Burning Questions: More from the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD Front
Melissa J. Perenson, PC World
November 15, 2005
http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/123491

	The article explores two recent announcements in the ongoing standard war
between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD as the format to replace DVD.  The announcements
come from two corners of this war.  The first is from Warner, changing its
previous staunch commitment to HD-DVD to now include intent to produce content
for the Blu-Ray format.  The second announcement comes from HP, one of the
founding members of the Blu-Ray Disc Association.  HP has announced two proposals,
one to include "mandatory managed copy" into the Blu-Ray spec, and the second to
standardize the Blu-Ray software on Microsoft's iHD technology.  Both of these
announcements have potentially wide implications for the future of the standard war,
the first suggesting a blow to HD-DVD, and the second hinting at a possible attempt
to unify the two competing formats.
	In response to the announcement by Warner, the article speculates that Warner's
willingness to produce content for Blu-Ray could be a major setback to HD-DVD.
As was discussed in class, one of the main strategies to take in a standards war is
to build a large base of support early.  HD-DVD is attempting to build this base by
releasing hardware and content earlier than Blu-Ray.  However, Blu-Ray realizes that
in the end the winner will be differentiated by the amount of content that can be
produced for his platform.  Getting Warner onboard brings the vast majority of movie
studio's onboard with Blu-Ray, potentially diminishing the chances of HD-DVD to
prevail.  However, as the article also states, the agreements made by studios to
Blu-Ray are not binding, and if HD-DVD is able to make a strong showing, it could
still maintain long term viability as studios defect to the stronger format.  One
other interesting point is that along with Warner's agreement to support Blu-Ray is
its additional request to include a cheaper, easier to produce component to the
final Blu-Ray standard.  This is interesting in light of the discussion in class.
In class the idea of a "migration path" was discussed as a way to stay on top after
you have won a standards war, but here it seems as if the customers (the studios)
are hoping to have this migration path embedded in the war itself.
	The second announcement covered by this article is the fairly high-profile
calls made by HP to include two key technologies in the Blu-Ray standard.  The
first is to include the "mandatory managed copy" functionality which requires
Blu-Ray devices and discs allow legal copying of the content to approved devices.
This is an interesting move, as managed copy is a functionality highlighted
by HD-DVD.  Additionally, HP has requested that the Microsoft iHD technology be
used as the standard for creating the software that provides Blu-Ray menus and
special features.  This is interesting in light of the fact that Microsoft
recently threw its approval behind HD-DVD which plans to use iHD.  The article
speculates that this could be a move by HP to seek to unify the two standards
before an all out standards war hits the shelves.  If this is true, it
represents an interesting turn in the brewing standards war, and could signal
the acknowledgement by the players that it is more the content than the media
that is important.