When you use Windows Explorer to view an HD DVD on a Windows Vista-based computer, the icon for the file is displayed correctly. However, you cannot complete the following operations successfully for files that are located on the HD DVD:

• You cannot view the properties of a file.
• You cannot copy a file to another location.
• You cannot delete a file.
• You cannot move a file to another location.

Ed Bott talks about how he setup a machine to playback HD video on a Vista PC, and notes that Vista’s DRM doesn’t come into play. Keep reading →

• Blu-ray, HD DVD, and Vista
  It’s not easy jumping into the HD media arena.
  (tags: Blu-ray HD-DVD )

It’s not easy jumping into the HD media arena. Keep reading →

• Vista Prevents Users Playing High-Def Content
  Here’s more detail on the High-Def arguements. If what they say is true, that home captured HD is prevented, that’s one thing, but if it’s all commercial, that’s another. In the end, DRM sucks, but Vista certainly isn’t the first or last to use it.
  (tags: DRM HD-DVD Video )
• Vista SP1 brings small UI tweaks, including refreshed ?NO GUI? boot splash & volume sliders.
  Here’s a couple screen shots of some UI enhancements in the leaked SP1 beta
  (tags: Beta SP1 GUI )

Keep reading →

Here’s more detail on the High-Def arguements. If what they say is true, that home captured HD is prevented, that’s one thing, but if it’s all commercial, that’s another. In the end, DRM sucks, but Vista certainly isn’t the first or last to use it. Keep reading →

This is of course by choice of the content licenser, it’s not Vista’s fault. I’ve seen a number of posts talking about this, but I wonder, do Linux or Mac users even have an options to view this same content? Keep reading →

The information in this article applies to the following configuration(s):

• Radeonâ„¢ HD2900 XT
• Windows Vista 32-bit Edition
• Windows Vista 64-bit Edition

Symptoms:
Playing HD DVD content followed by attempting to hot unplug a display device and then hot-plugging the same display device to the same or a different port results in the HD DVD playback failing to resume

The information in this article applies to the following configuration(s):

• Blue Ray, HD DVD material
• Catalyst Display Driver 7.1 and higher
• Radeonâ„¢ X1950 series
• Windows Vista 32-bit Edition
• Windows Vista 64-bit Edition
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows XP Home Edition
• Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Symptoms:
The resolution 1920×1080/24p which is required to playback Blue-Ray material on LCD TV sets is not available in Catalyst Contol Center.

Vista’s built in CD/DVD burning software works for creating data disks, but doesn’t offer the ability to use a disc image file to burn a disc. If you need to burn an image file, you’ll need a third-party application to do it, and thankfully, their are many to choose from. I use ImgBurn, which is not only free, but supports a ton of image types, and works great in Vista. ImgBurn not only handles CD’s and DVD’s, but is already capable of doing HD DVD and Blue-ray discs as well. The download is only 1.5MB, and once install, isn’t much larger than that, so it’s very resource friendly. It even supports command line switches, so it could be run from a batch file. Keep reading →