HP No Longer Exclusively Supporting Blue-Ray

linumax wrote to mention an MSNBC article stating that HP is dropping its exclusive support for Blue-Ray. They'll be offering support to the HD-DVD format as well. From the article: "The decision is the latest sign of a looming 'format war' between the competing standards for a new generation of digital video players that can record high-definition films and video games. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD-compatible devices are expected to hit stores worldwide early next year."

Great

[42Penguins]

DVD burners can now do DVD+R and DVD-R in one, and are finally getting down in price.

And now we have the next turn around, with Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
So place your bets, gentlemen. Will one die, as in Betamax?
Or will they eventually be combined in a single machine? (Is that possible?)

HP just making noise to get HP friendly features

[DumbSwede]

HP is just trying to strong-arm some more concessions out of Sony on Blu-Ray features like managed copy. With 90% support from movie studios and HD-DVD delayed until 2006 the battle is already over. Even Microsoft has quit making noise about a possible HD-DVD X-Box 360. As far as low cost manufacture of discs, Blu-Ray can win there too with mpeg-4 on conventional DVD-9 for low bar entry into HD production -- can you aay porn? I know you could.

Re:Dead on arrival.

[calibanDNS]

It's kind of a silly option, but there is a HiDef VHS format out there that will let you record HD content to a D-VHS tape (or whatever they're calling it this week). It supports 480p up to 1080i (no 1080p, but honestly where are you getting a 1080p signal from anyway?).

Re:Microsoft is at the root of this

[Rosyna]

This seems to be very true. HP even made a request [vnunet.com] that the Blu-ray group include iHD (microsoft's non java interactivity "language") support. However, iHD isn't even "Tested". I can't find any information on it. Compare this with java with has many years of being tried and tested. Also consider the fact that either way, Blu-Ray or HD DVD implementors will have to pay MS for the VC-1 license.

It almost seems as if MS is "convincing" HP to make this move. I don't know if it has anything to do with java itself since MS paid sun $2 billion but more of a "all media technology must only work well on windows" type of thing.

Re:It's all just computers

[Anonymous Coward]

Absolutely. Its good to see that more and more displays support VGA/HDMI/DVI as well as Component/Composite/Coax inputs and such. I am glad that the newer media devices like the xbox 360 are supporting VGA output instead of just the standard composite.

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