HD-DVD Association Woos Microsoft For Xbox Next

The HD-DVD association has attempted to convince Microsoft to adopt the HD-DVD disk format at the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies Conference (CEATEC) in Japan this week. The association has concluded that Microsoft would be an obvious champion for their cause, since Sony has already announced that the PlayStation 3 console will use Blu-ray technology. Although the arguments over the technical merits of HD-DVD and Blu-ray are long and exhausting, Blu-ray has an obvious advantage in storage capacity, with the ability to hold 27GB of data on a single side, compared to 15GB for HD-DVD. Blu-ray also enjoys the backing of companies such as Panasonic, Philips, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Sharp and Sony, while Toshiba and NEC are the only big names supporting HD-DVD. Microsoft has refused to comment on the possibility of using HD-DVD, and Toshiba president Tadashi Okamura would only say that, “We'd of course like them [Microsoft] to use it." If Microsoft do choose to adopt HD-DVD for the next generation Xbox, the wider press are likely to quickly promote it as a VHS vs. Betamax style battle – but in that particular conflict, the superior technology lost out to the format with wider support from the entertainment industry.