Just to wrap up my part of this thread - usenet worked great for pulling down ESB 1080p (thanks to the user earlier for the suggestion about giganews!). Also, found that a slow burn on the memorex did the trick... I will burn again using verbatim just for a backup. One interesting point is that imgburn id'd the memorex discs as Ritek... is it possible Ritek mfr's the discs and memorex just slaps a label on them?

thx to everyone for the help! these HD versions are amazing! I put ESB HD in my Sony blu-ray and the 2004 DVD into my Oppo dvd to compare... incredible! Adywan is a legend! :)

Edit: found some info on memorex/ritek. apparently neither get good reviews so I'll def. be making a copy on the verbatim!