Fort Collins (CO) - In response to Microsoft's and Intel's joint announcement on Monday that they had joined the HD DVD Promotions Group, citing six of what they consider failures of rival Blu-ray high-definition video disc technology, an engineer for Blu-ray proponent HP, who is close to the standards process for the Blu-ray Disc Association, is claiming Intel and Microsoft have been extensively misled, and are spreading misleading information about Blu-ray Disc.

"I think there's some misinformation being spread about the Blu-ray Disc format," Josh Peterson, director of strategic alliances for HP's Optical Storage Solutions group, told Tom's Hardware Guide. HP is an outspoken member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, and an active participant in building standards for that format. "Certainly, Microsoft and Intel carry big brand presence," Peterson added, "but we don't really feel that their support of either format is really going to change the landscape with respect to hardware availability in the marketplace, or the consumer choice...when products are on the shelf next year."

That choice, Peterson believes, will indeed be whether to purchase either HD DVD or Blu-ray high-definition players, as both formats will probably be simultaneously available in North America and other markets. It's not a situation he's looking forward to, but at least for the near term, Peterson is resigned to it: "Unfortunately, it looks like that's what's going to happen," he said. "But I think that the choice will be very clear."

Microsoft's and Intel's interest in this matter, Peterson argues, are limited, since they don't manufacture the drives or the devices that include them (one possible exception being a future incarnation of Xbox 360, though Microsoft states early editions will not include high-def DVD). The major PC brands will sway consumers' decisions, he believes, and those brands are HP and Dell, both of whom are Blu-ray proponents.

Perhaps never in their respective histories have HP and Microsoft been so at odds about any technology; today, the two companies are considered close partners, especially in the development of features for Windows Vista. "Every relationship has its bumps," said Peterson, "and obviously we have a strong disagreement here."

One of the more glaring elements of this emerging disagreement concerns the issue of disc capacity. BD-ROM currently claims a theoretical maximum of 50 GByte. But on Monday, the Microsoft/Intel joint statement alleged that Blu-ray discs had only demonstrated thus far a physical BD-ROM capacity of 25 GByte, as Microsoft engineer Jordi Ribas - one of that company's representatives to the DVD Forum -stated in his exclusive interview with Tom's Hardware Guide.

In our interview with HP's Peterson, he called Ribas' claim "absolutely ridiculous. I've seen the lines that are making dual-layer BD-ROM drives. I've been to the factories. I've seen the lines where they're making dual-layer recordable discs. So [Microsoft and Intel] saying that it's not possible is obviously misinformation that they were fed, or that they're feeding others."

The real issue from a PC manufacturer's perspective, Peterson argued, is not really "-ROM" capacity but " R" capacity - the size of the recordable format. Dual-layer BD-R drives, he said - which would enable the 50 GByte capacity, not just the single-layer 25 Gb - are already being adopted by PC manufacturers for release next year, and are actually available now in Japan. So both the highest-capacity disc recorders, and the discs that are used in them, are perfectly visible to any visitor to Japan.

Early versions of the recordable BD-R and rewritable BD-RE versions of Blu-ray demonstrated since 2004 required cartridges to help protect the thin, bonded disc substrates. But in Version 2 of these formats, Peterson points out, the cartridge is not required. The virtue of shedding the cartridge is not just eliminating an ugly appendage. It enables the disc itself to be transferable between set-top devices and PCs, addressing some of the incompatibility issues Microsoft and Intel raised on Monday. The file system used on both PCs and set-top devices will also be the same, he said, in accordance with Version 2 of the specifications. One check of the official Blu-ray Disc License Web site shows that version 2 is indeed currently available, and is being licensed to manufacturers now.