Noobie questions on HD/Blu Ray backing up and authoring

[ryangarfield]

I'm really just getting started in HD formats and was just wondering what are my options when it comes to backing up and authoring HD formats. Can I back them up and burn them to DVD-R's? or DVD-DL? Or do I have to burn them to blank Blu Ray discs? Which are still quite expensive. Or is it best to just invest in some serious hard drive space and store them on hard drives?
What do you guys do?

Any help or links to some great starter points on the subject would be great.
Thanks!

[ACLUguy]

I've yet to use the HDDVD or Blu-Ray formats. So, i may be wrong but i'll try to help.

As i understand it, hard drive space is still far cheaper than the disks and you can play them off of your computer using a DVI-HDMI cable.

If you were to shrink them down to the size of a DVD-R or DVD-DL, it seems like it would defeat the purpose of using HD formats, would probably be time consuming and the quality probably wouldn't be as good as playing straight from the computer.

I'd probably save them on the hard drive and burn them later if you can get some cheap disks. I may be wrong though.

Just trying to help,
ACLUguy