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Samsung confirms Blu-ray / HD DVD hybrid player

13 April 2007 10:20 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 5 comments

Samsung Electronics Co., LTD. has confirmed today that it will release a new hybrid HD DVD / Blu-ray Disc (BD) player to the market "in time for the holidays". Samsung's Duo HD player (BD-UP5000) will fully support both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats and their interactive technologies, HDi and BD-J. With the Duo HD consumers can enjoy additional studio content such as trailers, director's comments, more elaborate interactive menus and behind the scene footage.

"We welcome Samsung's Duo HD player as another solution in the marketplace that will help reduce consumer confusion and buyer hesitancy towards HD media," said Ron Sanders, President of Warner Home Video. "This is an innovative product that can move us closer to mainstream consumer adoption of HD technologies." The player will directly compete with a hybrid player already available from LG.

"We are very pleased to announce the upcoming release of our Duo HD player. Consumers are hungry for more HD content but are currently confused about competing formats. Samsung�s Duo HD player will allow consumers access to every HD movie title available regardless of the authoring format. Samsung is committed to making life simpler through technology and will market next generation DVD products which will satisfy the consumer and market requirement. This is a big win for the consumer." said Dongsoo Jun, Executive Vice President of the Digital AV Division at Samsung Electronics.

He added: "As a member of the DVD Forum and contributor to the DVD Industry, we recognize that both HD-DVD and BD formats have merits. As such, we have decided to market a dual format player. Samsung is flexible to market a stand-alone HD-DVD player whenever consumers demand it. Our main concern is not technology but consumer choice."

Source:
Press Release

Permalink to this article

Samsung selects Broadcom chip for Blu-ray / HD DVD duo player (8 September 2007)

Samsung reveals more about Blu-ray / HD DVD combo player (7 September 2007)

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Discuss this article!
cashman91 (Member) 13 April 2007 11:33
only delaying the inevitable [ + quote]
hughjars (Inactive) 13 April 2007 11:57
There we go, just as predicted - and I (like many others) fully expect at least one and possibly two more well known Japanese brand name CEs this year to move from being exclusive BD hardware manufactures to dual format. LG was the first and now Samsung are officially the second of this years one-time 'Blu-ray exclusive' manufacturers moving to dual format manufacturing (as well as making HD-DVD laptops). Pioneer next? [ + quote]
eatsushi (Senior Member) 13 April 2007 13:00
Here's my 2 cents on this. There's a couple of things that should happen for this player to make an impact: 1. When it's released late this year it should arrive with a price point of around $750 or less. Any more expensive than that and it probably won't have that much of an impact. If it arrives at close to $1K or more: Those looking to have both formats will probably be able to find deals where they can buy a separate player for each totaling less than the price of the Samsung. It would be very hard for new HD adopters to plunk down close to $1K for this. Current HD-DVD owners who want to try BluRay also won't buy into this especially with the PS3 at $600 and coming 2nd gen players arriving at lower prices. Current BluRay owners who want to try HD-DVD will obviously opt for the cheaper standalone HD-DVD players. 2. It should come with the final BD-J spec namely the BD-Video 1.1 Player Profile and the BD-Live 2.0 spec. Not to mention it should also be fully HDi compliant (which the LG wasn't). It should also be able to decode all the new audio formats and have 5.1 analog outs. HDMI 1.3 would be a welcome plus. If it had all these then those looking for a BluRay player either as a first timer or to upgrade would definitely give this machine a serious look. [ + quote]
Steve83 (Member) 13 April 2007 14:39
I wouldn't pay more than $200 for any player. DVD is fine for me. I can't imagine paying more for a movie player than I did for a 52" TV. Are BluRay & HD-DVD better than DVD? I'm sure they are. But there's nothing wrong with DVD, and I have burners & PC drives for it. I see absolutely no reason to "up"grade, losing compatibility, flexibilty, & backup-ability. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 14 April 2007 7:03
I am thinking 700-1200 but who cares now is not a good time to buy unless your a rich insane hobbyist. All the manufactures should jump to the dual players even if its 700-900 it would help bring down prices on them in 2 years the format war is moving slowly dual prices at 200-400 a player will help cull things faster. [ + quote]