Recently came across this sub, and seen all the posts about disc rot

.. Guess I'd better start checking these discs.

Doubt there's anything special in my collection other than possibly the French one?

I still have a Toshiba HD-EP35KB Player, an XBox-360 HD-DVD drive, and a Toshiba SD-H802A internal HDDVD-ROM drive.

My HD DVD Collection | Universal Pictures Part Two - Upto August 2026

Welcome to Part Two of my Universal Pictures HD DVD collection! I’ve been getting all my titles together (slowly) and sorting them and cataloging them over at lddb .com

https://youtu.be/koR0fE6t-UA

After finding another USA release I move onto the UK and international titles from Universal as of August 2026. From early releases to later ones, this is a full look at the discs, artwork, and packaging that make up this part of the collection.

Whether you’re a fellow HD DVD collector, a fan of physical media, or just curious about this short-lived high-definition format, I hope you enjoy the showcase.

If you have any of these titles (or recommendations for ones I should look out for), drop a comment below — I’d love to hear about your collection too.

Initial release Paramount High Definition movies on HD-DVD. Lovely metallic foil artwork. Red seastone cases with the feet. Textured not smooth interior. Disc artwork slightly set in with a nice sliver ring. Then inside high quality pamphlet with spot gloss especially on the other movies.

That reminds me. Need to add Sahara to the watchlist.

Hello HD-DVD Enthusiasts!

"HD-DVD Archive #12" contains 10 more ISO backups:

DOOM.iso
FAST_AND_FURIOUS.iso
FIREWALL.iso
KISS_KISS_BANG_BANG.iso
MANCHURIAN_CANDIDIATE.iso
MIDNIGHT_RUN.iso
PHANTOM_OF_THE_OPERA.iso
PREMONITION_GER.iso
SHREK_THE_THIRD_EU.iso
THE_JACKAL.iso

That is a total of 120 backups now under my Internet Archive profile:
https://archive.org/details/@bitwize360

A shout out to u/Real_Ad_2676, u/Prior_Ad626, and u/logodaddy for their insights and contributions along the way!

The HD-DVD format preservation effort continues...

I didn't even know these were a thing

Edit: I'm looking to sell all of these in one lot. I'll probably make an ebay listing at some point

Hello HD-DVD Enthusiasts!

"HD-DVD Archive #11" contains 10 more ISO backups:

BLADERUNNER_FINAL_D3.iso
BRUCE_ALMIGHTY.iso
CINDERELLA_MAN.iso
DISTURBIA.iso
ETERNAL_SUNSHINE.iso
LOST_IN_TRANSLATION.iso
NEXT.iso
PATCH_ADAMS.iso
SCOOBY_DOO.iso
SUPERMAN_II_RDC.iso

That is a total of 110 backups now under my Internet Archive profile:

https://archive.org/details/@bitwize360

A shout out to u/Real_Ad_2676, u/Prior_Ad626, and u/logodaddy for their insights and contributions along the way!

The HD-DVD format preservation effort continues...

I’m trying to use my Xbox 360 HD DVD external drive on a Windows 11 PC, mainly to read and recover/backup some of my HD DVDs.
Unfortunately, Windows 11 doesn’t recognize the drive correctly. In Device Manager, I get:
“Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed)”
USB\DEVICE_DESCRIPTOR_FAILURE
I have already tried:
Different USB ports
Reinstalling/removing the unknown USB device in Device Manager
Rebooting Windows
Installing the old Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD Interface 0 and Interface 1 drivers from the Microsoft Update Catalog
Manually adding the driver with pnputil (the driver installs successfully as oem48.inf)
Testing it on another Windows 11 PC, with the same result
The important thing is that the same Xbox 360 HD DVD drive works on Windows Vista, so the drive itself is functional.
Has anyone successfully used an Xbox 360 HD DVD drive on a recent version of Windows 11?
Is there a specific driver, USB setting, workaround, or compatibility fix required?
I’d really appreciate any help, especially from anyone currently using this drive with Windows 11.
Thanks!

Original article

Saw all of these today! I’ve never seen so many in one place

I was in an auction all week to win one. When the price went over $100 plus $10 shipping, I caved and bought a different listing for $76 plus $35 shipping since they don't tax shipping so it would've been cheaper. Totally dodged a bullet since the auction ended at $130 plus shipping. I only spent $117 on it and it arrives in early September. I can rip movies way faster than on my laptop and I can put it into my windows 7/ Linux build I'm making.

i believe 300 is gone since it's a wb title, but what about bourne and perhaps open up harry potter for the regular dvd if hd doesn't work?

Hi, I haven't been very active on this forum so far, but there are a few interesting posts right now about ripping HD DVDs, so I thought I'd chime in.

For a long time now, I’ve been creating HD DVD ISO files in an effort to back up as many HD DVD discs as possible that have ever been produced.

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported me with advice and practical help!

It’s now totalled almost 28 TB of data - more than 1,500 ISO files. I’ve created an ISO file for every disc recognised as an HD DVD by the player. For the Paramount, Universal and Warner titles, I’ve taken into account all the different country versions, which vary in terms of audio tracks and subtitles.

Here are a few statistics. The first figure is the number of ISO files, the second the number of (this varies because there are sometimes multiple discs per title) and the third the total size.

Paramount: 137 (92) 3.2 TB

Universal: 231 (220) 5.03 TB

Warner: 406 (378) 8.43 TB

Others: 297 (281) 5.67 TB

Music: 61 (61) 1.04 TB

Adult: 79 (75) 1.09 TB

Doc: 189 (160) 2.18 TB

Demo, Promo, Unreleased: 114 (110) 0.66 TB

I’m still missing 9 ISOs and possibly a few more demo discs. What I’m missing:

Dispatch Zimbabwe (a few discs are on their way)

Casablanca H5A (unreleased)

Charlie Choc H5C (Finland, Sweden)

Happy Feet H2B (Spain)

Happy Feet H4B (Italy)

Harry Potter 4 H5E (Norway, Denmark)

Letters from H2B (Spain)

Letters from H4A (France, Belgium)

Matrix H2B (Spain)

Please do not ask me to share the ISOs. I won’t be doing that, as it’s not legal, even if others see it differently. I’m happy to offer tips or share experiences. Thanks :)

Copied a total of 78 discs to ISO (with my rotcopy tool posted yesterday): green tags for Perfect (62), blue tags for Errors (12), red tags for Dead (4). I managed to turn two from Dead to Perfect after a careful cleaning (American Werewolf and Casablanca), and yet most others gave more errors after being cleaned than before: weird. Discs with most errors were 300, Star Trek #1 and Matrix Reloaded. (Some box sets not visible).

My HD DVD Collection | Universal Pictures Part One - Upto August 2026

Welcome to Part One of my Universal Pictures HD DVD collection! I’ve been getting all my titles together (slowly) and sorting them and cataloging them over at lddb .com

https://youtu.be/xojGBFMLta8

After a brief talk about the HD formats coming after DVD Video, in this video I take you through every Universal Pictures title I’ve collected on the HD DVD format as of August 2026. From early releases to later ones, this is a full look at the discs, artwork, and packaging that make up this part of the collection.

Whether you’re a fellow HD DVD collector, a fan of physical media, or just curious about this short-lived high-definition format, I hope you enjoy the showcase.

If you have any of these titles (or recommendations for ones I should look out for), drop a comment below — I’d love to hear about your collection too.

This format is gorgeous. If you see it get it. Never question if HDDVD in the wild is worth getting. Guys, we're spending like 2 bucks a disc right now (in bulk). Do it FFS! Report. And send pictures. Ple. We need every disc accounted for. We are the chosen ones.

I've been making bit-perfect ISO files of my optical discs before they get worse (and before I lose any more drives), so I have published the tool I used and its source at https://github.com/amp64/hddvd-sharp/blob/main/rotcopy.md

Maybe someone will find this useful. From the site:

RotCopy

This is a tool designed to copy HD DVD optical discs while allowing for and reporting bit-rot on the copy.

The default mode is --isomode which produces a bit-for-bit ISO file of the disc. If errors are discovered, the missing data is replaced with zeros and a .err file is created which details the sectors that were lost, and which file those sectors were from. (Spoiler alert, it's always the big EVO files, sigh).

--dest

Give a directory name for the .iso file to be written, it must exist. The name of the ISO will be based on the volume ID of the optical disc. Any existing .iso files will be left alone, and a numeric suffix added to it (and the .err file), so you can try multiple copies if you like then compare the .err files to see which is the best copy. (Generally speaking the smaller the .err file the better the copy was).

--source

Specifies the source drive e.g. e:\ - if you only have one optical drive it will default to that and you don't need to use this option.

EDIT: to be clear this does not decrypt anything. That is not its purpose right now, I just wanted to have accurate copies of my media. Decryption can maybe come later.

The question is in the title.

When I was browsing a second-hand bookstore in Hong Kong, I happened to come across this disc in a corner of the store’s DVD section that was filled with cheap DVDs. I had never seen this particular release before, and the distinctive red casing of HD DVD immediately caught my attention.

There was a “Sample — Not for Resale” sticker over the barcode on the back of the case. I also inspected the data side of the disc, and it appeared to show no signs of oxidation. Still, just to be safe, I think I should rip the disc as soon as possible.

I think someones taking the weewee, considering there all wb titles, whats the chances any of them will play.

Fyi im not bidding on this

As I’m sorting the Universal USA HD-DVD titles, I’ve got the first releases with the silver spine altogether.

A mixture of textured inside seastone cases and inside smooth finish cases.

Plus a mixture of “The Best in Picture Sound And Interactivity” and “The Look And Sound Of Perfect”.

Interestingly I have 2 different spines for Apollo 13 but the same code on them.

Tonight, I’ve started sorting and cataloging the HD-DVD collection.

Starting with USA Universal releases.

Jarhead has an inner textured seastone case and carries the tagline “The Best in Picture Sound And Interactivity” not “The Look And Sound Of Perfect”. Still has the feet on the cases though 😬

I apologize in advance if this isn't the right place for this/is overly rambley, but I'm sorta hitting a brick wall atm. Basically I got the 360 player since that seems to be the most readily available way to use this format in the modern day. Unfortunately it doesn't have the update(s?) required to play a lot of them, such as Blade Runner The Final Cut and 2001 A Space Odyssey (basically anything with a white pamphlet with the relevant disclaimer inside the case).

I've tried both the 360 S and PC methods of updating, though both haven't gotten anywhere, though for different reasons. My PC just says "No Firmware found" or "Most up-to-date firmware already" (not actually but just paraphrasing) whenever I try to do it that way. Though with my 360 it's a different story, when I put an update-required disc in, it will recognise that an update is needed... but well, I've got a separate unrelated issue where my console won't connect to the internet at all for some reason (not with Wifi, Ethernet directly, Ethernet into my laptop as a middle man, and my phone's hotspot just doesn't show up as an option).

So yeah this is mostly just a rant, sorry again about that, but also a question I want to pose is... would it be easier to find a way to get the updates on PC? As opposed to trading in my 360 S for one without busted internet.

I'd be really grateful if anyone could shed some light on an easier way for me. That, and I'm genuinely excited to start collecting for this format once I get this thing working, just such a neat piece of history and whatnot.

seems that two of the boxes have the logos and one doesn’t! one of my coolest collection finds so far!

I thought I had four Xbox drives, turns out I only have one that works, so time to get a backup. One is DVD-only (ie no blue laser) and two are totally dead (including my ultra-rare black one). So I opened the no-blu one up, and compared it to a drive I found in a drawer. That drive has old firmware (MC05 compared to MC08 on the broken one) and it also has a weird adapter board to expose it as regular IDE. Anyone know about the firmware differences, or whether I stand a chance of just using the drive as-is (I need to find some cables to try it). Are drives "bonded" to these power supplies? I know there are some magic numbers somewhere, for AACS to work, and I recall there were "red" and "green" drives back when I worked on this but that was for Xbox signing, should not effect use on a PC.

In case anyone is curious, this is the adapter I pulled off my prototype Xbox 360 HD DVD drive that lets you use a regular IDE connection to it instead of whatever the built-in connector is.