LG dumps hybrid Blu-ray, HD-DVD plans

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Posted by	Herbert
Posted on	01/08/06 14:53
Number of views	868

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LG dumps hybrid Blu-ray, HD-DVD plans

Back in March we reported that LG Electronics, one of the companies behind Blu-ray has announced it's plans to also support HD-DVD, the second high defenition format.

Now it seems that the things have changed again (at least for a while) because today we can read over at the Inquirrer that LG has dumped its plans to launch a Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo drive by the end of the year.

According to Bob Perry, VP of LG sales and channel marketing, hybrid product has been canned. Bob continued: "LG remains part of the Blu-ray camp and will make a product announcement later in the year". Perry was speaking on product plans at the company's '2006 Summer Line Show' this week in New York.

LG was not the first which announced plans to support both, BD and HD-DVD, but it's indeed the first company which makes one step back. However, I wouldn't be surprised if LG changes again in 3 month.

For now I guess that almost no one of us cares if there's a hybrid player/recorder around or not. We don't have money for these toys, both are still young technologies with a long way to go until they become mainstream and we, all the average Joes around, are happy with the good "old" DVD.

Source: The Inquirrer

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Posted by JamesL on Tuesday 01 August 2006 15:08

>>>> For now I guess that almost no one of us cares if there's a hybrid player/recorder around or not <<<<

Erm, yes we do. Many of us want high def video! And the fact is there are two formats out there at present and given the popularity of HD DVD now, and the probable equal success of BluRay in the near future, both seem here to stay! Therefore a combi player/recorder/drive would be very much appreciated!

Posted by ivid on Tuesday 01 August 2006 15:35

Um, I beg to differ mr. author (Herbert?), I desperately want hybrid players to come out so I can finally just get one and not worry about getting F****ed over by choosing by the wrong format.
Its the only solution in this *retarded* situtation of 2 competeing formats being backed by many major players. Sighhhhhh...

Posted by Crabbyappleton on Tuesday 01 August 2006 16:05

I think he means now. Because of the high price tag. Personally, I wont get one for movie playback no matter what the price or hybrid or not, because I don't have a qualified 1080p display and i don't have the money either.

The only thing I would like to see is a hybrid recorder that i can stick in my PC and even that would have to be under 200 for me to bite.

Oh and I almost forgot! Before I kiss good old CSS goodbye and "adopt" blue laser at least for movies...there will be a crack for the new copy protections.
[edited by Crabbyappleton on 01.08.2006 16:09]

Posted by ghetocowboy on Tuesday 01 August 2006 21:07

a single player, either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray is out of the price range for most folks, imagine how much it will cost for a combo. And we know that both formats cannot coexist with each other thus a good move by LG. But why getting rid of HD-DVD but not blu-ray?? is blu-ray ahead of HD-DVD. Personally I want Blu-Ray and would take it over HD-DVD.

Posted by johnzap on Tuesday 01 August 2006 23:30

Define "many".

Posted by GezusK on Tuesday 01 August 2006 23:31

Based on what? Why would you want the currently inferior format? According to the recent comparsion between the two.

Posted by johnzap on Tuesday 01 August 2006 23:32

There are way more players on the Blu-Ray side. Content owners are also a lot more on Blu-Ray's side?

HD-DVD is Toshiba, M$ (of course) and Intel?

If you are deciding based on backing, Blu-Ray appears to be the safer bet.
[edited by johnzap on 01.08.2006 23:32]

Posted by lui_gough on Wednesday 02 August 2006 08:35

I think this is stupid because I see having a hybrid as MAKING MORE BUSINESS for this sort of market - however, I can't help but smell something strange about this.

Maybe someone's influencing their decisions? Maybe someone wants to stop them? Maybe this spells doom for us?

Posted by JamesL on Wednesday 02 August 2006 09:35

He probably wants it due to the fact it's "technilogically superior" and "has more capacity". The fact that BluRay releases are currently cropped, suffer from digital artifacts, use outdated MPEG2 compression, invariably drop DD+ soundtracks because BD50 isn't viable yet and costs twice as much is completely lost on him.

Posted by Ron the 2nd on Wednesday 02 August 2006 10:37

I think that also Samsung announced that they will not make a hybrid player. It's not just LG.

I don't think that the price is the reason that they abandoned the hybrid concept. I don't think that 1100$ or 1200$ is much different than 1000$...

A hybrid player can help the HD-DVD format, which is in an inferior position right now, and harm the Blu-Ray format - so LG and Samsung, being members of the BDA, can't do that.

For this reason, it's probably too early for a hybrid player. Only after the market stables, and each format really prooves itself (and there would not be a victory of one format over the other), it would be the time for a hybrid.

Posted by H3rB3i on Wednesday 02 August 2006 10:57

I think that also Samsung announced that they will not make a hybrid player. It's not just LG.

ups, [url=http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13604]it seems you are right[/url], I totally missed this one.

Posted by FreqNasty on Thursday 03 August 2006 05:02

Hey Dan you don't need a 1080p capable display for either of the formats. Both will look great in 720p and 1080i.

Posted by FreqNasty on Thursday 03 August 2006 05:05

A company like LG could produce a hybrid model for probably the same price a single would cost from say, a pioneer or sony, and it would be good quality too.

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