Blu-ray failed the Intel/Microsoft test in six critical areas, Ribas told us, referring to a document listing those areas that a Microsoft spokesperson provided to Tom's Hardware Guide:

First, and perhaps foremost, is the ability for a consumer to make authorized copies of a legally obtained disc, in order to store the content on a hard drive and stream it to devices around the house. Intel particularly wants this capability for its Viiv home entertainment platform, announced last month. "We think it's a great consumer win, and it's a great industry win, to be able to ensure that with good copy protection, you can have so much functionality for the user," Rivas told us. But when recently questioned about its support for these features, Ribas said, although Blu-ray had appeared supportive at one time, its current stance is now uncommitted.

Support for hybrid discs that can be read in both current DVDs and future players, was the second critical element. This would "future-proof" new releases, enabling consumers to buy DVDs that can play in today's players, while also providing high-def content for tomorrow's. "That's something that both promised," said Ribas, "but HD DVD delivered, and Blu-ray has not - and it seems it's nowhere in sight. [Blu-ray has] claimed they have it in the lab, but to go from the lab to mass production is like night and day. There's a lot of effort that needs to happen. So as of now, there's nothing that leads us to believe that that's going to be possible [from Blu-ray] at this point."

Maintaining low production costs is a critical factor, which has been a key HD DVD talking point in light of current revelations about factory upgrade costs for Blu-ray. "For a long time, we actually thought that the Blu-ray Group had the upper hand in costs," Ribas said, mainly because of the involvement in Blu-ray of most of the major Japanese CE manufacturers - Sony, Matsushita (Panasonic), Pioneer, and Sharp - as well as Philips. Here is where recent events played a critical role: In a development that was brought to light only this morning, two of the world's leading China-based DVD player production facilities announced their support for HD DVD over Blu-ray. In press statements, these companies cited the relative openness of the DVD Forum compared to the Blu-ray Disc Association. "Now that we see China embracing HD DVD," said Ribas, "we actually see that on the cost side, HD DVD will have an advantage, because the Chinese have been the ones who have lowered the prices, via the competition, for HD DVD players." As much as 75 percent of DVD players sold in America today come from China, he added.

Maintaining low disc replication costs affects the consumer price for media, said Ribas, which would play into any price/performance evaluation. A disc production factory can make minor upgrades to its equipment, he stated, with the result being equipment that can produce both conventional DVD as well as HD DVD. Citing figures circulating this week throughout the industry, Ribas said it would cost as much as $1.7 million per production line to install Blu-ray disc production equipment, and as much as $2.0 million for each new mastering system installed. That's a significant expense, he explained, for a business which only turns over a 10 percent margin.

The surprise entry in Microsoft's and Intel's list of failures is disc storage capacity. On paper, Blu-ray appears to have the advantage. But the two companies looked beneath the paper: Capacity, said Ribas, "used to be the biggest advantage of Blu-ray, and we believed it. We thought, they'll get 50 GByte BD-ROM discs working, but it's not happening, and it's nowhere in sight. There are not even pilots. It's only in the lab that they are building these discs." With regard to demonstrated capacity, he told us, HD DVD-ROM actually leads BD-ROM by a score of 30 GByte to 25 GByte.

The final entry is interactivity standards. Although Microsoft and Disney jointly developed the iHD interactivity layer, based on XML - which is the glue that holds together the "Vista vision" of Microsoft's future Windows platform - and even though Disney is a Blu-ray proponent, the Association chose instead to endorse BDJ, an implementation of Sun-s Java Mobile Edition. Ribas told us that the major studios - either publicly or quietly - are opposed to BDJ, citing its relative complexity and its lack of compelling new features compared to iHD. An optional commentary track for videos, for example, that superimposes the speaker's image on-screen as well as providing audio, is one key iHD feature that BDJ will support only as an option, maybe. "Which means nobody will use it," said Ribas.

"Intel was looking at similar issues," said Ribas, "and [we] realized, 'We are getting very close to getting these things into the market, we have to stop hoping or expecting or believing promises. We have to look at what's real and what's not.' That's where our decision came from."

"From a PC end-user perspective, Blu-ray is a superior format," HP personal-storage unit general manager Maureen Weber said in a statement. Weber said Blu-ray offers anywhere from two-thirds to 150 percent more storage capacity, as well as higher transfer rates, and fits easily into slim notebooks. "The technical merits and consumer benefits of Blu-ray Disc make it the ideal solution for HP's customers."

Dell founder Michael Dell also lashed out at Microsoft and Intel during Wednesday's launch of a new premium PC line.

"Which version of Windows was the first to support DVD drives? The answer is none," Dell said, "because there is no DVD codec in Windows, because manufacturers have always provided their own codecs."

Blu-ray fires back at HD DVD camp, Microsoft responds

Calling the reasons cited by Microsoft and Intel for choosing HD DVD over Blu-ray "inaccurate," members of the Blu-ray Disc Association group issued that they characterized as "corrections" on a number of issues, ranging from capacity to managed copy support. Strap yourselves in folks, because we are two days into what is going to become a media war.

Just yesterday I spoke with Jordi Ribas, director of technical strategy for the Windows Digital Media Division, about Microsoft's deciding factors. Ribas emphasized that Microsoft's decision to back HD DVD was based on how the competing specifications look today, and not on claims about what may or may not be available in the future. One key aspect in the decision was capacity: Microsoft said that HD DVD was launching at 30GB, and that a spring launch was a certainty (Toshiba is reportedly aiming for February). Ribas said that this put HD DVD in front of Blu-ray, inasmuch as Blu-ray has not proven a manufacturing process for 50GB discs outside of carefully controlled lab environments.

Blu-ray hit back today, saying that Blu-ray would be 50GB at launch, although no launch date was mentioned. This would give Blu-ray a 20GB lead over HD DVD's 30GB capcity. However, Richard E. Doherty, program manager in Microsoft's media entertainment technology convergence group, cast a shadow over just when the launch would be.

HD DVD is proven to deliver 30GB capacity today, with the potential to deliver even greater capacity. The 50GB claim for BD-ROM discs is unproven and will not be available for many years to come, based on discussions with major Japanese and US replicators. Replicators not only do not have test lines running, they cannot even pre-order the equipment to begin evaluating this disc. They cannot judge the cost of these discs, or even whether they can be manufactured at all. Major replicators can mass manufacture 30GB HD DVD discs today and it’s well understood that these discs will cost significantly less to manufacture than the lower-capacity 25GB BD discs.

The BDA also noted that they were first to design a hybrid disc that would play in existing DVD players, and that hybrid support was merely a matter of adding red lasers to player hardware. JVC was demoing a hybrid disk earlier this month, although it has not been established that the manufacturing process has been perfected. Doherty here also stressed the matter of timing in delivering a solution. Saying that "HD DVD has shown that hybrid discs will be a reality for consumers at launch," he indicated that there was "no roadmap for the development and availability of a BD hybrid disc," and there was no evidence that MEI or Panasonic can manufacture the disc. "While it may be possible to manufacture such a disc in the distant future, no data indicates these can be available at launch and it’s unlikely they’ll be available for several years," he added.

As to the central issue of managed copy, the BDA noted that managed copy is part of the AACS protection specification, and not part of the optical format per se. However, their carefully worded response did not address the issue of mandatory managed copy support, which still leaves things where we suspected they were yesterday: publishers may or may not offer managed copy through Blu-ray, which is something that Ribas indicated that Microsoft was not comfortable with. Microsoft wants the option available on all discs. Doherty added that while HD DVD has pledged their mandatory support publicly, "the BD has not done so and continues to refuse to do so."

If I can boil it down right now, I'd say the big issues are timing and managed copy. Microsoft clearly feels that the HD DVD solution will be finished and launched far, far in advance of Blu-ray, and they want universal mandatory managed copy, to boot.

I know that a formal response from HD DVD is in the works, so stay tuned. In the meantime, there's plenty to think about, and while it may not all be entirely clear at this point, the discussion is at least happening on a public level.

And if Blu-ray 50GB is truly "many years" away, is it worth waiting for?

According to an AFX report, Paramount will now support BD too. In a statement sent to the news agency, Paramount said it hopes to make sales on the back of the PlayStation 3's BD support.