H-P makes high-def demands
Computer maker could be softening on Blu-ray support
By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 10/19/2005
OCT. 19 | In a move that is bound to further confuse the high-definition format battle, computer maker Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday formally asked the Blu-ray Disc Assn. to adopt two critical technologies from HD DVD as part of an effort to “ensure that customers are not forced to choose between competing [high-def] formats for DVD.”
The requested changes include adoption by Blu-ray of mandatory managed copy, a feature that would allow users to copy the discs to a hard drive or to stream the content on the disc over a home network. H-P also asked Blu-ray to drop the BD-Java interactive layer from the format’s spec and incorporate the Microsoft and Disney-developed iHD standard instead.
The two technologies, which the DVD Forum has embraced for HD DVD, go to the heart of the information technology industry’s interests in the two formats: the ability to pass the video between networked devices, and the ability to design interactive features around disc-based content. By getting both camps to embrace the same technologies, H-P is hoping to move the two formats closer to unification.
Adopting HD DVD’s interactive and networking features could pave the way for Microsoft and other IT interests to abandon their support for HD DVD and embrace Blu-ray.
On the other hand, H-P’s announcement led some HD DVD supporters to speculate that the computer giant was having second thoughts about its support for Blu-ray.
“It says to me that H-P has some real concerns about what [Blu-ray Disc] could mean for their customers after the fact,” Toshiba spokesman Mark Knox said.
As a founding member of the association and a member of its board of directors, H-P has been one of the staunchest defenders of Blu-ray and the various features incorporated into the format. Its apparent change of course caught many by surprise.
Just last month, H-P and Dell Computers were highly critical of comments by Microsoft and Intel suggesting that Blu-ray was balking at making managed copy a mandatory feature in the format.
At the time, H-P argued that managed copy was provided for in the Advanced Access Content System both formats plan to use as their basic copy-protection layer, so there was no difference in how the two would handle networking.
With Wednesday’s announcement, however, H-P seemed to back away from that claim.
“H-P wants to make sure that AACS is adopted in such a way that managed copy is still implemented,” the computer maker’s director of strategic alliances Josh Peterson said Wednesday. “The [Blu-ray Disc Assn.] does support AACS, but there could be ways to hinder the use of managed copy. We want to ensure that the implementation does not negatively impact managed copy and that it remains mandatory, as it is in AACS.”
The company also seemed to be softening its line toward Microsoft.
The iHD interactive platform, “will provide consumers with enhanced content, navigation and functionality for [high-def] films,” H-P said in its news release. “Furthermore, Microsoft plans to implement iHD support in its Windows Vista operating system, which will help ease implementation and provide a cost-effective solution for consumers.”
Blu-ray Disc Assn. officials had no immediate comment on H-P’s announcement.
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