An article found here outlines an interesting way to backup your HD-DVD's using an Xbox 360 with the HD-DVD add-on and a PC.
The author makes use of the fact that the HD-DVD add-on outputs at resolutions of 1080i or 720p over component cable. Using a capture card that is capable of capturing analoge video at HD resolution and a large and speedy hard drive array, you can backup your discs.
It has to be pointed out though that first of all it is very expensive as the video will consume around 6GB per minute and require a SATA RAID array to do it in real time. Also if any HD-DVD's discs use the Image Constraint Token (ICT) (in which the resolution of the video is constricted over a non HDCP compliant connection) then your pretty much wasting your time doing this.
Seems like a good idea in principle. Very expensive to be able to do in reality but then again it depends how much you really want to backup your movie. I think by far most people will wait until the AACS encryption is broken or some kind of work around is found before they try backup their HD discs. I doubt very much that this would lead to piracy of HD films either, I don't think the cost justifies it.
