Pseudo HD-DVD

[Crissov]

AFAIK these assertions are true (but CMIIW):

• Video HD-DVDs are supposed to be quite similar to current video DVDs, i.e. VIDEO_TS folder etc.
• They are supposed to support (among possible others) MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC, SD (Main Level) and HD (High Level).
• Any MPEG-4 AVC decoder must also be able to decode other MPEG-4 video like XviD and DivX.
• There are DVD players with "DivX support".
• HDTV material is available, much of it in MPEG-2 or DivX/XviD.

So shouldn't it be possible to make pseudo HD-DVD±Rs¹ today, which play nicely in said DVD players?
I guess there could be problems with either too low data transfer rate (esp. MPEG-2) of the drive or a DSP not powerful enough (esp. MPEG-4).

¹ HD meaning "High Definition" here, not "High Density".

Anyway, has anybody actually seriously tried this? If so, what were the results?

[edDV]

" DSP not powerful enough (esp. MPEG-4)"

That is the main issue. WMV-HD takes a P2.4 for 720p and a P3.0 for 1080p for playback (with 5.1 audio). Same goes for other MPeg4 based schemes. Dedicated DSPs are coming. Microsoft told me a WMV-HD DVD player will be shown soon.

Basic issue comes down to trade off of high density media (HD-DVD, BluRay) with dumb players vs high compression formats (using current DVD technology) with high playback decode processing requirements.