LG To Unveil Combination HD DVD/Blu-ray Player At CES

by **Ian** on Thu Jan 04, 2007 8:36 am

Hell yeah!

http://www.lge.com/about/press_release/ ... MENU.jhtml

LG Electronics(LG), a leader in consumer electronics and mobile communications, announced that it will launch the world's first dual-format high-definition disc player, capable of playing both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD content.

The unit will be released in the United States in early 2007. Details will be provided at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held January 8–11 in Las Vegas.

LG expects this technological breakthrough to end the confusion and inconvenience of competing high-definition disc formats for both content producers and consumers.

by **algrinch** on Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:36 am

Good work LG! Dare to lead, and others will follow.

by **dolphinius_rex** on Thu Jan 04, 2007 12:07 pm

Hrm... I've got a bad feeling about this :-?

by **Dartman** on Thu Jan 04, 2007 11:11 pm

I hope your feeling is just gas... :wink:

I'm in if it's even close to reasonably priced...and works.

by **Ian** on Thu Jan 04, 2007 11:38 pm

Any bets on price? I'm expecting it to be cheaper than buying individual Blu-ray and HD DVD players but more expensive than just a Blu-ray player. So about $1200-$1300.

by **dolphinius_rex** on Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:37 am

Ian wrote:Any bets on price? I'm expecting it to be cheaper than buying individual Blu-ray and HD DVD players but more expensive than just a Blu-ray player. So about $1200-$1300.

I'm going to say $1400-$1500 personally.

I'm also going to hope that this drive fails to appear on the market :wink:

Dual Format drives will only make the format war continue ad nauseum. There is still a good chance that one format will prevail overall at this time.

by **Ian** on Sun Jan 07, 2007 11:09 pm

I was right...

http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/07/technol ... ney_latest

At a news conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, LG said its Super Multi Blu Player would be available in early February in the United States for about $1,200. A computer drive would be available in the first quarter for about the same price.

Here's something interesting...

For HD DVD, a format backed by a group led by Toshiba Corp., LG's machine can play the movies and has a simple menu, but it does not support all the interactive features included on an HD DVD disk.

I wonder if they couldn't license the more advanced features. Without those, Blu-ray and HD DVD are pretty similar.

by **SkaarjMaster** on Sun Jan 07, 2007 11:46 pm

What a bargain!

I'll reserve mine now.

by **Ian** on Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:40 am

Here are some actual pictures of the unit, thanks to AV Watch.

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/ ... /ces03.htm

by **[buck]** on Mon Jan 08, 2007 1:07 pm

Ugh, that thing looks like an old Betamax player

by **Ian** on Mon Jan 08, 2007 1:38 pm

Were you even alive when Betamax players existed? :wink:

by **[buck]** on Mon Jan 08, 2007 2:35 pm

Ian wrote:Were you even alive when Betamax players existed?

Not quite

by **Ian** on Wed Jan 10, 2007 2:59 pm

I was listening to the Buzz Out Loud podcast this morning and they mentioned that the bh100 LG had on display wasn't even a working unit. And they plan to ship by February? :roll:

by **dolphinius_rex** on Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:13 pm

Ian wrote:I was listening to the Buzz Out Loud podcast this morning and they mentioned that the bh100 LG had on display wasn't even a working unit. And they plan to ship by February?

Sounds similar to ever OTHER combo HDDVD/BluRay player attempted then :lol:

by **dodecahedron** on Wed Jan 10, 2007 4:04 pm

well, that box certainly looks big enough to house the egos of both BluRay and HDDVD.

by **Ian** on Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:58 pm

Holy smokes! It's out in stores already.

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-967839 ... subj=Crave
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthre ... ost9489587

by **dolphinius_rex** on Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:19 pm

Well, I have to say I'm surprised.... but I suppose congrats to LG for pulling it off. I'm sure it couldn't have been easy.

by **Dartman** on Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:16 pm

When the price drops to semi reasonable unless a better cheaper unit comes along soon I'll be all over it. This is a LOT faster then it took for a good cheap high res audio multi format to come out, and both formats have pretty much died now from lack of support from everybody and too much infighting between them.

by **Ian** on Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:29 pm

I'm as excited as the next guy about about dual format player but the price is way to high. For about $1000 you can get a Toshiba HD-A2 ($400) and a Playstation 3 ($600) and have iHD and gaming support to boot.

Anyone else notice that the HD DVD logo is not on the BH100? I guess Microsoft and the DVD Forum won't be able to block them. :wink:

by **Dartman** on Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:37 pm

Well same reason many players don't claim divx support even though they play it fine, didn't want to shell out for the license. And now they CAN'T sue them for something the box doesn't claim it plays. Weeee! I don't need two more useless game boxes on my all ready full shelf, that's what this PC is for.

by **Ian** on Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:59 am

In stock at Best Buy

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 5610378688

hox, you gonna buy one on discount?

by **Dartman** on Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:34 pm

Claims to be sold out all ready, how? 1200 is a bit to pay for one I think, either it's selling faster then they can get them in or it's their way of saying not in stock yet, gees.

by **Ian** on Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:43 pm

I think it was in stock this morning. I wouldn't be surprised if LG is shipping very limited numbers of these to meet their promised ship date.

by **Wesociety** on Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:35 pm

I was able to "Add to cart", login and proceed to the checkout page.

TOTAL = $2,399.98

LG To Unveil Combination HD DVD/Blu-ray Player At CES

LG To Unveil Combination HD DVD/Blu-ray Player At CES

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