Hewlett-Packard Co. on Wednesday raised the stakes in a battle between high-definition DVD formats by urging a group led by Sony Corp. to include features important to PC makers and users. Palo Alto, Calif-based HP has long backed Sony"s Blu-ray but last month Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. endorsed a competing high-definition DVD format known as HD-DVD, which is backed by Toshiba Corp. That prompted HP to make its move on Wednesday.
"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. Blu-ray and HD-DVD were not available for comment.
The world"s No. 2 computer maker asked the makers of Blu-ray to include two technologies in its specifications now supported by HD-DVD. One is known as mandatory managed copy, allowing users to copy high-definition movies onto PCs from discs and distribute them on home networks. HP also asked Blu-ray to support a feature called iHD, which provides for new interactive features and is slated to be implemented in Microsoft"s new Windows Vista operating system.