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Jordi Ribas, Microsoft's director of technology strategy for Windows Digital Media told Tom's Hardware Guide that the company's previous neutrality had been abandoned because Blu-ray failed to meet six key criteria.

'A year and a half ago, both format organisations had very similar goals, and to some extent, the story of Blu-ray was actually very powerful,' he said. 'It had higher capacity, it had what we would consider benefits at the time. But then as time

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went on, and we'd seen what's the reality of both formats today, and what were promises versus what's proven and what's real, that's when we decided to make the decision.'

The six features that Microsoft and Intel require are: the ability of the consumer to make authorised copies of their discs so that they can store content on a hard drive and stream it around the house; support for hybrid discs that can be read by both current and future players; low production costs; low replication costs; and storage capacity.

On the last point Ribas explained that although on paper Blu-ray has the advantage, there is no evidence that 50GB discs exist anywhere outside the lab and nor does it look like happening.

Microsoft's decision to throw its considerable weight behind HD DVD coincided with a similar commitment from the equally weighty Intel. Until recently it looked as if Blu-ray had seized the initiative in what promises to be a mighty tussle to capture the high-definition market in 2006 and beyond. It now seems that HD DVD has grabbed it back.