put it into an external case. :) Any you are right, I also think HD DVDs are worth buying now as they are really cheap. It depends on how many movies you plan to buy, I think starting from a number of 5 will pay off.

[vamsilak]

check craigs list
look for hd-dvd addon player which is xbox hd-dvd add on
i u have vista all u need is plug it in usb
if u have xp u need udf drivers from toshiba which u can get online its a freeware
good luck

[Tox]

Why especially this model? As far as I know it's simply an HD DVD drive put into an external case. Which fact leads you to the conclusion that the driver is freeware? Toshiba hat bundled it with certain notebooks and as such it was OEM software and not designed to be used by others, especially not for free.

[vamsilak]

well its premade and cheap u can get it for 40.00 dollars

[profcolli]

Why especially this model? As far as I know it's simply an HD DVD drive put into an external case. Which fact leads you to the conclusion that the driver is freeware? Toshiba hat bundled it with certain notebooks and as such it was OEM software and not designed to be used by others, especially not for free.The Toshiba UDF drivers work for any HD-DVD drive, and they are available freely from Toshiba and many other places on the net. So, freeware in that sense - they are not proprietary (they don't only work on Toshiba OEM drive) and any HD (HD-DVD or BluRay) disc can be read with these drivers on WinXP. Vista has UDF drivers built in.

The Microsoft xbox addon drive is the best option if you already have a BluRay only reader.

Otherwise, pick up the LG GGC-H20L SuperMulti drive which reads both, and is a good ripper as well.

[Tox]

I do know what the driver does and that the driver works for HD DVD drives. That wasn't the question.

Could you please give me a link to the Toshiba webseite where I can download it? I bet you can't. At least you can only give me this link (http://support.toshiba-tro.de/tools/qosmio/q30pqg32/mce/udf-pqg32-hd-xpmce-1003.zip). This is a OEM driver which won't install on other computers than Toshiba notebooks. All copies you find over the internet derive from this and extracting a software from a setup which denies installing on your computer in order to be able to use it is not what I call legal ;) Just because something is all over the internet means absolutely nothing, escpecially not that it is free or that its legally on the internet.

[profcolli]

I do know what the driver does and that the driver works for HD DVD drives. That wasn't the question.

Could you please give me a link to the Toshiba webseite where I can download it? I bet you can't. At least you can only give me this link (http://support.toshiba-tro.de/tools/qosmio/q30pqg32/mce/udf-pqg32-hd-xpmce-1003.zip). This is a OEM driver which won't install on other computers than Toshiba notebooks. All copies you find over the internet derive from this and extracting a software from a setup which denies installing on your computer in order to be able to use it is not what I call legal ;) Just because something is all over the internet means absolutely nothing, escpecially not that it is free or that its legally on the internet.In that case you lose the bet. Here's another Toshiba link (to the 1.0.0.0 version of the driver).

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/download.jsp?soid=1284868

The link you gave (to the latest 1.0.0.3 version "freely" available) works fine on my (non-Toshiba) PC. It also works on countless other (non-Toshiba) systems.

There is an easy way to "trick" installation of the Toshiba UDF2.5 driver on non Toshiba PCs.

1.) Unpack it.
2.) Start setup.

It will tell you, that you cannot install it on your non-Toshiba PC. DO NOT CLOSE THIS MESSAGE BOX.

Navigate to your temp directory with explorer. You'll find a directory named like this: {1347D5A6-4FE0-476A-B85F-D0FC91F55EB0}

Enter it. You'll find two files: thdudf.inf and thdudf.sys

Right click thdudf.inf, select "Install".

Wait a while. Close the Message Box. Reboot.

There is nothing in the Toshiba EULA that forbids the above. You should read it.
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/bulletinDetail.jsp?soid=1079102&pf=true#

I doubt that Toshiba was unhappy that HD-DVD drives could be used on non-Toshiba equipment. There is no evidence of them complaining about it that I can find, and it is even less likely that they would now they have lost the format war (at least it might clear out some of the obsolete drives and help their former technology partners).

What exactly is your point? The xBox add-on is a good solution for the OP, and cheaper than the one you mentioned.