Blu-ray disc association recently said that it would partly adopt HP’s proposals to implement certain functionality into the Blu-ray standard. The decision did not satisfy HP, who said that it would support HD DVD standard as well with its personal computers (PCs).

In mid-October, 2005, HP, who is the world’s second largest maker of personal computers (PCs), asked the Blu-ray group to include functionality known as mandatory managed copy, allowing users to copy high-definition movies onto their computers from discs and distribute them on home networks. HP also asked Blu-ray to support a feature called iHD, which provides for new interactive features and is slated to be implemented in Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system.

“Mandatory managed copy will be part of Blu-ray format, but while HP’s request (for interactivity) is being considered, at this point in time, the Blu-ray group is still proceeding down the path of Java,” Blu-ray spokesman Andy Parsons told Reuters news-agency.

The representative for the Blu-ray disc association said that the organization would not like to support the iHD technology just now in order not to delay the wide commercial launch of the Blu-ray format. While Mr. Parsons did not clearly say when the iHD capability is to be implemented into the Blu-ray, he also did not say that the alliance would definitely not implement the proposed capability.

“If they are unable to incorporate technologies we think are critical for the PC architecture, we’ll be more neutral. We’ll think of cost and implementation across the board. Potentially, we could support both HD DVD and Blu-ray,” said Maureen Weber, general manager of personal storage in HP’s personal systems group.

It is not clear what exactly Ms. Weber meant by saying about implementation cost considerations. Potentially, HP could follow Samsung, who is to introduce a player capable of both Blu-ray and HD DVD playback, and equip its PCs with optical drives capable of reading both formats. However, if this is not enough cost effective, HP may just ship PCs with different drives allowing end-users to choose the right one for their needs.