LG Announces Dual Format Player

[b2bonez]

Original posting by Rob Zuber over at AVS

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post9348368

Link to article...

http://pr.hankyung.com/read_sub.php?...=&eflag=&spno=

Quite a shock... I didn't think they could do one before end of 2007. No mention of MRSP.

b2b

[Blue]

This maybe true, but let's wait for the offical announcment before we get too excited, as their have been announcements that Samsung was going to make a dual player - only to be denied by Samsung. Fox and Disney to release in HD-DVD only to be denied by both companies.

[b2bonez]

Originally Posted by Blue

This maybe true, but let's wait for the offical announcment before we get too excited, as their have been announcements that Samsung was going to make a dual player - only to be denied by Samsung. Fox and Disney to release in HD-DVD only to be denied by both companies.

Looks pretty official to me.. Here is the link from Korea PR news wire.

http://www.newswire.co.kr/read_sub.p...&rg2=&rg3=&tt=

b2b

[JTK]

CES is this Sunday, so we'll know soon enough for sure, but honestly: How many more times are we going to see and hear about this?

LG is one of several companies I've seen people take all over the map by now: Blu-Ray. HD-DVD. Both. Neither.

Gee whiz...

That does look pretty official.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised if it does happen. I guess this format war, such as it is, is going to be going on for a bit longer.

[GaS]

I have never understood the idea behind the combo. So what does a neutral company like warner or paramount do if combo's become the norm? They certainly don't continue releasing on both formats. Whom do they choose?

[JTK]

Maybe I'm way off on this, but IMO at least, the downside I see of a combo goes like this:

Welcome to SACD vs. DVD-A II. <- That's my concern long term.

Short term? A company like LG can make what they usually do, which is a relatively cheap POS...throw out it out there, and see what happens. They aren't going to lose money on it and they may even make a decent profit.

This just doesn't make sense anymore. If the status quo were still where things had been in July, where you had fumbling BD quality and that had never been rectified, I could have seen a margin of error to play with there.

All this for Universal movies? Because that's all HD-DVD has going for it now. Everything else is either in the BD camp or on its way there.

Am I way off here folks?

[b2bonez]

Originally Posted by GaS

I have never understood the idea behind the combo. So what does a neutral company like warner or paramount do if combo's become the norm? They certainly don't continue releasing on both formats. Whom do they choose?

The scratch resistant BD ones that Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and Netflix don't ***** about...

b2b

[jason]

43% of the movie industry for one of the 8 major studios is a huuuge chunk.. weinstein is starting out pretty good too...

now for the dual format would be for us whom own both formats and want a single player, like it or not LG is a good company, never had problems with them. Being a smaller company with a great idea these days gets you bashed, its a shame too.

Also want to vent a little now that jtk mentioned ces, I live in the freakin vegas area and I cant even go to it WTF!!!??? lol I need some connections or a real job so I can see all the fun new toys.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by jason

now for the dual format would be for us whom own both formats and want a single player, like it or not LG is a good company, never had problems with them.

You've been lucky. They're second rate.

Being a smaller company with a great idea these days gets you bashed, its a shame too.

Not true. At least not in my case.

I owned a Zenith/LG DVB318 and it kicked the bucket on me one year after mild use. It was a cheap POS just like a lot of the other products they put out. (Not all.)

I wouldn't care if LG were larger than Microsoft. The facts would remain the same.

[jason]

will have to admit I never ownd a lg tv, but many other products. and question on quality and personal feel type quality. Im kindof dissapointed in my sammy 56" dlp vs my old rca 50" dlp build on the rca was strong and yes ugly... but I was moving the sammy the other day and I can I guess twist? the screen benzel and the screen itself will bend a little then go back once released... lol hopefully its the way its supposed to be because I dont want to return it to best buy again.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by jason

will have to admit I never ownd a lg tv, but many other products. and question on quality and personal feel type quality. Im kindof dissapointed in my sammy 56" dlp vs my old rca 50" dlp build on the rca was strong and yes ugly... but I was moving the sammy the other day and I can I guess twist? the screen benzel and the screen itself will bend a little then go back once released... lol hopefully its the way its supposed to be because I dont want to return it to best buy again.

I don't think much better of Samsung, although they've gotten lucky a few times.

Their PC LCD monitors more often than not have been excellent, for one example.

The firmwared up BD player from them isn't half bad either, although I felt it came out overpriced considerably.

[Zinn]

Gizmodo claims that LG will announce the worlds first hybrid BD/HDDVD player at CES 2007, anyone has any info??

[BTBuck1]

The Thing I find Ironic is that the only ones happy about a combo unit being released are HDDVD fanboys.

Blu-Ray fans look at HDDVD added in as having a crippling effect on the future of High Def optical disc.

[GTP]

Will beleive it when I see it as both LG and Samsung had announced dual players in the past 9 months.....and they were shut down for one reason or the other.
Even if this did happen...it would have to be an Onkyo/Denon player to get me interested....certainly not an LG.

[Chris Beveridge]

I was wondering when the leaks of announcements for CES would start. I expected it earlier in the week.

Not surprised to see LG going this route. Again. Will it pan out? Dunno. Will it be affordable? I'd guess not but hey, they may want to break even or lose money on it to gain mindshare.

A dual format player to me isn't a big deal, because I don't see the exclusive studios using BD to use it. They're optimizing their releases, more often for BD-50 than not, which means they want the greater space. I can't imagine them wanting to add two workflows for releases (not dual titles, just some going BD and some HD DVD) because each has its own issues.

I still think dual format is bad in the long run. Not only do the CE companies need to shut up and put up for their format of choice, but so do consumers. Rather than being on the fence, if you have a side you prefer, support it and leave it at that. I only got my HD DVD player at launch for potential review purposes. I haven't bought a disc since launch and even that I've tossed out since it came out on BD as well. All of my support is behind BD.

[Chris Beveridge]

What do you make more of?

I'd assume you'd go with BD. After all, if you're a typical family in a couple of years from now when this is all the norm, you'd want to be able to take your disc and play it elsewhere. Parents watch their movies on the big tv, the kids watch it in the other room where the PS3 is hooked up.

[blitz6speed]

You know, this is really crappy news. It just pro-longs the life of the already on life support hd-dvd. However.. They are just SHOWING the player. Anyone can make the hardware and show it, doesnt mean it can be sold without the proper licenses. You can notice there is no price, release period, etc etc. They're just showing it. So as long as the BDA doesnt allow it to be sold, it'll be done deal and hd-dvd will die its death naturally.

I have faith in the BDA knowing how this is only a posotive for the hd-dvd side.

[crunchy]

I thought the blu-ray association had a stipulation that blu-ray technology could not be inside a dual format drive until 2008??????


can anyone explain how LG got around this?????

[Blue]

Merged threads as they are the same

[dialog_gvf]

It wouldn't surprise me if LG announced something. But, they still have to accomplish it. And, last I looked, the track record getting complex players for ONE FORMAT out on time is ZERO. They were ALL delayed.

What I find funny is the HD DVD fanboys and universal player paradox. It goes like this:

Combo players will sell huge, and dominate. This will allow the studios to abandon BD and release everything on the "far cheaper" HD DVD. But, that eliminates the need for combo players to exist, and the extra expense of the paying for the BD side would be wasted. So, if people believe the logic why would combo players dominate?

Gary

EDIT: There is the announcement. Early 2007? As in the next few months?!