Did not know where to post this but thought it would be interesting reading.

H-P presses for easy copying in Blu-ray DVD format

By GARY GENTILE
The Associated Press

Hewlett-Packard Co., a major backer of the Blu-ray high-definition DVD format, is urging that it be more consumer-friendly in a bid to forestall a lengthy and costly war with a competing standard.

The appeal came on the same day Forrester Research predicted that Blu-ray would eventually win the war but that consumers, hungry for digital content, would look elsewhere for video and take longer to embrace high-definition DVDs.

Hewlett-Packard, the nation’s second-largest PC maker, on Wednesday asked the Blu-ray Disc Association to make it easier for consumers to transfer movies from a DVD to a home network, an option seen as essential to consumer adoption of any high-definition DVD format.

Blu-ray’s rival format HD DVD, which is backed by Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp.and Toshiba Corp., among others, features a standard known as “mandatory Managed Copy,” which will allow a consumer to make a legal copy of their DVD and store the digital file on a home network.

The movie can then be moved from a computer screen to a television and other authorized viewing devices on the network.

Blu-ray has much stricter content- protection rules that allow studios to lock their movies to the disc, preventing any copying.

That stricter standard is favored by Hollywood studios, which are afraid of piracy.

But companies such as Microsoft, Intel and H-P are marketing hardware and software that enable home networking, a feature believed to be desired by most consumers.