The war between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc is heating up as supporting companies pump money into advertising in the hope of swaying consumers to buy into (or in the case of Blu-ray, wait for) their particular high-definition disc format. Microsoft is one of the largest companies backing the recently available HD DVD format and will be providing support for it in Vista - the next version of Windows - due to be released to consumers early next year.
Rather astonishingly, CVG is reporting that when visiting Japan recently, Microsoft head Bill Gates made public the fact that the Vista operating system could be made compatible with the rival Blu-ray format that's backed and developed by Sony. Gates is reported as stating that for Vista to support the Blu-ray format there would need to be some give and take from the Sony team by sharing information needed to code the format to enable support.
According to CVG, Gates said, "In terms of Blu-ray, that's also coming along", adding, "As they finalise their specifications we'll understand how well that's able to connect up to Windows. As yet they haven't shared that."
Gates is also quoted as expressing his high expectations for the Xbox 360's HD DVD external drive, set for release later this year, and talking about the importance of the community that the Xbox 360 has built up with its successful Live service that offers high-definition movie trailers.
What are your views on the two different technologies? Could early-arriving HD DVD fail just as Betamax did in the 80s or will the tortoise that is Blu-ray come out on top? Clearly, what Microsoft does with Vista could have a huge impact, so come and have you say in the HEXUS.community.
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