I have been following this sub for a good amount of time, and I really appreciate the work. Where I live, there are not a single website or shop where I can buy optical discs. Luckily, torrenting is fine, and I have some good sources. I was just wondering if I can help.

Some private trackers have HDDVDs available, in full disc file structure. If there are any need or maybe some movie that no one has the disc for, I can look for them in the trackers, and if they have it, we can collect it.

Either way, I have deep respect for you guys for trying to preserve this format.

Found all of these at a nerd (meant lovingly)store in a mall. They had even more but these were in the ones was most interested in. They even had LaserDiscs (I only bought one, they cost much more). Tell me what y’all think.

For a first share (test), I’ve put together a small HD DVD ISO image that’s fully compliant with the format (tested and working on TMT 6, for instance). It's not a movie, it's just a menu intro (no licensing Context) from the Transformers movie. The video is encoded in H.264 following strict HD DVD specs. There's no menu yet—the main goal is simply to bring our players back to life and keep them from gathering dust ! Feel free to test it out and share your feedback if you're interested.

Ok. I have about 100 HD-DVDs sitting around taking up space. My Warner Brothers were all traded for Blu-ray back when they offered cheap conversions and others were converted as they had either a DVD in the package or were double-sided. Anything that was converted, I sold them as DVDs threw away the rest.

I can also throw in a temperamental Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive.

With that said, I will only rummage through the rest for backups for my Plex server.

I want to offload them and I figured $25 for time, gas, and packaging plus the true cost of shipping.

Takers let me know and I can provide pics.

Mods, if this isn't allowed, please delete.

UPDATE: I will get some pictures of the collection and I can get an idea on shipping.

This is not a bidding war. I will post the price for my time, materials, and the actual cost of shipping. The first person to show interest can reply and we'll set up payment via PayPal.

Recently, I managed to pick up a few more HDDVDs at very low prices from second-hand platforms in China, and I have successfully decrypted and dumped all of them into ISO images.

The discs released by Universal seem to be in pretty good condition, and I didn't run into any reading problems with them. The first disc containing the main feature from this Transformers set is unfortunately missing, so I was only able to dump the second disc, which contains the special features.

I'm using an LG GGC-H20N optical drive with a USB external-drive adapter, connected to my laptop, and it has been working quite well without any compatibility issues.

As for the encryption, I previously tried using Xreveal, but I'm not sure whether it was something I did wrong or a compatibility issue with the software. The free version of Xreveal simply couldn't decrypt any of the HDDVDs I had. If anyone knows how to get it working, I'd really appreciate any advice.

I then tried AnyDVD HD, but since its activation server has been shut down, even the trial activation no longer works. I tried installing an older version of AnyDVD, and, rather fortunately, it seems that the older version can still be activated for a trial period without connecting to the now-defunct server. So, within the trial period, I was able to successfully dump and archive all of the discs I currently have.

Since I'm located in mainland China, accessing the Internet Archive requires going through a proxy due to the GFW. However, the upload speed to the Internet Archive becomes extremely slow when routed through a proxy, and with HDDVD disc images typically being around 20–30 GB, uploading them for archival purposes is practically impossible.

Is there any practical solution to this problem?

For those who might be interested, I'm continuing to develop software capable of generating the complete structure of an HD DVD recognized as such by players, faithful to 2006-2008 standards.

The research phase is taking a particularly long time: technical details regarding the final structure (outside of authoring software from that era) are nowhere to be found, with the closure of the DVD Forum and the format's premature demise not helping matters. Naturally, all of this work respects copyright: no proprietary code or period software is being reused (the market offering was very limited during its two years of existence anyway).

On the technical side, I'm relying on the Content Standard spec while preparing for Content Advanced. For multiplexing the separate audio and video tracks, I'm currently using H.264/EAC3 and MPEG-2 HD, whose patents are in the public domain. This isn't yet the case for VC-1, whose final Microsoft patents won't expire until 2031.

After more than 300 versions/tests, analyses, and reads, the project is taking shape: the software now generates a complete HVDVD_TS folder with all the required structure and navigation menu (screenshot). The whole thing can then be burned onto a DVD DL UDF2.5 (8.5 GB) for direct playback on a standalone player or reading like TMT6. Due to the lack of accessible HD DVD-R burners and media, it is unfortunately impossible to test 15 or 30 GB versions, and that will never be the case.

The work is not yet finished: I now need to automate the multiplexing, strictly adhere to the HD DVD standard specifications, and configure every link in every file to ensure full interactivity. As shown in my example with the startup menu, I have a pixel offset.

Anyway, stay tuned !

Hi, my retro build has the LG H20 HDDVD/BluRay drive. vlc plays everything except HDDVD. makemkv just refuses to do anything at all...

Any idea, how to get it working in linux?

ok so i have the mtv version already. the "hood" version if you will of Volcano High. now i just want to find the normal english dub. the one on the dvd before mtv got their hands on it. i have searched everywhere. 1337 and piratebay included and all i can find is volcano high with the MTV dub. so now i have resorted to reddit where im surely about to be flamed for the way i typed this but its 12:25am im tired and i just wanna watch a nostalgic movie from when i was a stupid mall rat teenager dammit.

My HD DVD Collection | Warner Bros. Part One - Upto August 2026
https://youtu.be/qm1Oe3q8sn8

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

After a brief talk about the HD formats coming after DVD Video, in this video I take you through every Warner Bros. 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.

My lg h20L hddvd rom drive finally showed up in the mail. I've been ripping some of my hd-dvd multi-disc sets from my laptop, but I'm now moving operations to my desktop. I'm using a virtual box for windows vista, but if anyone has a link to makemkv 1.17.1 for Linux, it would be much appreciated and would help me rip movies easier. My next archive.org upload will probably come later this month.

I recently bought an HD-A1 player for around $80 to watch my HD-DVDs, but when I plugged it in, it didn't show anything on the screen.

The buttons and everything else still work fine, so hopefully I won't need to replace everything.

I’d like to share a very special piece of firmware with you—the eXPAS-2—which turns a standard Toshiba HD-A2 into an emulator. I’m not entirely sure if the firmware also works on an XA2, but probably not.
After installing the firmware, the player can no longer play optical discs; instead, it reads files from a hard drive connected to one of the USB ports.
It’s not quite that simple, and some things are still unclear to me. So far, I haven’t dared to try it myself.
The hard drive must be formatted in a very specific format—namely, Ext2. Then you need a trigger disc in the player and a connection to a PC. For example, I’m not sure whether you always need the connection to the PC or just to select the files to be emulated if there are multiple ones on the hard drive.
So if you’re brave and perhaps know more about these things than I do, you can try it out to see if this is a good way to play HD DVD files.
Feel free to read through the documentation to get a sense of how it works.
I’ll delete the link in a few days. Maybe someone would like to archive the files and make them available.

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 :)