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Earlier in the year, Korean electronics giant LG indicated it was considering such a product, but now says it doesn't have such a device on its current road map. Other major electronics makers had already decided to pursue single-format players for now, so LG's indicated direction gave hope to some analysts that the format war might be bridged this year.
"We have had discussions about having such a device, but there are no official plans at the moment," said John Taylor, a spokesman for LG in the U.S. "The product in question was never really fleshed out in a lot of detail publicly."
LG already released Blu-ray products this year.
Technically, building a home player that could read discs from either high-definition format is feasible, according to many. The problem is cost, according to, among others, Sony Electronics COO Stan Glasgow. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray players are just going into mass production this year and thus remain expensive. Standalone HD players sell for around $500, while Blu-ray players sell for about $1,000. (The price of Blu-ray players, however, will drop to around $500 by next year, Glasgow said.)
Others have noted that the licensing agreements also make coming out with a combination device difficult. The companies that contributed intellectual property to the standard will also likely earn revenue from licensing royalties. Licensing royalties to CDs lead to millions in revenue for the companies behind the standard.
A ray of hope in the standards war, however, is a disc that could be played in either type of player.
Blu-ray and HD DVD are formats for storing high-definition video. The first films based around the formats came out this year. Consumers in surveys have said they may hold off buying Blu-ray or HD DVD systems until the format war is worked out. The fight over the format is similar to the old Betamax-VHS conflict but has greater consequences.
If consumers bought Betamax, they got stuck with a player and some movies on a dying standard. PC makers already include Blu-ray and HD DVD drives in PCs, so picking the wrong standard could also mean consumers would need to upgrade their computers.
Sony, Philips, LG, Samsung, Dell and a host of movie studios back Blu-ray. HD DVD is backed by Toshiba, Microsoft, Intel and a few studios, with some studios and PC makers supporting both standards. HD proponents claim the format has better backward-compatibility with existing DVD technology and that the players cost less.
Steve Baker, an analyst with the NPD Group, said the lack of a combo player this year won't be a big deal. "These are early-adopter products. It is fine if there is a fight right now," he said.
Baker further added that Pioneer has ditched the idea of coming out with a combo player.
See more CNET content tagged:
HD-DVD, Blu-ray, Steve Baker, LG Electronics Inc., electronics company
require ass polish? do you buff it regularly? and most importantly,
is said ass on display somewhere? i'd like to see that tour come
through my town.
However, I feel if and when the format war ends, many consumers will simply not want to buy the "winning" product.
Personally, I find DVDs good enough for my entertainment needs. What benefit would I gain from either format, without spending a few thousand dollars for a nice, high-quality HD TV to watch them on?
Boffins patent three way DVD format
Runs DVD, Blu-ray and HD-DVD on one disk
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/19092006/80-91/inventors-try-single-disc-both-new-dvd-formats.html
"The patent application was filed by three Warner Bros. employees, two of whom are engineers for the company."
That being said, I'm not ready to spend $500 on an HD-DVD player either. I want to see how this one develops.
i recently found a camera a wanted to buy but didnt because sony made the lens.
sony needs to make good products again or perish.
i recently found a camera a wanted to buy but didnt because sony made the lens.
sony needs to make good products again or perish.
Maybe you can get away with Blu-ray though since it?s hardly exclusively Sony?s format. Many other companies assisted in the development of Blu-ray and hold patents in the technology. Consumer electronics companies like Panasonic, Hitachi, Pioneer, Sharp, Samsung, Philips, Mitsubishi, LG and Thomson all back Blu-ray as well as computer companies like Apple, HP, Sun Dell and movie producers like Paramount, Universal, MGM, Disney.
But I?m sure you?ll do great with your 30GB HD-DVD discs. But wait, isn?t the optimum bitrate for VC1 18Mbit/sec? And doesn?t DTS HD Lossless Master Audio use up to 24Mbit/sec (not sure what the optimum is)? So that means a movie with a single audio track can use up to 18.457GB per hour making a three hour movie as much as 55.37GB so we can look forward to more Lord of the Rings style disc swapping experiences if Toshiba?s format is again allowed to win. Now granted you wouldn?t be using a maximum bit rate for the audio constantly but what if the film has multiple audio tracks and what about the extras?
HD-DVD currently allows 2 15GB layers and can support up to 3 layers for 45GB which means, like DVD, it?s going to have insufficient capacity and will mean compromises in audio and video quality and movies split onto multiple discs. Blu-ray currently supports 2 25GB layers and can support up to 8 layers for a 200GB disc meaning it has things about covered from the start with lots of room for expansion.
Yes, Sony make unreliable low quality products these days and I had a lot of trouble with a Sony projector I bought and trouble with Sony headphones so I don?t buy their products anymore. However, I?m not so foolish as to let these issues stand in the way of reason. Due to a bad experience with products from one division I won?t be ignoring a technically superior standard with greater industry backing in favour of a standard lacking in capacity that will result in compromises in my viewing experience.
But maybe you don?t care about video or audio quality and just like to follow the cool kids in the latest trend of bashing everything Sony do, whether justified or not.
I'm also telling people not to buy movies this holiday season. I don't trust some people to guess correctly about which one I can or cannot play, and surely at some poine grandma or somebody will grab the first copy they see, not knowing the difference between DVD, Blueray and HDDVD and I'll have some exchanging to do. If you have to explain how to get hte right one, then it's going to be a mess, because someone will forget, not pay attention, or whatever.
That's all this is, one big test to see which if either will win the hearts and pocketbooks of the average consumer.
Even the studios are gun-shy about putting too much investment into this fray.
Best bet, stay away and a new technology using a hybrid of these and newer technologies will come along that will be one-tenth the price.
Seeing that you will wind up repurchasing your DVD library just wait, don't buy.
I think the future is video-on-demand and not the antiquated "go to a shop and buy a copy" model so perhaps both will fail!
Consumers haven't been demanding HD-DVD or Blue-Ray - it is just something that large corporates are trying to create a demand for.
While the change from Video to DVD produced major benefits, the change from DVD to 'a slightly better DVD' is going to be a hard sell IMO.
I favout HD-DVD but only if they are sold as normal DVDs (ie. not at a premium). This would mean that more HD-DVD discs were around and playable in normal DVDs (which friends and family borrow) before you have to invest in a new player. It's also simpler in shops to have one format that plays on DVD players old and new.
The purpose of both BluRay and HD-DVD is to clamp down on the consumer, paving the way to Hollywood's vision of what should and shouldn't be allowed with their content.
They almost got what they wanted from DVD, that is the profits of VHS movies without the ability to make 480p recordings of your own by simply subscribing to a movie channel or renting a movie.
However they didn't understand technology or the internet, and in the end the public was saved by those that produced software to bring fairness back to the consumer.
The DCMA has given them the legal tools they require, and the next generation of DVD player will complete the picture.
When fully implemented - something that will not happen until enough players are sold and they've got the software perfected, your ability to play a movie in the resolution you desire on the device you own will be firmly in the hands of Hollywood.
Less than 10% of the HD TVs on the market today, and absolutely none of the computer monitors comply with the hardware and software copy protection that will be forced upon those that are suckered into either format.
If you don't own a media player that conforms, if your intended display device doesn't have the required HDMI compatibility (as well as the output device - which means Microsoft's forthcoming HD-DVD addon for the XBox 360 will not play commercial movies in HD resolutions for more than about a year or so) you will end up with a very expensive HD media player and a collection of $50 movies that will play at a resolution not quite as good as that of your existing DVD collection.
Couple this with the intended broadcast flag, which will prevent any fair use back ups of your media, the entertainment industry will have the tools necessary to prevent you from recording then playing back any TV shows they want to profit later.
The prediction is in less than a decade you will be forced to pay a licensing fee to Tivo any show that the entertainment industry considers successful. If you were to do this, then burn a copy or transfer it to your computer, the broadcast flag technology that Congress will mandate in all future technology will prevent those copies from displaying on any modern screen.
Obviously the tech industry is not particularly happy with this - its hard to sell $2000-$5000 tvs if the public realises they will get less for their money than their existing setup will allow for - but the entertainment industry has bought more powerful politicians than the tech industry, so they will be forced to comply.
Eventually your old TVs and your old computer screens will no longer be compatible with Satellite or Cable broadcasts or for that matter, future operating systems.
So by supporting this technology, and thinking that your about to embark on a brave new world of 1080P HD movies, think again. Sure you'll get that, but only on one player and on display device (unless you're okay with buying multiple copies of the same movie).
Eventually your old TVs and your old computer screens will no longer be compatible with Satellite or Cable broadcasts or for that matter, future operating systems.
"
Nah, Free (as in speach) software will remain developed to support the user not cripple them. It's the propiatery software markets that will be forced in to license deals and ultimately screw the customer.
Sony won't have a chance.
Then MS can lock the **** down and then enforce the copy protection.
This is what they are currently doing with ZUNE.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34478
Who wants to pay $1000 for the lower quality video provided by the current BluRay players, when you can get an Xbxo 360 capable of 1080P with an HD DVD drive or a dedicated HD DVD player for half the price??
One disc is what everyone will end up using. Awh shucks the big boys trumped again!
No it's not. That format conflict provided a very great benefit to consumers that they didn't have without chosing one format over the other: The ability to record TV shows.
Neither HD DVD nor Blu-Ray provides such an obvious benefit over DVD. In fact, except for folks who want to sit very close to their monitor (5-6 feet), or folks sitting at more typical distances and buying very large monitors (50-inches and up), chances are that the typical consumer will notice only a modest improvement over a similar movie played on DVD on a widescreen, non-high def monitor.
The more apt comparison is the upgrade from CD to DVD-Audio/SACD. And we all know what happened there!
mark d.
As for CDs, I can live without them. I probably haven't even purchased a CD in 2 or 3 years. So I can definitely live with. I'm quite certain I haven't bought any CD's since my extremely negative experience.
Your point is well taken tough, assuming your are right that Blue Ray is a superior product. Ordinarily, my vote, or more appropriately dollars, would go to the one with the one that technically superiour. And it pains me not to do so, but principals aren't worth much if they are disregarded when inconvenient.
Please re-edit your article and remove the racial slang "kooks" from it.
It speaks loudly of your ignorance in this nation of multi-culture. Especially when it is widely read by people from other countries.
Please.
Kook means 'crazy' or 'fanatic'. Kooky means having the characteristics of a kook. Look it up, ya kooky nut.
- Combo Bad for consumers
- by rslc January 4, 2007 5:53 AM PST
- Combo drive/disc require royalty payments to both camps.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(32 Comments)And also result in more expensive drives and confusions. (just look at DVD+R,-R,+- etc)
It favours the companies rather than consumers.
Bluray drive royalty amounts to $20 alone.