Samsung To Launch Dual Format Player

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DigiTimes, citing industry sources, claims that Samsung will introduce a dual-format HD player by the end of the year capable of playing both Blu-ray and HD DVD movies.

The Samsung Duo HD BD-UP5000, the world's second dual-format disc player model supporting both HD DVD and BD next to the LG Electronics BH100. The device will be initially introduced in the European market at a tentative price of 400 euro (US$545) in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
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dR.Jester said:
Dual format players are not the effin' answer. Enough with these already.... :mad:
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Why isn't it? We've got Dual Format DVD writers (which can read/write to CDs as well), why not dual format HD players?

Samsung's player will likely sell for half of what LG's sold for, and a year or so from now, it'll be halved again.

High Def players have one of the fastest (perhaps the fastest) adoption rates ever (yes, faster than DVD) and the cheapest HD drives are much cheaper than the cheapest DVD drive was when DVD's drives were at this point.

My guess is that within 2 years, most will new players will handle both formats.
 
Unless one of the formats gives up and goes away, dual format players are the only way to go. Most people will not buy 2 players.. Heck, I won't even buy 1 player until the prices drop on both the players and the discs.
 
Anyone else think Sony will take a sales hit on PS3s if these catch on at all?
Almost everyone I've heard who bought a PS3 did it at least on some level because they wanted a BR player.
 
dR.Jester said:
Dual format players are not the effin' answer. Enough with these already.... :mad:
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Aw c'mon, we all know it'll be just like the whole DVD+/- thing. They'll both have slightly different functionality to start (the present and recent past)but will become essentially the same over time.

Eventually studios will just support both versions, because by then (I give it 12-18 months) costs will have fallen to the point where manufacturing is only a very small fraction of production expenditures.

The problem is people keep trying to compare it to VHS/BetaMax, it just isn't. Those were not multimedia media, they were AV playback media. Not to mention production, packaging, storage, and shipping are all much cheaper/easier for optical media. With tapes the industry HAD to choose, there was no possibility of a commercially viable VHS/BetaMax machine.

This HDDVD/BD situation is much more akin to the DVD+/- relationship, and the current media market shows that it can handle an extremely fractured format scheme: DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, Dual layer of each, and even DVD-RAM.

Next year we'll see the dual format burners and at that point the only remaining difference, capacity, will only matter to those using it for data. Then of course BD will have the advantage, but until then the only thing BD brings to the table is 24 hours of special features instead of "only" 12 or 13. Until they go for the next resolution tier, that extra space simply isn't needed for a movie disc.

Sure BD may eventually push HDDVD off the map due to storage issues, but I wouldnt be surprised if HDDVD just became relegated to budget movies. Heck, I could even see peeps buying HDDVD blanks just for movie archiving, and BD ones for storage. I already see them do that with DVD+/- today.

So with dual format players the Joe Schmo end user experience is no longer format dependent, he can buy one device and play back any HD media available without having to worry about anything more complicated then whether he can get it cheaper at Wal-Mart.

And at that point, who cares? :)
 
Brain fart...

With a dual format player fewer people will worry about the "Format War" and finally go HD. So they will buy more HD equipment/media at that point, increasing install base/market volume and driving down prices.

So this is good, faster adoption means cheaper prices sooner.

I mean really, how long has Japan been messing around with HD? 10 years now?
 
Frys has the HD-DVD/BluRay drive availible in their stores right now for I believe it's 1000 bucks.
 
I actually view these dual format players as lengthening the time it takes for a decision to be made. As long as companies keep having longterm projections for dual format players, people will put off the purchase of a single format player and it will just mean it will be longer down the road until one format is decided upon.

I myself will probably end up getting one of these types of machines because I don't want to wait for the winner, but at some point alot of people will have machines that play HD Discs, and some other format that died a while back. It should become a novelty that you have a player that can work with some "old" format.
 
Ockie said:
Frys has the HD-DVD/BluRay drive availible in their stores right now for I believe it's 1000 bucks.
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Yes, but it's not very good, from what I've read. I believe it's an HD-DVD drive with a basic BD drive that has very limited functionality. (I may have that reversed, not going to look it up).

Nobody's recommended the LG drive. Time will tell on the Sammy.
 
nilepez said:
Yes, but it's not very good, from what I've read. I believe it's an HD-DVD drive with a basic BD drive that has very limited functionality. (I may have that reversed, not going to look it up).

Nobody's recommended the LG drive. Time will tell on the Sammy.
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Thats usually the perk with LG products ;)

Samsung will no doubt be better, I sure hope their engineers has been taking notes on LG's let downs.
 
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