AnyDVD is a great product. In the article the OP linked to, the writer keeps whining about ads and other garbage that gets placed into these HD dvd's. Now I agree with him completely that this stuff is garbage, but why the heck do you keep rewarding companies by buying those products then? Simply refuse to buy the disks with all the ads and restrictions on them.
With AnyDVD, you're paying for a product that removes restrictions and other other bad 'features' on disks. You're also rewarding the companies by still buying their disks, meaning they will just continue to get worse......