I have a collection of HD DVD discs (yes I know old tech) which I can play on my Toshiba HDEP 30 player. I have now acquired a laptop HD DVD writer and a laptop HD DVD drive which I would like to use in external caddies with my laptops or PC. Does anyone know of any current software for Windows (Xp, 7 or 8.1) or even older editions of software which will allow this? Also any HD DVD authoring software for use with the writer.

To be clear here we are NOT talking about DVDs but a now discontinued format HD DVD - HD DVD - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

I have tried all the current free and paid for (at least those with free trials) programs that come up on Google (which

The only pc software was total media theatre 6 but arcsoft have discontinued it. I don't know how torrents work for software but that might be an option.

Also you could look at buying a xbox 360 and the hd dvd add on for playback.

You will also find that a standard PC-ROM drive will not play HD DVD discs, nor will even a blu-ray drive. i used to have such a drive but i would expect that they are no longer available.
Arcsoft used to support HD DVD playback: i made the mistake of accepting an upgrade and discovered that the upgrade comprised the removal of HD DVD support.
I long ago gave away my Toshiba HD DVD player and disc collecton to a niece. She then lost the remote which made the player absolutely useless.

I had the same thing happen as CP2 but I restored Windows back to before the "upgrade" and it was then able to play hd-dvds again.
That was with the cyberlink software that came with my LG blu-ray/hd-dvd burner.

I have discovered that MPC (Media Player Classic) with the right codecs does in fact play HD DVDs as well as Blu Rays unfortunately without menus but hey its free. It also copes with the language options and subtitles. I also discovered that my LG desktop drive is in fact a combo drive HD DVD and Blu ray ROM and DVD/CD rewriter drive.