I only recently heard about the rot on HDDVD and am interested in possibly preserving the ones i can.

My "the matrix" hdvd doesn't have anything i can see visibly wrong, but i can't seem to archive it past 71% with anydvd.

Is there any repository of info about this? Some drives better than others? (I have an xbox 360 hddvd drive laying around somewhere).

sigh, i probably have 150 hddvds.

Never too late when it's vintage/obsolete

Rule of thumb => stay way from US HDDVDs (especially Warner and sometime Paramount).
They die/rot away as they age and become unplayable.

Your Matrix is probably one of these US/Warner releases like Matrix, The (1999) [115975].

For rot horror stories (and pictures) => Last HD DVD you watched? (rotten discs)

As for players, try to get the better ones such as the Toshiba HD-A35, Onkyo DV-HD805 or Integra DHS-8.8.
They have HDMI 1.3 and allow for 1080p video and Dolby TrueHD/DTS HDMA output via HDMI.



I had around 150 too that I purchased bulk from US/Canada after HDDVD died commercially.

But last time I checked only 60 or 70 were still playing...
I find new victims each time I make a round of checks.

Julien

Welcome to the game. European HD DVD's rarely rot, so look for those if you're buying more. And as said before avoid US releases of WB and Paramount and even some Universal titles.

Replace the rotted ones with Blu-ray versions. That’s really the only sane choice. Don’t buy any more.

What is there worth preserving that was released on HD-DVD?

I can understand LD as you have something like Daicon or Goodbye New York as they have never been released on anything else unless you are OK
streaming them on Youtube.

it's just the cost of bluray replacement really, i guess. If you figure $15 average cost of replacement bluray title, times 150, that's $2250 USD.

I've heard some talk that certain titles of HDDVDs are "truer to source" than the bluray version, but i don't know how much so.

I'm not buying anymore HDDVDs, haven't bought any in long long time. I was mostly an "early adopter".

Till now, I haven't found any rotten Paramount HD DVDs.

Warner is the worst. Expect 95% failure rate.
Same for Magnolia (US) but they only released a handful of titles.
Fox Pathe (FR) suffer from the same issue for almost all releases.
City Lighs only released "The Ten" but all gone (got 12 (!) discs)

Other publisher have a few titles with issues:
Universal:
Balls of Fury (one of the few HD DVD excusives)

HBO (US):
Sopranos Season 6 (both parts)

Discovery HD (US):
Planet Earth Box

BBC Video:
Galápagos

One example for me: Payback: Straight Up - The Director's Cut (1999) (Uncut) [11979]

Skips around 45:00, dies/crash the player at 01:08:00.

Julien

I don't think so. Last year I tested all my discs, HD-DVD and BD, just inserting the disc into the player and seeing if it would load until the menu starts.
I found exactly one BD that refused to load (yes it is dead), and possibly 25 HD-DVDs, that is minus the discs that will crash during playback.
There will certainly also be defective BDs, but it won't be as bad as the HD-DVD problem.
Still makes me think that someone sabotaged the format somewhere, maybe orchestrated by someone. Who knows

There are a lot of Blu-Rays between 2008 and 2010 that rot.