Maxim sums up combo players

[nhaase]

I just got the July issue of Maxim in the mail. Megan Fox of Transformers is on the cover, "The Re-birth of Sexy" indeed! On pg. 54 they review certain electronic products which have two roles. This includes the LG combo player. Here is what Maxim had to say about its two roles:

HD DVD:
Future-proof with the only player available that can handle both formats. Just one caveat: It can't access all the nifty interactive menu functions on HD DVD discs.

Blu-ray:
If Sony wins the format war, you're set. Of course, that much cash could have bought a PS3 with Blu-ray built-in, an Xbox 360 with its add-on HD DVD drive, and a life.

That last sentence sums it all up. It even shows the advantage of PS3 having it built-in.

[monkyman]

Yeah, I think I would get 2 stand alone players before I bought a dual format, at least I know 1 would work

[HDTV1080P]

Thanks for the post nhaase. For those that want to play Universal Studios movies also then it would be better quality and cheaper to purchase a BLU-RAY player for $500 and a HD-DVD player for $300. One would save $400 buying separate components compared to purchasing the LG for $1200. The main problem with the LG is it does not play the interactive menu’s on HD-DVD discs. The only good thing about the LG combo player is it has the best picture quality compared to any other HD-DVD player on the market. It plays HD-DVD discs at a native 1080P/24 output for those that own compatible displays. Some people that bought the LG were upset that it does not output 1080P/60 and only 1080P/24. So most people are outputting the LG combo player at 1080I and hoping that their display does a good job of deinterlacing 1080I signals.
Now in the future Samsung and LG plan on making true combo players for under $1000 that will in theory be a quality player. In the future the difference between a BLU-RAY player and a combo player will only be a 10%-20% price increase for the combo feature. For example Samsungs combo player coming this fall is going to sale for $200 more compared to its current BLU-RAY player.
Lets hope Universal Studios starts releasing in BLU-RAY then there will be no reason to own a combo player or HD-DVD player.