Samsung's been seriously non-committal about whether or not they were going to come out with a dual-format HD-DVD / Blu-ray combo player for a while now (they
first said they working on one back in September of '05, only to
retract that a few months later), but no more: it's officially happening. They've just announced the
Duo HD BD-UP5000, their first player to support both HD disc formats. LG beat 'em to the punch with the
BH100, but Samsung is promising that the Duo HD BD-UP5000 will have full support for HD-DVD (including support for HDi), something LG hasn't been able to offer with its player. We're still waiting to hear details about pricing and all that, but they are promising that the combo player will be out "in time for the holidays."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
hmurchison @ Apr 13th 2007 12:02AM
Major defection from Blu-ray exclusivity.
Congrats for "waking up" Samsung! You chose wisely.
Jeff N. @ Apr 13th 2007 12:28AM
If Samsung does a real good job with this dual format player and it comes in under a $1000 it may do pretty well in sales. I'd look at it.
blake @ Apr 13th 2007 2:46AM
Now we gotta see if this will be released late enough to get the final specifications on BD-Java on it by October.
blake @ Apr 13th 2007 4:40AM
Well to reply to myself I just read their press release on their website and they state pretty much second line that they will support BD-Java. Excellent
Asterra @ Apr 13th 2007 5:40AM
Repeat after me: 24 Hz.
That's all this player will need to be the killer piece of hardware everyone's been waiting for.
(Well, that and HDMI 1.3 for >8-bit color support, but what else is new.)
tranzparentl @ Apr 13th 2007 6:56AM
Been waiting for this news for a while. Other CE manufacturers should follow suit. After the CE companies come, the studios will follow.
Rob @ Apr 13th 2007 5:23PM
"Been waiting for this news for a while. Other CE manufacturers should follow suit. After the CE companies come, the studios will follow."
Why would the studios follow suit? Wouldn't this just mean that people that bought an HDdvd player already can buy something and beable to play their HDdvd's on? If the PS3 can only play BD, and it's ONLY Half as succesfull as the PS2, what studio can ignore a 50 million user install base?
Wellinformed @ Apr 13th 2007 9:16AM
This is great news for Blu-ray!!! More players=more disc sales. BD has more titles, and more studio support so they'll benefit more from this than HDDVD.
DO you think this will help HDDVD much when alot of the discs (combo's)cost $5 more because they have the standard def dvd on the otherside. People buying these are obviously trying to get away from that aren't they???
If this was a standalone Sammy HDDVD player, i'd say BD had something to worry about, but as it sits...this only helps universal pictures and the BDA.
tranzparentl @ Apr 14th 2007 7:51AM
Don't you think you're getting a little ahead of yourself? They're having trouble reaching 3 million. Meanwhile HD DVD standalone prices are coming down and down. Standalone sales are what will win this war.