LG coming out with dual format HD Player.

McLoki

Dual format HD-DVD and BluRay player coming from LG early this year....

Michael

January 04, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- LG Electronics Inc. will soon begin selling a high-definition video disc player compatible with both the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc standards, it said today.

The player will be unveiled at next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and go on sale in the U.S. in early 2007, LG said. No further details were immediately available.

A player compatible with both formats could do a lot to kick-start the high-definition movie disc market. To date consumers have taken a dim view to the format battle and most have stayed away from the incompatible technologies.

Both use blue lasers to achieve a storage capacity several times that of existing DVDs. Combined with advanced video compression systems they offer enough space to store movies in high definition.

Blu-ray Disc is backed by Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic) along with a long list of electronics makers and achieves a capacity of 25GB on a single-sided disc. HD DVD's main backer is Toshiba Corp. and the format also has broad support in Hollywood. A single-sided HD DVD disc can store 15GB of data. In comparison a DVD stores 4.7GB.

LG initially supported just Blu-ray Disc but at this year's Cebit show in Germany it confirmed it was also developing an HD DVD drive. Later in the year, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. said it was also considering development of a dual-format drive.

It's easy for most Blu-ray Disc backers to quietly research the addition of HD DVD technology to their drives. HD DVD is supported by the DVD Forum, the standards body behind DVD and to which most Blu-ray Disc backers are already members. That means HD DVD technology has been available to them since the format was first adopted several years ago.

Ricardo

Sounds good....I'll wait for feedback from first forum buyers

PolkThug

I'm still holding out for a dual HD format Denon.

McLoki

PolkThug wrote:

I'm still holding out for a dual HD format Denon.

If it sells well, I am sure most of the electronics companies will come out with a dual player. I agree though - LG is not exactly the first name you think of for audiophile electronics.... :rolleyes:

Personally I am still waiting for the first dual-format HD player that can be had for under $300. This is the first step on the way there though...

Michael

BIZILL

YUP, wonder how much this puppy will debut for.

bobman1235

Hey, BIZILL, nice profile quote

wingnut4772

..and there was much rejoicing.:D

Ron-P

YUP, wonder how much this puppy will debut for.

Rumor is in the $800 camp somewhere.

While I'd never buy a first gen duel format player, the single format players have enough issues on there own, a second or third I'd buy for certain if I was having problems with my HD-DVD or BD players.

As with every other duel-format player rumor I'll believe this when I see it on the shelf of my local BB. Until then it's just another rumor.

Early B.

McLoki wrote:

Personally I am still waiting for the first dual-format HD player that can be had for under $300. This is the first step on the way there though...

Yep. It's gotta be cost effective and I think the $300 threshold is a good one.

jhw59

sounds good. I 'll be quite happy with my oppo until the dual format players are reliable and cheap. I figure 2 years??

Ron-P

Like you jhw59 I'll wait until they are inexpensive and realiable, being that I now have both decks I have no need for a combo-player for quite sometime.

ninerbj

LG = Lame Goods

BIZILL

Ron-P wrote:

Rumor is in the $800 camp somewhere.

While I'd never buy a first gen duel format player, the single format players have enough issues on there own, a second or third I'd buy for certain if I was having problems with my HD-DVD or BD players.

As with every other duel-format player rumor I'll believe this when I see it on the shelf of my local BB. Until then it's just another rumor.

STILL too rich for my blood.

Ron-P

It's on Best Buy's site now, $1,200.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8203311&st=lg&type=product&id=1165610378688

I'd steer very clear of an LG product, bugs-o-plenty most likely, but this is a huge step in the right direction for HD-DVD and Blu-ray.

wallstreet

I'm in at the $250 price point. I expect to see that by next Christmas.

bobman1235

wallstreet wrote:

I'm in at the $250 price point. I expect to see that by next Christmas.

That might be a little optimistic. Maybe NEXT Christmas.

dorokusai

We saw this today at CES and it looks pretty nice.

opus

dorokusai wrote:

We saw this today at CES and it looks pretty nice.

Well if it looks nice that is a whole different story. I'm in:D


j/k. If the dual format talk heats up I may stay on the sidelines till then. I will take the HD/DVD plyer off my wish list.

Ron-P

Looks like this first gen comob-player is a bust. From what I am reading it cannot support iHD which means it will not support all the features of HD-DVD and may indeed even have trouble playing the disks. Also read that there is no offical HD-DVD logo on the player due to the fact it does not fully meet HD-DVD specs.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=782782&page=1&pp=30

PhantomOG

All that for the low low price of $1200 if you act now!!

:rolleyes:

vhabaygiurbm

Great news though...thanks!

BaggedLancer

it lacks IHD feature and also lacks the HDMI 1.3 support.

LG won't be seeing my money for this product.

Not to mention there are rumors flying about 25-30 second load times on dvd's.

Ron-P

Seems it's dead already.

http://ces.betanews.com/entry/LG_Hyb..._Is/1168407626

LG may have a difficult time bringing its newly announced BH100 hybrid Blu-ray and HD DVD player to the market, BetaNews has learned, because it will not receive certification from the DVD Forum. Without such certification, LG cannot publicly claim the player supports HD DVD as it is doing now.

The problem stems from the lack of support for HDi, the advanced interactivity technology used by HD DVD. LG has only included support for BD-J, Blu-ray's interactive menu system, in the BH100. Without HDi, only the video content from HD DVD discs will play back; menu systems and other interactive features will simply not be usable.

Kevin Collins, Microsoft's representative for the HD DVD group who sits on all the steering committees, says LG will not be able to sell the product and claim it supports the format if it leaves out HDi. Collins said LG provided no advance notice before announcing the BH100 player at CES, and noted he was surprised by the move.

In fact, Collins explained to BetaNews that the DVD Forum could pursue legal action against LG for claiming the hybrid player supports the HD DVD and using the HD DVD logo, just like it does against pirate hardware manufacturers in Asia that build DVD players without paying licensing fees.

LG plans to begin selling the BH100 in the first quarter of this year for $1,199 USD. But objections from Microsoft's Collins and other companies involved in HD DVD could force LG to make changes, or scrap the player altogether. Collins noted that studios would be "very upset" if consumers could not playback HD DVD movies as they were intended, with interactive menus and special features.

BetaNews was awaiting a response from LG on the matter by press time.

BaggedLancer

Ron-P wrote:

Seems it's dead already.

http://ces.betanews.com/entry/LG_Hyb..._Is/1168407626

See post #22

BaggedLancer wrote:

it lacks IHD feature and also lacks the HDMI 1.3 support.

Ron-P

I know it lacks iHD that old news but that last paragraph seems to suggest it would even see a store shelf.