Unlike the Betamax war with VHS, HD-DVD vs Blue-ray has the Internet to help get their arguments across it would seem.

Calling the reasons cited by Microsoft and Intel for choosing HD DVD over Blu-ray “inaccurate,” members of the Blu-ray Disc Association group issued that they characterized as “corrections” on a number of issues, ranging from capacity to managed copy support. Strap yourselves in folks, because we are two days into what is going to become a media war.

Just yesterday I spoke with Jordi Ribas, director of technical strategy for the Windows Digital Media Division, about Microsoft’s deciding factors. Ribas emphasized that Microsoft’s decision to back HD DVD was based on how the competing specifications look today, and not on claims about what may or may not be available in the future. One key aspect in the decision was capacity: Microsoft said that HD DVD was launching at 30GB, and that a spring launch was a certainty (Toshiba is reportedly aiming for February). Ribas said that this put HD DVD in front of Blu-ray, inasmuch as Blu-ray has not proven a manufacturing process for 50GB discs outside of carefully controlled lab environments. [Read the rest]