LG to halt production of Super Blu combo players, launch Blu-ray deck this year
[Thanks, Harmin]
[Thanks, Harmin]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Cole Mitguard @ May 14th 2008 11:51AM
Eh, this was only a matter of time. Too bad for LG considering the amount of time and energy they invested in HD DVD to just have the format flop right when they introduce their player to the market. However, wonder if they are going to fire sale these out at some price similar to stand along blue ray players? Looks like all you HD DVD guys have one last chance to get a spare player when that old A3 finally stops working.
Justin @ May 14th 2008 11:58AM
I have a BH200. It's actually a better Blu-Ray player than most of the standalones currently on the market.
CapNJunkie @ May 14th 2008 12:22PM
Does anyone know if this applies just to STBs or are they killing off the computer drives too?
Boscorooty @ May 14th 2008 12:25PM
Does this apply to the super multi-blu drives that they make? I use an HTPC for all my HD needs. If the multi drives are going bye-bye, I'd better pick a couple up....
Mr. E @ May 14th 2008 12:49PM
I'd say that that's a good idea, if you can afford it. It can't hurt to give yourself some insurance if you have a large HD DVD collection you don't want to lose access to.
Craig Eugea @ May 14th 2008 12:27PM
Like Justin, I also have the BH200. Great player, no problems with it. Real easy to update, especially since the last update enabled updates through the ethernet port. Sad to hear it is going away. I guess I will have to buy a couple more earlier than I had thought.
Jon @ May 14th 2008 12:47PM
Does the BH200 support Profile 2.0 / BD-Live? People said in early reviews that it has the necessary hardware, but did the feature ever get enabled in a firmware update?
TostitoBandito @ May 14th 2008 12:57PM
It is officially only 1.1 at the moment but it should be able to fully support 2.0 with additonal firmware. It meets every profile 2.0 hardware requirement, assuming that you stick some memory in the USB slot.
And like others have said, I have the player as well and it is great. I initially bought the Samsung BD-UP5000 back in December but sold it since they never made the audio decoding work. At the moment, the BH200 can bitstream both TrueHD and DTS-HD MA and can internally decode TrueHD (no DTS-HD MA yet). This is better than any other combo player, and better than most other current standalone players.
Jon @ May 14th 2008 1:45PM
With LG discontinuing their hybrid players however I would guess that an update to BD-Live will likely never come for the BH200 if it has not already, unless someone else has additional information from somewhere else.
Would like to jump onto the Blu-ray bandwagon, but would rather do it in 1 player for my existing HD-DVD collection rather than have 2 devices sitting around.
Truth Teller @ May 14th 2008 1:23PM
LG (and Samsung's) problem here was always that their combo units rarely looked good value compared to a seperate of each format.
Particularly now.
Anyone with an HD DVD collection looking to safeguard their future viewing ought to either pick up a very inexpensive Toshiba standalone
or if you are interested in PC connectivity then get hold of the XBox 360 HD DVD add-on to use as a ROM drive.
I've just got mine to tuck away from Amazon Germany with an HD DVD movie I was after
(which took the price just over €20 for the cheaper carriage price)
including delivery for a whole £21/$42!
(this also includes the universal remote)!
You just can't beat that sort of value.
foxb @ May 14th 2008 2:16PM
That's no longer the case. Both players (LG BH200 and Samsung BD-UP5000) are sold at very close to standalone BD players. I got my BD-UP5000 for $450 delivered. Not a bad deal considering:
(1) It has HDMI 1.3 and can bit stream if and when Samsung releases the firmware update.
(2) It has Reon chip. Toshiba XA2 w/ Reon chip is significantly higher than that last time I checked (new).
(3) It plays BluRay disc also.
That's not to say both LG and Samsung didn't loss money on these players at this price point. They discountinued combo player because there is no money to be made at current price point.
Sean @ May 15th 2008 1:50AM
Really? Who would have guessed.