James Delahunty
20 Oct 2005 2:54
The world's second largest PC manufacturer, Hewlett-Packard, has urged the Blu-Ray group to support some technologies that the HD-DVD group have already implemented into the HD-DVD format. This comes after Microsoft and Intel joined the HD-DVD supporters, citing lack of consumer-friendly features in the Blu-Ray format. "We're still supporting Blu-ray but we're very serious that we want these technologies. If in the end, they're supported in one and then not the other, we'll have to make a choice," said Maureen Weber, general manager of personal storage in HP's personal systems group.
The two technologies that HP wants Blu-Ray to support are Mandatory Managed Copy and iHD. Mandatory Managed Copy gives consumers the ability to copy content from the HD disc onto home servers then distribute them around a network. Intel also said it would think about also supporting Blu-Ray if Mandatory Managed Copy were supported. iHD provides new interactive features and will be implemented into Microsoft's next operating system, Windows Vista.
HP said that it wanted to ensure consumers are not forced to choose between competing formats for DVDs. Microsoft applauded HP's move. "We'd like to see Blu-ray do the right thing and commit to these scenarios, avoiding a protracted format war that benefits no one," said spokesman Blair Westlake. The two features HP is pushing for are already supported by Blu-Ray's rival, HD-DVD, developed by Toshiba Corp.
One of the main things that will decide the format war is support from Hollywood. Until recently it was split down the middle with three major studios on Blu-Ray's side and 3 on HD-DVD's side, although Paramount made an announcement in the past few weeks saying that it will produce movies on both format to consumers a choice.
Source:
Reuters