Blu-ray video on conventional DVD-SL and DL discs

[jmkoch]

BD-SL-R discs remain scarce at most retail outlets and the price for a single disc is seldom under $10. Meanwhile, the same retailers will sell spools of DVD+R-DL discs at prices as low as $35 for 50.

Several months ago, I saw one pack of 5 BD-SL-R discs with cases listed for $16. That made me think prices might be getting more affordable, but I've since decided that that was a clearance price only.

Has anyone spotted any cheap deals for spools of BD discs? I am wary of scams or teasers by flimsy or ghost on-line vendors that quote low to get "hits," but do not deliver. Has anyone actually bought and obtained such spools reliably?

Various software packages allow one to burn HD projects to ordinary DVD media using a format called AVCHD-DVD. One can fit about 35 minutes of good HD video onto a cheapie 4.7 GB DVD-SL or 70 minutes on a $0.70 DVD+R-DL. Since 70 minutes is usually enough for a full sports even (with time-outs and half-time trimmed, etc) or as much travel, social event, or musical video that most audiences can take in a single stretch, it would appear that this is a far more economical way to record HD video than to BD discs per se. Sure, there might be some marginal advantage in boosting the bitrate to 25 mbps, but not enough to offset the incremental cost of BD media for 20+ recipients, plus the cost of discs apt to be ruined or used in "beta" versions of a project.

The AVCHD-DVD discs can play on any red-laser DVD drive, provided the accompanying PC has a good CPU and adequate dedicated graphics card. They also play on PS3 and many (although aparently not all) dedicated BD players. I can attest that they play fine on the Sylvania BD player series.

What share of Blu-ray fiends rely on AVCHD-DVD format discs to burn HD video more cheaply than by reliance on pricey BD media?

Is there a central tally of which dedicated BD players will or will not play AVCHD-DVD players? This would help one decide which recipients of a project get high definition versions, and which should get more widely playable standard definition DVD versions, of a particular project.