I ran across a neat article on using Javascript and default CSS behaviors to infer what sites you frequent, this is not new, the earliest reference I could find of this was from 2006 but I bet this has been going on for much longer.
An example of analytics that can be applied to this data is that one follow is using your URL history to infer gender.
These are great examples of thinking outside the box and how privacy is an illusion (especially on the web).
I just posted "How to convert a HD-DVD to an AVI" this was the winner in my various experiments to get HD-DVD content to work so I can shelf the drive since I will not be able to get new content on this media format.
All of the goals and caveats of that post apply here as-well, the first steps are the same, the last steps are the only ones that change.
- Demux the HD-DVD into its elementary streams using EVODMUX.
- Convert the VC-1 elementary stream from the HD-DVD 29.97 fps streams with pulldown flags to 23.976 fps progressive using vc1conv.
- Transcode the DD+ audio stream to regular AC3 using eac3to.
- Remux the VC-1 elementary stream and the AC3 stream into a M2TS (AVCHD) or TS using TSMuxR.
The resulting file was playable with ffmpeg\ffplay, I could also import this file with Handbrake (who by the way is a great tool, but don't ever venture into their forums the authors are hostile at best).
I suspect with additional codecs it would have played in WMP and Media Center also but I really did not want to need additional codecs for this to all work.
Unless you have had your head in the sand you know that HD-DVD is dead, BluRay won.
Yes this news is dated, but I have been busy!
So what does that mean for you? Go re-buy all of your HD-DVDs as BluRays? Show the movie studios that they profit from their format war by waiting until physical media dies and downloads prevail?
Well in my case I am trying to save my investment and transfer those HD-DVDs to a format that is playable on my computers and migrate to BluRay (fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...)
To that end, I have gone through a series of experiments trying to find a format that will work on my PC.
The goals are to not loose any picture quality, to loose as little audio quality as possible, one audio track is fine, I am willing to give up on sub-titles and I do not care about file size.
Based on the above this means I have to find a container format (MP4, AVI, TS, M2TS, ASF or WMV), I tried most of these and I have come to the conclusion, that when it comes to my machine that will be a AVI container.
Most HD-DVDs contain VC-1 Elemental Stream and Dolby Digital Plus stream, you will end up having to transcode the DD+ into AC3, in theory the impact of this should be negligible.
What I describe bellow will not work on protected HD-DVDs but it does look like it will work fine on un-protected ones.
- Demux the HD-DVD into its elementary streams using EVODMUX.
- Convert the VC-1 elementary stream from the HD-DVD 29.97 fps streams with pulldown flags to 23.976 fps progressive using vc1conv.
- Transcode the DD+ audio stream to regular AC3 using eac3to
- Wrap the VC-1 elementary stream in a AVI using vc12avi, this outputs, in my case, multiple 2GB or less AVIs.
- Merge the resulting AVIs into a single AVI with virtualdub and ffdshow.
> Set Codecs/WVC1 in ffdshow VFW (not directshow) decoder to 'libavcodec' in the VFW decoder configuration.
> Select Video, Direct Stream Copy
> Open the .00 and then use "Append AVI Segment" add second segment, rest are added automatically.
> Select "Save as AVI"...
> You may have to set XP SP2 compatibility mode to get it to play, you will know if when you execute the GUI and nothing happens.
> Drag and drop, as the UI indicated, did not work, you may have to right click on the open files list, select Add, repeat for each file (AVI and AC3).
> Once the two files are added Click on button to generate from details.
> Now, click on Start.
> Select the desired output file.
As I said the resulting file plays without the need for an additional codec on my Windows 7 installation; on prior releases of Windows I additional codecs would likely be needed.