Fight Is On for Next-Generation DVDs

So much for a truce.

Tech titans Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. today will back HD DVD as their choice for the next generation of DVDs, pitting them against Sony Corp. and its rival Blu-ray format.

Both formats offer crisper pictures but are incompatible. Backers acknowledge that consumers, retailers, studios and most device makers would be better off with a unified standard -- avoiding a replay of the fight between VHS and Betamax. But as products head to market, neither side is conceding.

Support from Microsoft and Intel could boost the HD DVD camp. Microsoft said it would build support for HD DVD into the next version of Windows, called Vista. Intel will make its coming Viiv technology for multimedia work with HD DVD.

“The great thing about HD DVD is that it provides the cool consumer benefits we’re looking for,” such as the ability to play standard DVDs, said Stephen Balogh, Intel’s director of optical media standards.

That support puts Intel and Microsoft at odds with its biggest customers. Computer makers such as Apple Computer Inc., Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. back Blu-ray. But, analyst Richard Doherty of Envisioneering Group said, “most of the PC makers, while they have their own research and development departments, pretty much go to market with what Intel makes available to them.”

HP spokesman Mike Moeller said the company was sticking with Blu-ray. “Ultimately [Intel] does not deliver products to customers,” he said. “Our impact of what’s going to happen in the marketplace is very important.”

A big question: whether Microsoft will include HD DVD in future versions of its Xbox 360 video game console the way Sony is building Blu-ray into its PlayStation 3 machine. A Microsoft spokeswoman said its support of HD DVD did not immediately affect Xbox 360, which ships this fall with a standard DVD drive.