Are there any physical differences between burnable HD DVDs and DVD-Rs? If not could a HD DVD burner be tricked into using its blue laser on a DVD-R to store 15 GB of data on a 4.7 GB disc. It would sure be an economical way to store large amounts of data.
I think both have the data layer 0.6 mm from the surface so theoretically... However, I wouldn't trust any important data to this.
Although the physical construction is the same (two sandwich layers), the dye is very different and so is the recording method and directory structure. The 405 nanometer near ultra violet recording laser will not be able to record properly on dye tuned to the 650 nanometers of ruby red laser power. Even if it could, it would have to follow the wobble tracking groove of the DVD.
eatsushi is correct. Both data layers are 0.6 mm below the surface: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD JoeRyan has a point though.
