A model displays a prototype of a 50 Gigabyte "Blu-Ray" DVD by Japanese company Sony March 9.

　　Apple Computer said it had joined the Blu-ray forum, which is battling with rival HD-DVD forum to set the next standard for DVD and bolstering Sony’s effort to dominate the $26 billion United States market for DVD’s and players.

　　Apple, whose computers run software to create DVD’s, has become a member of the alliance with a seat on the board of Blu-ray Disc Association’s directors. It would support the new high-definition DVD format in its iMovie and Final Cut video-editing software programs, according to a statement released by Blu-ray Mar. 10.

　　The competing formats promise high-definition pictures, better sound quality, more storage capacity and better copyright protection than standard DVD’s. The backing of film studios and computer makers like Apple will help determine the dominant standard. Blu-ray has five times the capacity of current discs and more than the HD-DVD standard.


　　"Apple has joined us," said Victor Matsuda, vice president of Blu-ray disc group Sony Corporation of America, at a presentation at the CeBIT electronics trade fair.

　　Blu-Ray’s backers include the two big PC makers, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, in addition to Sony, Walt Disney and Thomson, the largest supplier of recorded DVD’s.

　　Blu-ray refers to a blue laser that reads and records the format, according to the Blu-ray Web site.